Food Network Unveils Snazzy New Site Design

I produced a slightly tongue-in-cheek review of the new Food Network web site for Edible TV last week:

If you’ve been surfing the net lately, surely you’ve noted that Food Network’s web site is sporting a fresh look. Gone are the days of lime green and tiny type; say hello to splashy crimson.

Literally . . . the header seems to be depicting something wet and red. Blood? Perhaps the head rolling of the old site designer?

I kid, I kid. I did detest the old Food Network site, though; I’d swear a blood oath to . . . never mind.

Hey, it’s almost Halloween, isn’t it?

I don't think the review quite captures my joy at the Food Network finally redesigning the old beast. I didn't want to dig too deeply into my pet peeves on Edible TV, but honestly, the sort of design inconsistency that marked the previous site incarnation makes me want to tear my hair out. And we all know that food and hair just don't mix.

Remind me to tell you the brownie story sometime when you're in the mood for seeing me embarrassed.

But now an example! A while back, Food Network did a small revamp of their site, jazzing it up but keeping the same general shape and color scheme. They added a new search box at the top of the page that had some fancy coding -- it might have been Flash or something.

Looked great, for sure.

But I couldn't type in the thing.

Some browsers worked with it, others didn't. As I used one that did not, I had to click through to a different page every time I wanted to search for a recipe.

Someone at Food Network must have had the same problem because not long afterward, the legacy search box in the left-hand column made a reappearance on the home page.

Great! Now I could type a search request right off the bat. Except . . .

They left the other search box there! Now, every single page had two search boxes right at the top. It was ugly.

And it was eventually fixed, by the way, before the current redesign, but it was emblematic of the problems that have plagued this site. Lately, I had been bugged more by the way that different shows had different home page designs (with the more "advanced" designs being sometimes buggy, on top of that).

Now, though, all is well in Food Network.com-land. At least as long as I am quick to hit the pause button.

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