Redesigning TouringPlans.com!
As you may have already noticed, TouringPlans.com is sporting a brand new design! This has been a long time coming, and we’re excited to let you kick the tires on the new site. Don’t worry–while the interface has changed, we’ve retained the Unofficial Guide’s content on each page. Please let us know what you think of the redesign in the comments!
Your Reader Survey feedback and emails were the reason why we did this redesign. The new site (hopefully) addresses your top four concerns:
- A more professional “look and feel” to the site. We think the new design is cleaner, more readable and easier on the eyes.
- Improved site navigation. We’ve introduced drop-down menus and a smarter sidebar navigation scheme. Moving around the site should be much more intuitive.
- Better use of color. We think the new color scheme is more clear, better matches the book’s colors, and provides more clear understanding of messages from the site.
- More use of photos. The new site layout puts in place the infrastructure to bring you more of the high-quality digital photos and video we’ve taken all around Walt Disney World. The header photo of Cinderella Castle is an example, and more will be coming soon.
In addition, thanks to all your fantastic feedback, we now have a new logo! We love its simple aesthetic, and we’re excited for all of you to have been a part of the process.
While we’re at it, we’d like to thank Rustin Jessen for our new site design. Rustin’s background was uniquely suited to this task: he’s not only a wicked graphic designer, but a former cast member for the Walt Disney Company! Check out his site to see some of the design work he did while with for the Mouse.
Lastly, a quick heads up: we’re increasing the cost of a 1-year premium subscription to $10.95 starting Monday, May 17th. Over the past year, we’ve been working furiously to help you get the most of out your Walt Disney World trip. We’ve launched Lines, our mobile wait times app, redesigned the site, and have many new features on the horizon (including some major Crowd Calendar improvements–stay tuned!).
We’re committed to remaining very competitively priced while bringing you the best trip planning tools and information on the web. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to become a member–now would be a great time!
See you in the parks!
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When printing the touring plans, the step numbers on the map are impossible to see. The numbers are a dark gray within a dark blue circle. I tried printing in balck-and-white, and it was worse. I ended up having to write the numbers on the map to be able to read them. You might want to change the color scheme on the printout. They look fine on the screen – white numbers over a dark blue circle.
Fantastic update! Everything looks clean and professional. Thank you for the hard work and passion y’all bring to this!
I usually do not like change. Drives me nuts to re-learn stuff for minimal improvement. However, this site re-design is positively amazing and I am totally impressed. I have had no trouble finding anything, but yet it is all so professional and appealing. Great job! I’ve never questioned the value of my subscription here, but you all have really stepped up the game. Kudos!!
The site looks great! Now that the Blog is in the drop down category, it’s even better. You did a great job! I love it.
Looks great!!
Thanks Karen!
The new design is really great. It’s much more optimistic that the older one. Love lines as well. Keep up the great work.
Thanks George!
Love the new look and Logo (the one I voted for, yes!).
Question:
Do you still have the “Recent News” spot like the old site had at the top of the home page, I loved that!
Keep up the great work guys!
Hey Jack, the recent news section is gone, but it may come back in another form! Thanks for the feedback.
I love the redesigned website!
Thanks Amanda!
The site looks great! I am still hoping for an easy way to get touring plans on my iPhone so that I can avoid either printing out the plans on paper (yuck!) or having to enter them step by step myself. But you guys have created a much nicer site already, so I’m hopeful.
Hey Tam, we hear ya! Thanks for the feedback. And for the kind words!
Fantastic redesign! Much easier to navigate and nicer to look at.
Thanks Ellen!
Wow, I just love what you’ve done with the place! 🙂
I didn’t know it was being redesigned, so at first I thought I went to the wrong website. Haven’t had a chance to explore yet, but it sure looks great! Congrats!
Hah! A fake TouringPlans.com! No, rest assured, this is us.
Henry,
Awesome Job!!!! Way to go. The site looks FABULOUS!! High 5’s — big time. Caroline:)
Thanks Caroline! Keep on blogging!
HI – site is awesome. At first I had trouble finding the blog but it looks like you added it in again.
I think the last site remembered my on my return visits and i didn’t have to login each time. I liked that feature but everthing else seems better on this website.
Hey Scott, I’ll check that out, thanks!
Henry and Len- great job- I really like the new design.
