How do you like the new look?

by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/20/2007 12:00 AM EST
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  • nowayout99 - Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - link

    No suggestions taken!

    Thanks for "listening."
  • nagger - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - link


    all I can see is it the top bar and this: http://nuno.mhr.pt/anandtech.png">http://nuno.mhr.pt/anandtech.png
  • woofersus - Friday, November 30, 2007 - link

    I feel for you Anand. I posted a thread in the forums asking about the new layout on my site, and it got pretty well skewered, and for the same things.

    1. People don't like change. The previous version is always better unless the changes were only bug fixes.

    2. People hate banner ads. They want every site to look like some guy's blog, except with high levels of content, and for free.

    The fact is, banner ads probably go a long way towards funding this operation, and that big one at the top is occupying prime real estate for click-throughs. Banner ad placement isn't about only about asthetics, it's about getting people to click on them. You make more money that way than from page impressions only. Some of you may want to consider that if you are looking at the site at a lower resolution it may appear that the add is much larger by comparison. At 1024x768 you're probably seeing mostly header and advertisement until you scroll. This is less than optimal, but most displays (of people interested in this site anyhow) are going to be higher than that at this point in time. I'm at 1680x1050 and I can see quite a ways down the list of older articles.

    Furthermore, site design isn't only about asthetics either. It's about navigability and encouraging people to see certain things. Everybody thought my sites layout was messy, but compared to the old layout the distribution of hits to different parts of the site evened out, and click-throughs on everything but the latest article increased dramaticaly.

    My feedback:

    I like the new box for highlighting the most recent articles quite a bit, but having it below the large banner add makes the page feel off kilter. That section isn't as prominent as I think you're going for and I have to look down, so to speak, to find the recent articles. The problem with the large ad at the top is that the links on the left hand side of the page are up higher than any of the other panes, which disrupts the natural pattern of eye movement. I understand that's a good place for the ad, but perhaps if it were just a tad smaller the page would flow better. You may also achieve the desired continuity by changing the color to blend with the gradient of the most recent articles box, or even by just removing the secondary ad just below. (I find that one to be fairly unobtrusive, though) Either way, the recent articles box needs to be higher if it's going to be that big, and the links in the left pane need to be not offstet so far from everything else.

    I love the tabs for "more reviews" "blogs" and "product coverage." It encourages looking at things other than the main article list, and you get flexibility in organizing your content. Might I sugest adding a new tab there to replace the current Anand's Picks list. You could include a little more graphic interest than now, and include banners for the venders highlighted by the picks. Not only would it likely increase viewing of them, but you'd inevitably get click-throughs and revenue. Your readers get a handy "hot deals" or "best prices" list. (if you maintain it well...)

    I love the larger font size and better spacing in the articles list. However, next to it the dailytech links look like they're in a positively tiny font. I would suggest removing the "Anand's Blogs" section (since it's redundant now, and to far down the page anyway) and the "Anand's Picks" section (getting moved - see last suggestion) and increase the spacing slightly. You may be able to get away with an ever so slightly larger font size if there's more vertical space to work with. You can also make them look clearer by slightly darkening the pale gray lines separating them. Not black or anything, since that would mess up the flow of the site, but a tad darker. Maybe even add some color gradient to each "segment" like you're currently doing at the top of sections only.

    Finally, the large ad that is so controversial appears to not load in the articles themselves, or this section I'm in now, posting a comment.

    I'm sure more people who don't like the design will speak up, so your site stats are probably a better indicator of effectiveness, but I thought I'd at least offer some suggestions other than "I'll never visit a site with a big banner ad at the top!!!!!" I like the overall direction you've gone quite a bit.
  • nunya - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - link

    The biggest complaint I have is that it's not nearly as Treo friendly as the old site, and I read the site on my phone every day. Also, something about it makes it look like a parked ad site, I don't know why.
  • irishScott - Monday, November 26, 2007 - link

    Assuming the "Business of Technology" series is going to continue, shouldn't there be an added tab at the top and/or in the "product coverage" tab? Right now the only article I can find through the search is the "Creative" article.
  • Zillatech - Saturday, November 24, 2007 - link

    I don't like it, the previous version was better. The bigger pictures are not necessary & it looks like the only reason for changing things around was to create bigger Ad spaces :(

    Unfortunately, Ads and Spam will kill the Internet :( I work for an engineering firm and 90+ % of our mail traffic is SPAM. We have to spend a large amount of money (w/ annual support renewals) just to have a useful e-mail system back.

