The next phase of Engadget's evolution

A year and a half ago, I told you that Engadget's editorial mission was going to change. Since then, we've delivered on that promise, telling stories about how and why technology is affecting the world we live in. Our editorial evolution continued, but the site remained largely untouched. It's time our visuals caught up with our vision. And unlike Darwin, we didn't need any birds to show us the way.

Welcome to Engadget 5.0.

This redesign is all about giving you the best user experience we can — whether you're watching a video, searching for your next device or reading an article about Humpty Dumpty and quantum physics. The code that powers Engadget has been completely rewritten from the ground up to reduce load times and increase efficiency. The responsive design is equally at home on a desktop as it is on a smartphone (and all screen sizes in between).

Editorially, the redesign affords us the opportunity to organize our work into sections that showcase our evolving coverage: Gear, Gaming, Culture, Entertainment and Science. These sections not only make it easier to find stories about particular subjects of interest, but also reflect our editorial shift — gadgets (the Gear section) comprise part of Engadget's coverage, not all of it. You'll still be able to dive right into our Public Access, Video and Review pages, too.

Our homepage now has a modern, magazine-like layout with a minimal, classic look that features our original reporting, features and video in a way our old design never could. We're no longer tied to a limited, blog-style format where every story and video published is treated identically. Because, like your myriad passwords -- at least in theory -- no two stories are the same.

Engadget's new layouts provide a more varied and engaging reader experience with bigger images than ever before. Reviews won't look like features, and news posts have their own style, too. Furthermore, all of our stories now have sub-headlines to provide additional context (and entertainment), and we're using new fonts, Guardian Egyptian and Guardian Sans, to make everything a bit easier on the eyes. And, should those witty sub-headlines have you wanting to read more when you don't have time, you can use our new private Reading List to save them for later. You'll need to create an Engadget account to use the feature, but that account also lets you comment on the site and submit user reviews in our redesigned product pages.

Speaking of, the new Engadget fully integrates our product database with our editorial in the Reviews section. So, in addition to Engadget, critic and user reviews, you'll find key specs alongside all the news and videos related to that product.

We designed the new homepage to be modular, so if you're looking for some old school, up-to-the minute Engadget news, check out our Latest Stories section. Up top, we're still featuring the biggest stories of the day, and have added a Most Popular module that tracks the most trafficked posts per hour. NO MO FOMO, you know? Scrolling further reveals our most recent Product Reviews, and the Latest Video module gives you easy access to all the ICYMI and Dear Veronica a nerd could want.

You'll get a glimpse at our favorite pieces with Editor's Picks, and below that is a Timeline module. Timelines give you the full picture of ongoing stories and events, and it's not limited to the homepage — the module will show up at the end of individual stories in the timeline so you can put the news in context. Lastly, the Spotlight, a place for our Buyer's and Gift Guides or big, multi-part projects. At the very bottom are the most recent stories in each of our new sections. And, we've retooled our CMS, so we can change the order of these modules to customize the layout of the homepage.

We're thrilled to share the new Engadget with you, and I hope you're as excited as we are. Of course, we know that it's not perfect, and we want to hear from you about the ways in which we can improve. Evolution doesn't happen overnight, you know?