Welcome to the new GBF website!
Since our first year in 2010, we’ve prided ourselves on having one of the best websites of any book festival, book fair, or book event in the country. When I say “best,” I mean ‘best in terms of design’ and ‘best in terms of functionality.’
However, there’s always room for improvement. Based on feedback from Festival attendees and web visitors, we determined that there were two areas to address in a re-design:
- Simplified navigation; and
- Support for smart phone and tablet devices (i.e., faster loading, text and menus that are easier to read, etc)
And now, you’re looking at the result.
Simpler Navigation
If you’re viewing this on a desktop or notebook computer, you see navigation on the left, where we’ve reduced the menu from 12 items to 6. (In order to make best use of the limited space on small screens, this left side menu isn’t visible on tablet or smart phones. More on that later.) In addition, we’ve added the “Quick Links” menu at the top, which acts as a sort of site map navigation. On mobile devices, the Quick Links menu becomes the main navigation – and I’m sure you’ll find it easy to use.
Responsive Design
The number of people accessing web sites on mobile and tablet devices is significant and growing. They simply can’t be ignored. So when we redesigned, we did so using a fairly new technique called “responsive design.” What it means is that the GBF site is coded so that it will detect what size browser (or device) you’re using and automatically format itself to best optimize for your screen. Try it out! Pull up the site on your phone, your iPad, and your desktop. They’re all running on the same code, but, as you’ll see, they’re each formatted for their screen size. (e.g., Left side navigation goes away, three column format becomes one column, etc)
And we’ve added a number of other features as well:
- Enhanced Social Media integration
In addition to our Facebook “like” button, we’ve added both a Twitter feed and a convenient “follow” button, as well as a Twitter Feed. - Scrolling Sponsors & Partners
- You’ll find our high-level sponsors on every page, on a scrolling list
- Recently Added Authors list
Now when you visit our site, you can see – right on the home page – a list of the latest authors we’ve added to the program on May 18th.
So, take a look. Explore! Try it out on some different devices. And please do send comments and let us know what you think.