AppleInsider's New Look (This thread was about the first Huddler redesign) - Page 4  

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 
I don't follow. You are signed in if you are posting here. You won't get another login option until you log out.

I think he wants to be able to sign in directly from appleinsider.com instead of forums.appleinsider.com

Man, what a train wreck! I don't think I'll be coming here very often anymore. Shame really, as I liked the way the news was presented. You could quickly scan down the headlines for what interests you most. Now it hurts my eyes and I have to scroll loads.

And as for that 'bite' out of the dot in the logo - terrible idea!

I'm liking the new design though I think it may benefit from a little more space between the centre column and the two side columns. Just to break up the page a little more. Also, maybe page breaks where the inline adverts are too? Similar to how the breaks between dates are done.

Uh, where's the tabbar icon gone to? It's missing with the update. How am I supposed to find the site among my 300+ tabs without an icon :(

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Originally Posted by logandigges 

No one should ever complain about ads!

 

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

What ads? <wink>

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Originally Posted by THEMAC1NT0SH 

 

What the heck is a Samsung Galaxy III ad doing on here??????????

With all the Samsung reporting here, I'm surprised you asked the question. AdWords doesn't understand context. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 


That's there too, you just don't see the logon until you're logged out.

Yes but I mean without having to click on a article to comment.

Not a fan of the new design, the text is comically big, and it's not actually any easier or better to read the news articles. The new design is flashier, but unnecessary. Any chance of a "theme" option so we can choose whether to look at the old version of the site or the new one?

Ah, I seem to have stumbled upon a revised logo that they're not using but may be pushing out.

… I'd prefer they not.

I'm also not a big fan of the new design, mostly because it shows so few headlines at one time.

My bigger problem, though, is that when viewing in Safari on my MBP, the background is blue. It shows up correctly in Firefox. Any ideas why?

Using OS X 10.8.1 and Safari 6.0.

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by marcusj0015 


Are you crazy? It's called Good Design, AppleInsider was stuck in the nineties, and if you don't appreciate good design, frankly you shouldn't be on an Apple fan site in the first place.

The previous site appearance was good design.  It was what Steve Jobs would have preferred.  Functional and practical.  Not flashy and less usefull.  From one apple fan to another.

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Originally Posted by dett 

I'm also not a big fan of the new design, mostly because it shows so few headlines at one time.

 

My bigger problem, though, is that when viewing in Safari on my MBP, the background is blue. It shows up correctly in Firefox. Any ideas why?

 

Using OS X 10.8.1 and Safari 6.0.

 

Thanks.

Because they are using non-standard CSS. You really are not supposed to use background: by itself. You can but it is not compatible with all browsers so you shouldn't and you are definitely not supposed to mix elements such as color and image. You can use it to list multiple images separated by commas but not how it is done here. You are supposed to use background-color: and background-image:

body { background: #fff url(http://photos.appleinsider.com/v9/images/id_backdrop.gif) center 4px no-repeat; }

If you want a really nice layout see my bookmarklet above. Post #130. The background-color is fixed.

Edit: There are also several other technical mistakes in the code which would better if fixed, especially in terms of SEO, not that this is a concern to the users, but developers really should fix those mistakes. 

New layout looks nice but I prefer the original.  I liked having headlines fit onto one line each and being able to scan topics quickly.  Now it's like being on cnet or something.  The old layout is was kept me coming back.

I want to use this site but I just can't, I just can't concentrate on it. I don't know if it's the white, the font, the layout or the ads (or everything).

I'll check back in a few weeks to see if it has been updated to a more agreeable and readable design.

On the plus side, at least I won't read so many spoilers.

I need a new home page

What the heck is up with the new AppleInsider site design? I went from being able to see 5 to 10 headlines at a glance to seeing 1.

It is a horrible change.

Can anyone recommend a better site for Mac news? I don't want this as my home page anymore.