    MSNBC recently changed their site too & honestly, I avoid it now where I used to open that site ritually. Fox News is now my first news site because I absolutely do not like the new MSNBC site. IMO, AnandTech's new look is a step backwards :(

    Don’t let banner Ads take priority over a better “overall” layout.
  • SonicIce - Thursday, November 22, 2007 - link

    How well does it support small screen rendering? Like a Nintendo DS browser?
  • SonicIce - Thursday, November 22, 2007 - link

    How well does it support small screen rendering? Like a Nintendo DS browser?
  • luxor - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    I am a bit hard of seeing, so I browse in Firefox at +2 fontsize (hit ctrl+ twice).

    The left-side menu is overlapping, as it has always been at anandtech, but now the front page "center space" text overlaps with the content below it. Other than that, it looks good!
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    I'm fine with the layout of the homepage, but don't like the comments as currently used. They seem to be limited to 10 per page, which makes for breaks in a thread within the comments and makes it much harder to see what is a reply to what. Also, quoting and links don't seem to be working properly.
  • praeses - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    Overall some of the changes I like, but two things that really do annoy me are the differences in font faces, and the two banner ads neighbouring eachother on the main page.

    I would prefer the smaller banner to be just above the "More Reviews"/"Blogs"/"Product Coverage" within the same greyish background that the three items above that are in.

    For the fonts, ideally all the same face, including those within the top "tabs". If they are supposed to be be, it doesn't appear like its rendering correctly. Also, many pages seem to exhibit a thinner left border around the content such as this "Post a comment" box I'm writing into now while the rest has thicker borders just below it. The thinner borders I believe are correct and look much sharper. Something is glitching out in IE6.
  • praeses - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    Overall some of the changes I like, but two things that really do annoy me are the differences in font faces, and the two banner ads neighbouring eachother on the main page.

    I would prefer the smaller banner to be just above the "More Reviews"/"Blogs"/"Product Coverage" within the same greyish background that the three items above that are in.

    For the fonts, ideally all the same face, including those within the top "tabs". If they are supposed to be be, it doesn't appear like its rendering correctly. Also, many pages seem to exhibit a thinner left border around the content such as this "Post a comment" box I'm writing into now while the rest has thicker borders just below it. The thinner borders I believe are correct and look much sharper. Something is glitching out in IE6.
  • MrSpadge - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    For me it looks like this:
    http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?9863b95...">http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?9863b95...

    SeaMonkey 1.1.1 with AdBlock on my laptop at 1024x768. With the old layout I was able to see the last 5 articles at a glance, even on such a small screen.
    Now it is harder to read even just the first 3 headlines, because they are cluttered over several lines and the eye is distracted by the large images (which don't add real value). The first few sentences from the article are of no value for me, because I generally only need the headline to know if I'm interested in reading an article (yes, you guys make good headlines).
    I like the look of the new layout, but in its current form it makes accessing information considerably harder. I like the tabs for blogs and product coverage though.

    Regards, Stephan
  • AnnonymousCoward - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    It looks great, but it's annoying to have comments spanned across multiple pages. I often want to see if someone commented on a particular key word, but now I have to do ctrl-f 4 times on 4 pages.
  • kaddar - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    I don't like it as much, and I really liked hardocp and arstechnica's redesigns. I think there's something weird about the center, maybe it's the gradient, I don't know.

    Also, I like block-highlight-background change links.
  • Lord 666 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    On the way too and from work , I keep up on both AT and DT. But now since the change, it now chokes up the built-in browser and prevents access to the site. I cleared the cache and it partially loads.

