Pottermore Prepares for Relaunch to Showcase Wider Wizarding World
There has been speculation and wonder among the Potterheads of the Internet as to what will happen to Pottermore now that all of the Moments from the Harry Potter book series are released. Just recently, Pottermore announced that the FINAL House Cup winner was Hufflepuff and that the end was in sight for the website.
Or was it?
Today, we are learning that Pottermore is revamping and restructuring the entirety of the website to include information from the wider magical world that Rowling continues to provide to the fans: A West End play titled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the new Fantastic Beasts film trilogy, and Rowling’s continued infusion of information on her Twitter account – like how James Sirius was Sorted in Gryffindor to the dismay of Hufflepuff Head Boy Teddy Lupin.
Pottermore CEO, Susan Jurevics, stated that this change is going to focus the site away from a new generation of readers and instead focus on the demographics of the individuals who visit the site regularly.
When Pottermore first started, it was positioned for the next generation of readers, and that next generation was almost by default tagged to be children. So the current site gamified the content, making it very simplistic in terms of collecting things and casting spells. That was appropriate for children, but that wasn’t actually the core audience.
The new functionality of Pottermore will now step away from the desktop and laptop main usage and prepare for the users to be engaged on mobile devices like phones and iPad. Jurevics stated:
From a technology point of view, when Pottermore was designed and conceived the iPad had not yet been launched, and the population didn’t yet sleep with their phones on. The current Pottermore is really a laptop or desktop experience, and that type of usage is going away.
Pottermore will continue to sell the Harry Potter e-books, but this area of the site will also be under development.
Tell us what you think of the new Pottermore “wider wizarding world” focus in the comments below. Are we stepping away from the basic fabric of the series too much too quickly, or is this the direction fans want to go? We want to hear your thoughts.
