In 2007, the same year the first iphone came out, we launched a mobile version of HipHopDX. We saw that a few of our readers (3-4% of traffic) were checking DX on their phones. Reaching all of our readers is extremely important to us, so we decided that we should deliver them a slimmed down version of the site—something you could check out while on-the-go. Since 2007, our mobile user base has grown to 65%, and about 6 weeks ago (April 26, 2015), with the dedicated work of our development and design teams, we launched our new mobile site.
At its core, the HipHopDX mobile site focuses on content and how our readers experience the content. Our goal was to create an experience that works. An experience that delivers the best Hip Hop content possible while making sure it’s easy to navigate, easy to read and easy to use. We took away all the noise so you can simply read the story you want to read, listen to that track that you didn’t even know came out, watch a music video from your favorite artist or knock out a comment saying that you “will never come back to HipHopDX if we write another article about Iggy Azalea” 
Now, let me introduce you to a couple new features that we have added to the mobile version of HipHopDX. Welcome to HipHopDX Mobile v2.0.
Our Menu
Click on the hamburger 
and our mobile menu drops down. Home, News, Singles, Videos, Reviews, Interviews, Editorials and Release Dates are all there for you to peruse. Each section gets an icon and you will see these icons on different parts of the site. This way you’ll always know what section you are in. Like I mentioned last time, we have trimmed down our sections and cleaned things up a bit.
Quick Navigation
A few days after launch, we pushed a couple of updates. One of them was the Quick Nav 
. It’s a fast way for you to get to the section you need. We choose sections purely by the most popular on the site. News, Singles, Videos, Editorials and more (which is an additional easy-access link to the menu).
Breaking News, Announcements
We talked about this new bar 
on the Desktop site in our last article. Sometimes a news story is too important to miss. Sometimes we have a new feature that we want you to know about. We will use this new announcement bar to tell you about it. Click and you shall receive. Hit the “x” and it will be gone ’til we push something new.
Hero Box
The Hero Box is the the Big image 
when you first land on the mobile page. Swipe left 
and you will see the 5 most important stories in Hip Hop right now.
Archive Feed
The Archive Feed consists of a chronological stream of DX articles. It exists on every page and its purpose is to provide easy access to all of our most recent articles. On the Homepage, the feed starts right under the Herobox 
and includes a variety of articles from all sections. In other sections, the feed starts right below the section header 
and includes articles that are specific to that section.
Each new article in the Archive Feed is separated by a line 
. You have a picture of the article 
, the title 
, summary 
, section with it’s icon 
and how long ago it was posted 
. Finally, If there is more than one comment you will see a comment bubble 
as well. Touch anywhere in the box and you will be taken to that article.
Next week I will post Mobile v2.0 – Part II. Where we will talk about how all the article pages differ from each other, and how we focus on content.
We want to hear from you! the good, the bad and the absolute ugly. So post your thoughts below. Our only job is to make this site better. Day after day, month after month, year after year.
Where is the search bar on the mobile? That seems important.
Hank, it is really important. We have a search in the works, however it’s definitely a process to make sure we give you search results that you want and not just a random list. Remember there is whole company, Google, that spends billions to make sure their search is on point. We don’t have anywhere close to those resources, but when it’s ready you will see it. In the mean time, I will take to the team internally about putting up the experience we presently have on the desktop site. Might be a good stop gap.
I wanted to post a message but every time I click on “submit” it doesn’t work : (
I guess because it was a long one, this one has been submitted.
Well done on the job you’ve done so far on recreating the mobile experience of HHDX guys !
If I can add some areas as well to improve. I would say that, it would be dope if we can favorite or save some articles, singles, album reviews, etc, a “read later” option or “listen later” option if we don’t have time on the go to read or listen to something but we don’t want to miss it or forget about it.
More importantly, why not even giving users the possibility of creating an account that would gather everything I mentioned above. Allowing people to have their “own” space within HHDX where they can save everything they like. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying to push HHDX to be a Hip-Hop social network. Not this far ! Just having the possibility to save stuff. This way it would strengthen even more the community aspect of HHDX. Everyone having its own username would avoid to type it every time we post a message in the comment section and to enter our mail address as well.
Here is just a bunch of ideas 😉 maybe more on the overall experience than on the mobile one as you expected it. I’ll be glad to see what you guys think of them.
Thanks for giving users their take on this.
Keep up with the great work guys.
Thomas.
Tom, the read/listen later is not on our road map at this time. We have talked about it over the years but it has never made it to the top of the list. I will bring it up in our next product meeting.
User profiles though, that is our #1 priority. It’s scheduled for a late summer launch so be on the looks out. It will also be the first steps of creating a user’s “own space”. Thanks for the feedback keep them coming.