News Feed Website Design Case Study: Golf Blot

We developed this cross-platform website using responsive design with easy-to-use navigation, a smooth flow of articles old and new, banner ad integration, and the ability to aggregate RSS feeds.

Developing GolfBlot.com

Golf Blot is a highly functional website that allows for a team of golf experts to upload news and stories about the sport, which are then delivered to subscribers’ mobile devices as an infinite stream of headlines. The articles are organized by topic so that visitors can easily navigate to their areas of interest.

Website Requirements

WordPress Multisite enabled to allow for multiple niche websites to run off of a single CMS
Multiple size ad units and an easy-to-use banner management system
On-the-go browsing that’s optimized for mobile devices using a responsive layout
Infinite scrolling for smooth feel like Pinterest – older stories immediately appear when scrolling to the bottom of the page
Logical taxonomy to enable users to find the content they want
Organic/Natural Feel
Cross-Platform Design (displays well on devices of varying resolutions)
No Pagination – unnatural for mobile devices
Fast loading pages (hosted on Amazon Elastic Cloud with CloudWatch enabled to engage more resources during peak traffic)

Once we determined the requirements of the Golf Blot website and the features that users wanted, we were able to add in the necessary components.

Infinite Scrolling

Infinite scrolling was a great option for the Golf Blot website due to the high volume of information that users can access, as this functionality provides a highly efficient way to browse through information without waiting for new pages to load. This enhances the user experience, particularly for mobile users because they can simply browse through headlines to get to the content they need, without constantly loading new webpages.

Banner Ads in Main Feed

This content website is monetized by selling advertising. Since the vast majority of the Golf Blot user experience occurs on the website main feed, it was important for us to find ways of integrating ads into that space. We were able to successfully achieve this goal by customizing WordPress plugins that enabled ad the management of multiple ad units of varying types and sizes.

Ad Frequency Customization

We configured the backend of the site to allow the website administrator to set the number of posts in takes to trigger each type of advertisement. This feature allows for easy changing of the ad frequency rate, to balance out advertiser needs with a good user experience, based on the amount of content and traffic the website has at any given time.

RSS Integration

Along with client-submitted posts, the backend of the site allows for the client to easily enter an RSS feed link and featured image, and they can have stories from other websites display in the main feed. This is unique functionality, and allows the client to reach out to leading golf websites, form partnerships, and display their content onsite. This functionality is easily triggered on and off in the backend of the site.

Responsive Design

Golf Blot is a responsive website, meaning that during the development process, we took an approach to coding and laying out the website to provide users with the optimal viewing experience based on the resolution of their display. As the website is intended for mobile use on phones and tablets, all designs and wireframes were developed with that in mind.

A Successful Launch

By taking the time to understand what our client and Golf Blot visitors were looking for in their website, we were able to determine the features that would best enhance the site functionality and the overall user experience. Contact us today to find out how we can help you develop and launch your mobile content website.

Case Studies