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Originally Posted by mikepro 

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

 

/curmudgeon

It looks like someone's crappy blog now

I've been reading this site since 2003, and this homepage revision is a huge step backwards in terms of intuitiveness and readability.  It doesn't look like a news site; it frankly appears to have been laid out in GeoCities site builder circa 1999.  I understand that this change is motivated by a need to embed more advertising and force people to scroll through it, but I'm heading over to MacRumors and I doubt I'm alone -- and lower traffic can't help very much on your cost-per-click.

(Still, I suppose the new bloglike look is better suited to the tone of most of the articles, which generally sound as if they have as much journalistic objectivity as a high school newspaper profile of the state champion pom squad written by a kid who's desperate for a date.)

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Originally Posted by mstone 

Because they are using non-standard CSS. You really are not supposed to use background: by itself.

Incorrect - go and read the CSS specs again.

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/colors.html#propdef-background

Originally Posted by test123 
Incorrect - go and read the CSS specs again.

 

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/colors.html#propdef-background

I was gonna say; what he said is completely wrong. I myself just did exactly the opposite of what he said trying my hand at redesigning the front page.

Is there an option to see headlines only?   Macnn does that.   The only reason I have watched Appleinsider for many years is the compact quick view of Apple news

This is just too much real estate to scan quickly.   Probably lose my viewing unless you can create a quick view cookie preferrence 

Quote:

Originally Posted by test123 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mstone 

Because they are using non-standard CSS. You really are not supposed to use background: by itself.

 

Incorrect - go and read the CSS specs again.

 

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/colors.html#propdef-background

I stand corrected. I have never seen it done like that. That example was the very last line of the specs. In my experience anytime you see an unexpected blue color in CSS it is because the browser is not understanding the intended color, in this case #fff. The fault must be with Safari 6.0 then. I can pretty much guarantee that if the CSS was changed to use traditional background- syntax the problem would go away. Or perhaps the url parameter should have the quote marks.

By the way I'm loving my new redesigned AI home page. I'm glad they did such a crappy job as it inspired me to completely redo it with my bookmarklet.

Yeah Colour me very un-happy, AI used to be my main go to site every morning for many many years and several times per day, but not anymore. The Front Page is essentially un-readable, too much white not enough contrast and the information is just too spread out. Before it was possible to do a quick scan of the headlines with breaking news highlighted in red. Concise, Fast and a joy to read and digest sadly no more.

Farewell to all that...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malokata 

 

(Still, I suppose the new bloglike look is better suited to the tone of most of the articles, which generally sound as if they have as much journalistic objectivity as a high school newspaper profile of the state champion pom squad written by a kid who's desperate for a date.)

Which doesn't even touch on the reliance for DIgiTimes as a "reputable" source of articles.  It's just regurgitating the rumor web.

Could the new design could be any more generic?  Holy cow, it looks like a bad WP template.  The way the content is presented is terrible.  On my monitor, all I get is 3 headlines before I have to start scrolling, scrolling scrolling.  AI just got bumped off the top of my Apple bookmarks.

This could very well be the worst website update I've ever seen.  AI always had such a clean and easy to read format, which made this site a pleasure to visit.  This new format is clunky, busy, cramped, the fonts are too large and numerous, the graphic links to news stories too large, the placement of the menu bar underneath completely unrelated advertising is awkward, and columns are sized too unconventionally.  The previous design was near-perfect, and the new one is an absolute eyesore.  Is this some sort of joke?  Who could possibly think that this change is an "upgrade?"  I have been visiting AppleInsider 3-4 times per week for years, but if I have to look at this clumsy interface I won't continue coming back.  I think it's giving me vertigo.  Please bring back the old design, or something similarly professional.  I'll check back periodically to see what happens, but if this mess persists for a few weeks, I'm deleting my bookmark and saying goodbye forever.  What a shame, as I have found the breadth and depth of the articles to be superior to AI's competition, but this childish amateur layout is a total disgrace.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerseyMike73 

This could very well be the worst website update I've ever seen.  AI always had such a clean and easy to read format, which made this site a pleasure to visit.  This new format is clunky, busy, cramped, the fonts are too large and numerous, the graphic links to news stories too large, the placement of the menu bar underneath completely unrelated advertising is awkward, and columns are sized too unconventionally.  The previous design was near-perfect, and the new one is an absolute eyesore.  Is this some sort of joke?  Who could possibly think that this change is an "upgrade?"  I have been visiting AppleInsider 3-4 times per week for years, but if I have to look at this clumsy interface I won't continue coming back.  I think it's giving me vertigo.  Please bring back the old design, or something similarly professional.  I'll check back periodically to see what happens, but if this mess persists for a few weeks, I'm deleting my bookmark and saying goodbye forever.  What a shame, as I have found the breadth and depth of the articles to be superior to AI's competition, but this childish amateur layout is a total disgrace.  

