As many of you may have already noticed, XDA looks a little different today. We wanted to take a moment to show off XDA Portal's new look to all of you, a redesign that serves the present and future needs of the website as it rapidly grows wider and deeper into its content niches.
First, let's rewind by about seven years. When the previous redesign was announced for XDA Portal, it was a breath of fresh air from the even-older design. At that time, we went from a feed of external content interspersed with occasional original reporting and editorials, to a feed that put our best foot forward with news, editorials, and reviews. It was a design that served us tremendously well for those goals.
But over the past few years, as the design aged and the website grew, it became apparent to us that this singular feed couldn't completely serve XDA's ambitions. Our design was also tied to our CMS, WordPress, and a fair few plugins later, we needed to rethink our content pipeline from the ground up — from how content is created by our writers to how it is served to you, our audience.
XDA in late 2022
And thus comes the new XDA redesign, which closely resembles several of our Valnet sister sites like Android Police, PocketNow, and MakeUseOf (MUO) but still adds unique traits of its own to retain our XDA identity and serve our specific needs. Our new branding colors feature prominently throughout the front page and individual article areas, alongside the new XDA logo that was adopted last year. We also have new layouts to play with for individual articles, making it easier for us to produce great content such as reviews, comparisons, and buying guides by using different formats.
The featured section is curated. When you first come to XDA, the first thing you'll see is the content that our editors think you'll enjoy the most.
Beyond that, there are different sections of content. Right now, you'll find blocks for featured mobile and computing content, but be on the lookout for more. We'll be using that section to showcase events, trending topics, and just finding ways to highlight articles that we think you will enjoy. If you're looking for a one-stop spot to see all of our CES 2023 coverage, that's where it's going to be.
Mobile-ready, mobile-first
A majority of our readers read the website on their phones. Recognizing this, our redesign focuses on being not only mobile-ready but also mobile-first. We're making use of adaptive layouts that should automatically take better shape on the small screen in your hand. We've then extended that layout to our desktop users, ensuring we get a cohesive yet tailored experience no matter your platform of choice.
Dark Theme
Did we mention we now have a dark theme? We now have a dark theme.
The theme of the website is set by your system theme. We'll be adding an independent toggle down the road, but for now, if you want to read our site with beautiful blacks gracing your AMOLED screens, just ensure your system theme is set to follow dark mode.
Separated RSS feeds
We've also separated RSS feeds into several categories. This feature is still a work in progress, but we wanted to share this with you right away. You can add the following individually to your favorite RSS service to receive articles within those categories:
- Mobile: https://www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/mobile/
- News: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/mobile-news/
- Editorials: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/mobile-editorial/
- Reviews: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/mobile-reviews/
- Tutorials: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/mobile-tutorials/
- Comparisons: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/mobile-comparisons/
- Computing: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/computing/
- News: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/computing-news/
- Editorials: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/computing-editorial/
- Reviews: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/computing-reviews/
- Tutorials: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/computing-tutorials/
- Smart Home: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/home/
- News: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/home-news/
- Editorials: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/home-editorial/
- Reviews: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/home-reviews/
- Tutorials: www.xda-developers.com/feed/category/home-tutorials/
Bugs? You tell me
Meta-humor aside, this is the part where we recognize the scale of this redesign. We have thousands of articles in varied formats, collected over more than a decade. More recently, our scale of operations has increased to match our ambitions, but so has our output. We had to migrate over a very large number of articles, shifting across both CMS and webpage design. And despite our best efforts and many months of testing, things do break. We're aware of many bugs and issues, and we want to reassure you that work is steadily in place to fix them.
This redesign is arguably one of the most pivotal moments in XDA's history. And we're glad we can share the moment with you. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below!