Cartoon Network Site Redesign

Idea

To split the site into two distinct areas of video and games. The idea was to provide a responsive site for our video to allow our users to view that content on any device. The games relied heavily on Flash so we would section that off and keep that a non-responsive site. We also had to account for in-between areas such as the homepage and community.

Early Stage

Video was the first responsive project we had ever tackled so we spent time learning the ins and outs of making a responsive site and how we would need to design for that. We worked very closely with our developers to make sure we were keeping our site as truly responsive as we could. 

Games was a more conventional redesign but we also were factoring in streamlining our production process. Our audience was moving away from the web and towards mobile so we needed to make sure our resources aligned with that shift. 

We also would need to address the homepage. We needed to figure out what we would promote and how we would be able to adjust that from day to day. We also took a responsive approach to the homepage. We landed on an idea of cards designed for specific types of content that can be shifted around based on our needs at any given time.

Design Stage

With the responsive site we found out we would actually need to design it a few times. We started mobile first but we would find out that by the time we worked up to the desktop size we would need to refactor our smaller designs as well. From a UX perspective, we would design parts of each page as modules and adjust those instead of designing the page as a whole and having to adjust everything with each change. It was a time intensive process to achieve our final designs. 

The Games redesign was more about what features to remove and what to add. We cleaned up some things like our social features and controls. One feature we added was comments on every game that have proven to be very popular.

The homepage redesign has been very successful. It allows us to promote our top content, Games, for 90% of the time but also allows to promote a big network event or even sponsorship if needed. The Cards concept has proven to be very successful across various areas of the network.

Development Stage

We worked with internal developers on this project. This, in my opinion, makes things much easier because we always had access to them. Any issues that arose they would immediately come to our desk and we could figure out a solution on the fly. Our developers were absolutely amazing and accomplished difficult technical tasks that we asked of them.

Launch

We launched in three stages. We launched the video site first, then the homepage, and then the games site. The time between each phase was difficult due to old designs and features feeling wonky but the final product is something I'm very proud to display. It's an unorthodox solution but one that fit our business needs while meeting our users' needs and expectations.