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

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Comments

  • Reply 81 of 215
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member


    I think the strength of this site is it's discussions, which are of higher quality than Macrumors, and have more informed Apple fans. The articles frankly are not a strength. It's the discussions that keep people coming back and viewing those all important ads. 


     


    So while the new design looks better (in my opinion) it should emphasize the discussions and de-emphasize the articles, but unfortunately they have done the opposite.

  • Reply 82 of 215


    I have been an avid reader of Appleinsider for 10y's now & agree with others on the look!


    It's great to see the refreshing change, but the forums section still as work to be done?


     


    All the under-pinnings of the site "forum" have been worked on, the look of the forums has a lot to be


    desired & doesn't match the front-page? Also reply-box sims to conflict if you have spell-checker on your OS! So those from other countries may have difficulty responding.   

  • Reply 83 of 215


    Who had the brilliant idea to change what was my favorite site?


    This is quite simply horrible, practically unreadable and most undesirable.


    Switch it back or I'll be off to the competition.

  • Reply 84 of 215
    hobbithobbit Posts: 532member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by waybacmac View Post


    I like it though. I know I'm going against the tide here but I do like the new look. I find it clean and modern. As for too much white space, I attribute that to very effective ad blocking in my browser. Am I correct in saying there is no Java or Flash? I hope so. Make note of the criticisms and suggestions but don't make any quick changes yet. Give folks a chance to get acclimated to the new look.



    You are basically saying - you like it because it looks totally different on your screen because you use ad blockers...

    Which basically also admits that without ad blockers it is a horrible new design...


     


    And how do I use ad blockers in Safari on an iPad?


    Not much help there is it...  So I am stuck with the ugly design on any mobile Apple device.  Or am I?

  • Reply 85 of 215


    After a sleep I have come back to take another look.


     


    Very bad, on my 13' Pro the site only shows me the first article before I have to start scrolling. Its not usable or readable, please re think this.

  • Reply 86 of 215


    I cannot believe how bad the new layout is? This is not aversion to the new. The main articles get lost in a navigational zoo. How can a website that purports to report on Apple resort to such microsoftian distopia. Always used Appleinsider for Apple news before, however, I cannot face using this jumble on my Mac. Suggest you change to Microsoft/Google Insider and do not contaminate the Apple brand like this.

  • Reply 87 of 215

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by waybacmac View Post


    Well, that was a bit of a shock. I like it though. I know I'm going against the tide here but I do like the new look. I find it clean and modern. As for too much white space, I attribute that to very effective ad blocking in my browser. Am I correct in saying there is no Java or Flash? I hope so. Make note of the criticisms and suggestions but don't make any quick changes yet. Give folks a chance to get acclimated to the new look.



     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hobBIT View Post


    You are basically saying - you like it because it looks totally different on your screen because you use ad blockers...

    Which basically also admits that without ad blockers it is a horrible new design...


     


    And how do I use ad blockers in Safari on an iPad?


    Not much help there is it...  So I am stuck with the ugly design on any mobile Apple device.  Or am I?



     


    Ok I see that some ether on desktop or MB have setups of full screen, also website view seems different.


    I'm not on Mountain Lion & I don't use ad-blockers of any kind but this is what I'm seeing:


  • Reply 88 of 215


    This new look is horrific.


     


    3 headlines are visible when the page loads on a 1680×1050 monitor


     


    The huge amount of brilliant white hurts my eyes after 3 seconds of viewing


     


    The font sizes are massive


     


    Theres huge amounts of wasted space all over the page


     


    The posts are almost the same width as the advertising making them completely illegible.


     


    AppleInsider, after 12 years - you will no longer be on my bookmarks list. :'(

  • Reply 89 of 215



     


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

  • Reply 90 of 215
    Too many scrolly things going on, and it's too narrow - 800x600 displays went out with Windows 95.
  • Reply 91 of 215
    How come nobody seems to be commenting anywhere about the redesign of the AppleInsider website?
  • Reply 92 of 215

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


     


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



    Everyday the first site I check is AI. It has been clean, compact and easy to see the headlines quickly. I then check it every hour or so to see what is going on (more than any other site I visit). At about 2PM central today I went back and hit the refresh and I was shocked. I really thought I hit the wrong tab or that something had gotten messed up in the URL. 


     


    I can understand your desire to update the look but at what cost. 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. (BTW: I am using a 27” iMac with the entire height of the screen for browsing so there is no shortage of room.)

