A New Look for CenterCutCook!

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Centercutcook redesign logos

You guys! You guys!!! I am so excited to introduce you to CenterCutCook’s new look! It’s done it’s done it’s done!!! I have been so pumped about what was in the works and wanted to spill the beans early and tell you, but I was able to keep my mouth SHUT until it was done and launched! So…. here it is! What do you think? 

Back in December of 2011 when Ryan and I were first putting together my little space on the Internet, we threw together something that we thought looked pretty good and called it a day. Neither of us have an ounce of talent or experience when it comes to design, but we didn’t have a budget to pay someone to come up with something, so we just made do with what we had.

You haven’t forgotten the old look already, have you? Yeah, this what we came up with:

CenterCutCook Homepage 1

While it served its purpose, I really didn’t feel like it suited my personality. It was too… formal? Stuffy? Maybe? I wanted something a little more fun, a little more laid back and something just a little bit more feminine, so I knew I needed to find a designer. Luckily I already had someone in mind…

Angela Lynn Marketing

Meet Angela from Angela Lynn Marketing. Angela, specializes in online marketing and also happens to be an exceptionally talented designer. Her company offers services to help businesses in all facets of online marketing from search engine optimization to web design.

Angela was beyond amazing to work with. She was so very patient with my indecisiveness (it’s one of my downfalls), paid incredible attention to detail, and came up with a design that was far, FAR better than I had originally envisioned.  I think one of my favorite parts is the chevron background. I just love that pattern and think it’s so fun! Oh, and the logo? I wish I could show you how that evolved. It was a process and she was SO patient with me! I just adore the color scheme too. She pulled it all together perfectly!

CenterCutCook new look

It’s clean, fun, simple, and I couldn’t be happier with the work that she did! Take a look around our new home and let me know what you think.

And of course, if you need a little marketing help (SEO, social media, email marketing, web design, etc.) for your own business or website, I couldn’t recommend Angela more highly. Shoot her an email and let her know I sent ya! ;)

New Features

While Angela was busy coming up with our new look, Ryan was busy developing a couple of new features like the sticky menu bar.

Sticky Sidebar

Now as you start to scroll down the page, the menu bar at the top will stick to the top of the page. We wanted to make it easy for you to navigate to the pages on our website that get viewed most often like our Recipe Index, the Popular Recipes, and the brand new Recipe Box (which I’ll talk more about in a minute), without needing to scroll all the way back to the top of the page.

And then there’s the social and sharing buttons that move down the page with you that I absolutely love.

CCC moving social buttons 1

As you scroll down the page, you’ll always have access to the save and print options, along with social buttons to share your favorite recipes on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Email, and Google+. I should mention that this feature will only appear on screens that are wide enough. If you’re not seeing this, it’s probably because you’re on a tablet or mobile phone. Try viewing it on your desktop computer and you’ll see this feature displayed.

Another feature that I like is the sidebar that is always with you as you’re scrolling. This means you won’t have a bunch of empty white space off to the side once you get towards the bottom of the page. I can’t really take a screenshot to show you want I mean, but just keep scrolling down this page and you’ll notice that the right sidebar stops so that you have access to the categories list while this content section keeps scrolling. 

Performance Updates

Our recipe pages were becoming more and more image heavy so we knew we had to do something to help the performance. Instead of loading all of the images at once, they load as you’re scrolling. This means that everything will initially appear faster on the page for you. If you’re like me, and you’re lacking in the patience department, this is a good thing! :)

We tried to put a huge emphasis on usability as well so that everything is easier for you to access. The homepage, instead of being just a list of recipes, is now a vehicle to get to the most popular sections on CenterCutCook including the Most Recent Recipes, The Most Popular Recipes, and our categories of recipes.

Other features you’ll love:

  • Hover your mouse over any image and you’ll see the cute little “Pin It” button for easy pinning
     
  • In the section where you see the recipe, look for the little print icon. This is the button you’ll want to use for printing because you’ll get the nice clean version that’ll only take-up one page
  • Each recipe can be saved to Ziplist (more on that in a minute!) so that you can keep it forever and ever
     
  •  Look to the right sidebar for our most recent recipes, the most popular recipes, and all of our categories
  • We still have every single recipe available on one page, and that can be found here 
  • After reach recipe I suggest four other recipes you might like to try, so keep an eye out for those
  • Search for your favorite recipes: in the menu bar you’ll notice the search box. Use that to find the recipes that you are looking for. You can search for something specific like ‘chocolate lasagna’ or you can do a general search for something like ‘chicken.” It is a super useful tool and I recommend you use it often! 

Welcome Ziplist!

Many of you asked for it, and it’s finally here! I’m so excited to have partnered with Ziplist to give you an easy way to save the recipes you love! Not only does Ziplist allow you to save your favorite recipes from CenterCutCook and hundreds of other websites, you are also able to use their tools to create weekly shopping lists, create meal plans, and view coupons and other offers to help you save money on your groceries. Have you signed up for a Ziplist account yet? If not, I encourage you to go do that now. You can sign-up here.

Once you start using Ziplist, you can access your recipe box, shopping list, and all of the other helpful tools right from our menu bar at the top of the page.

CenterCutCook Ziplist

If you are viewing a recipe that you’d like to save, all you have to do is look for the little “save” icon that can be found at the top of the recipe, and also to the left side of the recipe if you’re viewing CenterCutCook on a desktop computer. After you click save, the recipe will be saved to your recipe box so that you can easily access it at any point. It’s awesome!

Ziplist 2 1

I think I just about covered it all! Thank you so very much for being a fan of CenterCutCook, for trying the recipes I share, providing feedback, and following along on social media. And while I’m at it, thank you so much for the outpouring of support with everything that’s going on with Ryan (click here if you don’t know what I’m talking about). CenterCutCook fans are the best, and I appreciate each and every one of you.

So now tell me, what do you think? Angela did an awesome job and I’m so excited to finally see all of her hard work implemented!

Hi, I’m Ashley & I’m so happy you’re here!

Ashley is the founder of CenterCutCook and a former teacher that now spends her days in the kitchen so that she can share her favorite recipes with you!