Neowin New Theme : Review & Bug Report (August 2014)

By Robot Emas
in Site & Forum Issues

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Enthusiast

Robot Emas

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Posted

NEOWIN NEW THEME : REVIEW (August 2014)

(Open spoiler to see screenshot images)
After using a little while and experimenting here and there, here is my short review and bug report :
 
What i really like:
+ Responsive, no need to build neowin apps. open in mobile is much cleaner, faster, and feels native like an apps
+ Flat Design, following the trend
+ Darkmode and Automode (really liked it!)
+ Big boxed featured post, and i really like the hover animation
+ Top menu bar autohide while scrolling down, and showing again while scrolling up (like a google apps)
+ Open Sans font
+ More post are shown
+ Ability to change theme, no more load
+ Rounded avatar!
+ embedded Gif support in comment section! (best feature)
+ Pop-up author profile!

2w4blhx.jpg


 
What i think can be improved:
- The font is just feels too big

2qdwktg.jpg


- The featured-boxed post only show 4 post
- So many things that have been changed and disappear,
- no more forum sub menu hover (like showing spy, mini spy, latest forum post etc (old theme love))

1zf5xnb.jpg

2v2d15v.jpg


- Not showing a HOT! text in the hot post, just showing red colored comment count. For first timer, HOT! post is eye catching.
- For default theme, feels to many white, and by seeing for far away, doesn't look like a Neowin. the relaxed blue is gone.
- So many button, link, text, feels hidden because of the color and fade animation. Example : i didn't notice a like/quote button showing up when hovering a comment in post, and so many things feel hidden. maybe because of the font is too thin, and the color, and fade animation. no animation feels snappier and i can notice a change instantly. just look  "Want to make Windows 8 feel faster? Shut-off these animations" post, killing off animation feels snappier and faster.
 
BUG REPORT #1:
I don't know if this is a bug or its intended to be like this, but i can't click submenu in News header menu. For example, in the old theme, i'm always click the 'software' button to see all post about software, or 'editorial' button to see editorial only post. But now, its just hovering and show only latest post.

izrf4m.jpg

25zo7jq.jpg


 
BUG REPORT #2:
This is really a bug. when clicking the picture/image in post, its open up a new tab rather than a pop-up gallery. But after i close the tab, previous tab finally showing the popup gallery slideshow.

2ugm4pe.jpg

14jrzlv.jpg

vox2tx.jpg

 

 
BUG REPORT #3:
The post image is pixelated, looks like its the size/resolution doesn't support the new theme yet.

1zbxd1l.jpg

xlxjch.jpg

BUG REPORT #4:
In the search result, in the Darskide theme, the font color in header menu (showing news, forum, or comment) is false, unreadable. The page color too in the bottom.

x54fpu.jpg

2nq7h5l.jpg


 
BUG REPORT #5:
In about us page, the there is link colored text, and the read color is unreadable/uncomfortable to read.

4r49kh.jpg

 

BUG REPORT #6:
Review header image looks gorgeous in white theme, but not in darkside. Maybe you can change it by using some tag code or css, not using an image. Just a newbie opinion.

sdp4wl.jpg

wwhxc6.jpg


 
FEATURE REQUEST #1:
- New post notification
- New theme in forum (of course)
 
 
This is just my opinion, feel free to comment and critic! Feel free to add my point, add a bug report, or any opinion would be great!

Enthusiast

Robot Emas

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Nice way better!! but this is very similar to  (techspot) i was wondering if this is techspot. web site.,

Yeah i think so. Here is my comparison, Neowin compared to other tech site :

 

Winbeta.org

315g3yf.jpg

 

WPCentral

21dg2a8.jpg

 

TechSpot

t5qf6s.jpg

 

TechCrunch

308a6vo.jpg

 

TechnoBuffalo

nozrds.jpg

 

Engadget

2vtshvl.jpg

Grand Master

Timan Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

BUG REPORT #1:
Fixed

 
BUG REPORT #2:

This is due to old content

 

 
BUG REPORT #3:

This is due to old content

 

 

BUG REPORT #4:

Fixed - Tab is supposed to have an active state, but can't fix that at the moment.

