After reading a recent blog post by my friend Rod Call at Snoloha the other day, Remembering Patience & Past Posts, it got me thinking more about MIskireport.com and how it started, where it is now and where it is headed in the future. It's always fun to look back on where you have been and equally as fun to think about the future of things, especially our sport. In order to think more about the future, I knew change was in order – serious change.
The resorts had not even closed for the 08/09 season yet and I already began planning for the 09/10 season. After finishing up what most consider to be an epic season last year, I took a step back and looked over the existing site and put everything on the chopping block. Every single piece of miskireport was up for contention except for one thing – our goal of being the premier source of information for skiing and snowboarding in Michigan.
After countless hours of collaborating with a number of designers, asking questions of users, industry people and my wife, MIskireport has undergone a HUGE transformation. A complete 180 degree turn has been made and we’ve stepped everything up in a big way. Everything from the logo and color scheme to the updated site design and interaction with our users – it's all new, minus the new car smell!
Change #1 – New logo and color scheme: I had never been knocked out about the original logo design for miskireport.com and I created it. After a number of hours collaborating with a great design team, thumbing through conceptual sketches, the decision was finally made to go with the logo you see now.
Change #2 – New website design and layout: Another long research process and brainstorming sessions of what do we like, what are other sites doing, what aren’t they doing and how do I make this all happen? My main goal has always been, and will continue to be the source of information for skiing and snowboarding in Michigan. The challenge has been, how do I do that in a format that is easy for everyone to use and easy for us to administer. My hope is the design we’re bringing you is exactly that, easy to use and easy to find the information you want. Our resort profiles are more in depth than ever before, bringing you everything from resort stats and current snow conditions, events taking place at that location, resort photos and the ability to rate your experience. Don't expect us to stop there – expect more gear reviews, events and deals, featured riders, videos, pictures and blogs.
A big thanks to everyone for the continuous support – it's very motivating to keep this thing moving forward!
Right now I'm watching the temp drop, thinking about snow and looking forward to this season! Back to making changes…