    Please go back to the old site so I can keep my sanity while using mass transit.
  • sparkuss - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    And also can we please have the goto page links [1] [2] next at both the top and bottom of pages.

    This very comment page is 10 physical pages long and you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to go to the newest (last page) of comments.

  • cosmotic - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I think you should get rid of the dates and number of comments for all front page items. Its extra information that I never care about.
  • sparkuss - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Has a nice tone to it all and easy on the eyes, but all of the center frames are just too large for me. Even at 1680x1050 with a 20" LCD I can only see the 3 highlighted articles and one more below.

    I may not always read every new article the same day it posts but when I come back each day I'd really prefer to see less intro info and more titles. Less is more for me, and the first paragraph of the article isn't going to make me choose to read it or not. As it is now, the lead lines are just forcing the frames bigger and not adding any value for me. If anything else it also seems the spacing on the top of each frame above the first text is excessive also, again making them too large.

    Lastly, I could do without the comment link on every frame if the date could be added somewhere else to reduce a line (space again) needed. I'm never going to read the comments w/o reading the article first and it was always there waiting at the end of the article. Just another item that keeps the frames larger.

    Overall, to me, the last three articles just don't deserve the treatment they get and it just looks out of perspective. If that area was reserved for some form of "must-read" or "hottest issue/article" then it would deserve that much space. But as it is, they are simply there by luck of posting.

    My two cents

  • mgerard - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    1. The grey bar behind the top banner is overly big, are adds ever going to take up that much space? Wasted to me.
    2. Right under it, another advertisement banner. Feeling Bombarded.
    3. The three top reviews. Picture could be shrunk to add text to right of it. Shrink the text a ton, especially the title. I can read it in the other room atm.
    4. I'd like to see #3 done so that "More Reviews" is higher on the page. Right now, on 17" I only see the first review, and have to scroll for anything else.
    5. Something seems funky about the subject font under the more reviews, just doesn't sit right in my brain.
    6. I like that product coverage was put on a different tab.
    7. I like that blogs were put on a different tab.
    8. Too many reviews on first page, I liked it better when there were only 4-5.
    9. Bring back the old Anandtech, this one needs to much tweaking to be live.
  • Nyceis - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Very nice change - no popping windows!
  • imperator3733 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I like the idea of the redesign, but there are a few things that I do not like. First, the two banner ads at the top take up too much space. I'd move the 3 newest articles (maybe change it to 4 newest?) up to just below the tabs, then have a smaller banner ad, and then have a list of older articles in chronological order -- i.e. not divided into sections like it is currently. The main thing I don't like is the ad position -- they seem to be made too important. Also, when the window is maximized, which it never really is, if I'm scrolled all the way up, I can only see the top article in the other articles list.
  • adiposity - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Works fine for me in IE 7 and Firefox in regular mode. However, when I switch to wide mode, the css seems broken in Firefox. The buttons and backgrounds are missing.
  • danielc56 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Hi Anand,

    I've been coming to this site for a looong time (still have a few bookmarks for your old articles, like Riva TNT review and K6 2/III upgrade guide!). So I've seen a lot of site changes over time.

    Overall the changes are fine. I remember there being a debate during the last revamp regarding 3 or 5 articles at top. I believe you said the top 3 articles get nearly all the hits, but decided to expand it to 5 anyway. It looks like things are back to 3, I presume for the same reason as before.

    The new layout reminds me a little of Ars Technica, with the big graphics followed by a list of older stories.

    One suggestion would be to bring all the tabs together. The upper subject tabs and the lower (review/blog/product) tabs are broken up by the ads and 'big 3' articles. It would be nice to have a single set of tabs to access, no matter how deep we go into the site. (An alternative - make the left sidebar a more prominent part of the site.)

    The other concern is the vertical arrangement of articles. Maybe you could layout the ads and "big 3" articles in a way that makes visible the lower part of the page. On my 1280x1024 screen I can only see the GeForce 8800M article. With a little layout tweaking to tabs/ads/empty spaces, we might be able to see 2-3 articles at the bottom of the screen.

