I find the page much too cluttered - I don't know where to look for anything, and a good bit too wide - the Macintosh and Guides tabs are off the edge of my browser window when set at a size that I find works for almost every site I surf.
PLEASE PLEASE bring a smiliar style as the Old site, Sorry but this one Sucks.. All my friends agree. I dont think i can put up with this one for long. - Plz bring the old one back or something smiliar to it Thanx
I also liked the old layout more. I liked having the ability to just scroll down and read the latest news. If the article didnt interest me, I didnt have to read on. Now I have to navigate away from front page to read anything at all.
Seems like there is to much squeezed in to little space on the front page. The old layout had wider text lines, witch made it much easier to search, and much more reader-friendly. Go back to three instead of the new compact four columns.
Although i think the new layout is worse than the old, it it still in another league (and far better) compared to toms hardware.
Agree with post 123, exept for the colors. They look fine to me
(When the winds of change is blowing, some build windbreaks and some build windmills - I just hope this windmill isn't facing the wrong way!)
I really did like the news being all together. And I surf the net extesivly daily and all while on the clock ;), so I consider myself quite fast in understanding a site, but frankly I don't know what the hell is going on. What are all these different reviews, all split up? Latest reviews, more reviews, 'top insider stories'? Whats up with all that? Can't they all just get along?
And whats up with that 'Product Coverage' thing on the bottom? Are we trying to look like that crappy tom's hardware?(which did change away from that style, but still) It is good to split up the different articles and guides, but isn't that what the tabs at the top are for?
And that new color at the top really does bug me. Sorry. The colors and style really dosn't fit in with...well.. anything.
No real comments about the new design. I'll get used to it eventually :-)
However, I've been wanting to ask you to at least mention Linux compatibility on your reviews. Drivers, who's working on them, the manufacturer's position re Linux.
It goes without saying that if you could test, I would feel even better.
I like the look, but I agree with making the reviews more prominent. If I have to click on the "News" page to see the headlines, I can deal with that, I suppose.
To KF, #100, all I can say is... you've been coming to Anandtech since Day 1 and you browse the Internet on a 28.8 modem? Wow.
1) 9 ads on the homepage, 3 of them identical flash banner ads. I have since uninstalled flash...
2) nothing good on the homepage anymore, just a bunch of links and really anoying flash. Yea, it was larger before but it was larger because there was good content. You have made it smaller, but you also made it worthless (thank goodness for RSS)
4) did I mention the 3 identical anoying flash ads?
5) white background durring articles loads last on the page taking forever waiting for the slow ad servers. :tdown: to black text on grey background.
Until you fix things I am afraid that I will stick to RSS. You had a really nice site before, excellent design, visually appealing... but now ads and poor CSS are destroying things.
I liked the old site much better. The front page was much easier to navigate for newer articles. Can you have high and low bandwidth versions of the front page?
I like how News is now a seperate page, and I can definately understand that it saves you a lot of bandwidth costs.
"Top Insider Stories" sounds like a subscription service(Think IGN and ESPN)...might want to rethink that title...something like "Anandtech Industy Articles" or something.
I also thought the Product Coverage box was an ad, but I like the idea.
Correction on #8 above: if #5 is corrected, then the addition of the other items should end up with a net change of almost nothing (maybe 1-2k), and the purely additional (not subtracting for the product page) is also adding in the size of the article images in the rather rough estimate.
1) Have to reiterate the comment about the green background showing through. The problem is that the page is often blocked waiting for ads to be served (ad servers being notoriously slow, and even if not, there are a lot of ads being served), or waiting for a lot of content (eg: the real time pricing page). The black text showing up on the dark teal background is impossible to read, and looks sloppy while waiting for things to load. Considering the supposed CSS design, this should only happen very rarely at most (and never if properly designed), when first loading a page when the CSS file has expired from cache. Instead I'm seeing it constantly.
2) 'About' should not be the second item in the LHS menu. That sort of thing should always be at or near the end of a menu list.
3) The 'RSS/Mobile Users' should not be above 'News'. Since the RSS page is meta info on the News page, it should follow the News entry.
4) I personally would place 'News' above 'Forums', considering that the site is billed as a news site, not a web community.
5) The Product Coverage section (aside from the title image not having alt text) is redundant with the tabs at the top of the page. The main sections of Product Coverage are the same as the tabs. I can see this (sort of) if the section is designed for accessibility, but it would be much better suited as quick searches within each main section (which themselves are merely chronological article listings, only moderately useful).
6) I am puzzled by the numerous (as in dozens of) instances of hardcoding styles into the HTML, considering the supposed CSS design. In fact, I think I can trace a few problems (such as #1) back to this (though it's difficult to say for sure). Recommend you not only run the page through the validator (which currently generates ~400 errors, only some of which are typical minor 'missing alt tag' types, and most of which I would consider significant if I were designing or overseeing the page design), but also review the web accessibility guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/).
7) Definitely agree that the RHS sidebar should be News first, then picks, then blog. (well, at the very least News should be first)
8) Assuming #5 is corrected, that leaves a lot of empty room at the bottom of the page. Would recommend making use of the suggestions of many others and extend the summary with picture entries in the reviews section to around 4 or 5, and include, say, the last 5-10 news items. I can't see that adding more than 10k to the page size (and that's being generous), which means you should still not be anywhere near the 300k mark you were previously serving.
9) The "Welcome..." is not grammatically correct. It currently says, "Welcome, from United States it's 12:27 PM EDT on July 6, 2004". It would be better written as "Welcome to AnandTech from The United States. It's currently 12:27 PM EDT on July 6, 2004".
9a) For the poster who saw an additional line when he copied/pasted along the lines of "Welcome to AnandTech from California, United States", that's from the alt tag of the little flag image up there. Perfectly normal, although nowhere near accurate (I'm about 1500 miles from California).
I'm not a negative person but so far this new design sucks...
The Latest news should be in the front page, at least 1 or 2 days old... The articles MUST HAVE the date they were published, even the 'more reviews' ones...
The Anandtech Product Coverage shouldn't be in the main page... It's good to see old reviews, but if i'm searching for a old review i would click the "reviews" link, or something like that...
I repeat, i'm not a negative person and Anandtech is the best tech site for me but this new design is not better looking and has a poorer usability.
I like the speed. I do miss the home link on the logo & I would like to see recient reviews listed per catagory, like last 3 or < 2 weeks old, something like that for each section, with a pop up summary when you cursor over the title.
I also liked the News summaries listed one after another, maybe set up a seperate news page like the bottom of the old front page?
I haven't found the Product Coverage section overly useful yet...
Keep at it...You'll get the best site to have the best design yet!
I agree, the news should be more streamlined. I also think that the Anandtech Product Coverage should be removed and have the articles fill that space. I mean, don't the tabs already serve that purpose?
Oh, to block the ads put these URLs into whatever program (or firewall) you use.
The new design is a huge step back in terms of functionality.
