Logo, Header, Homepage, and Rating Descriptors

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011We have not published a newsletter in some time, and in this gap, we have rolled out a series of incremental changes to our site. If you have been visiting the site regularly, you've likely noticed most or all of these changes, and if you haven't visited in a while, you've been missing out!

Logo & redesigned header:

We now have an official logo. We have replaced the original, small header with a new header, which looks cleaner and more professional, more spacious, and which we hope will more clearly communicate the extent and nature of our site. The links in the header are the same as before; they have only been rearranged slightly.

You can see our full logo at the top of our site; on the right is a compact, square version of our logo which you can see on Facebook, Twitter, and on other websites where we have a presence.

New homepage layout:

In response to our users, we redesigned our homepage to make it both more visually appealing and easier to navigate. We still highlight our recent reviews, recently updated articles, and styles and varieties of tea, but we also have an introduction at the top that explains what our site can help you with: discovering new teas, learning about where your tea comes from, and keeping track of which teas you enjoy most.

We also made the signup process much easier. If you have not yet signed up for an account and started rating and reviewing teas, please do so! You can now sign up directly on the homepage.

Tags and pictures denoting our articles:

When we first launched a few years ago, we only had a few informational articles, but our article content has since grown to a massive size; we currently have 532 articles on brands, styles, and regions of tea, and 33 other articles in the "articles" section.

Because of the growing size of the materials on our site, we have added a tagging system so that you can browse related topics, such as Tea and Health, Tea and Sustainability, Brewing Tea, Tea Business and Industry, and Buying Tea.

The adding of pictures to denote each article is long overdue! These pictures are now shown on the homepage, the articles page, and a few other places on the site.

New rating descriptors:

We have received feedback from our users for some time now, especially newer users, remarking that they have trouble picking a numerical rating for tea, including for the different categories aroma, flavor, and value. We recently added a new feature, verbal rating descriptors, which can help make it easier for you to pick a number when rating teas.

When you select a number, the text on the right will give a verbal description of what that numbers means, along the lines of "poor, fair, good, excellent, outstanding". Play with the ratings yourself to see what options there are!

And if you need even more guidance, you can always read our guide on writing about tea. But remember, you don't need to be a connoisseur to rate teas, and you don't even need to know much of anything about tea. Just share your own opinions!