Do you like the new Neowin front page design?


  

627 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you like the new Neowin front page design?



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You know how you guys could improve this? Start getting beta testers (think dev. previews :p) for new designs and get people's feedback.  This would hopefully allow everyone to come to a middle ground and make some more people satisfied.This is more of a personal community compared to Engadget, Verge, etc. Why not make yourselves stand out? 

Subs get to beta test, we have been for a couple of weeks and had previews for a year (yes this update was delayed many times).

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The site has a few bugs, but otherwise I think the Dev team did a superb job!

My thoughts pretty much. The only nagging issue for me is the menu bar appearing and disappearing as you scroll up/down (a UI concept taken from mobile browsers), doesn't make much sense on the desktop.

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Subs get to beta test, we have been for a couple of weeks and had previews for a year (yes this update was delayed many times).

I'm wondering what kind of feedback you guys gave, if at all...
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I'm wondering what kind of feedback you guys gave, if at all...

 

Some people don't give feedback...  they play with it, that's all.. 

 

Same thing to other beta programs such as Xbox preview, etc.

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Another update with the cloud ad issue. My homepage finally switched to a different ad, this time xfinity and the avatar menu still won't load with the settings and colors, the footer also shows weird still with that. Starting to think you guys might have an issue with the ad box as a whole. I tried clearing cache and restarting browser again to no avail

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I'm wondering what kind of feedback you guys gave, if at all...

First, there were things broken like the drop menus using touch. Other things mostly were formatting, gallery, commenting issues. Because the forum was not accessible through the preview, we could not test the notifications. Right now people are complaining over change. Large images are not so bad and the text is definitely easier to read. However, being the subs that we are, we are probably Neowin's supporting and dedicated readers understanding the decisions that were made and why. We could not test ads either (the blue bg issue) as there are no ads for subs. The white line issue being to faint and there being no borders, is because they are distracting elements. The top float nav bar allows for easy access. The comments have gif support, and image support. We had to worry about formatting issues and the new image gallery. The line that tells you in the community activity which forum the post is from tells you information about where the post is located, which is useful.

I do not know why the avatar is round, but it is better than the rounded square that was there before.

 

The dark side makes Neowin unique and so does the Modern feel, give me another side that is exactly as clean as the UI, it was drafted last year and took on many delays, but Neowin now scales responsively to any screen size. Exception would be an expanded width.

Comments are ordered by default new to old so that those who are commenting later would not bet lost in long threads before it.

 

Removal of the mini spy in the forums was because it was redundant with community activity, And could not be refreshed.

 

Some images are with horrid resolution because they were from the previous design and are tricky to update one by one.

 

The HOT! Has been removed because it is useless, now the comment number turns red with a lot of activity.

 

List view is not default to provide a more imaged based look (there is a option to switch to list view) does any other site have this option?

 

We did in fact say the header images are too large, but Neowin should not decrease the header images drastically, if at all.

 

Overall the changes needed are a slightly smaller title bar,  slightly smaller images at the top (maybe wpcental's top images size) and an option to chose different colors for the top bar like a light blue theme and a grey theme that is not too dark like the dark side or too light like the default theme. Any other changes, Neowin has to be bold about it as there are always complainers.

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I don't like it that much.

 

- me-too generic look.

- shows too little content without scrolling.

- half the browser is occupied with semi-static content (Neowin giveaways etc).

- "Trending" section is redundant.

 

I will learn to live with it, but the one thing that will lessen my visits to the front page is that freaking expanding/collapsing menu.

 

That is something only a mother could love.

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What's wrong with building out for touch?

 

Because for touch you have to make everything big to accommodate the finger, but then for desktop users it's a step back. But for people on touch it's a step forward.

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Because for touch you have to make everything big to accommodate the finger, but then for desktop users it's a step back. But for people on touch it's a step forward.

Even on desktops, larger elements are becoming necessary. 8/9 pt fonts are a thing of yesteryear. On my 1680x1050 screen, they're borderline hard to see and read.

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Has as been mentioned earlier, things are too big.  Take this for example:

 

post-56742-0-80765100-1408992478.jpg

 

That's the page I get when clicking to read this article.

 

Having to scroll before I can read anything is a bit ridiculous.

 

 

 

 

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Has as been mentioned earlier, things are too big.  Take this for example:

 

That's the page I get when clicking to read this article.

 

Having to scroll before I can read anything is a bit ridiculous.

 That is absolutely horrifying.

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People need to realize, we're not going to automatically take your suggestions and implement them. The site was just changed yesterday. There is absolutely no reason to jump the gun and start tweaking major aspects of the design this quick. Give it time, see what the reactions are a week from now. Then we start going back, looking at that we did wrong or can improve on.

 

Feedback is key, we're getting that. Critique is fine. Saying it sucks then not saying what exactly sucks, or your ideas on how to improve it. Are a bit worthless as well.

