Foursquare today is beginning the process of rolling out (it’s live now) an all-new design to their website that brings the focus squarely where it should be: discovery.

The big new feature of the redesign is a huge map on the homepage. It shows places nearby, with trending ones shown in yellow, places on your lists in green, ones with specials in orange and popular ones in blue. Your friends will also appear on the map if they’re nearby. The map is live, so you can move it around to explore other neighborhoods and cities.

Whenever you visit the site, you’ll see a few recommendations based on foursquare’s Explore engine. They vary by time of day and day of week, so you’ll see different results each time you visit.

They’ve also made it easier to find lists. If you’re going on a trip, for instance, you’ll be able to search for lists focused on your destination. Foursquare users have created thousands of lists of their favorite places to visit in their hometowns, so this makes a great way to research before you go. The new list discovery features will make them much easier to find than the previous site.

The venue pages are getting a makeover, too. You’ll now find more emphasis on the look of the pages, making them a beautiful place for anyone — foursquare user or not — to learn about different places, see photos and read recommendations from other foursquare users.

Tons of smaller changes will also appear around the site:

• You can now comment and read comments directly from the homepage (no more clicking through to the checkin screen to see what people are saying)
• A new section will recommend celebrities and brands that you might like to follow
• Points will finally be visible on the checkin screen
• Bigger photos throughout

Users have been begging for months for foursquare to release an iPad app, but in many ways the new design takes the place of one. It’s focuses on discovery, which should have been the primary focus of an iPad app, yet kills two (or three or four) birds with one stone by bringing that functionality to the desktop, iPad and Android tablets all in one fell swoop.

Foursquare designer Sam Brown led the redesign team, and posted more about the redesign on his personal blog. Of it, he says:

Gone are the days of content-in-a-blue-box and in moves the era of easier to digest content, interactivity and discovery. With easier navigation, even more photos & comments, and clearer venue details to interactive maps, venue recommendations and list discovery we hope thatfoursquare.com becomes the destination site for people looking to keep up with their friends, discover what’s nearby, save money and unlock rewards.

What do you think of the new design? Will it suffice in place of an iPad app for you?

No related posts.