An Official ICv2 Announcement. ICv2 launched a re-design of its ICv2.com Website today, with enhancements designed to ease navigating the increasing amount of content on the site. The biggest change is that there is now a new button called 'News by Date' in the primary navigation across the top of each Web page. Clicking on this button takes the user to a listing of all articles, with brief descriptions of each, arranged by date with the most recent articles at the top of the page. This allows visitors to scroll through all recent articles to pick out those that interest them and click to view the complete text and images. It differs from the Home, News, or Talk Back pages in that visitors can continue through the list indefinitely, looking at all of the articles from the past week, for example. Prior to this enhancement, there was no way to go beyond the last couple of days worth of articles using any other navigational tool.
ICv2.com also has added a new blue side navigation bar on the right side of each content page. This bar allows the user to click on lists of all recent articles by date in each of the categories that ICv2 covers -- comics, games, anime, toys, and movie/TV merchandise (Comics, Games, Anime, Toys, and Movie/TV Merchandise). So retailers interested in viewing recent articles in a specific category can now find the articles they're looking for more easily. A slot for an article title and image was also added to that navigation area to allow highlighting an additional article that might not otherwise be displayed as prominently. These changes replace the Top 10 Cool area of the site, which has been discontinued.
ICv2 President Milton Griepp explained the changes. 'We found that very few of our users were viewing the Top 10 Cool market reports, so earlier this year we discontinued them,' he said. 'Our new navigational tools were added in recognition of the fact that we're now producing more new articles every day, and our users need more ways to keep up with all of that new content. We continue to evaluate usage patterns and will make additional changes as warranted.' Griepp urged users with comments on the design changes or any other aspects of the Website to contact him at MGriepp@ICv2.com.
Other graphic design changes, including the addition of three more article slots on the home page and improved readability of the side navigation bars, were also made.
ICv2.com is also going through a major overhaul of its Website infrastructure, with updated software and a new server, in the coming weeks.