 

There are also decisions that need to be made, where things simply won't change. This is the case with every site. Can't express this enough.

 

For the most part this update has had more positive feedback than the previous few updates.

 

 

 

 

Few notes

  • Header is shorter than it was before. So those complaining about it being too large, need to look at the top of the forums. It basically just takes up the logo area.
  • There is a list view, it saves your setting, so need to make it the default view.
  • Any Blue borders or gradients is due to the ads. Please if you know how to, report the specific ad, either its source/id
  • The autohiding toolbar is by design, takes some getting used to. Has nothing to do with mobile, as you can see its disabled flat out on mobile. When you scroll down a page, you don't need the header taking up space. So what do you normally scroll up for on a webpage? To get back to the main navigation, well now you can either mouse over the top 8px border, or scroll up. After X number of pixels scrolled it slides back in. May however increase the delay before it slides up.
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The most annoying thing is the sliding top bar. When it's hidden and you scroll up it effectively covers the content that you attempted to reveal. It needs to go away. Make it sticky.

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there was plenty feedback offered in this thread. what is the point to repeat it all, since it looks like the designers are not even listening!

BUT, SINCE YOU ASKED, HERE IS A REPEAT OF MAIN POINTS FOR YOU!

- too much wasted space. too much white space. font is way too big! i had to zoom out at least to 80% to make front page look good. this made forums unreadable! incongruent!

- looks designed for mobile and tablets, not for desktop users, while this is not m.neowin.net!

- top bar (the original neowin color!) does not color/style match to anything anymore... the originality of all that was neowin is lost! tiny logo is all that is left.

- why circle crop the avatar, when there are no circles in the rest of design.   looks seriously amateurish, or just basic template!

- no notifications appear on front page, you have to go to forum to see if you have new messages, or replies. sucks. makes me what to skip front page all together now.

- the use of gradients, makes the "modern" metro look that it is aiming for, look horribly dates. gradients like this are just plain bad!

 

happy now, Designer?  care to elaborate on this points? am I being too harsh?  

 

this site is too large and too long standing to allow such amateurish design to prevail.  it is just a slap in a face for anyone with taste.   now it is a copycat of every other tech news sites... even worse,

since some of them (http://techcrunch.com/) actually look congruent, and everything actually fits with the theme! grey, white and green!

 

unlike here. there is not even a sight of the neowin blue color from the top bar, used anywhere else in the news.  nothing!!!!  why even bother to keep that color, when it is not used in news!

this makes the top bar totally alien to the rest of the front page. it does not look like it belongs!  

I think the circle was iOS inspired.

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People need to realize, we're not going to automatically take your suggestions and implement them. The site was just changed yesterday. There is absolutely no reason to jump the gun and start tweaking major aspects of the design this quick. Give it time, see what the reactions are a week from now. Then we start going back, looking at that we did wrong or can improve on.

 

Feedback is key, we're getting that. Critique is fine. Saying it sucks then not saying what exactly sucks, or your ideas on how to improve it. Are a bit worthless as well.

 

There are also decisions that need to be made, where things simply won't change. This is the case with every site. Can't express this enough.

 

For the most part this update has had more positive feedback than the previous few updates.

 

 

 

 

Few notes

  • Header is shorter than it was before. So those complaining about it being too large, need to look at the top of the forums. It basically just takes up the logo area.
  • There is a list view, it saves your setting, so need to make it the default view.
  • Any Blue borders or gradients is due to the ads. Please if you know how to, report the specific ad, either its source/id
  • The autohiding toolbar is by design, takes some getting used to. Has nothing to do with mobile, as you can see its disabled flat out on mobile. When you scroll down a page, you don't need the header taking up space. So what do you normally scroll up for on a webpage? To get back to the main navigation, well now you can either mouse over the top 8px border, or scroll up. After X number of pixels scrolled it slides back in. May however increase the delay before it slides up.

 

Can you add the expanded width on front page? I loved that feature on the old site design. That will help utilize the extra width on modern monitors. 

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Can you add the expanded width on front page? I loved that feature on the old site design. That will help utilize the extra width on modern monitors. 

 

Will not be adding that back in, MIGHT add a 3rd column for wider displays, I just need to figure out what the heck the articles are going to look like.

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Any chance you have a banner at the top with clouds on it? I think that add is doing that. Cause there are no gradients heh.

 

What browser/tablet? Need this type of info when you guys post bugs :p

I guess that yes, there is a banner: as you can see by the screenshot is mostly covered by the giveaway tile but above it I can see something that resemble clouds.

post-516063-0-19003500-1408995340.png

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When is the notifications going to work on the front page?  And can we have a comments section at the end and beginning of the discussions?  PITA having to scroll all the way to the top to make a post.

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Yes because not liking something is exactly the same as not being able to "handle change".

/s

Week actually yes, you just give it under the guide of disliking it, but it really is aversion to change

Worse are the inner that seem incapable of grasping the adaptive concept, but that's for another time

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