Something that we’ve been promising to do for almost two years is redesigning the site. We wanted to make a few changes:
- Make it easier to find the content you want
- Make the site faster
We’ve now got a working demo you can view here. A few things to note:
- Don’t worry too much about the ad units positioning, we will be changing/fine tuning these over time.
- Don’t worry too much about the site speed. It’s on a test server so will likely be slower, rest assured it’s faster than the current site
As always we really appreciate constructive feedback (if you don’t like something, then tell us why and how it can be improved rather than just saying you hate it). I forgot to mention this, but please tell us what device you’re using when leaving feedback.
I usually welcome redesigned pages or at least don’t care one way or the other, but I much prefer the current design. Somehow it is less busy and easier to read. Can you not redirect mobile users to the new design and everyone on desktop gets to keep the current design?
so i was able to view up to 28 story-links at a time on one screen without scrolling. now i will be able to see two, or maybe three. that’s what i call progress.
the problem is when one gives a job to a programmer, he insists on doing it.
how about maintaining access to the current format for us slugs who prefer substance to bling?
I love it! Such an improvement
Looks exactly like dansdeals.com
Browsing on PC via Firefox. Honestly, new site looks real good. Thank you William to you and your team for doing what you do. For the new site I gotta echo what was mentioned in another post. When searching for something, like ‘Bank of America’ the results should simply be chronological. I say that just because once I forgot to bookmark and it took me forever to find the full post again.
Nice design. I just looked at the homepage, a couple comments. 1) I couldn’t find the search button, which is very useful. You should definitely have it somewhere. 2) Rather than a button for scrolling older entries one page at a time, I’d like to have direct links that allow to jump pages – just like it’s now with 1, 2, 3.
I’m on Chrome on mobile (Android OS).
The front page is now more work to look at. Several reasons… One, the lack of distinct green category borders marking each article is gone (e.g. “Deals,” “Checking Accounts”); this also puts more of an emphasis on the thumbnail image, which would be good for a photographer or a food blog, but this site is really about the text content.
Two, the light background on a slightly less light background makes it seem modern and open, but there is now no natural focus on the content. A sensible dark mode would be appreciated, if nothing else.
Third, everything is a shade of grey, … except the pictures and bright category colors on the sidebar. If that’s where you guys want eye focus, that’s fine…
Also you probably want to fix the menu at certain widths (FF59.0b11): https://imgur.com/a/1Nhnd
Thanks for the feedback. I see some merit in de-emphasizing the thumbnail. Good point about the bright color in the sidebar. I can’t replicate the menu issue on the image you showed. Which browser was that?
Although your new site does look more modern, the usability and navigation on the current one still better at this moment. However, would like to add in my 2 cents!
Recommendations on new site (chrome, desktop)
Lighter font for the summary or a stronger colored title (so it doesn’t distract viewers eyes from the title – look at https://www.yahoo.com/ as an example, it is easy to scroll through the titles of each article)
I’m not sure on the most optimized horizontal line width (current site does a great job) but the wider it is, the harder it is to skim quickly since we have to constantly shift our eyes left and right (Especially when clicking through an article)
Not sure what font the new one is using, but recommend helvetica or arial which are safe fonts and easier on the eyes. (Apple does a great job with their font usage so you’re able to read and make out the words even far away https://www.apple.com/)
More space between each article or make it easier for us to distinguish separate articles (www.reddit.com does a good job of this)
Looks great, love the cleaner look and bigger fonts. Great job!
i don’t like the “Popular Posts” in the middle of the screen. Should be on the side somewhere. Maybe a little more color; the white is slightly painful on the eyes. Otherwise, I like. Thanks for all you do.