Questions about the Victorian Women Writer’s Project

I’m certain the presentation on Friday will address what the intended updates to the Victorian Women Writer’s Project will be and how they will be brought about. I’m interested to know how or if the actual “design” of the project will change. As it stands the current design is sufficient and allows the full text of the sources to take up the majority of the screen real estate, which makes sense as they are the primary focus. However, it is not necessarily aesthetically pleasing and looks somewhat “dated.” The introduction to the chapter on Designing for the History Web discusses the difference between academic and commercial web design, as well as design focused on usability versus aesthetics. Is there any plan to try to incorporate a new design into the updated site, or is the focus going to be more on content than delivery? If there is such a plan (as I assume there will be at least some upgrades to the design), is it going to focus more on the superficial aspects of making the site look less dated or will it attempt to incorporate more “usability” elements and focus on function, or will it be a combination of the two? How much of a priority is the look and feel of the site?