Before I would click on the first news story and scroll through the rest. Now I have to click on each one individually? I understand that you might want more hits, but the ease of checking the news is what made me visit this site. So now you're going from 1-3 hits per day to 0.
I've been visiting AT pretty much daily since day one. I've been through all fo the site re-designs and re-names. I've never had a huge problem with anything. (Even load times last summer when I was stuck on dial-up, and I'm normaly a braodband user.) I agree with most others. News and reviews should be prominent. I don't want to feel like if I'm not quick enough I might miss something. Please change things (if not back to the way they were), so that at least reviews and news are easier to view. Make a new page for this if you have to. I don't want to take AT from my daily visit for many years to one I only visit every once in a while.
The site looks nice, but I really don't give a crap about that. 99% of the informative content is in the text. It is very commonly the case that piles of pictures end up being confusing visual noise. It takes talent and restraint to avoid this.
I don't know what people mean by "the old site." Are they oblivious, or just casual newbies posturing as regulars? It had been changed, revised, and diddled with many, many times; sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but it had got to the point of being a hodgepodge. It was the right idea to do a total rethink. To me the present site is more or less the same as the old site, except for incidental acoutrements, but with a neater, tighter organization.
Loading fast is good. At 28,800 (my speed), 300K takes 2 minutes. What I like to do is check sites to see what is up today. There is no reason why this cannot be quick, as shown by what you have done. If Anandtech was not my top favorite site, I would have skipped it most days, the amount of time it was taking.
It's not much of an excuse that broadband is around. It's still bloat, waste and clutter.
If the site designer tries to please everyone, he will please no one. Complainers and loudmouths are the most likely to leave comments. You cannot set a sensible course by using them as guide, or a course that will please the majority either. Some kind of internal compass has to be the primary guide.
I remember when Anand was a child phenomenon (15? sheesh), and this kind of site was a new thing, so I've seen a lot of versions of this site. At one time Anand was doing videos you could download. So I saw this little kid, who looked like he was up until 3 AM and was about to drop, taking the screws out of something with an electric screwdriver. Little Anand was one of the guys who set the course this kind of hard-core tekky site would take.
I come to Anandtech to get user comment information for the reviews and the news. I like access to that stuff on the front page. Currently everything on the front page is useless fluff smothered in banners, and I have to navigate much more to find useful user comment information. If it stays like this then atleast offer a monthly buyers guide for highend systems like July's article and please throw in a recommendation for HDTV screens for people that want to game on an HTPC. (it hard to find this information) I wish Hard OCP had user comment links with their news....
All of the advertisements on the homepage really suck. There are three banners that are exactly the same.
The new site looks better, but where are the reviews and such. It was nice coming to the homepage to see exactly what was new. This way makes it harder to figure out what is new.
The Anandtech site needs an icon of the A with the orange dash for the site bookmark icon. I currently looks like a blank page in Firefox.... HardOCP's icon looks more professional.
I like the new design so far but I have a few things I think should be changed.
On the right hand side it should be Latest News then Anand's Blog and then Anand's Picks. Actually I would just leave news on the right hand side and remove the other stuff. Makes the site look like it's all about Anand and not the community.
In the middle I think Latest Reviews should be 3 or 4 deep instead of 2. Top Insider stories can then be placed under More Reviews. It seems like there is so little content on the front page now.
As for the tabs at the top, why is there space between them in IE 6? They should be right next to each other. Also why just a Linux section? Why not an OS section? We don't seperate OSes in the forums, why on the main site?
Finally, make the image at the top a link! Makes getting back to the main site from the forums a PITA.
Actually, I hate it. I wasn't going to say anything but you asked. THere are way too few articles listed in the body of the page, so if I don't check in daily, I suspect I'll miss something important.
the best part about the new site design is that Macs get treated like every other computer the way they should be..... thanks for following thru on your word to add a mac section and forum.
terrrible,this is a good example for people ,what mustn't to do.this is a so ugly design,navigation nearly impossible,you can't know what tne news of day etc.Turn your roots anand :).i want easy navigation back
First the fourms now this.
With everyone changing everywebsite it is nice to be able to come home to a place where you know where things are. I have no home now.
Hi. I´m a Brazilian reader. It´s going to take some time to get used to the new web design. The problem is that in Brazil we have 4 diferent times and your site doesn´t display my region´s time properly (I´m in Sao Paulo and your site is 1 hour late than our clocks). Take that out altogether. No one is going to miss it. Also, get rid of all those spywares and keep up the usual good work.
Greetings from Brazil.
I really liked the old way of having the news headlines right out there on the front page. It made the page fast, because once its loaded you have access to all the news. Establising a TCP connection is slow, by having it all in the first go, I could read what I care about (news) and perhaps once in a while read one of the reviews.
Hence, I dislike the new design because you've removed the news. I dont care about bandwidth. Even the slowest connections used today can handle 300k text easily. But establishing the connections is another matter, this takes time and resources. Once they are up, you should hurl as much data through it as possible, before you bring it down.
Actually this style of over-linked and unuseable homepage was the reason why I stopped wisiting THG. I hope you will change it back (or to something better), since this way I will visit this site ONLY for big reviews after BIG releases from manufactures => 90% of content ignored.
Got to go with the crowd here Anand. The old layout allowed me to easily revisit reviews I had read days before, something I find myself doing frequently to make sure Ive got my facts straight. Your blog isnt nearly as important to me as is the news so maybe you should think about placing it below. The Product Coverage page, though dog-ass ugly, is a great idea. None of your changes will cause me to abandon visiting your site, but you asked for our opinion so....
I'm not fond of the new design, but if you guys are keeping it how about a "select design" type feature for users to switch between the old and new one?
Generally agree with #53, BUT:
For my taste, the new logo is *way* too dark in the background, the old one was somehow better colour-wise.
The blog, product picks and news should swap places - but I guess the revenue is high the higher up the product picks are :c)
Completely agree with the comments made about the review section (way too small) and the product coverage box. That one looked to me at first glance a bit like a tombstone.
The ads: is it really neccessary to have 10(!) at the front page? All flashing and blinking and moving and stuff?
Last rant: I'm not usually into conspiracy theories, but is this "Greetings from ..." somehow transferred back to AT or to Ad providers? Personally I never needed a webpage to figure out where I am so there must be some other use for it I wonder?
Anyway, you did a good job over the past couple of years and that won't hopefully change with the site update.
If you really value the comments of your readers and don't follow a "eat or die" policy - I hope you will rework the new design.
it looks good but i wonder why there are digital camera reviews here
but why are there only two articles are are in in "latest reviews"?
that kinda makes it hard for to look at all the recent articles
Hi anand,
Everything looks very sharp and i like it, but i do really as many others say: the old layout is quite better, although keeping the speed load time is fine, just think about us who are still connecting via dial-up, so sad but true. thanks.
Faster load times are good... otherwise I liked the old layout a lot better... I agree with what seems to be the majority of users here that there isn't enough content on the main page anymore.
