UGLE website gets a revamp

As previously reported in a our News section the website of the United Grand Lodge of England has had a revamp. In a somewhat unheralded move they have transformed the design of their website into something much more appealing.

The new site improved site:
The overall look of the site has been changed for a much crisper and cleaner look. The new look picks up on the themes / style of their recent reports and publications. This style is less fussy, cleaner and all together more enticing for the uninitiated and much more likely to illicit a positive enquiry.  There is still room for improvement on the content front, sub-pages navigation isn’t ideal and page load speed could be improved – for example slider images could be scaled down on the server with no loss of quality rather than scaled in the design. Gzip compression could further reduce page load times. One particularly nice feature is the way the site displays on smartphone and smaller screen sizes.

The old site which first appeared in 2009:
The old site compared to its immediate predecessor seemed to lack some of the old content. The content that was there, particularly videos, often wasn’t working in some browser configurations. Sometimes to look and feel was at odds with the sites messages. From a user perspective the navigation could have been clearer. As a portal for Masons the content was thin. As a portal for the uninitiated it wasn’t always facing the right way, making it less helpful or enticing than it could have been, for people who might want to join the Freemasons.

Overall the new design is facing outwards, towards the wider world rather than existing Masons. This can only be a good thing if the fraternity is to grow and encourage people to join the Masons.

• Aesthetics:
• Loading Speed:
• Media Content:
• Written Content:
• Overall Rating:
• Summary:
  A vastly improved design, fitting for the pre-eminent Masonic Grand Lodge in the world. Still some rough edges to knock off but excellent all the same.