Introducing Lax Goalie Rat’s New Design
Hey everyone! I’m excited today to launch a new design of Lax Goalie Rat.
Awhile back I sent out a survey to see what you all thought about the blog. I’m very grateful to all of you who took the time to respond. The results really helped me.
Most of the ideas came from that survey and a couple other people have also emailed me directly to suggest a few edits which I’ve taken into consideration.
So what’s new and what’s the same?
Before the home page was simply a list of my blog posts in chronological order.
It didn’t really explain who I was nor give goalies, parents, and coaches arriving to Lax Goalie Rat a feel for the site.
I’ve tried to give a little explanation of myself and the site on the home page.
I’ve also implemented a new design to give the site a more professional feel.
One of the questions in the survey was this –
40% of the readers said it was only “Somewhat Appealing”.
Now that’s not bad, don’t get me wrong. But my full time job is a web designer. Apart from coaching lacrosse goalies, this is sort of my speciality.
So instead of the generic WordPress theme that I had installed before I’ve now designed something custom-made. I put a lot of work into the new design and I’m happy with how it turned out.
I tried to give Lax Goalie Rat a professional and improved look and feel without changing the structure of the design too much. The home page still features the last 10 posts that I’ve published.
What do you think of the new design?
One piece of feedback I got consistently in the survey was – “there is no search feature!”.
There actually was a search feature in the sidebar however that tells me people were having a hard time locating it.
This is also reflected in the survey question results:
With so much content on Lax Goalie Rat, my readers should be able to search the site easily.
I was getting a lot of emails with questions where I’ve written a post that specifically addresses their question. Something a quick search would have helped them find right away.
Young Lax Goalie: Hi Coach Damon – My problem is bounce shots. How can I improve on bounce shots?
Coach Damon: Read this – How to Improve on Bounce Shots
The search bar is now ever present in the top navigation bar. Just click the magnifying glass to perform a search for whatever goalie content you’re looking for.
Clicking on the search bar also produces a new area which will hopefully help all of you find the content that you’re looking for.
What do you think? I had a graphic designer friend make it for me. I think its awesome.
Here are all the versions:
I guess I need a name for the new Goalie Rat. Any ideas?
Many goalies find my site via Google search. At last check “Lacrosse Goalie Drills” was how most readers were landing on the site.
For those that are just starting their lacrosse goalie career or want to go back to the basics I put together a “Get Started Here” page which lists a variety of resources for beginning goalies.
I also recorded a quick intro video for that page so folks can get to know me a little better.
If you think something is missing from the Get Started page, let me know.
Several of you commented that you actually wanted no changes and that things were fine as is.
I tried to respect this as much as possible. The format of the main content – the blog page and the actual blog posts themselves are essentially unchanged.
I did a few minor tweaks here and there but its the same layout. No changes there.
I added a full about me page so that the lacrosse goalies, coaches, and parents that visit my site can learn more about Coach Damon and the story behind the Lax Goalie Rat site.
I haven’t really gotten into making training videos just yet, but I understand there’s a huge demand for that.
I created a video page which will house the videos once I start making them.
For now, this page contains the Lacrosse Goalie Save compilation videos that I’ve put together on YouTube. I find these incredibly helpful for young goalies to analyze the proper form on saves.
They also get me really pumped up to play lax.
Take a second to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you’re alerted when new videos are released:
This page features my recommended equipment for lacrosse goalies.
It has both lacrosse goalie gear and training gear that I use when I coach goalies.
If you’re looking for a specific gear recommendation, check out this page.
The new design is live! I put a lot of work into the new design and I hope you like it. Better yet, I hope it makes the Lax Goalie Rat experience all that better. I think its a lot better.
There are still a few kinks I need to iron out but its ready for launch. If you see anything weird in the new design – send a screenshot to [email protected].
There are other things I want to incorporate into the site however those will come in the next phase.
If you have any feedback on the new design or things you want to see, leave me a comment down below.
Until next time! Coach Damon
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