 
BUG REPORT #5:
Fixed

 

 

BUG REPORT #6:

This is due to old content

Enthusiast

Robot Emas

Posted
  • Author
Posted

BUG REPORT #1:

Fixed

 

BUG REPORT #2:

This is due to old content

 

 

BUG REPORT #3:

This is due to old content

 

 

BUG REPORT #4:

Fixed - Tab is supposed to have an active state, but can't fix that at the moment.

 

BUG REPORT #5:

Fixed

 

 

BUG REPORT #6:

This is due to old content

Woooow thank you, super fast response!

Thank you for the hard work, really like the new theme overall, but could be better :)

This is exciting time for Neowin i think

Rising Star

Sekyal

Posted
Posted

It really shocked me with the change. It would have been better to prep visitors that changes were coming. I don't recall seeing any article mentioning this. I happened to see this thread on the right side, guess you don't really want feedback on it.

Anyway only thing I noticed that bothers me is all the text on the front page of each article is grey. It is impossible to read it against the dark blue background. This is what I got by default after signing in. So the main page just looks like pictures with titles and that's it.

 neowinpg1_zpsd6ec36df.jpg

 

In the article the text is more readable but still not ideal. It is the blue background that makes the not fully black text easy to see.

 

neowinart1_zpsdba27726.jpg

 

I am using Chrome on Windows 8.1 (desktop version). It looks much better on IE and just as crappy in Firefox.

Community Regular

kazgor

Posted
Posted

Personally i just HATE this new design.. i mean like to thepoint i would now move this to the bottom of my list of sites i would go to on a daily basis. 

 

so BUG REPORT: the whole site is the bug... sorry. guess you can't please everyone

  • Hussam Al-tayeb
  • Like 1
Grand Master

_neutrino Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

FEATURE REQUEST #1:

- New post notification

 

 

 

Yeah this is something that I request as well. If I am in the forums I can see how many notifications i have however, if i am on the news site i cannot see any notifications of any kind. its rather annoying as it used to be there and i relied on it rather heavily.

Grand Master

Eric Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Those getting the blue background. Two things needed.

 

Is there an ad with Clouds on it.

 

If so, PLEASE get me the source of that ad if possible.

 

 http://ad5.netshelter.net/ad/ns.neowin.net/homepage;ppos=atf;kw=;tile=1;sz=728x90,970x90,970x250;ord=123456789? is the only ad url I see in the page source when the clouds are there.

 

Personally i just HATE this new design.. i mean like to thepoint i would now move this to the bottom of my list of sites i would go to on a daily basis. 

 

so BUG REPORT: the whole site is the bug... sorry. guess you can't please everyone

It would be helpful if you could actually provide some feedback. "Blah" isn't very specific.

Grand Master

Eric Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

attachicon.gifScreen Shot 2014-08-24 at 6.36.06 PM.png

 

Hard to read fonts with the blue background / grey text. Black box at the bottoms seems odd

The footer is supposed to be black/charcoal AFAIK. This might be related to the bad ad Timan was asking for.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

Well if you guys want to know about bugs, in my case, the notification links lead to blank pages, whenever I click on "replied" from the top right notification list I don't get taken to the link in question but just to a blank page.   IE11 on Windows 8.1, also, and maybe because I'm just a mod and not staff, I can't post anything into the staff messenger, I hit enter but nothing happens.

Rising Star

evieluvsrainbows

Posted
Posted

No bug reports for me, everything looks fine for me in Chrome 38. I really like the new design, except it would be nice if you applied the same theme to the forum as well, it would make things look unified. Now the forum looks ugly because it doesn't have the same, awesome, flat design that the website has. :)

Grand Master

Brandon H Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

No bug reports for me, everything looks fine for me in Chrome 38. I really like the new design, except it would be nice if you applied the same theme to the forum as well, it would make things look unified. Now the forum looks ugly because it doesn't have the same, awesome, flat design that the website has. smile.png

it'll come. they said they're gonna work out all the bugs on the front page first then they'll update the forum wrapper

Enthusiast

Hussam Al-tayeb

Posted
Posted

https://www.neowin.net/news/age-of-empires-castle-siege-headed-to-windows-phone-81-and-windows-81-for-free

fonts are a bit too big and there is too much 'white'. I understand it is a matter of taste but the old website was easier on the eyes for me in this area.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

When clicking on notifications that link to news articles I am sent to a blank white page. Notifications linking to forum posts continue to work as expected.

 

This is exactly what is happening to me.

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