RESPEKT, a renowned Czech weekly magazine, has been delivering top‑notch journalism for over three decades. Starting out in print, Respekt went digital in the early 2000s. Since then, the internet has changed a lot and become much more important. To keep up with these changes and continue serving its loyal readers, Respekt has teamed up with Netvor (once again) and two other partners to bring its next‑generation digital platform to life.
The goal was to create a next-generation redesign of the Respekt website. This was a collaborative effort between three studios: Netvor took care of the front-end development, Contember handled the back-end, and Švejda Goldman crafted the design. Together, we aimed to build a better, faster, more user-friendly, and accessible version of the Respekt website, which attracts over 250,000 unique visitors every month.
The new RESPEKT website now features an integrated audio player that works seamlessly across all its pages. Once turned on, users can enjoy podcasts without interruption while they browse, enhancing their overall experience. Implementing this feature was no small feat.
One of our biggest hurdles was ensuring smooth communication among the teams working on the new site. Respekt is a large project with many moving parts, requiring careful coordination and timing. Issues often involve multiple parties, making strong project management essential to hitting all our milestones.
With Respekt's large user base, every detail in the user experience (UX) matters. Even minor improvements can have a big impact. We meticulously reviewed every part of the website to ensure it performs well, looks great, and functions smoothly.
The website has been evolving for over two decades, so there’s a lot of legacy content that’s still important but not front and center anymore. Our top priority was to keep this content accessible. Historical content often uses outdated components, so we had to make sure it worked with the new design while updating its appearance whenever necessary. This was challenging for both developers and testers.
We also focused on making the registration process as easy as possible. Whenever a user starts an action that requires registration, they’re prompted to enter their email address. This automatically registers and logs them in, letting them complete their action, like saving an article to bookmarks. The user then receives a one-time password via email, which they can use to log in again or change their password if needed.
Since it was our first time with Švejda Goldmann to collaborate on such a large-scale project, we chose a more structured, waterfall approach to keep things controlled, as the client preferred.
We began by assessing the prepared website design. After a thorough review, we requested multiple necessary tweaks to ensure the design was complete with all the needed states and a defined style guide.
With the design approved, we then prepared project estimates, taking into account the new design and the required adjustments to the CMS and backend.
Once the budget got the green light, we dove into the development phase. We worked through the website screen by screen, constantly reviewing our progress for further UX and frontend improvements to ensure the best possible result. We also updated the Contember part of the project to fit the new features added to the website.
In the final review, the client looked over the entire project, and we added a few extra features to enhance the overall user experience of the new website.
The website is up and running, and the feedback has been positive so far. It's clear, user-friendly, and it seems to meet everyone's expectations. We humbly consider it a success. Excitingly, during development, we identified new opportunities for future improvements that will make the website even better. Stay tuned!
Let’s work together
Michal Ischia
Head of Digital, Respekt Media
“Our collaboration with NETVOR has been growing since the website redesign and the launch of the new CMS in 2023, which speaks volumes about our satisfaction. Over time, we added a mobile app, and now we've introduced a new magazine-style design that reflects changes in our publication frequency and the overall operation of Respekt.
What I appreciate most is that the team at the studio are not just executing the graphic briefs; they strive to improve them to achieve the best possible results.”