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Trailspace Updates: Site Nav, Nonprofits, Mobile, More

by Alicia MacLeay
March 5, 2014

So stoic, so focused, but the glazed eye look can strike anyone after four days inside.

User reviews, gear discussions, and the weekly newsletter aren’t the only places you’ll find new happenings at Trailspace.

Here's a roundup of developments, updates, and new features on the site for the start of 2014.

Outdoor Retailer

Seth and I started off the year at Outdoor Retailer in January. Over five days, we met with well more than 50 outdoor brands, covered the latest gear news (see our full OR coverage), and checked out new products for Review Corps members to test.

Seth's press kits and catalogues exceeded the airline baggage weight requirements. My best swag was a Salazon Chocolate/PCTA bar from Seth, which never made it to my luggage (thanks, Seth!).

Site Navigation

A few months ago, the site header up top got a redesign for a more cohesive main navigation bar. More recently, we’ve added expanding sitewide navigation with one-click access to many deep product categories (for example: hover your mouse over "Climb" up top to see more of its gear categories and sub-categories). We've also added a list of top brands to the sitewide navigation (hover your cursor over "Brands" up top).

Go ahead and scroll back up to check it out.

Charitable Contributions

Did you know your support of Trailspace allows our community to support worthy outdoor nonprofits like American Rivers, Leave No Trace, and Winter Wildlands? Thank you!

We recently finalized our 2014 contributions to our nonprofit partners, and the checks are in the mail. See the full list of who we support annually as members of 1% for the Planet. Plus, you can learn more about the people behind those organizations in upcoming NPO Q&A’s, starting in April.

Mobile Site

Shopping locally, reading a gear discussion on the go? If you access Trailspace’s user reviews or forums on your phone, you may notice some improvements to the mobile site.

Now, the reviews section of product pages is shown expanded by default; the gender tabs on mobile product pages are consistent with those on the full site; odd scrolling has been prevented when switching between the full and mobile sites; and the time and name of the last poster has been added in each forum thread.

Even More

A few final highlights: 1) We now show members' affiliation and authority badges on review comments (for example: Brand Rep, Trailspace Staff). 2) We’ve updated our media kit (PDF) and advertising page. 3) When looking for new gear, default product lists are more focused, without older, unavailable products. However, you can still see the full list by clicking the “older products” link at the end of the list. 4) The newsletter’s appearance has been improved for Gmail users. 5) And confirmation emails have been improved for new member signups and newsletter subscriptions

Thanks to Dave, who gets much of the credit for all technological and design improvements.

 

And thanks to each of you for the helpful outdoor and gear experience you share on Trailspace daily. Whether in a user review, forum post, advice, or comment, your contributions are invaluable to the Trailspace community.