The making of Coverhunt 2.0

I thought I would share the process that I went through for the CoverHunt2.0 redesign. I started this site about 2 years ago when I needed a way to find cover artwork for my iTunes music collection. If you’ve bought a CD and ripped it to your computer it is great to have the artwork, especially since the new iPods and iPhone let you browse by cover.

Since then it has grown to be one of the most popular CD cover search sites on the web with almost 10,000,000 searches in the past year. This is what it looked like. 

coverhunt-old2 The making of Coverhunt 2.0

Late 2008 I thought it was time for an update. The goals were to make the pages look better and to give the layout some more flexibility for further expansion in the future. The changes needed to be simple enough that it actually happened, since I’d talked about it too much already! 

Everything starts on paper, so here is the final of a number of sketches. Even this turned out to be  too complicated, so I removed a few things even from that. I can always add them again later but that will be a separate project – this current project needs to be as simple as possible if it is going to happen. 

coverhunt-sketch The making of Coverhunt 2.0

Once the sketch was finalised it was time to develop the new code. I ended up doing it myself, but I could have easily put it on Rent A Coder if I didn’t have time to do it myself. Here is the final result. 

coverhunt-new

Next, results – it is very important to check the stats to see what effect any changes have. I added new ad tracking channels and they were all stable so that was good. The traffic was slightly up, also good – and the feedback from the fans was good too. 

stats-560x88 The making of Coverhunt 2.0

Since I was on a roll I got started on the next iteration straight away – adding comments to each album page using Disqus. That was a simple copy and paste piece of code that took 5 minutes. Sure it doesn’t have any SEO benefit because it isn’t fully coded into the page but the fact that it was running in 5 minutes is much more powerful than that – if anyone actually writes comments I can get somebody to code it properly in a few weeks time.

Project complete!

Remember, big sites start small – so go get started and create a simple web platform that can make amazing things happen.

By Ross Hill - January 27th, 2009 at 2:12pm with 2,223 views -

Related posts:

  1. Internet filtering: Listen to the people
  2. Your Realtime Cloudification
  3. Inside Twitter: Building a platform for the planetary pulse
  • Great site I started to do a similar project myself http://www.covershut.com I host all the files though I do intend to add some functionality similar to yours in time best of luck dude!

    :)
  • Hi Aulay - for some reason I don't like scribbling, so I sometimes end up drawing lots of widgets or 'bits' on a page, then iterating them individually, then combining the final product. It seems to work well. I always find it a challenge to try and remove as much as possible from the design, even on paper.
  • Good to see another young Aussie getting on with it online. Your mock-up sketch kills mine (http://blog.marvelig.com/part-2-sketches-and-fe...), was that your first draft? When I sketch I try and do it once then revise by scribbling stuff out... this gives me a bit of a 'history' on what I changed as I go.
  • Great summary - i especially like the drawing you've provided. I think getting your design down on paper first is a ripping way to go about prototyping your ideas. Love that you kept it as simple as possible too - I really struggle with this.

    Keep up the good work!!!
  • Good luck with it.. including the bits under the hood! ;)
  • Tim it's hard to tell - I released it a few days before Christmas which is peak time for the year. Traffic is slightly down this month but that was to be expected. I'll be hoping for some improvements in the numbers when I make some more updates down the track, and I'll be learning how to use the google a/b split testing to make sure they are working!
  • You mentioned the traffic was up, do you attribute this to the site refresh, or was it just up due to the holiday season? Has traffic continued to increase?
  • Not having used the site before and after i can only comment on the look, but i must say the new look does seem to make the site appear better. It can often be good to be able to see where you have come from and got to, one thing that i ave often forgotten to do.
blog comments powered by Disqus

You are visiting rosshill.com.au. This post was made possible by people like Jan Stewart.

Have these updates provided you value? Become a micropatron today.