Henry, I am becoming a big fan of yours. I just started listing to Betamouse. I love it. I thought I was the only crazed iPhone user out there but then I found out about all of you! Keep up the enthusiasm.
Thanks Amy!!
What happened to the reader survey? I can’t seem to find any obvious link to it. I still need to fill one out for my trip that ended last week.
Hey Rich, click on the “Book” part of the homepage, that’ll lead you to the section. We’ll make this more obvious soon.
The site looks fantastic! I am a great fan and liked the old look because it was very basic, no clutter. But this still looks very clean, but much more professional. Great job!
Thanks Magdalene!
wow!….the site looks AWESOME. Kudos
Thanks danvan!
Great new design! Been a long time coming! Just in time for my final prep for a June trip – thanks!
Thanks Jenn!
Holy crow, this is a beautiful redesign. “Cleaner, more readable and easier on the eyes” indeed.
I agree with @llasto: The blog should be somewhere in the main nav.
Cool, thanks Chris!
Your new site looks great. Much easier to read and follow. Keep up the great work
Thanks Maria!
Great new look, but I did have a hard time finding the blog page. Would love to see it on the top header next to Tools, Parks, etc.
thanks for the feedback!
Wowie this looks different!
For me, the font size inside the text box is GIANT (size 36+ font), while the rest of the comments are about a size 12. It’s a bit odd that it’s larger than the titles (etc) even.
Hehe- the tabs/drop down menus work better (faster) on touringplans than on Disney’s website.
Try doing a hard refresh : Control+shift+R
Mine looked funky, too, until I tried that!
Hey Samantha, yep, will work on it!
Should be fix now, thanks Sam!
Looks great! can’t wait to see more!
Thanks mia!
Fantastic redesign! I would echo one of the other suggestions to put a more obvious link to the blog somewhere….I worried that the blog feature had disappeared! And since this is a daily stop for me I was relieved to see it continues….
Otherwise – this has been a fantastic year for the site….keep up the great work!
Hey Dan, added a link to the Blog at the bottom of the “Parks” dropdown for the time being. Thanks!
Perfect! Thanks!
Looks good guys. Neat and pretty. So fresh n so clean clean.
Hah, thanks Eric!
Great update to the site. I know many hours went into it. Congrats. We also look forward to using Lines on our next trip.
Cheers, thanks Mark!
New site looks fabulous! My first visit to the parks with the cheatsheets and Lines app (April 2010) saved me easily ten times your site membership fee. (I can recall waiting in lines at WDW and showing people the Lines app on my Blackberry and their eyes would bug out.) Thanks for all you do!
Awesome, thanks Nancy! And a very cool blog you have!
Thanks! 2 minor things I would change: 1) on the crowd calendar, color-code the crowd levels (or bold level 5 & under days, etc.). 2) Re-do the colors on the cheat sheets so they print better in B&W (hard to read my laser-printout on bright days in the park!).
Wow! I knew it was coming, but I’m still blown away by the change. It looks great. This is the first site I go to for anything Disney. I agree with previous posts about a search field on the main page and a blog link at the top, and a cheat sheet addition. I think that the new price is reasonable for the quality of product that you are offering. Of course, with that said, I just renewed our membership last night! 🙂 It was nice of you to give folks a heads up on the rate increase before the fact. (Something that WDW doesn’t do for its patrons.)
Well, it’s raining here in KC, but this is like a ray of sunshine in my day! 🙂
Thanks so much, Amy! Thanks for upgrading!
I love the new look, but I would suggest adding Cheat Sheets either under the Tools menu or to the Touring Plans main page or at the bottom of each park’s Touring Plans page. I haven’t been able to find a link to the cheat sheets yet.
Also, it would be nice to either have a search field or link on the Home page. I found Search under FAQs under Touring Plans, but it just hung and never showed hits for the cheat sheets link.
Hey Karin, followed up with you on this via email. Just added the Cheat Sheets to the Tools section.
Thanks!
The site look really nice! The only thing that I would look at is that the only link to the blog, that I have found, is in the footer. You may want to put one higher on the page for people to find.
Good point, Tom–will fix. Thanks!
The site looks great – keep up the excellent work!
Thanks Damian!
looks fabulous!
Fabulous! Awesome.
Love it!
Thanks Jerry!
Very nice! Really like the new logo.
Thanks Carla!
Site looks great Len, congrats on the new design!
Thanks Matt!