The Big Redesign Feedback Thread

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 83
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator
    i got the green light to remove the scrolling behavior. This will happen sometime today. 

    EDIT:
    It is gone. 
    edited May 2020 oseameSpamSandwichretrogustotht
  • Reply 42 of 83
    clincclinc Posts: 2member
    It's better without the weird scrolling, but there's still way too much wasted space.  Just give us condensed summaries of articles in reverse chronological order.  Simple and efficient.
    retrogusto
  • Reply 43 of 83
    henrybayhenrybay Posts: 144member
    Thanks for getting rid of the scrolling gimmick. It’s much appreciated. 

    Could you also please remove all that superfluous white space. A news page is not an art gallery. The layout should be tight and efficient, so we can quickly scan down the page and click on the items that interest us. We should not have to scroll endlessly down the page. 


    clincretrogusto
  • Reply 44 of 83
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,398member
    Why no meta data for the Top Story (no author/timestamp/comments)?

    Why is the meta data inconsistent in the other various "featured" blocks — Featured Topics of the Week includes a byline, and category, main stories don't even have categories. Featured Stories/Juciest Apple Rumors/Latest Comparisons/Latest Videos/etc include neither. Hard to tell how old some of these stories are, and if they're included in the main feed as well.

    Why is the author photo way over to the left overlapping the featured image, instead of next to the byline?

     What's up with the frozen spinner icon?
    pscooter63
  • Reply 45 of 83
    pegglepeggle Posts: 2member
    Hi, in my browser (Opera on Mac) the site stays dark even when my system isn't. In Safari this works correctly but I'm not going to switch browsers over this. Is there a way to force light mode of the website?
  • Reply 46 of 83
    pegglepeggle Posts: 2member
    A n y o n e ?
  • Reply 47 of 83
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,398member
    peggle said:
    A n y o n e ?
    Just opened it in Opera and AI is in light mode, even tho I'm in dark mode. So obviously not following macOS settings. Switched macOS to light mode and refreshed AI and it stayed light. Toggled dark mode in the Opera preferences and didn't matter either way (just for their pref panes etc). Dunno, I don't use Opera, only used this to test something once. ¯\(°_o)/¯ 

    Sounds like a setting somewhere I'm not spending time to look for?
  • Reply 48 of 83
    ndnycndnyc Posts: 19member
    The more times I visit, the less I like this redesign, too busy, the high contrast is jarring, the persistent nav bars are distracting. The whole design gets in the way of the content. I know people like to have a project: a visual refresh/rebrand. But a simple scrolling list of great AI content starting with the most recent, is ALL that’s needed.

    I do not like spending time here, anymore. I normally come here multiple times a day to check on updates. But now each time feels like I’m getting smacked in the face.
    clincretrogusto
  • Reply 49 of 83
    ndnyc said:
    I do not like spending time here, anymore. I normally come here multiple times a day to check on updates. But now each time feels like I’m getting smacked in the face.
    I have to agree here.

    I'm one of those who likes to run their workspaces with all the encrusting chrome in dark mode but the content itself in light mode. Things pop. Life easier.

    Sadly I find Appleinsider oppressively dark now. It inhibits my checking back. It's funereally uninviting. Yes, it's psychological thing, but nonetheless such small things are at the heart of good design. 

    How hard might it be to just have a toggle in the profile that overrides the system setting?
  • Reply 50 of 83
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator
    ndnyc said:
    I do not like spending time here, anymore. I normally come here multiple times a day to check on updates. But now each time feels like I’m getting smacked in the face.
    I have to agree here.

    I'm one of those who likes to run their workspaces with all the encrusting chrome in dark mode but the content itself in light mode. Things pop. Life easier.

    Sadly I find Appleinsider oppressively dark now. It inhibits my checking back. It's funereally uninviting. Yes, it's psychological thing, but nonetheless such small things are at the heart of good design. 

    How hard might it be to just have a toggle in the profile that overrides the system setting?

