We’re Glad To Have You With Us!

Hi Gang…

Well…we never really closed but behind all the new stories posted this year we’ve been busy with a redesign of the website.  The good news is that our 6 month redesign effort is now complete with great thanks to those who have helped us which include Rollie Langston, Guy Dirkin, Erich Schultz and Corry Wauford.

You’ve seen some of these updates roll out these past few months, but let’s take a few moments to share the five major areas of redesign of the Undiscovered Classics website.

MENU  BAR
The Menu Bar now appears at the very top of the screen and has been updated and expanded to provide additional choices that allow you to dig into information more deeply.  We now have over 1000 stories (posts) and 1000 pages of detail about handcrafted cars.  That’s over 2 million words – quite a bit of information.  But if you don’t know how to get to these stories, you’re only using a tiny part of what we have to offer.  The more time you interact with the menu bar, the more you’ll learn about handcrafted cars in America and across the world.

LOGO  AREA
We’ve been experimenting with this area throughout the year, and what we settled on is now my favorite.  There are currently about 4 “Undiscovered Classic” logos that rotate along with 20+ Undiscovered Classic cars (renderings by Dan Palatnik) that rotate too.  If you are on a computer, you can use your mouse in this area of the screen and move quickly through the choices.  If you are using a tablet or phone, you can “swipe” thru these images/choices quickly too.  If you see a car in the logo area you want to learn more about, just click the image of the car.  A new page will open revealing everything about that car on the website.

MOST  RECENT  STORIES
This area is where our latest stories appear.  As you scroll down these stories you’ll see links at the very end that allow you to view a list of all 1000+ stories on our site or a list of categories of stories so you can more quickly identify a smaller number of stories to review.

SIDEBAR
This area has received the greatest revision.  The Sidebar is now part of every screen of our website.  To accommodate this change we widened the website considerably for those of you who view the website on a computer.  (More about viewing the website on a phone or tablet in just a bit).   The Sidebar shows key areas of our website and allows you to dig into what we do and share more deeply by providing direct access to:

• Cars For Sale
• Search Tools
• Scale Models Available
• Key Articles to Read about Handcrafted Cars
• Our Top 10+ Videos to Watch
• Viewing our Posters
• Upcoming Events
• The Latest Comments
• What We Do Best (Raiders of the Lost Cars)
• Our Online and Published Books
• A “Did You Know” Section on little known facts
• Our Top 40 Articles in Print
• And More

There’s quite a bit available now via our Sidebar so have some fun and check out these features.  Those of you using a computer can use the arrows to more quickly view the rotating images/choice in the Sidebar.  Those of you using a table or phone can quickly swipe left or right to move quickly thru these images too.  And remember….all of these changes are designed to allow you do dig more deeply into the information here at Undiscovered Classics.

FOOTER
The Footer now gives access to background information on our organization and team.  There are also several links where you can explore our Contributors, the Services we offer, our Portfolio which shows what we do best and quotes from some key individuals about their thoughts on what we do and how we do it.

Summary

Our website is not the only piece that’s changed.  We’ve also reached out to several of our Undiscovered Classics friends who will now be contributors to our ongoing activities presenting new stories and more.  And while I’m pleased our redesign efforts are complete, there is still much “behind the scenes” work going on.

Our next major activity will be to work on getting the information on our website to appear correctly on phones and tablets.  When this phase is completed, we’ll be turning our attention to the “admin” of the entire backend of the website ensuring that the work we all do is properly saved and backed up for others to enjoy for years to come (that is to ensure no work we do is “lost” to the internet abyss).

We hope that these changes will allow you to more thoroughly enjoy the stories, posts and activities that are part of what we do and part of what you do as you engage with Undiscovered Classics.

As always, the adventure continues here at Undiscovered Classics.

Geoff