I kind of liked the old one better. I often read this page on my smartphone and the old page was perfect with a lot of news right on the frontpage. I know you've added a mobile section, but as a third alternative you could just have a textpage with brief news like the lower part of the old layout. The old page was <30k if you disabled images so it was perfect for handhelds.
Anyway, this is still the number one HW page, Thanks for all great articles.
not enough articles on the front page. 4 would be cool. I just get the feeling that if you're not fast, you might miss a good article, cause it would have to move off the front page to make room for newer articles. Then it would get lost in all of the links somewhere.
liked the old layout better - this one is better for newbies to anandtech who maybe visit once a fortnight or something.
this is daily bread for me - so i want to see the descriptions of the major reviews/articles as opposed to just descriptions for 2 and titles for the rest.
the width too should be lesser - i'm on 10x7 but i keep my taskbar aligned to the left instead of the bottom - so i have to do left/right scrolling.
Sadly i'm in with the majority here too...the old site was much more crisp and very easy to see the content. I feel like i'm watching commercials instead of visiting the page that has been my 'home'page for as long as i can remember.
Liked the old logo at the top better...the tabs being rounded seems a little odd. This is definitely design over usability.
I thought this site catered quite well to the 'engineering type'...now the look certainly doesn't.
I must mentione it again...the ads have *got* to be toned down...it's just way too much, 8 on one page.
I hate to be so critical, but i don't even need a week to make my decision...the last time it changed, i could tell i /would/ like it. I'm not getting the same feeling here.
Another comment to add to my large list in comment #35:
8) Where are the dates on the front page? There are no dates on the latest reviews, and no dates on the older reviews. On the old layout, every single review/article used to have a date. At the very least the latest articles need dates.
this isn't going to be very constructive - cbf'd, sorry. Suffice to say that I no longer to go your site on a daily basis as a result of your changes - I just don't see the information I require poppping out at me.
Now I use your RSS feed, so I still get the latest information :)
this isn't going to be very constructive - cbf'd, sorry. Suffice to say that I no longer to go your site on a daily basis as a result of your changes - I just don't see the information I require poppping out at me.
No I use your RSS feed, so I still get the latest information :)
sucks big time, slow page display.. hate the blue anandtech logo.. gone more commercial.. and I don't wanna read somebody's weblog?(no offence!) PUT the reviews and NEWS first!!
Personally, I preferred the old design, but I'll like this design alot more if you implement two things...
1. The logo should link to the front page. I think this was just an accidental omission.
2. The news/reviews layout on the front page is now rather hard to use. What I was suggest, as an alternative, is to return to the old style of review listings, and, when a viewer first visits the website, have a redirect page ask for low speed or high speed connection and implement a cookie so that in the future when the redirect page checks the cookie it will automatically go to the full layout with news on the page, or, if the person selects low speed, to the current setup (with slightly revised review section of course).
I also don't care for the new page. I've been reading this site for almost 6 years now and I just don't like this. My suggestions:
1. Move the news to the top of the RHS where Anand's Blog is. If you're going to use the slogan "Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News", the the News should be at the top.
2. I miss having the News on one page. It was a lot easier to scroll through and read than having to click from page to page. Maybe it doesn't have to be on the front page but a page of just the News would be nice.
2. Remove the Anand's Blog section. As already mentioned, there is a link on the LHS so this section is redundant.
3. Move the Anand's Picks below the news or remove the section all together. If I'm looking for a deal, I'll check the Hot Deals section of the forums.
4. Remove the AnandTech Product Coverage. It's unnecessarily redundant with the tabs at the top. Plus it makes the site look cluttered with too much text. Removing this section would free more space for more articles to be posted on the front page, which again is more in line with the "Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News".
Sorry if I'm being too critical but this seems like change for change's sake. And that's not always a good thing.
I don't mind the new site, but it does seem a bit busy with all the Product Coverage links. And, although busy, those links don't really describe what you should expect if you click on them. I personally had thought they were going to be ads.
I do like the new tabs. I should point out though that the iMac for the Macintosh tab has been discontinued already. ;)
This seems like a definite step back from the previous layout. When I first saw the new design late last night I thought it was partially beta or something, I was shocked to learn that this is the finished product.
I don’t get it…..personally I don't see how this is a step forward in aspect.
I like the new site. I was sure though there would be many that would not like it. It was the same when the Forms were changed too, so many complained and complained. The only issue I had was clicking on the Anandtech logo when on the Forms to get back to the main site. You fixed that so I like it. Otherwise it's first rate.
Well the new site is different. I will give it a week of use to really make any judgement. I do not feel it is too confusing, I can already find the news, look at the current reviews, and actually have buttons at the top for sections that were not there before. I will agree though that there are just too many adds, maybe the number is fine its just they all are animated, it brings back the memories of using the good ole BLINK tag :) I am sure we all remember that.
Obvioulsy being all CSS there are tweaks to be made, good job getting it to this point. Again with time getting used to it, I am sure it will be fine.
I have to put my 2c in the "preferred the old layout" bucket.
I realize you're trying to save on front-page load time (and possibly even your own bandwidth costs and server load) but the new layout is significantly more confusing looking to me than the previous.
Even if you want to keep only the two most recent articles in the "large preview" format on the front page, it'd be less confusing if the "More Reviews" section appeared below the "Recent Reviews" because that would mean I could read the page linearly from top to bottom, instead of having to jump over columns.
But please, listen to the masses! Put it back the way it was! At least 3 or 4 articles on the main page!
1. More than 2 articles /w pics on the main page. 5 or 10 would be nice
2. Move 'Latest News' above Anand's blog
Latest News, Search AT, Anand's blog.
3. I'm sure you put some effort into the Product Coverage box, but I just don't really care for it. As long as it stays on the bottom of the page though, I won't care :)
I have been stuck on a dial up connection over the summer, and load time was never a problem for me before. I like showing the recent blogs on the front page, it saves me from having to check the link to see if there is a new one.
If you are concerned about load times, put the news back on the front page. It takes me infinitely longer to load each story individually than the main page loaded before. Or, at least make a news page link that allows you to navigate from the main page to a page with all of the most recent news articles. On most stories I don't care to see the comments.
I do appreciate the effort and think that Anandtech is on the right track. You can't make everyone happy, but please listen to our suggestions and keep up the effort.
AnandTech Product coverage is "redundant" from the top main tabs and the only thing I would like to see on the right hand pain is "NEWS". I don't care about the "Pick" or the "Weblog" because there is already a main link to the "Weblog" on the right and I will decide for myself what to buy so putting up your picks is useless for me. Your great reviews and information in the articles is all I need for that part. I also like all the pictures on the right next to the articles and now you only have (2).
Like I said, other than the top part standing out for the new logo in blue, I like the old site better.
Yeah, it now looks like a site that you'd get as your home page if you were infected with spyware, links EVERYWHERE!
Man, Anand, as I stated before, I love your stuff - heck, I'm even a CPU subscriber because of your contributions... but this is a bad decision. Too many ads, not enough visible content.
