Updates: We’ve added a number of important features to Simply Recipes since this was added to the portfolio. We widened the site, enhanced some of it’s logic and upgraded the site to Movable Type Community Solutions so Elise could take full advantage of things like author profiles. You can also read more about our development of the Simply Recipes iPhone App.

After having worked together on The Style Contest, we were honored when Elise Bauer approach us about redesigning her recipe site, Simply Recipes.

Search for a recipe in Google and you’ll likely see Simply Recipes gracing the front page of results. When Thanksgiving rolls around, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better turkey recipe. The site is massive with an enormous following, so the design had to be coherent and the execution had to be seamless. And above all, it had to be simple.

We took the existing palette and layout to help make the transition for regular users as smooth as possible. But we juiced it up and added countless subtleties that added to the overall readability of the page: bolder headings to draw attention to the right places, stronger search placement to help people find what they’re looking for, accessibility options to help older readers.

A great deal of backend enhancements were made as well, including an complete redux of the CSS and HTML, MT/PHP integration and a setup that makes sense, which makes adding and changing simple. After all, that’s what this site is all about.