Claudia the Panda

The once static and not-so-attractive Yesterday.sg has got a major overhaul! The new Yesterday.sg has brought mix thoughts and sentiments for me.

Started my blogging journey with them in September last year and had contributed a little ever since. But it sure was an experience that any blogger should at least try once. (Or more because once is never enough with the new facelift!)

Let’s first take a look at the overall view of the new Yesterday.sg…

What do you think of it?

At first look, I already felt that its very familiar and an easy to use and navigate site. The commonly seen content on the left, and sidebars with all other information and links on the right. The top navigation bar leads you to the highlights of the site. If you’re regularly reading blogs, this interface shouldn’t be hard to get used to. But than, the more I look at it, the more I feel that the sidebar on the front page is a little too cluttered.

I showed it to my relatives after our dinner last night, and they were kinda lost surfing the site. Although all of them said its nicely designed but almost all of them just scrolled up and down the first page and didn’t know what to click next. The site only managed to capture less than a minute of their attention. If you’re lost too, why not just check out the following pages I’m recommending here first to orientate yourself.

The Heritage TV (HTV) page

If text is not quite your thing, video and audio should attract you. Here you’ll find the latest episode of HTV. 100% produced in-house by pretty Kimberly as the host and thou-shall-not-be-named producer, director and soundman. Having produced 14 episodes of show for Yebber, I know how much work and sweat has to be put into production. Trust me, its no joke! So do give Kim and her team your support.

Here’s the video of what goes on behind the scene…

Talkback (aka Forum)

If you’ve any heritage, art or NHB related questions to ask or things to share, this is the place to go. Very simple interface and shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone to use.

And finally the Gallery

Useful for education and research purposes. I think there’ll be more interesting and useful photos being shared soon. Although the viewing of it is not as sophisticated as the photo gallery at flickr or facebook, but still its easy to navigate and find what you need based on the categories. IMO, the gallery is one that could be improved on for sure.

Few more things to share about the website. Two things that attracted me from the sidebar is the “Today in history” and “Did you know” portions.

Short and little bites of information that’s easily digested. I like little readings these days. Especially within the 140characters limit. Oh! Talking about that, Yesterday.sg is also on twitter (@yesterdaysg) too. Not sure how they’re going to use it yet, but you should add them if you’re interested to keep posted of happenings.

Like any social media platform, registered users get a profile page. And here’s how mine looks like…

Overall I like the changes and improvements made to the website. Its way much better than the old Yesterday.sg. But still rooms for improvements. Perhaps a admin/backend page too for users who’re not familiar with wordpress.

Like all sites and communities, the next challenge for the team is to build the followings and engage their participants.

All the best to the team!

Go check out the site yourself! And register to take part in the discussions too! Check out Yesterday.sg.