Maybe if you even had an option to subscribe for a nominal fee to remove the ads and recover the area for content, like it was before - you might still come out on top.
But this is... poorly designed. It's very Toms Hardware, which I never visit anylonger because it's link city, impossible to find the good stuff! Don't go that way!
Its my homepage your talking about here so excuse me if I sound emotional, its like losing an old friend.
Its very confusing splitting 'Top Insider Stories' from 'Latest Reviews' since now ive got to remember to check both columns. Theres also no orderly list (with helpful pictures) so im going to be doubly afraid of missing reviews or articles now.
The largest part of the page is given over to the 'Anandtech Product Coverage' now, whereas before it was the main review list taking pride of place. Its communicating that the latest reviews are less important.
Surely theres an easier way to keep the original review list?
I'm also on broadband, but your site used to load slow for some reason. Only the top logo and bars loaded, then a few seconds, THEN the text article... don't know what you did to fix it but don't change it back.
Oh yeah, and the Anand Blog right up at the top? Seems more like a forum thing to me... stick it way at the bottom or in the forum section and leave the top space for something important, like oh I dunno, the news?
I must admit I prefer the old site. The new site is MUCH more confusing and complicated!
However, I think the new site shows promise, it just needs improvements:
1) Tone down the ads. There's 6 of the suckers visible on the front page, and they're way too tight together. There's a giant banner ad, and right underneath it is another banner ad, a little bit of content, then ANOTHER banner ad!
2) Put more full-descriptions with pictures and less "More reviews"! Perhaps you could make it customizable; I would like at least 5 "Latest Reviews", and preferably closer to 10. Instead we get 2!
3) I hate the "AnandTech Product Coverage" box. It's a massive block of text partially visible without even scrolling! It's ugly and makes the site look like a cheap advertisement-scam site. Hide it in a subsection, get it off the main page!
4) A bit more news in the sidebar; how about 2 full days instead of one and a quarter?
5) Been said before; logo should link to main, it's standard web practice.
6) If Anand's blog is going to be published to the front page, the titles should be more descriptive; the general titles are fine when the content is right underneath them, but what does "This makes me sick" tell you about the content of the post? Or "I'm getting old"?
7) The text at the top of the screen reads "Welcome, from Canada it's 9:07 PM EDT on July 5, 2004"... This is not grammatically correct. I'm no grammar whiz, but there should at least be a comma or period between "Canada" and "it's". Also, when I copy-paste the line, I get MORE text than I see, I get "Welcome, from Canada it's 9:07 PM EDT on July 5, 2004 Welcome to AnandTech from Quebec, Canada". Where does that second "Welcome to AnandTech from Quebec, Canada" come from? I can't see it in the browser, only when I copy paste. And if you know I'm in Quebec, why not show that instead of hiding it?
That's it! I feel that if those suggestions were implemented, the new site would be as good as or better than the old one.
I don't like it, but understand why you changed things. Maybe make a news page in the formatt of the old one? I hate the news archive.
Now here's a big bug using Firebird .9. When you click on comments, and it opens up in a new window, it will open up and size the text width as if the window is full screen, and won't resize. Then shrink down to the pop up size, meaning you have to side scroll alot to read comments. In IE it works fine.
I'm afraid I have to join the ranks of the many who do not like the new site design.
The old layout with its more copious article space made it easier to catch up on recent articles if you hadn't been coming for a while. Any bandwidth saved by the new site design is obviated if we have to load the page more often to see what we've missed. Also, having fewer articles on the front page makes it harder to tell when we've missed a new writeup - it'd be a shame to have a recent article fall into oblivio because no one knew it was there.
Lastly, what's with all the flashing ads? I know the ad revenue is important in maintaining the site, but I seriously thoght I was going to suffer an epileptic attack when I loaded the site. Anandtech, being one of the largest and most influential tech sites, should have the clout to tell the advertisers to tone down their ads. In the meantime, I have been sufficiently annoyed by the ads to uninstall Flash.
A comment and suggestion about your new digital camera site.
I really like this new digital camera research section. It is very timely, because I am currently researching which digital camera would be best for me. I am looking for a wide angle digital camera to take pictures of the landscape, yet enable me to take good close ups as well, with high resolution. I don't know if this is possible without buying a digital SLR camera with an interchangeable lens.
I currently have a 35 mm (film) Fujifilm, Panorama Zoom lens (38-120mm). So far, I have not found a digital camera that has enough resolution, nor the wide angle, and features and most importantly, a resonable price that would justify me not using the old 35 mm film camera anymore.
Mr. editor, if you should come across a camera (perhaps in the near future when it comes out), please publish the data. I will be very interested. I trust Anandtech's research and find it very reliable and trustworthy. Past data have been corroborated independently by other sites as Extremetech. I also like your other research sections (CPU, Motherboards, etc.) Keep up the good work.
If you want my opinion in detail, then I think the new site looks like a graphic designer was let loose on it, without any human-computer interface person to moderate it. Sure, it looks pretty and loads fast, but it also is more awkward to use. The news on the bottom of the front page actually was incredibly useful, and the new loss of space dedicated to recent articles really hurts the appeal of the site to me.
Look, I really appreciate what you at Anandtech do for all of us. You offer excellent coverage of the entire field. There's one problem - a significant part of the appeal of your site was exactly how nice it was to use. You lost that this time around.
I've been here, and I think I'll be here for a while... but it looks like it may not be as long as I'd like, if this is the design for the site going forward. I'm just uncomfortable with using it... the classic problem of the GUI designer.
personally id flip the order of the right column. Sure reading about anands personal life is cool, but the news is most important, limit the news section to about 10 items, and have Anand's picks right after that still visible. w/ his blog below it.
right now there is A LOT of white space at the bottom w/ the gigabyte advertisement, and Anand's blog has a few lines between it and Anand's picks
The spirally thingy in the background of the logo looks like Sh!t, sorry but it is all pixelated and looks like a 6 year old did it, SOURCE is also moderately pixelated, if i were to change the logo, i would take the slogan, turn it blackish and put it below and start is about at the 'E' in Anandtech, it would make it flow better, however i see how something is needed between Anandtech and the right side of the page, maybe like get a closeup pic of a mobo, or the 'internal' of a CPU and make it bluish to sorta blend in.
there is a lot of spave in the News section between Systemax Hurrican 6K post, and the BFG Tech post.
in the forums is goes from the main site hearder to a light bluish tint, and then to grey, not sure what is going on there.
Actually, there are alot of readers on 56K modems, and slower broadband connections. Rendering speed is important, as is page size. The old site took at least 4-5 seconds to load for most people, if not much more on slower connections.
Whether we like it or not CSS layout is the standard for web development.
The top bar takes up no more space than before, infact it's shorter.
We'll work on linking the logo, it's a background image which is why it is not linked.
The tabs are organized to most popular sections, navigation always goes left to right.
Resolution hasn't chagnes, only more articles is a smaller text, to fit it in.
The div layout looks identical to IE in Mozilla, FireFox and netscape. Not sure what "Gecko" browser you are using?
