When I created the Fuji X Weekly website, I wanted it to be clean and simple. I took a minimalistic approach to its design. For awhile it was clean and simple, but as the website grew and things evolved over time, it became less and less so.
The Blog used to be the Homepage, but now they’re separate—while the Blog is still pretty minimalistic, the Homepage is fairly busy. The two screenshots below show the cluttered Homepage compared to the clean Blog. The original design philosophy still serves a purpose, but in many ways Fuji X Weekly has outgrown it. I will likely at some point revamp the design, which would be a lot of work, but for now it remains as it gets the job done.
Because the Homepage is so busy, it’s easy to overlook things on there. For example, you might have missed that the 10 most recent blog posts can be accessed from it. Or that if you keep scrolling down, there’s an option to “Follow by Email” or even search the website. Because the Blog is so clean, it’s easy to miss much of the available material. The point of this article is to shed some light on how to navigate this website so that you don’t miss anything. There’s much more content than many might realize.
Specifically, I want to talk about the Menus that some people might not even know exist. Before going into that, though, I want to mention that clicking on “Fuji X Weekly” over the camera (see the top picture in this article) will take you to the Homepage. No matter where you are, it’s easy to get back home. To the left and right of “Fuji X Weekly” at the top are what’s called Hamburger Menus. The top-left Hamburger Menu has three horizontal lines, and the top-right Hamburger Menu has four horizontal lines. The left menu will bring up a list of pages. The Homepage and the Blog are just two of 17 standalone pages on Fuji X Weekly. At the bottom is a search bar, which is helpful if you are searching for something specific. The right menu will bring up a list of recent blog posts, an archive of blog posts (you can browse through specific months, going all the way back to the beginning), and a search bar is on top. This is the easiest place to find specific articles, either by searching or browsing. The best way to think about it is: Pages are accessed via the left menu, Posts are accessed through the right menu.
Let’s talk briefly about those 17 standalone pages, accessed through the top-left menu.
The Homepage you already know. Next is About—there’s a short biography (and a link to an article that dives a little deeper into it), but most importantly there’s a “Contact Me” form, if you want to shoot me a message. Then there is the Blog, which, again, you already know. After that is the Creative Collective Corner, which is where you’ll find bonus articles for Creative Collective subscribers. Next is Development, which is simply a list of How-To and Photographic Advice type articles that I’ve published. The Film Simulation Recipes page is next. This is actually a redundant page that originally served a very different purpose. You see, for awhile all of the film simulation recipes were listed there, but then, as I made more-and-more, it just made more sense to separate them into different groups, and not all on one page. I didn’t want to delete the page because there were so many links to it. Now it serves as a launching platform (identical to what’s on the Homepage) to the different recipe groups. If you are not sure which sensor generation your camera has, there’s a list at the bottom of the page. After that is Film Simulation Reviews, which is a list of articles that demonstrate various recipes in different situations. Then there’s the Fuji X Weekly App page, which is everything you need to know about the App. The next six pages are where you’ll find all of the recipes: Bayer, GFX, X-Trans I, X-Trans II, X-Trans III, and X-Trans IV. After that is the Gear page, which is where you’ll find my camera and lens reviews. Next is SOOC Live, which is where you’ll find all of the SOOC episodes. Last but not least is the Video page, which is where you’ll find my YouTube videos.
All of that is accessed through that top-left menu!
The content in the top-right menu is more dynamic, and is always evolving as more articles are published. I want to mention one more time the search bar, which is such a great way to find things—especially if you are unsure where exactly it is located. If you can remember what the article was titled or about, the search feature can help you quickly find it.
Fuji X Weekly has been around for over four years, and I’ve published a lot of articles during that time. Most people come for the film simulation recipes, yet there’s lots of other great stuff to explore; however, it’s not always obvious what there is and where exactly it’s at on the website. The intention of this post is to help you find it. The top-left menu will take you to the various pages, the top-right menu will take you to various posts, and the “Fuji X Weekly” in-between will take you home.
You do a lot of fine work and provide many good ideas for Fuji Shooters, myself included. The ads on your site are obnoxious and deter traffic. Maybe you can find a way to eliminate them. Some in my group feel likewise.
Be Blessed, don
I don’t like the ads, either, but they pay for the web hosting and such. If I had to pay all of these expenses out of pocket, I probably would have shut down the website awhile ago. If a corporation wants to sponsor Fuji X Weekly, I could end the annoying ads–or if some individual donated a large sum of money. But otherwise, the ads are necessary. Unfortunately, nothing is free, so if something is “free” to you, it means someone else is paying for it. If not for the ads, it would be me personally. And if I had to pay out of pocket to provide others with free stuff, that simply wouldn’t last very long. I guess the alternative would be to lock everything behind a paywall, but I’m trying to be helpful to the photography community, and by blocking most people out, that would limit the impact of all this. So there has to be some things that generate money in order to make the free things free, in order to help the community. I’m doing pretty well for traffic, so I don’t think the ads are deterring much. And if it is, I’m sorry that some feel that I should have to personally sacrifice to make things less obnoxious for them. I suppose that my kids should have to skip a meal a couple times each week to make free things even more free for them. I feel like this request is: not only provide us with free a service, but suffer while doing so. If you and your group were interested in providing a blessing, perhaps you could consider sponsoring the website so that the ads could be removed? That would be being a part of the solution, and not just complaining about a very first-world “problem.” Perhaps contact your local radio and television stations to suggest that they, too, broadcast for free without ads, because their commercials are obnoxious and deter traffic. I’m sure that will be received with open arms, and you’ll get a very nice “thank you” for the suggestion.