I still recall the work that went into this site during the early months of this year. Launching it on the 1st of May before the cycling season began felt like a massive accomplishment. However, like with any new website, I wasn’t completely happy with the full design, and in hindsight, mistakes were made. Of course, it’s normal for any website in its early stages to require finetuning, and thanks to feedback from members, I have learned a lot over the past five months.
We don’t want to stand still here at Cycle Norway. There is a lot of info to be added to the site over this winter period (which we’re working on right now), but we also feel the site needs to be simplified with better ways to find and discover information and routes. To do this, we need to bring in the right knowledge and experience, which won’t be cheap. But nothing worth doing is! All revenue collected from this site gets reinvested, and in this blog, I want to give you a brief overview of what we have planned.
The first stage of redevelopment is to redesign the main route pages. Instead of breaking the routes into series, we will use geographical locations. The four ends of a compass will be the basis for starting your route planning. This will give you a greater understanding of what is available in each location. The east is very different from the west, just as the Arctic is completely different from the south coast. In addition, a separate page will also give you options for those looking for a full route across the country, preventing patching several routes together.
The need-to-know section will have a small tidy-up on the design but will remain mainly the same. The pages currently missing we hope to complete before the end of the year. The member section will be totally cleaned up and made easier to navigate. A new members-only Facebook page will launch early next year to allow for an easier way to communicate with other members and allow more engagement with Cycle Norway. More info about this will follow before we launch the page.
The front page will have a full redesign. It will feature the latest news, a quick summary of traffic/road conditions to be aware of, events, and other important information easily available without having to click on several pages to find.
Lastly and most importantly, new information about individual routes will be added during the winter and spring of 2024. There is a lot to do, and it’s important to focus solely on the site. This means we will need to reduce what we can produce on our YouTube channel for the near future. Creating high-quality YouTube videos and simultaneously updating and developing the website is impossible with the limited manpower currently available. We want to offer our members the best possible experience on our site and to do that, 100% of our resources will focus on this site for the coming months.
Updates on the new website design will be published here when complete. We estimate the full redesign and development will take at least six months but plan to have most ready for the new cycling season. We will keep you updated and please reach out if you have any questions. Thanks for your support towards Cycle Norway!