Old site was much better. I've been an avid Anandtech reader for 4 years now and thought I had typed in the wrong URL!
I go to the site for the quality articles and reviews that I love anandtech for, and I liked it when those were the most prominent elements on the home page.
Liked the old page better. I thought 'where did all the reviews go?' when i loaded up. I much prefer the picture and the article summary for all articles instead of just 2 and the rest in text.
Very much like the Product Coverage section. The old search was terrible. Now I can just click on whatever product I want.
Also layout at the top looks bad in Mozilla/Firefox and removing the logo link to Home was a bad idea. The Home link at the end of an article took you to the home of the corresponding tab from the top not the home page so I would always just click on the anandtech logo.
If you change the way the reviews are laid out it will make all the difference in the world about this new site.
Despite new good things, overall site change is negative for me.
- On the RHS toolbar, swap News and Blog headlines so news is at the top. Its the regular AT'ers who will be interested in the blog, they wont need it listed prominently.
- In my IE, the search is immediately under the LHS nav links, but in my Firefox it's far below, so not visable without scrolling down.
- maybe have Latest Reviews longer, maybe latest 5/6? tbh I'd much prefer it Latest Articles ;)
- Anandtech Product Coverage looks a bit like a space filler, though useful navigation tool. imo let the bigger Lastest Articles fill this and put Product Coverage either somewhere in an advanced search or on a seperate page linked to on left navbar.
- no offence, but "Welcome, from United Kingdom it's 6:49 PM EDT on July 5, 2004" is a bit "how you like my home page!!!". I know where I am, and the date/time is in the corner of my screen. Hide it at the bottom, if anywhere.
- if the ads were hosted at anandtech.com, I might see them ;)
- maybe rearrange the tabs so theyre grouped more systematically, e.g.
mobos / cpu / memory / video / storage / casescooling / displays / systems
mobile / linux / mac / digicams/ multimedia / IT comp / trade shows / guides
I'd second most of those negative comments already posted about the site changes, esp. about screen scrolling. The old layout was clear and intuitive and frankly had more visual authority (for one powder blue is not a particularly authoritative color)--you knew what was where and what was new. Just change the crt in the old logo to an lcd. The idea of a category/component list at the bottom of the homepage is sound (though then why still the tabs up top?) but the execution recalls the wretched Pricegrabber homepage (is "more" really a category?)
That said, the complaints clearly come from dedicated readers, incl. this one.
BTW, happy belated birthday; I'm shocked 1)that you're only 22 & the site is 7 years old and 2) that you're already complaining about feeling old! At almost twice your age I can assure you that you're still a baby! Enjoy; you'll look back on that remark and shake your head in disbelief when you get this far.
I must agree that the resolution is too small. But the new colors are really really nice, Anand. I am looking forward to seeing something in the Mac section!
I typically use AT by reading down the list of recent articles, opening any I am interested in until I come to articles I have seen on my last visit. The article images were a great way of easily identifying where the new articles end.
I don't think file size should be a big issue as I would immage the high majority of readers have broadband. For me the new design will be slower to use.
i liked the old layout better becuase it was more visably organized. you had all the pictures on the left then all the summaries then all the news, all in nice columns.
I been going to this site for a while. The old old design, the design before the one you just changed was just perfect because I got used to it. For the people here, it makes them feel at home and changing the layout puts them in a distance. So what I would suggest, don't change this design unless technology denies it.
Yeah, not liking the new look too much either. Getting the page size down was kind of splitting hairs if you ask me. Most of your readers (if not most of the average internet users) are on broadband now and 300Kb is a slight hit to take to get the easy to read news prompts like you had before.
Also, seems like much of the div layout is not correct in Gecko browsers. In Firefox the tabs are separated, they don't overlay the bottom of the banner correctly anymore, and the banner is 1 or 2 pixels offset from the main content.
Never understood why the webmasters got all geeky about div layouts.. they never come out right, at least not between different browser engines.. and they are slower to load. You can actually SEE the different stages of the page loading now.
And who :giveaf: about the speed of the homepage loading now if it's not as intuitive and informative? Great so now I can get to it quicker except, it doesn't have what I want to see.
I would like to be able to click on the AnandTech logo to return to the main page. Also, I think the layout could be simpler/better/easier on the eyes. Tech people shouldn't do interface design ;-) Ask some of the new Mac people (where's the content here?) for help ;-)
Just a little constructive criticism. Please don't take it the wrong way.
The tabs take up too much real estate. You have to scroll over to see them @ 800x600. It looks like you targeted 1024x768 browser size, but most people keep their browser at below 700px width even if their desktop has an insane resolution.
The top logo is a little amateurish. The font is using too much anti-aliasing and makes it look a little blurry. That combined with the (intentional?) mosaic in the background just does not sit right.
You could probably make the logo a little smaller in height then shrink the tabs in width and height. Then butt the tabs against the left. The smaller heights will let you drop the nav-bar down so you can also butt the banner ad against the left as well. If you shrink the right column (news) about a third, combined with everything else, you can probably shave 200px off the width of the page and still keep the ads visible.
^ ^ ^ Poll I started in the forums to make sure it wasn't just me.^ ^ ^
In the forums there are now no links to the home page.
The smaller reviews is too small and should probable go back to the top down linear setup as before. I used the small pictures to know which reviews I have already read, now I have to keep up with the titles instead (I can probable get used to the cluttered feel after a while)
It looks horrible on 800x600 desktops as you now have to scroll left and right to see the news and older reviews.
The loading of white issue is browser side, we're all css layout now. When the divs load, depends on what content is in them and the way the browser parses the html.
It looks nicer overall without changing too much. I think it could be improved if a few more reviews on the front page were shown with the picture and article excerpt - it'd give some room to focus on something other than a barrage of links. Also, the white background for the articles loads after the green background for the page, which is kind of odd, but not particularly trifling.
Hey guys, good feedback. We took news off the front page as it caused the front page to total 300KB, unacceptable size. We're down to 34k, 5-8k compressed html now. Home links to home, but we hear you about linking the logo.
Kinda sucks, I want more recent articles displayed on the front page with small text and pic, like it was before.
Also, PUT A LINK TO MAIN PAGE IN THE HEADER BAR!!!!
There is a link to every sub section, but not the damned front page, especially annoying when on the forums page.
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132 Comments
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maxplanar - Thursday, July 15, 2004 - link
I find the page much too cluttered - I don't know where to look for anything, and a good bit too wide - the Macintosh and Guides tabs are off the edge of my browser window when set at a size that I find works for almost every site I surf.m.rouillla - Thursday, July 15, 2004 - link
how come the older date news headline links (right side) do not works ?Jon - Saturday, July 10, 2004 - link
I hate having to look in four places on the main page for new articles instead of two. The new interface for digging through web news needs work also.jacez - Friday, July 9, 2004 - link
PLEASE PLEASE bring a smiliar style as the Old site, Sorry but this one Sucks.. All my friends agree. I dont think i can put up with this one for long. - Plz bring the old one back or something smiliar to it ThanxAdam - Thursday, July 8, 2004 - link
I'm sorry to say that the new design looks to much like Tom's hardware guide.Be bold a go for a new(er) look!