    This is something that we're actively working on. Wanted to get it in before launch, but just ran out of time. I am still reading this thread and running things up the chain, so keep the feedback coming. Kasper still has the final word on stuff, so don't expect to get everything you ask for, but where it makes sense and we can move quickly we will make changes. There's a lot we have planned still and we are resource constrained.

    Edit:
    For those who are genuinely curious, from a metrics standpoint the redesign has been fairly successful for us. We're only a couple weeks in though. My hope is that you will all appreciate the spotlight and featured stories sections more once WWDC rolls around and all that content that normally just falls off is much more prominent and easily discoverable. I know some of you don't like the more modern design aesthetic, but we have to be able to move forward and stay relevant.
    edited May 2020 fastasleep
  • Reply 51 of 83
    crogerscrogers Posts: 15member
    I can’t say I am a fan of the features articles on the top when viewing on mobile device, I don’t think it’s good to have to scroll down every time I load the website to see the new articles.
    edited May 2020 retrogusto
  • Reply 52 of 83
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,398member
    Related to my earlier comments about the inconsistent meta data between types of posts on the home page, I'm noticing on mobile that similar discrepancies are present as well, but even more confusing is the lack of clear boundaries between the intermingled "featured" story blocks in the middle of the news feed. There's a distinct lack of visual cues separating the different sections of content, which is far harder to process on mobile since everything that's in the sidebar on desktop is stacked inline with the main news feed on mobile. Even just a subtle background color shift in those blocks would help give some visual cues to help quickly process what's what. 
  • Reply 53 of 83
    retrogustoretrogusto Posts: 1,106member
    Like some others, I’m finding the new design a bit disorienting. I mostly view the site on an iPad, and the second nav bar that “snaps” on to the top one is unpleasantly jarring when it shakes the whole page for its animated effect. 

    I’d rather have fewer links taking up space at the top. Ideally, there would be a fairly compact area at the top that would disappear when I scroll down, stories would be organized in chronological order so I would always see the most recent at the top, and individual headlines/teasers would take up less space on the home page so I could see more at once, rather than the three I can see now. 

    I also miss the stock ticker, even if it was broken much of the time.  
    clincamar99
  • Reply 54 of 83
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,625member
    Ive been coming to AI for a long time.  A long time...

    I like the redesign, but with everything new, there’s always something that changes what I am used to and that difference can make one dislike it from the familiar.

    What I have found to be outside of my preference is the featured articles at the top.   To me, they are old news and I have to scroll down immediately to look for the latest.  

    It it would be great to disable them since I read everything here almost daily.   Featured articles make it look like there were no updates at a glance.  They sit there day after day.  

    Otherwise, please keep the quality work!  


    retrogusto
  • Reply 55 of 83
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,398member
    Like some others, I’m finding the new design a bit disorienting. I mostly view the site on an iPad, and the second nav bar that “snaps” on to the top one is unpleasantly jarring when it shakes the whole page for its animated effect. 
    I was just going to comment on this. Your sticky nav bar needs a different offset (about 20px or so) as it's "snapping" to position:fixed too soon when scrolling down. It should snap when it naturally runs into the top fixed header.
    edited June 2020 retrogusto
  • Reply 56 of 83
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,398member
    This is an actual functional problem — search results pages don't work at all:

    https://appleinsider.com/search/?query=test

    Check it, links don't work — nothing is clickable except the nav bar.
  • Reply 57 of 83
    amar99amar99 Posts: 181member
    Like some others, I’m finding the new design a bit disorienting. I mostly view the site on an iPad, and the second nav bar that “snaps” on to the top one is unpleasantly jarring when it shakes the whole page for its animated effect. 

    I’d rather have fewer links taking up space at the top. Ideally, there would be a fairly compact area at the top that would disappear when I scroll down, stories would be organized in chronological order so I would always see the most recent at the top, and individual headlines/teasers would take up less space on the home page so I could see more at once, rather than the three I can see now. 

