Speciality publishing house CyberMedia seems to have launched a revamped web version of one of its publications, BioSpectrum Asia which is a B2B media platform for the life sciences industry in the Asia-Pacific region.
This redesign appears to be a part of the plan that we had heard about last year in June, where Cybermedia had stated that it intended to overhaul its websites and apparently bring them up to date with current standards, although we are not sure if this is the first site to get a revamp.
Last year, Cybermedia had signed a three year deal with a web firm Srishti Software for $1 million, to incorporate its web content management and publishing solution Kreatio so as to provide several features across various platforms like the web, smart phones, tablets and digital devices.
Cybermedia currently owns 12 publications related to technology, outsourcing and entrepreneurship like PCQuest, DQIndia, Voice&Data, CIOL, DQChannels, DQWeek, BioSpectrum, BioSpectrum Asia, Livingdigital, GlobalServices, Tech Review India and Dare.
Some of the key changes we found in the BioSpectrum website include:
Homepage: The new redesign is fairly comprehensive and is definitely more sleek than its previous archaic avatar . The homepage includes a featured content slider at the top left corner, a horizontal carousel showcasing special feature articles on the portal and dedicated sections to showcase the latest developments across various categories like Pharma, BioTech, MedTech and BioServices. Users can also jump to any specific section and sub-section through a drop down navigation menu at the top.
There is also a keyword-based search box at the top right corner along with links to allow users to sign up for the daily, fortnightly and the monthly newsletters, subscribe to the digital magazine, and view the company’s events and job listings. Also, there appears to be a significant focus on using more images in the articles and the homepage to probably make them more appealing.
Two Latest News Sections? Strangely, there are two different sections, one below the other, to showcase the latest news on the portal. While one section is text-heavy offering latest headlines along with a short article excerpt, the other section offers an image thumbnail along with the latest headlines.
Sidebar: The old country-based sidebar has been replaced in favour of a more generic sidebar which consists of various sections like the ‘Country Focus’ section which highlights the latest articles in each of APAC countries; a trending articles section, Survey box and Editor’s Pick section. Users can however still head over to any specific country’s page through a drop down menu on the top right corner.
Articles: BioSpectrum Asia currently offers a mixture of news, analysis and interviews. With each article, Cybermedia surfaces related content on the side and offers various social media buttons to recommend and forward the content through email or share it on Facebook and Twitter. Below the story, there are dedicated sections for promoting the most read articles and trending topics along with a horizontal carousel, identical to the one on the homepage.
One disappointment we found was the lack of any kind of options to allow users to view multiple-page articles in a single page format, a strategy often used for increasing pageviews.
Site Registration: It looks Cybermedia hasn’t put in a registration mechanism in place since we were greeted with a ‘Launching Soon’ notice when we tried to register for the portal. Last year, Cybermedia had stated that it will integrate a single sign-on registration process will allow readers to navigate, discover, curate and propagate content across all publications, on all platforms.
BS Network and Research papers: There is a dedicated resource center under ‘BS Network‘ section which allows users to search through the portal’s information repository featuring industry snapshots, policies and detailed information on the Indian life science industry as well as the Asian life science industry and going forward, BS Network will also apparently feature a community networking space. The portal also has a research section which will offer title papers, vertical reports and case studies, although the section was not live at the time of writing this article.