Currently, there are 316 Active Users  (41 Members and 275 Guests)

I'm not sure what the historical readership was on AI previously but I get the general impression the posting in the forums has decreased noticeably from before the home page redesign.

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Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot 

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Originally Posted by SpamSandwich 

 

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

[...]

 

Before I could see the headlines stacked quite nicely and see what had happened from the night before thru today. Now it seems like half the thing is white space that makes me have to scroll and scroll and scroll (and the day divider is barely visible). I used to have to scroll no more than two windows of real estate — that has now doubled. [...]

 

The font is spindly and hard to read, there is way, way too much white space between articles with a tiny label for the comments.

 

The comments system has changed to be something more like MacWorld or MacRumors on going flow with little connection, no easy way to quote others comments and again takes up too much space. They don’t look like they are a cohesive thread whereas before they held together.

Ditto.  +1.  What he said.

One of the great things about the old design was the ability to quickly skim to see what was new - in one page (without scrolling, unless I'd been on vacation or something) I could see both all the new headlines, and the current comment count.  Now it's scroll, scroll, scroll through spindly fonts that are difficult to read. :(

Originally Posted by mstone 
I'm not sure what the historical readership was on AI previously but I get the general impression the posting in the forums has decreased noticeably from before the home page redesign.

I think it decreased more with Huddler. 316 sounds high from what I remember (HA) seeing recently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

I think he wants to be able to sign in directly from appleinsider.com instead of forums.appleinsider.com

That's there too, you just don't see the logon until you're logged out.

Confusing.  In that case there should be a "Welcome, _________" or "You are logged in as ________".  (I myself had the same confusion about logging in, until I came to the forums.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

Originally Posted by mstone 
I'm not sure what the historical readership was on AI previously but I get the general impression the posting in the forums has decreased noticeably from before the home page redesign.

 

I think it decreased more with Huddler. 316 sounds high from what I remember (HA) seeing recently.

Yeah but how many of those are on here specifically to complain about the new redesign?  (LOL)

The reason comments have dropped so dramatically since the AI makeover is the new site is a space wasting eyesore that puts selling ad space before reporting news. I already removed AI from my Top Sites and advise AI to stop exploiting readers before you lose all of us!

Love the new site.  Thanks for updating!

I'd say the site is pretty, but useability has gone way down (maybe 20% of what it was). The layout is horrible, where others get 3 headlines instead of 11, I'm only getting 2.5 (I'm not going to adjust the layout of my tools and Dock size for this one site), and the font is a lot harder to read. My suggestions would be to get rid of the white space and change the font while keeping everything else and I think you'll satisfy enough people and the rest will eventually get used to it.

Before you see this, I want to disclaim that I'm not in charge of design here in any capacity and also have no power nor ability to change it myself.

Having said that, I downloaded the HTML and CSS files of the front page and am taking a crack at making it look better. I love web design, and I've always been good at it. In my first class therein, we were to use Dreamweaver. An hour on that crap and I said screw it and aced the course by hand coding the HTML and CSS in TextEdit. Anyway, this is a work in progress, and again, I've no power to implement it, but this is AppleInsider with NO changes made to the HTML file whatsoever (I had to reroute the CSS pointer and chose to change two images), just to prove the power of CSS in making even the most convoluted HTML look good, and to show how easily said changes could be implemented.

Click for larger, and perhaps open two tabs at once and click between this and the site proper. The changes are subtle, but I think they work. The ads and top carousel won't load properly when you're running off a local HTML file, so excuse their absence in the screenshot.