    Keep up the good work. You've done a great service keeping us informed for close to a decade now (yikes)! Anandtech is a site I visit every day.

    danielc56

    P.S. - I just checked the links to the old Riva/K6 articles and they appear broken. They still show up on your search function, but appear to be broken links. :(
  • aguilpa1 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Anand, sorry if this OT on your blog but I figured it might be quicker to reach you here. I don't know if you have been keeping track of the ongoing SAGA that us 680i SLI mobo users have found ourselves in after purchasing and trying to install the new QX6950 Yorkfields in our boards. They DON't work.?? Rumours abound that Intel intentionally changed the retail microcode at the last minute to make the chip incompatible with the 680i chipset because of Nvidias refusal to sell them their SLI technology. I don't know if this is true but either way the whole thing is a bunch of BULL. If you and your resources could check into this current dilemma I know all us 680i SLI users would appreciate it. Thanks Anand
  • SilthDraeth - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I was reading an article, and the only way to comment, was to reply to someone elses comment, then it brought up the comment window. At least that was only way I figured out how to post a new comment. Maybe I need to do something more.

    Huge gray bars on both sides, lots of wasted space. Using Firefox 2.0.0.3
  • Nyceis - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    This is fixed now; link at the upper right corner of the comments area.
  • dchaosdx - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    looks good to me. renders fine in firefox 2.0.0.9, very clean look, i like that the 3 latest articles are horizontally placed on the front page. no scrolling to see if there are new articles.
  • Felix - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I really think the old version of the beloved anandtech site was more informative, and there is too much space wasted in the new version.
    Unfortunately,
    the font for
    the main
    articles is
    unnecessarily
    large, that
    the headlines
    are very hard
    to read, since
    extremely few
    words fit into
    one line.
    Of course, one can argue that computer screens are getting bigger and that more big letters fit into one screen... but then I ask myself: why is about one third of my big monitor unused (left and right of anandtech homepage), and why are the news so small? And even with a relatively big 1600x1200 monitor I can fit only five headlines on the screen (Used to be much more).

  • AmberClad - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Like the clean, modern new look. Especially the fact that the most recent articles are all up top and given equal billing. I've noticed a few times in the past where a new article gets added, and then subsequently gets shuffled downward past some older, but more important articles.
  • MadAd - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Its boring to look at, sorry

    The gfx to text ratio has gone down hugely yet theres enough white space to enlarge the pictures in the list portion.
  • DEMO24 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Overall I don't think it's too bad. Definitely helps get more articles up on the main page which helps if one wants to refer back after a week or so from date of publishing.

    However there are some issues that need to be addressed:

    The older reviews text spills over onto that right side vertical border line with the news. Also this section is a bit messy and unclean. I would not recommend having the text formated as it is, instead keep the description portion more compact. A little more space in between the articles would help as well, and the section description(video, gadget, etc) should be a differently colored hyperlink to that section.

    Otherwise its good and the idea is there!
  • Rocket321 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I like the new layout. It makes new articles very prominent on the site. My only potential problem is if you post more than 3 articles in a 24hour period it could be easier to miss the ones that fall off the top part.

    Perhaps make the top display to show 4 articles across?

    You guys are awesome by the way. Thanks for doing all the hard work so that we can make informed purchases.
  • nowayout99 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    It looks more like you're trying to sell me those 3 products than review them.

    Unless you have an attention-grabbing, photogenic picture to use, the oversized thumbnails and not worth it. They're not attractive pictures. Blowing them up is a bad move.

    Those huge article promo spaces are also overkill in general. You could shrink everything down and easily fit more content into that space and it would actually have more impact.

    Really, the old design was very good. As you recall, we went to great lengths (and raised a lot of hell) to help you perfect it.

    The tabs are cool, but the main promo space needs to consider the above. Please!
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Very valid points - those were just quick images I threw up there so it didn't look odd. The main point to moving to the three box layout on the front page is to give the three latest articles equal attention. We always get people saying that they missed an article if something else is on top of it, hopefully this will alleviate that problem. It also gives us the ability to promote good blog posts to the top of the site, once again, without pushing articles down.

    Does that make sense? Do you have any other suggestions given the above?

    Thanks for the response :)

    Anand
  • jtok202 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    The overall screen looked quite offensive more like a Ad ware pop up at first, The primary reason for this is I expected a clean text with graphics that didn't superimpose upon your viewing. Secondly the resolution to display this is a bit big, Working on school/work computer with 1024x768 the site looked like it had been hacked up and bloated. The 3 articles need to be scaled down to a more manageable size, and I would suggest that the option of putting up more or less than three depending on your output per week/day this way you don't have two new articles from Friday and just the last article from Wednesdays. Though you would lose that promotion on the last article, when I have not checked in a few days I will look through the previous days. If the point is to keep the 3 timely people will either check more often or will just search the archives anyway.
    @ nowayout99 text placement around pictures is very important and on top makes sense to me
    ads are not consistently serving atm, about 1/3 of the time they fail or 1/3 of the time they serve it can go either way.
    One thing I am loving and which I thought would have been convenient a long time ago are the three tabs.
    I would get rid of blog's in the articles section as it is a cross purposing when it has a very clearly labeled section for it, considerably more so than before, in addition unless it is something like. Asking for feedback on new website design, Armageddon will happen next week, or other big news/blog posts They should remain where people can choose to read them rather than be served on the front page. The consolidation of the daily tech is very nice.
    ..... Thats all I can think of
  • jtok202 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Looking at it again the ads are screwing with your formatting and need to be cleaned up so as to minimize wasted space and to allow a good flow, More like what you see on CNN though I personally find the ads very annoying in the middle of the story They need to be clean too and have a defined border that does not infringe on the story/text and does not waste a bunch of white space. Thank you for keeping the ads minimal and tasteful.
  • nowayout99 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Also, just a quick addendum about the thumbnails.

    Placing thumbnails above articles means the thumbnails will be the first thing we look at. They will supersede the actual article headline. So if this is really the way you want to go, the photo *must* identify the product *and* be attractive.

    For example, a stock photo of a CPU die won't be enough. You'll need to add "AMD Phenom Review" or "The Phenom is here" or "Anand Tears AMD a New One" or whatever onto the picture itself. (just joking about that last example, but you get the idea :-)). And the photo needs to look attractive when you do it.

    There are a lot of these very important nuances to consider. It can be a case of the dog chasing his tail a little bit. So keep it all in mind if this is the path you really want to go down. "Web psychology" lecture over. :-)
  • nowayout99 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Yeah it definitely gives the last 3 articles equal attention. LOL.

    You can still achieve that goal with a smaller font and thumbnail, as the new background and horizontal layout of those spots does most of the work for you already.

    You could reduce the height/width of the spots and add a 4th spot, I don't know if that would be perfect, but it would tone them down and be an improvement.

    Tough love is still love. ;) Thanks for listening.
  • nowayout99 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    BTW, you're also probably going to get hell for pushing down the Daily News section for an ad.
  • nowayout99 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Also, the dark gray for the search field is also unattractive. Please go with a more neutral gray.
  • Visual - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    it looked really broken to me too
    but after a full refersh from server it came to its senses :p
    i guess it was just some cached css

    doesn't look bad now that i have it right, but the first impression really terrified me.

    a minor nitpick - i don't like how the separators between articles "hang", don't go all the way to the borders of the column.

    i'm gonna miss the dailytech stories bit from the center column perhaps... but you can just merge them with the dailytech news to the right. i never thought the division between stories and news made much sense anyway.

    the digg and del.icio.us links work with javascript onclick handlers instead of standard href, so won't work if someone has javascript disabled, or tries to open them in new tab, new window, copies them or bookmarks them.

    having the comments under the articles, each part with its own paging, seems kinda clumsy. will lead to lots of wasted bandwidth for sure, fetching a whole page of comments over and over as one browses the article pages. and it's not even implemented quite right - the links to the next page of the article don't have the comments page parameter so comments get reset to page 1 each time you advance a page in the article.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Thanks for the comments - quick question for you: I agree that the comments inline on the articles looks strange (we'll probably just reserve that for blogs), but what if clicking the comments link took you to a page with the article title, description and image then a listing of the comments (without a popup window). Would that work?

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Visual - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    even comments under the article could be fine, if done right - maybe loaded with ajax only when the user clicks show comments, not every time...

    but the way you describe it would be better, and not require javascript/ajax/otherfunkystuff
    and yes, make the link to the comments page a normal link that users can open in the same tab or new tab or new window, not a javascript popup like it was before.
  • crimson117 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Anand,

    Perhaps only include comments on the final page, which is usually the conclusion where you'd want readers to start commenting.
  • westcamo - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Im using firefox and it looks great, ive been falling anand for i dunno how many years, you guys were really due for a update good job guys! i approve
  • Zurtex - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    It's harder to see what I'm trying to find, especially this pop up window stuff :/. It also mucks the way Firefox 3's new password manager works, though I dunno I'll report it as a bug anyways.

    Also it's harder to navigate around the flash adverts, can't averts just be at the side or at the top of a web page? They're really starting to irritate me on how I have to move over them to get from reviews to news...
  • Zurtex - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    P.S, Javascript links are the worst for a browser like me who wants to open everything in in a new tab :(.
  • Guuts - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Agree here... it's very annoying trying to open something in a new tab/window and not have it work. :-(
  • Guuts - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    And where are the "Top Stories" from DailyTech? I know I can access them from the "Latest News..." link, but it used to be so easy to scan across the top of the old layout to see if there was any new articles, top stories, and DailyTech News in one quick glance.
  • shinpickle - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Yeah I thought the grey block was an ad too.

    anyways, have you ever seen a site change they're style back after negative user comments?? too much pride. why even ask us if we like it.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Are you still seeing the big grey block?

    The point of this post was to get feedback so we can tweak the design to your tastes, not to flaunt unwillingness to change :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • starjax - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Anand,

    I had to perform a ctrl/f5 to force refresh firefox. It was looking rather poor until I did that. However, I am still seeing the big gray box with no adds on firefox. With IE7 I have no issues. Not ad blocking software installed/running with firefox.
  • murphyslabrat - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    LOL, unfortunate but true.
  • shinpickle - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    what's with Tabs that just cause a page refresh? People expect ajax magic when they click a tab.

    Mostly I just think you've bloated too many categories onto the front page. The blogs tab is the same content as on the right column, and the product coverage tab is the same as the top set of tabs.. why are there so many ways to access the same content? How about 1 index to access content instead of 3. And if you remove those tabs, it is basically the same as the old site, except theres a big grey thing in the middle. I vastly preferred the old, seems like a bad imitation of the all the tomshardware divisions. just focus on the articles. been coming here since 2001, just my 2c
  • blckgrffn - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Yep, I definitely liked the old look better. I could get more info at a glance...
  • murphyslabrat - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I hate this trend towards obfusticated site layouts. All of those portals (MSN, Yahoo, AOL) are so cluttered up that you need a manual just to decipher it.

    The old layout was cleaner and more businesslike, while this new layout is prettier. The old layout is more efficient, and the new one is kind of clumsy.

    Definitely like the old layout better.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    What sort of information would you like easier access to? Our goal was to put more focus on the latest three articles.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Scrogneugneu - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    You're doing so at the expense of everything else. It looks like there's only those 3 articles. Plus those huge ads spaces.


    Whenever I look at it I feel like there's nothing to be seen. Plus, the images for the articles take too much space. This isn't a Playboy magazine, we're really here for the articles. Why put the emphasis on images of a motherboard or CPU? They grab the attention and I it takes some time before I go and read the title of the articles. Plus, the small preview is just that... small.

    If you want to put more focus on the top 3 articles, do so, not on the images of the last 3 articles. Try not to waste too much space for ads. We can live with them, but when they get too much space "reserved" for them, AND get placed right in the middle (where our eyes are looking first), it's not good for the website (although it is good for the advertisers).


    Remember, space on the front page is vital. You should never ever waste it. At the same time, try to not get it all clogged up. If you manage that... well, you're back in business :)
  • Christoph Katzer - Thursday, November 22, 2007 - link

    Just take it as one step which is leading to the better front-end after. Just like Audi did with their grill design:

    First step:
    http://www.duw.de/Picture_Pool/752767za.jpg">http://www.duw.de/Picture_Pool/752767za.jpg

    Second:
    http://www.racelook.de/images/audi/D00056650.jpg">http://www.racelook.de/images/audi/D00056650.jpg

    The user needs to adjust carefully to new things to come. :)
  • Speedo - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I like it! The design really looks "2007". The grej gradient is cool at the top, although at the first glimse I thought it was an advertisement ;). Maybe the font size is a littlebit too big, especially the orange ones below the top. Anyway, as we all know it's impossible to make a design that everyone feels is perfect.
  • coralreefer - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    The main content portion of the homepage looks terrible in FF 2.0.0.9, particularly the tabbed panels.

    It looks nice in IE7, though.
  • Nyceis - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Have you tried refreshing? If your browser doesn't get the new css file, it will look like crap.
  • coralreefer - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - link

    That must have been it - looks nice this morning.
  • Nyceis - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Right column is fixed...
  • munim - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I really like it, I didn't even know you guys had a blog!
  • eye smite - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    I've always enjoyed your site and it looks good to me, and a special thanks for pulling that phenom review from yesterday. It looked more like a rant and bash amd sesion than a review. Tom's Hardware hate to say it gave a much better review, have your blogger, I mean review member read their review and take notes. lol
  • crimson117 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    anand has a blog, it wasn't updated for a few months, but thankfully he's been back at it recently.
  • Falloutboy - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    can see where your going with it and it seems nice, but I'm also getting the Dailytech section rendering below everything instead of in the right column. Firefox here if that helps
  • Dharkaron - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Im going to assume that its not showing up correctly in my browser (latest version of firefox). The right column is empty and what i would expect to be there is at the bottom of your new article listing. As for listing the articles by topic, I would rather they be listed by date published. Its easier to find new articles that way.

    I prefer the old layout
  • AlexWade - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Hate it with a living passion. What was once easy to find is now difficult.
  • decalpha - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Seems like messed up rendering in Opera :(.
  • Arribajuan - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Messed up rendering in Firefox and IE too.

    Seems like good ideas, but they do not appear to be working yet.
  • jonny13 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    Mine is all messed up on IE (both 6 and 7) and Firefox as well. You would think they would test it out a bit on a few of the major browsers before unleashing it to the wild.
  • NullSubroutine - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    ive cleared my anandtech cookies and it is still messed up, there is a giant gray bar withing nothing in it.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    This is the bar on the right hand side? That shouldn't be the case, let me see if there's any way for us to reproduce it.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • NullSubroutine - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    there is the anand banner at the top, then below that the little tabs, then below that is a giant gray box above where the articles are. it does it in fire fox 2.something (with ad block) and internet explore 6 (32 and 64bit).
  • nowayout99 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    You're ad-blocking an ad that's in that large blank space. Not much to do about that.
  • NullSubroutine - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    no, because it does it in plain old internet explore 6, which has no ad blocking.
  • NullSubroutine - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    nevermind it is showing ads in internet explorer 6 now, it wasnt doing that before. I still think that is a bad place to put adds. ads should be those things where there is extra space, not be the center of website.

    i understand add revenue websites get help them stay in business, but i dont like intrusive ads that make browsing more difficult. if a website has such problems i wont visit it.
  • NullSubroutine - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link

    screen shot for you anand.

    http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4655/anandwindo...">http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4655/anandwindo...

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