My two cents that are only worth one!
R.S. - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I also liked the old layout more. I liked having the ability to just scroll down and read the latest news. If the article didnt interest me, I didnt have to read on. Now I have to navigate away from front page to read anything at all.Just my two cents.
cheers
Ciwell - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I liked the old site better as well.Defrost - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I liked the old one better - sorry...Seems like there is to much squeezed in to little space on the front page. The old layout had wider text lines, witch made it much easier to search, and much more reader-friendly. Go back to three instead of the new compact four columns.
Although i think the new layout is worse than the old, it it still in another league (and far better) compared to toms hardware.
Agree with post 123, exept for the colors. They look fine to me
(When the winds of change is blowing, some build windbreaks and some build windmills - I just hope this windmill isn't facing the wrong way!)
Clonester - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
Hi all...Did they just fix the website???
There is now news on the side right side of website and the x logo at top right hand corner has now disappeared...
Wohoot.... I like this now...
ClONESTER
runamile - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I really did like the news being all together. And I surf the net extesivly daily and all while on the clock ;), so I consider myself quite fast in understanding a site, but frankly I don't know what the hell is going on. What are all these different reviews, all split up? Latest reviews, more reviews, 'top insider stories'? Whats up with all that? Can't they all just get along?And whats up with that 'Product Coverage' thing on the bottom? Are we trying to look like that crappy tom's hardware?(which did change away from that style, but still) It is good to split up the different articles and guides, but isn't that what the tabs at the top are for?
And that new color at the top really does bug me. Sorry. The colors and style really dosn't fit in with...well.. anything.
xenon14 - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
How about more links with pictures next to them> I like visual aides.Bozo - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The old front page was much better. It's hard to find anything on the new one.Bozo
segagenesis - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I miss the news being on the front page already :/Robert - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Looks like change for change sake, with no real advantage to the end-user. Hope you are paying a lot for the new look!Anonymous - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
No real comments about the new design. I'll get used to it eventually :-)However, I've been wanting to ask you to at least mention Linux compatibility on your reviews. Drivers, who's working on them, the manufacturer's position re Linux.
It goes without saying that if you could test, I would feel even better.
TIA
Anonymous - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I like the look, but I agree with making the reviews more prominent. If I have to click on the "News" page to see the headlines, I can deal with that, I suppose.To KF, #100, all I can say is... you've been coming to Anandtech since Day 1 and you browse the Internet on a 28.8 modem? Wow.
Anonymous - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
this is one of the worst designs i've ever seen. PLEASE bring back the old layout, but clean up the HTML...someonewhocares - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
1) 9 ads on the homepage, 3 of them identical flash banner ads. I have since uninstalled flash...2) nothing good on the homepage anymore, just a bunch of links and really anoying flash. Yea, it was larger before but it was larger because there was good content. You have made it smaller, but you also made it worthless (thank goodness for RSS)
3) bad HTML coding, not valid HTML ( http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=ht...
4) did I mention the 3 identical anoying flash ads?
5) white background durring articles loads last on the page taking forever waiting for the slow ad servers. :tdown: to black text on grey background.
Until you fix things I am afraid that I will stick to RSS. You had a really nice site before, excellent design, visually appealing... but now ads and poor CSS are destroying things.
jim - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The old site had a much cleaner and intuitive interface. This new layout is confusing and not as attractive.~D - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I liked the old site much better. The front page was much easier to navigate for newer articles. Can you have high and low bandwidth versions of the front page?Anonymous - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Don't like the date/time in the corner.I like how News is now a seperate page, and I can definately understand that it saves you a lot of bandwidth costs.
"Top Insider Stories" sounds like a subscription service(Think IGN and ESPN)...might want to rethink that title...something like "Anandtech Industy Articles" or something.
I also thought the Product Coverage box was an ad, but I like the idea.
David - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Correction on #8 above: if #5 is corrected, then the addition of the other items should end up with a net change of almost nothing (maybe 1-2k), and the purely additional (not subtracting for the product page) is also adding in the size of the article images in the rather rough estimate.David - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
1) Have to reiterate the comment about the green background showing through. The problem is that the page is often blocked waiting for ads to be served (ad servers being notoriously slow, and even if not, there are a lot of ads being served), or waiting for a lot of content (eg: the real time pricing page). The black text showing up on the dark teal background is impossible to read, and looks sloppy while waiting for things to load. Considering the supposed CSS design, this should only happen very rarely at most (and never if properly designed), when first loading a page when the CSS file has expired from cache. Instead I'm seeing it constantly.2) 'About' should not be the second item in the LHS menu. That sort of thing should always be at or near the end of a menu list.
3) The 'RSS/Mobile Users' should not be above 'News'. Since the RSS page is meta info on the News page, it should follow the News entry.
4) I personally would place 'News' above 'Forums', considering that the site is billed as a news site, not a web community.
5) The Product Coverage section (aside from the title image not having alt text) is redundant with the tabs at the top of the page. The main sections of Product Coverage are the same as the tabs. I can see this (sort of) if the section is designed for accessibility, but it would be much better suited as quick searches within each main section (which themselves are merely chronological article listings, only moderately useful).
6) I am puzzled by the numerous (as in dozens of) instances of hardcoding styles into the HTML, considering the supposed CSS design. In fact, I think I can trace a few problems (such as #1) back to this (though it's difficult to say for sure). Recommend you not only run the page through the validator (which currently generates ~400 errors, only some of which are typical minor 'missing alt tag' types, and most of which I would consider significant if I were designing or overseeing the page design), but also review the web accessibility guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/).
7) Definitely agree that the RHS sidebar should be News first, then picks, then blog. (well, at the very least News should be first)
8) Assuming #5 is corrected, that leaves a lot of empty room at the bottom of the page. Would recommend making use of the suggestions of many others and extend the summary with picture entries in the reviews section to around 4 or 5, and include, say, the last 5-10 news items. I can't see that adding more than 10k to the page size (and that's being generous), which means you should still not be anywhere near the 300k mark you were previously serving.
9) The "Welcome..." is not grammatically correct. It currently says, "Welcome, from United States it's 12:27 PM EDT on July 6, 2004". It would be better written as "Welcome to AnandTech from The United States. It's currently 12:27 PM EDT on July 6, 2004".
9a) For the poster who saw an additional line when he copied/pasted along the lines of "Welcome to AnandTech from California, United States", that's from the alt tag of the little flag image up there. Perfectly normal, although nowhere near accurate (I'm about 1500 miles from California).
AlfateK - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I'm not a negative person but so far this new design sucks...The Latest news should be in the front page, at least 1 or 2 days old... The articles MUST HAVE the date they were published, even the 'more reviews' ones...
The Anandtech Product Coverage shouldn't be in the main page... It's good to see old reviews, but if i'm searching for a old review i would click the "reviews" link, or something like that...