     


    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.


     


    I dang sure don’t need a banner flowing across the top to tell me which stories you think are hot. I can tell you now that the first batch is some of the lowest priority stuff I have read in the last couple days. (Come on 2 VP’s get stock options to keep the at Apple for a few more years as SVP’s: that is the entire story).


     


    I don’t need the 1.5” wide empty column on the right that has the tweet, Facebook, etc. crap in it and nothing else.


     


    The entire thing looks like the news is not what we are interested in — just empty space. Really weak.


     


    You take away emphasis from the AAPL stock numbers. These tags that are white on black in the lower left are a mess. What is the order to them? Looks hodge lodge to me.


     


    Seems like an article explaining your justification for this iid in order and should have been rolled out at least at the same time.


     


    A warning would have been nice too. I am disappointed as a long time reader that apparently some significant effort went into something that could make the site so much more of a “me too” site that one that stands out on top.


     


    Back to the drawing boards — please.

  • Reply 93 of 215

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Stephen Arnold View Post


    Who had the brilliant idea to change what was my favorite site?


    This is quite simply horrible, practically unreadable and most undesirable.


    Switch it back or I'll be off to the competition.



    AGREED!

  • Reply 94 of 215

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheFatWookie View Post



    How come nobody seems to be commenting anywhere about the redesign of the AppleInsider website?


     


    It seems to have a lot more empty space than the old design.


     


    Otherwise, it's noisy, busy, harder to read, even with all the ads blocked. (The old site used to reflow pretty well without the ads.) Needs some work as it's a train wreck with the ads visible.

  • Reply 95 of 215

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


     


    It seems to have a lot more empty space than the old design.


     


    Otherwise, it's noisy, busy, harder to read, even with all the ads blocked. (The old site used to reflow pretty well without the ads.) Needs some work as it's a train wreck with the ads visible.



     


     


    Whitespace is good. But what *is* there doesn't seem very well-designed. 

  • Reply 96 of 215

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


     


     


    Whitespace is good. But what *is* there doesn't seem very well-designed. 



     


    That was the noisy, busy, hard to read part, especially with ads displayed. That might be considered well designed from a certain perspective, that it draws attention more to the ads than the content, but if visitors find it off-putting, page, and thus ad, views will drop over time.

  • Reply 97 of 215
    hobbithobbit Posts: 532member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot View Post

    Back to the drawing boards — please.


     


    Amen to that.


     


     


    Really seems that this 'Gesamtbild' company has no clue how to design client specific web-sites.

    All they did was take an off-the(ir)-shelf average-joe web design and applied it to AI.  Probably charging a lot for it too.




    No one ever spent an iota of time considering what made the old AI design great, or what made people come back several times a day for more news.


    None of that thinking ever happened, none of it was ever considered during this re-design - I bet.  


     




    All I know is that I used to check AI several times a day as well, it was one of the first sites I checked every morning.

    Now this will change.

    I cannot stand this off-the-shelf poorly suited design.  AI turned into an ad spam and scroll fest.

    From now on I will only check AI once or twice a week - if that.



    I will just get my Apple news from other sites.

    daringfireball.net has a nice, clean design...

  • Reply 98 of 215
    dualiedualie Posts: 334member


    I HATE scrolling banners so much I reluctantly must say goodbye. I find them too much of a distraction, even with the beautiful new and easier to read design that makes excellent use of white space and contrasting black type. I come here to read, not to be continually interrupted by pointless moving images.


     


    No, I won't let the door hit me on the ass on the way out. I'll be back if you ditch that horrible idea.

  • Reply 99 of 215


    I sure do. I much prefer the way these forums look, which was how the whole site looked previously.  Boy, I sure get tired of the contemporary impulse to constantly change things.

  • Reply 100 of 215


    I am going to cite a Windows news site because it has a somewhat good desktop layout of the website, but I want to mention it ESPECIALLY for the mobile view of its website and forums. I can live with the new front page, though some tweaks would not hurt, but I am really wishing a a great mobile view.


     


    So, back on the subject, on your iPhone or iPad, head to Neowin.net. You will see what the mobile view is really good. You can individually scroll sideways the news title if it is too long without scrolling the whole page left or right, and the advertisements are located at the bottom. As for the forums, it is pretty much the same thing. A full desktop layout on an iDevice is way too much.

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