Klartext

The client for this project is Harald Wiesendanger, a journalist and blogger focused on independent background journalism through his platform Klartext. The website, www.klartext-online.info, provides thought-provoking and in-depth articles on various societal and political topics. This case study will explore the scope of improvements suggested for the blog’s layout and structure, along with the implementation of the Wix platform to optimize the site’s preview tiles and content presentation.
Project Goals
The primary goal of this Wix project was to:
Enhance the user experience by optimizing the display of blog teasers on the homepage.
Ensure that preview tiles are visually appealing and consistent with the blog's minimalist design.
Maintain the integrity of the website’s content while improving the readability of the teaser text.
Scope of Work
Layout and Preview Tiles
Tile Size: Adjusting the size of preview tiles to create more space for teaser text, ensuring they are large enough for optimal readability but not overwhelmingly large to disrupt the clean aesthetic of the page.
Teaser Length: Ensuring that the teaser text in the preview tiles does not extend beyond 6-7 lines. Teasers should be truncated after this length with an ellipsis ("...").
Teaser Placement: The teaser text should fill the bottom portion of the preview tile to maximize space usage while maintaining a neat and balanced design.
Top Post Special Case: The top post should have a larger tile size to allow the full teaser to be visible, regardless of its length. This will give priority to the top content, making it stand out more on the homepage.
Design Improvements
Tile Adjustment: The preview tiles were resized slightly to give more space to the teaser text without compromising the site's layout. This involved increasing the size of the tiles minimally while ensuring they maintained the balance between text and image content.
Content Flow: Implementing a system to automatically cut off teaser text after 6-7 lines. This prevents the content from feeling overcrowded and helps create a more consistent presentation for all posts.
Teaser Management: Modifying the Wix theme to allow for dynamic resizing of teaser text based on the post's length. Shorter teasers are left as they are, while longer ones are cut off appropriately to maintain consistency.
Implementation Process
Wix Template Customization: Davydov Consulting used the Wix platform’s drag-and-drop editor to customize the template and adjust the size of the preview tiles. This was done through modifying the CSS and adjusting the dynamic display properties of the blog post preview boxes.
Teaser Text Management: Wix’s Content Manager was utilized to automate teaser truncation. The site now has a built-in function to limit teaser text to 6-7 lines, with longer posts automatically displaying ellipses ("...").
Top Post Special Case: The top post should have a larger tile size to allow the teaser to be visible, but the text should still be limited to 7 lines. This will give priority to the top content while maintaining consistency in the layout across the homepage.
Final Testing: Once the changes were made, the site was tested on different screen sizes to ensure that the preview tiles were responsive and the text aligned properly at the bottom.
Results and Outcomes
Improved Layout: The homepage now features a more consistent and readable preview tile layout. Visitors can easily scan the teasers without being overwhelmed by long texts or mismatched tile sizes.
Enhanced User Experience: By ensuring that teasers are cut off at 6-7 lines with an ellipsis and giving priority to the top post, the user experience has been streamlined. The top post’s full teaser helps engage visitors right away.
Visual Appeal: The slight increase in the tile size has made the preview text more prominent while maintaining the website’s clean and simple aesthetic.
The project was successfully completed by Davydov Consulting, with significant improvements to the teaser management, preview tile design, and overall user experience. The client's blog, Klartext, is now better structured, making it more user-friendly and visually appealing. The adjustments ensure that all content is presented in a consistent and polished manner, which helps maintain the credibility and readability of the site’s journalistic content.