I repeat, i'm not a negative person and Anandtech is the best tech site for me but this new design is not better looking and has a poorer usability.
just my 0.02€
Mike Barton - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I like the speed. I do miss the home link on the logo & I would like to see recient reviews listed per catagory, like last 3 or < 2 weeks old, something like that for each section, with a pop up summary when you cursor over the title.I also liked the News summaries listed one after another, maybe set up a seperate news page like the bottom of the old front page?
I haven't found the Product Coverage section overly useful yet...
Keep at it...You'll get the best site to have the best design yet!
PorBleemo - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I agree, the news should be more streamlined. I also think that the Anandtech Product Coverage should be removed and have the articles fill that space. I mean, don't the tabs already serve that purpose?Oh, to block the ads put these URLs into whatever program (or firewall) you use.
*http://images.anandtech.com/banners/
*http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/AD_Banner/
*http://www.anandtech.com/i/pipeboost.gif
PreacherBoy - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The new design is a huge step back in terms of functionality.Before I would click on the first news story and scroll through the rest. Now I have to click on each one individually? I understand that you might want more hits, but the ease of checking the news is what made me visit this site. So now you're going from 1-3 hits per day to 0.
PorBleemo - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The AdBlock extension in FireFox works wonderfully for "fixing" the main site. No more ads! :)Hardtarget - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I don't like it. i liked how the news worked before plus there isn't enough recent articles now being displayed.Me - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I am sorry, I counted wrong. Nine ads. That's a little over the top, no?araczynski - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
too 'busy', why does every site have to try to deliver the world???FOCUS
Loyal - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I've been visiting AT pretty much daily since day one. I've been through all fo the site re-designs and re-names. I've never had a huge problem with anything. (Even load times last summer when I was stuck on dial-up, and I'm normaly a braodband user.) I agree with most others. News and reviews should be prominent. I don't want to feel like if I'm not quick enough I might miss something. Please change things (if not back to the way they were), so that at least reviews and news are easier to view. Make a new page for this if you have to. I don't want to take AT from my daily visit for many years to one I only visit every once in a while.KF - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Every change I noticed was for the better.The site looks nice, but I really don't give a crap about that. 99% of the informative content is in the text. It is very commonly the case that piles of pictures end up being confusing visual noise. It takes talent and restraint to avoid this.
I don't know what people mean by "the old site." Are they oblivious, or just casual newbies posturing as regulars? It had been changed, revised, and diddled with many, many times; sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but it had got to the point of being a hodgepodge. It was the right idea to do a total rethink. To me the present site is more or less the same as the old site, except for incidental acoutrements, but with a neater, tighter organization.
Loading fast is good. At 28,800 (my speed), 300K takes 2 minutes. What I like to do is check sites to see what is up today. There is no reason why this cannot be quick, as shown by what you have done. If Anandtech was not my top favorite site, I would have skipped it most days, the amount of time it was taking.
It's not much of an excuse that broadband is around. It's still bloat, waste and clutter.
If the site designer tries to please everyone, he will please no one. Complainers and loudmouths are the most likely to leave comments. You cannot set a sensible course by using them as guide, or a course that will please the majority either. Some kind of internal compass has to be the primary guide.
I remember when Anand was a child phenomenon (15? sheesh), and this kind of site was a new thing, so I've seen a lot of versions of this site. At one time Anand was doing videos you could download. So I saw this little kid, who looked like he was up until 3 AM and was about to drop, taking the screws out of something with an electric screwdriver. Little Anand was one of the guys who set the course this kind of hard-core tekky site would take.
ImJacksAmygdala - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I come to Anandtech to get user comment information for the reviews and the news. I like access to that stuff on the front page. Currently everything on the front page is useless fluff smothered in banners, and I have to navigate much more to find useful user comment information. If it stays like this then atleast offer a monthly buyers guide for highend systems like July's article and please throw in a recommendation for HDTV screens for people that want to game on an HTPC. (it hard to find this information) I wish Hard OCP had user comment links with their news....GrimReapa - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
All of the advertisements on the homepage really suck. There are three banners that are exactly the same.The new site looks better, but where are the reviews and such. It was nice coming to the homepage to see exactly what was new. This way makes it harder to figure out what is new.
Me - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Do you really need eight ads on the home page? Considering the bottom three are exactly the same, what's the point?Check out your speed report and start optimizing...
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/
analyze/wso.php?
url=http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/default.aspx#114
ImJacksAmygdala - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The Anandtech site needs an icon of the A with the orange dash for the site bookmark icon. I currently looks like a blank page in Firefox.... HardOCP's icon looks more professional.Zar0n - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I like the new fonts and color.But I prefer the old design with more links to new reviews.
At least the last 6 reviews, with bigger pictures.
Link to all Top Insider Stories?
Anonymous - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Riot! We want old one! We want old one!mikecel79 - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I like the new design so far but I have a few things I think should be changed.On the right hand side it should be Latest News then Anand's Blog and then Anand's Picks. Actually I would just leave news on the right hand side and remove the other stuff. Makes the site look like it's all about Anand and not the community.
In the middle I think Latest Reviews should be 3 or 4 deep instead of 2. Top Insider stories can then be placed under More Reviews. It seems like there is so little content on the front page now.
As for the tabs at the top, why is there space between them in IE 6? They should be right next to each other. Also why just a Linux section? Why not an OS section? We don't seperate OSes in the forums, why on the main site?
Finally, make the image at the top a link! Makes getting back to the main site from the forums a PITA.
Kurt McKenney - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Actually, I hate it. I wasn't going to say anything but you asked. THere are way too few articles listed in the body of the page, so if I don't check in daily, I suspect I'll miss something important.Taz - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I liked the old layout better...Tim - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
the best part about the new site design is that Macs get treated like every other computer the way they should be..... thanks for following thru on your word to add a mac section and forum.jagd - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
terrrible,this is a good example for people ,what mustn't to do.this is a so ugly design,navigation nearly impossible,you can't know what tne news of day etc.Turn your roots anand :).i want easy navigation backEugene Stover - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
First the fourms now this.With everyone changing everywebsite it is nice to be able to come home to a place where you know where things are. I have no home now.
Scott - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Great new look... very professional! It will take a while to get used to but so far I like what I see.
tarumam - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Hi. I´m a Brazilian reader. It´s going to take some time to get used to the new web design. The problem is that in Brazil we have 4 diferent times and your site doesn´t display my region´s time properly (I´m in Sao Paulo and your site is 1 hour late than our clocks). Take that out altogether. No one is going to miss it. Also, get rid of all those spywares and keep up the usual good work.Greetings from Brazil.
Stephen - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Its a bad move having to click to open each news story in its own window -- maybe try a clickable link for each days newsClonester - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Hi I am from Sydney Australia...At the top right hand corner of front page website there is a red cross... java bug???
I am 50/50 with the new site... kinda liked the old one as news was on the right....
It seems there is a lot to digest on one page now....
