A New Beginning – welcome to AT 2012

If you are reading this, then you have made it to our brand new, just-launched-this-morning, clearer, cleaner AussieTheatre.com!

After months of testing, trialling, redesigning (and more redesigning), we have arrived at AussieTheatre 2012 version 1.0, and we hope that this new incarnation AussieTheatre.com will be easier for you all to use and more interesting to interact with.

A few things you may notice:

Home Page

The orange menu bar will be a work in progress. At the moment, we have all the old items and will be adding/shifting the menu items as new sections begin to build.

The wonderful drop-down menu for categories with more than one subsection is indicated by a black arrow next to the category name. (Eg. Blogs). If you wish to view all blogs, simply click the word ‘Blogs’ in the menu. If you wish to view an individual blog, use the drop down menu to filter.

menu bar
The menu bar's drop down feature takes you to specific fields within the category. If you want to see all articles in the category, click the category name itself, not the drop down arrow.

Similarly, the only features you will find in the drop down menu are our regular ‘A Quick Chat With’ feature and Artist Profiles. All other features can be found by clicking the word ‘Features’.

When navigating the site, the orange menu will show the page you are viewing in black text (see image) and all other pages in white, so you know where you are at all times.

Forums

The Forums, for the time being, will remain exactly as they were on the old site (with a colour makeover) – log in details and registration information has all been retained. We will be migrating them to a more advanced system sometime in the next few months.

Reviews

The new review page has a Details Box to the right of the review, which will include important information like Closing Date, Venue, Producers etc. Latest reviews can be found on the homepage (about halfway down the page).

review detail box

What’s On

Our events page is in progress, but never fear – as the days go on, this page will build and become a go-to for anyone needing information on shows in Australia. Anyone can add an event to the AussieTheatre.com events calendar. The What’s On section is searchable by category (eg. Play, Musical, Cabaret, Opera etc) or State (NSW, VIC, QLD etc).

Feature Slider

Our special feature slider on the home page allows us to feature 5 articles on rotation with larger images in a prominent position. To view each article in the slider, you may scroll using the arrows or click on the thumbnails (small images). To access the article, click on the main picture or the text.

homepage feature slider
To preview each article, use the arrows or click on the thumbnails below the text. To see the article proper, click on the text or the main image

Social Media

The social media buttons are floating in each article, allowing you to have access to twitter, facebook, and google + at any time. Feel free to share our articles – click on the buttons… you know you want to!!

social media button
Our customised floating social media buttons

Recommended Articles and Related Articles

At the bottom of each article, AussieTheatre.com will suggest related articles for you.

We also have a recommended articles feature which will slide in at the bottom of each article (very suave) and suggest your further reading. We are working on fine tuning the algorithms for these services, but for now, enjoy the myriad articles at your fingertips.

recommended articles
Once you hit the bottom of the page, the recommended article function will activate!

Erin James

Erin James is AussieTheatre.com's former Editor in Chief and a performer on both stage and screen. Credits include My Fair Lady, South Pacific and The King and I (Opera Australia), Love Never Dies and Cats (Really Useful Group), Blood Brothers (Enda Markey Presents), A Place To Call Home (Foxtel/Channel 7) and the feature film The Little Death (written and directed by Josh Lawson).

Erin James

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *