Cool new layout! Too much white though

Huh, when did that happen? 

 

There's not enough contrast, in my opinion. I think I'll have some fun playing with the CSS. UI design's one of my hobbies.

 

Oh, and about the Huddler thing, I agree that browsers should never be able to supersede OS commands. Like the right-click menu here or those modal popups that prevent tabs from closing, you know? 

I thought AI had been hacked or something. Oh well, I suppose I'll get used to it...

Hmmm... not a fan of the redesign. Too much white negative space, and the font seems harder to read.

 

/curmudgeon

I completely agree - the main page update is outstanding.

 

Of course, I have to say that observation is contrasted with the recent 9to5 update, which basically eliminated easy scannability. This is at least generally scannable on a short news day. On September 12, when there are a dozen Apple-related headlines, the main page will be difficult to scan.

 

I also tend to agree that there are still some challenges:

• The left-right scroll for headlines should be narrowed to show three items rather than two, and the graphics reduced.
• "Backpage Headlines" should be "Back Page Headlines" (let's not make up words).
• They should tighten up the space between the date and its header line, and I'd say the date should be right-aligned (note the space between the headline scroll and the top horizontal line, then note the space between that top horizontal line and the "Friday, September 07, 2012" date).
• They should have a "Today/This Week/All" toggle.
• Strange that none of the section headers ("Active Forum Topics"/"Reviews"/"Backpage Headlines") are clickable - although on the article pages, you can at least click through to the General topic - appleinsider.com/categories/General - what are the other categories? The "On Topic" headlines in the right column aren't clickable, either.
• They should have some sort of byline attribution on the headline.
• If you click through to an article, there should be an obvious breadcrumb or "back to main" option (I normally click the AI logo, but this "stateless" page design doesn't thrill me.
• Also, if you click through to an article, the right side column shows 5 "Latest Apple Headlines." Why not offer that on the main page? Why doesn't that allow someone to click through to more headlines?

 

However, this is a nice update away from a design that looks primitive in retrospect. :-)

To me it looks a really messy, herky-jerky slide show which conflicts with the drop downs, and the logo with the bite out of the "i"...uh, no

me too ...

They've got their work cut out for themselves if they plan on re-skinning the forum to match. After looking more closely at the home page I can see that it is about half baked. They need to put it back in the oven for a little while longer. 

LOL, they still haven't repaired the damaged smiley system from the last forum upgrade.

Yes troll hunters.  Here is a comment outside of the topic.  Yet I have to state my thoughts on something we all are effected by here.

 

I liked the old GUI of Apple Insider.  The old one worked and I was use to it.  Now we have and get to learn a whole new one all over again.

Jesus! What happened to the site? Too much WHITE. And the fonts are less easy on the eyes. Get me the old AI back!

Great new look for AppleInsider. Looks good.

 

Now you guys need a mobile view for your forums!

 

I think there's too much adspace. Things are blinking and flashing all over the place, and the content is squeezed in the middle. Very distracting, but can be fixed with RSS I guess? Or ghostry.

 

 

I'd love to see screenshots. :)

 

Edit: I guess there's also no more special attention to breaking or featured stories.

Edited by CRHain88 - 9/7/12 at 1:15pm

 

OMG... What has happened to AI...

 

I must admit I really don't like what is happening here.

Sorry, I don't like it. There are at least 3 distinctly different looks for the site now. It has quickly become a real train wreck.

 

It would be better to decide on a unified look, then roll out the whole thing at one time.

What's powering the front end - magento ? Or, or ...
Curiously interested. TIA

fwiw - I like it as well. Could alter font in menu bar - comes across as too chunky on idevices. A little hard to read.
Nice tho' - congrats !

Please change the website back please. The new website is awful.

There is too much white space in the forums:

 

 

It got bad after the last update, now it is almost unusable.

Racist¡

No one should ever complain about ads!

 

You wouldn't need to complain if you used Adblock.

I don't mean to sound too harsh, I know a lot of work goes into these things. But I literally have a hard time going through the new layout. There are 11 something ads on the left, right, top, and between articles. Some of which are specifically designed to match actual articles. And they go back and forth between ad and sidebar promos for this site which are not technically ads, but feel that way. 

I mean this more as constructive criticism than just bashing all the efforts - just think it needs a serious rethinking. The new style is on the right track, but it's very very cluttered to the point of confusion.

 

Under "Edit Account Details" on your username's page:

 

True, but it looks better than the Forums

I created an account just to inform whoever's running this site that I will no longer be visiting it. I'm sick and tired of my favorite websites all over the web (IGN, Gizmodo) and now AppleInsider succumbing to such unbearable design choices. Your old layout was absolutely perfect, with the right mix of content per capita and substance over style. I have zero interest in viewing 24-Point font on an atrocious white background with a cluttered mix of irrelevancy all around it. Blogs should be about the articles and you've ruined everything. Goodbye AppleInsider.

Hate this new format - harder to read comments, and requires a lot more scrolling.

A step back in terms of being able to read the headlines at a glance in my opinion.

 

The look has improved, however the ease of use has decrease.

AIEEEE!!!

 

Comments no longer jumps into the forum?! Bleh!

I am appalled by the new look. The space for the stories is only a quarter of the page?

So narrow! Less than half the width of my screen. Can't you make it so that we don't have to scroll? The old format used to stretch.

 

Also, very cluttered, hard to pick out the articles from the riffraff of ads, banners, highlights, and outside links.

 

You do realize that most of us are Mac users, which means most of us have fairly wide screens - many Macs come with 1920 width screens, and I run 2560 pixels. That you chose a format that is only aimed at a maximum of about 1000-1200 pixels wide strikes me as not understanding your customers.

Too much white, fonts too big (and too many variations in them) - ironically, much more difficult to skim and to read than the simple black on grey.

 

And how do you quote in the comments?  (And are comments now fully moderated?  My comment didn't appear, even after a refresh.)

WTFINGF is my response. Did a third grader do that redesign. It's horrid. Too many ads, too little visual contrast. Hideous font usage. Comments buried so far below the fold they are in another paper.

The version before the one that was the front page and is still the forums was better than this bleach. The only thing perhaps that needed changing was going from 'timeline to 'article' to 'forum that starts off with a repeated of the whole article again'. Either go timeline to forum and dump the article (well perhaps keep it for the multi page stuff) and/or have the comments link jump to the first actual user comment.

And dump about 75% of the ad blocks. And be consistent in placement of items
Edited by charlituna - 9/7/12 at 2:15pm

Some of us are on phones etc that don't have Adblock.

And even if we did, that still doesnt excuse the other terrible design choices

I have been complaining about this for a while, I wish they would fix these basic things before doing an overhaul and introducing new issues. Not sure what a right click in a misspelled work bring up a paste button popup no other website does that. Auto correct if more important then have a right click paste.

 

I felt compelled to post seeing the new look.

It seems completely ad driven and the actual content is now a distant second to the adverts in terms of readability and scalability. it looks very much like a site where the css hasn't loaded rather than a cohesive design to show off the latest news. Even after blocking the ads there is not enough definition between the headlines and articles. I used to put up with the ai ios app when not able to view the full site, with this update i'll ONLY be using the iOS app as the overall style makes the home page, articles and comments jumbled and  overall an uncomfortable viewing and browsing experience :(

Old vs New - look at the wasted space on my MacBook, and how many fewer articles I can see. From 11 articles to 3 articles!