OndaRock 2023 Restyling

No longer just the shop window, but the whole "store". After the appetizer of the new homepage, unveiled in 2022, the long-awaited graphic overhaul of our webzine has finally been completed, thanks to the project by Gabriele Brombin, art director and longtime user of our Forum, working alongside Anna Quaranta on development. This is not just a facelift, but a deep, thoughtful and coherent revision, paired with a new concept for the site, more in step with the times and with the evolution of digital media in recent years. Ten years, to be exact: that's how long it's been since the site's last full-scale restyling, carried out by Edoardo Cappuccio.

A decade, as we all know, is an eternity: everything that was only hinted at or barely sketched out in the previous project has by now fully blossomed everywhere: interaction with social networks, multimedia content, streaming, podcasts, video clips, playlists. Our graphic overhaul aims to take all this on board, looking ahead to the coming years with the utmost openness to all these new frontiers, utterly unimaginable back when the webzine was founded (2001).

The gap between us and traditional print magazines has grown ever wider, and it would be short-sighted not to notice it. But our forward-looking outlook won't stop us from holding on to our old habits, to which we remain deeply attached – together, we'd like to think, with our readers: critical analysis, in-depth coverage, historical research and a 360-degree view of the music universe in all its many facets and implications. Everything, however, is now more spacious, fluid and dynamic, with bigger images, more legible fonts and smoother scrolling, on pages that are decidedly more engaging, taking on board all the feedback we've received, from our editorial staff as well as from our users, over the years.

Among the most thoroughly revamped pages are certainly the section homepages, our reference areas for fans of rock, pop, electronic music, dark, songwriters, jazz, Italian music and other sounds.

Besides giving greater prominence to images and section playlists, we've also improved the readability of the lists of reviews, artist profiles and interviews relating to each genre, with the option of searching directly on the page and a range of ways to sort the lists (descending, ascending, by initial letter). The presence of thumbnail photos for every profile/interview also guarantees a far more effective visual impact than before.

The much-followed "boards" are also changing radically. First of all, the reviews index page for the year, with the option to filter your search by year and section, to sort it by author and title, date added and reviewer's rating, to browse it alphabetically, and to keep an eye in that same area on our latest "picks of the month". On top of that, cover thumbnails are now visible too, making everything more intuitive and easier to read. The same approach applies to the milestones page, where you can now filter by section, author, title, date added and year of release. Here too, thanks to the new "search" function, it will be easier to find the content you're looking for on the page. At the bottom of the page, you'll also find all the latest "milestones" added, plus a dedicated space where you can interact with us by suggesting titles that, in your opinion, are still missing.

Along the same lines, the new index pages for news and live reports have also been enriched with images from the content featured, as have the listings of our vast historical archive of monographs, interviews and artist profiles (the recent concise mini-biographies paired with each artist's content, also given a much more appealing new graphic look).

The pages for reviews, monographs, features and live reports - the heart of our site - also become much airier, more dynamic and easier to browse, in keeping with the overall design built around the new homepage. The aim is also to boost interaction with the rest of the site's content, whether that's the latest news or previous articles published on that same artist in other sections.

In short, a radical change, one we consider essential in order to push forward toward new goals, rather than resting on what we've already achieved over these 22 years. On that note, a heartfelt thanks goes to Edoardo Cappuccio, the designer behind the previous graphic project, who will continue to work with us even though he's no longer the site's "art director".

Once again, your support will be essential, but so will the dialogue built on your reports and suggestions, which have always helped us improve.

Let us know what you think by writing to our email info@ondarock.it. And forgive us in advance for the inevitable errors and bugs that may crop up in this early phase of such a deep overhaul.

Happy browsing, and once again, keep on rockin' in the free world (though without forgetting the other genres, because we're also... ondapop - and have been for a while! - ondaelettronica, ondasongwriter, ondafolk, ondajazz and whatever else you can think of).

(Claudio Fabretti)

***

Over the past few months we've tackled the redesign of OndaRock - which we're completing today with all the remaining pages and sections - with the utmost respect for the site, its content and its readers, among whom I've counted myself for twenty years. Two guiding principles: bring it into the 202x and put the ease of browsing content above everything else. Hence a series of changes to the layout, now airier and cleaner, to the internal consistency of the various types of content so they're easily recognisable, to the attention paid to smartphone browsing, and to the way the content itself is displayed, now given all the space it needs. Together with the revamped logo and social media communication, we hope we've given fresh life to the site we love, keeping it contemporary within its own specific identity for years to come.

Thanks once again to Anna Quaranta for her patience in handling all my nitpicky notes, and to the Editor, who welcomed our proposals with a trust that was far from a given.

I hope the new layout makes browsing OndaRock even more enjoyable for you. Every change carries a bit of trauma with it, but give it time, and with familiarity all the improvements will become clearer. And if you happen to come across any errors or oversights, don't hesitate to send us your reports by email, on the forum, or on OR's social media pages.

Thanks to everyone, and happy reading!

(Gabriele Brombin)

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