Rediff.com, the general interest website, has succumbed to the 13-year itch. In place of the earlier cluttered and busy website is now minimalistic material which acts like a gateway to access the site’s content. There is a search bar and eight icons which represent news, movies, cricket, money, shopping and online services. Additionally, there are links to articles on the right side.
No doubt, the new version is lighter and leaner and clearly marks a strategic move by Rediff.com to become more mobile-friendly for its users. But what really prompted such a massive revamp? The company’s research showed that Internet usage had undergone a very significant change over the last few years. Earlier the Internet was all about possibilities and consequently the design was invariably cluttered. Now people come to the web with a focussed objective and thus the design needs to be minimalistic.
The one hitch that Rediff.com will most likely face is the fact that the new interface does not allow for advertisements on the homepage, which gave it as much as 20 per cent of its overall advertising revenues earlier. On their part, experts believe that the company would be hoping this move will boost traffic on the pages inside as well as increase the usage of its services.
Rediff.com is leaving no stone unturned to put its case forward. It has come out with a new television campaign with a brief to focus on ‘just your stuff’. “Rather than amplifying just the proposition, the execution talks about the state of mind when you are surrounded by just your stuff,” says an executive of the company’s creative agency, BBH India. However, more than anything else, Rediff.com will be hoping for loyal and patient users who will take the trouble to use the site extensively.