    I also miss the stock ticker, even if it was broken much of the time.  
    I just came to the forums to point out exactly this jarring behavior. As soon as you reach the first article on the main section of the page, the toolbar jumps, and then the headline is cut off. Then we’re left with two toolbars which take up a decent chunk of useful screen space instead of getting out of the way and just letting us scroll down the page. How many hits do you actually get on those shortcut links? Fine to have them at the top of the page, but please don’t keep them around as we scroll down. Thanks!
    retrogusto
  • Reply 58 of 83
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator
    clinc said:
    It's better without the weird scrolling, but there's still way too much wasted space.  Just give us condensed summaries of articles in reverse chronological order.  Simple and efficient.
    The featured articles aren't going anyway guys, sorry. Feel free to use https://appleinsider.com/archives as your bookmark though.

    clinc said:
    It's better without the weird scrolling, but there's still way too much wasted space.
    We did put in a patch to do a word count on articles and not include one of the topmost sidebar elements when it's below a certain threshold. Should help a lot when we have shorter articles.

    This is an actual functional problem — search results pages don't work at all:

    https://appleinsider.com/search/?query=test

    Check it, links don't work — nothing is clickable except the nav bar.
    No one can reproduce this. Can you provide us with more info? (os version, browser version, device, etc.)

    amar99 said:
    Like some others, I’m finding the new design a bit disorienting. I mostly view the site on an iPad, and the second nav bar that “snaps” on to the top one is unpleasantly jarring when it shakes the whole page for its animated effect. 

    I’d rather have fewer links taking up space at the top. Ideally, there would be a fairly compact area at the top that would disappear when I scroll down, stories would be organized in chronological order so I would always see the most recent at the top, and individual headlines/teasers would take up less space on the home page so I could see more at once, rather than the three I can see now. 

    I also miss the stock ticker, even if it was broken much of the time.  
    I just came to the forums to point out exactly this jarring behavior. As soon as you reach the first article on the main section of the page, the toolbar jumps, and then the headline is cut off. Then we’re left with two toolbars which take up a decent chunk of useful screen space instead of getting out of the way and just letting us scroll down the page. How many hits do you actually get on those shortcut links? Fine to have them at the top of the page, but please don’t keep them around as we scroll down. Thanks!
    A fair amount, actually. Moreover there are SEO implications to that bar. I'll look into making it a bit less snappy/jarring.

    The stock ticker is missing on ipad because we just didn't have space for it and something had to give. It exists on mobile and desktop. I'm not sure how we can address that in the future. Tablets only make up like 5% of our reader base, so any tablet-specific fixes get lower priority = \
    edited June 2020 retrogusto
  • Reply 59 of 83
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,398member
    jSnively said:
    This is an actual functional problem — search results pages don't work at all:

    https://appleinsider.com/search/?query=test

    Check it, links don't work — nothing is clickable except the nav bar.
    No one can reproduce this. Can you provide us with more info? 
    Just tried again with the same result. This is in the latest Catalina/Safari update running. Just messing with it again right now and noticing if I very slowly hover over the titles, there's like 1 pixel or so at the edge where it's a clickable link (with cursor change and hover color), but moving further inward disables it again. Comments and author don't seem to have this happen. I can try looking at it in the inspector to see if I can figure out what's going on.'

    EDIT: @jSnively  — figured it out, kinda — it's only on a certain media query — the links break only on 992px to 1199px wide. Narrower or wider, the page works fine. I'll leave the "why" to you since I'm not getting paid to do this. :)

    edited June 2020
  • Reply 60 of 83
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator
    [...]

    EDIT: @jSnively  — figured it out, kinda — it's only on a certain media query — the links break only on 992px to 1199px wide. Narrower or wider, the page works fine. I'll leave the "why" to you since I'm not getting paid to do this. :)

    I will look into it. Thanks 👍
    fastasleep
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