In 2009, we spent most of the year totally gutting and rebuilding our Good Food Channel website. Of our ten channel brands, without a shadow of doubt, Good Food is that one that holds the biggest share of my heart. It's the biggest of our websites, contains over 13,000 recipes, and has a massive fan base of loyal users.
Back then I questioned whether or not our site had the potential to be the World's Best Food and Recipe Website?
When you're deeply involved in a website, it's hard to see it for what it is. I always focus on the things that need improving (of which there are many). We constantly go back and review the way things work - something that seemed like a genius idea six months ago (and passed user testing) may no longer be the best option after watching the way real users behave on the site.
So it was an incredible feeling to come in to work on the Tuesday after a bank holiday and find that Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards has named our site the best food website in the world. The world! We beat out sites like BBC Good Food, Time Out London Restaurants, and
So I'm looking at our beloved Good Food Channel website with a new found fondness today. It really is full of loads of amazing content (thanks to the editorial team), and looks gorgeous (thanks to our designers). There is a lot of impressive code running in the background that makes this thing go. And if we, the technical team, can keep the engine running, and continue to evaluate the site and making improvements to the way it functions, then this may be the first of many awards to come!