ANyhow have a fosters...
CLONESTER
Sokaku - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I really liked the old way of having the news headlines right out there on the front page. It made the page fast, because once its loaded you have access to all the news. Establising a TCP connection is slow, by having it all in the first go, I could read what I care about (news) and perhaps once in a while read one of the reviews.Hence, I dislike the new design because you've removed the news. I dont care about bandwidth. Even the slowest connections used today can handle 300k text easily. But establishing the connections is another matter, this takes time and resources. Once they are up, you should hurl as much data through it as possible, before you bring it down.
mino - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Actually this style of over-linked and unuseable homepage was the reason why I stopped wisiting THG. I hope you will change it back (or to something better), since this way I will visit this site ONLY for big reviews after BIG releases from manufactures => 90% of content ignored.Verdict: Generally disapointed.
[POO]steamer - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Got to go with the crowd here Anand. The old layout allowed me to easily revisit reviews I had read days before, something I find myself doing frequently to make sure Ive got my facts straight. Your blog isnt nearly as important to me as is the news so maybe you should think about placing it below. The Product Coverage page, though dog-ass ugly, is a great idea. None of your changes will cause me to abandon visiting your site, but you asked for our opinion so....Sufian - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I'm not fond of the new design, but if you guys are keeping it how about a "select design" type feature for users to switch between the old and new one?tfranzese - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Definately like the old much more. CSS is not the defacto standard btw.Crassus - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Generally agree with #53, BUT:For my taste, the new logo is *way* too dark in the background, the old one was somehow better colour-wise.
The blog, product picks and news should swap places - but I guess the revenue is high the higher up the product picks are :c)
Completely agree with the comments made about the review section (way too small) and the product coverage box. That one looked to me at first glance a bit like a tombstone.
The ads: is it really neccessary to have 10(!) at the front page? All flashing and blinking and moving and stuff?
Last rant: I'm not usually into conspiracy theories, but is this "Greetings from ..." somehow transferred back to AT or to Ad providers? Personally I never needed a webpage to figure out where I am so there must be some other use for it I wonder?
Anyway, you did a good job over the past couple of years and that won't hopefully change with the site update.
If you really value the comments of your readers and don't follow a "eat or die" policy - I hope you will rework the new design.
mista_chewey - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
it looks good but i wonder why there are digital camera reviews herebut why are there only two articles are are in in "latest reviews"?
that kinda makes it hard for to look at all the recent articles
Mintaka - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Bring back the recent news articles on the front page, this was one of the things that brought me to the site so much!Santiago - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Hi anand,Everything looks very sharp and i like it, but i do really as many others say: the old layout is quite better, although keeping the speed load time is fine, just think about us who are still connecting via dial-up, so sad but true. thanks.
S - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The fast load is good, but I strongly prefer the old layout.Captante - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Faster load times are good... otherwise I liked the old layout a lot better... I agree with what seems to be the majority of users here that there isn't enough content on the main page anymore.NiLe - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I kind of liked the old one better. I often read this page on my smartphone and the old page was perfect with a lot of news right on the frontpage. I know you've added a mobile section, but as a third alternative you could just have a textpage with brief news like the lower part of the old layout. The old page was <30k if you disabled images so it was perfect for handhelds.Anyway, this is still the number one HW page, Thanks for all great articles.
GhandiInstinct - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Ever consider a "Ask Anand" section in the forums? People that don't get their questions quite answered can ask the master, chief. Hmmm?Kaji - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
not enough articles on the front page. 4 would be cool. I just get the feeling that if you're not fast, you might miss a good article, cause it would have to move off the front page to make room for newer articles. Then it would get lost in all of the links somewhere.anshul - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
liked the old layout better - this one is better for newbies to anandtech who maybe visit once a fortnight or something.this is daily bread for me - so i want to see the descriptions of the major reviews/articles as opposed to just descriptions for 2 and titles for the rest.
the width too should be lesser - i'm on 10x7 but i keep my taskbar aligned to the left instead of the bottom - so i have to do left/right scrolling.
Cliff - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Sadly i'm in with the majority here too...the old site was much more crisp and very easy to see the content. I feel like i'm watching commercials instead of visiting the page that has been my 'home'page for as long as i can remember.Liked the old logo at the top better...the tabs being rounded seems a little odd. This is definitely design over usability.
I thought this site catered quite well to the 'engineering type'...now the look certainly doesn't.
I must mentione it again...the ads have *got* to be toned down...it's just way too much, 8 on one page.
I hate to be so critical, but i don't even need a week to make my decision...the last time it changed, i could tell i /would/ like it. I'm not getting the same feeling here.
Guspaz - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Another comment to add to my large list in comment #35:8) Where are the dates on the front page? There are no dates on the latest reviews, and no dates on the older reviews. On the old layout, every single review/article used to have a date. At the very least the latest articles need dates.
ee - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
The new interface would cost AT many readers in my opinion.As many people noted, a more detailed News section is sorely missed on the front page.
Personally, I think I'll settle for the RSS feed, but that doesn't link to AT reviews.
If I have to choose between easy-to-read news (RSS) and reviews (anandtech.com), convenience will win and I won't visit the AT site as much.
Please reconsider adding the news, even as a non-default option.
steve - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
this isn't going to be very constructive - cbf'd, sorry. Suffice to say that I no longer to go your site on a daily basis as a result of your changes - I just don't see the information I require poppping out at me.Now I use your RSS feed, so I still get the latest information :)
steve - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
this isn't going to be very constructive - cbf'd, sorry. Suffice to say that I no longer to go your site on a daily basis as a result of your changes - I just don't see the information I require poppping out at me.No I use your RSS feed, so I still get the latest information :)
raskayu - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Hey, it's much worse than the old design. You know, if something is working, just don't touch it!notoriousformula - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
sucks big time, slow page display.. hate the blue anandtech logo.. gone more commercial.. and I don't wanna read somebody's weblog?(no offence!) PUT the reviews and NEWS first!!Rayvn - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Personally, I preferred the old design, but I'll like this design alot more if you implement two things...1. The logo should link to the front page. I think this was just an accidental omission.
2. The news/reviews layout on the front page is now rather hard to use. What I was suggest, as an alternative, is to return to the old style of review listings, and, when a viewer first visits the website, have a redirect page ask for low speed or high speed connection and implement a cookie so that in the future when the redirect page checks the cookie it will automatically go to the full layout with news on the page, or, if the person selects low speed, to the current setup (with slightly revised review section of course).
ArtOf_War - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
how come there are Linux and MAC tabs, and no Windows tab, you could post reviews and configuration guides there dudeOxonium - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I also don't care for the new page. I've been reading this site for almost 6 years now and I just don't like this. My suggestions:1. Move the news to the top of the RHS where Anand's Blog is. If you're going to use the slogan "Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News", the the News should be at the top.
2. I miss having the News on one page. It was a lot easier to scroll through and read than having to click from page to page. Maybe it doesn't have to be on the front page but a page of just the News would be nice.
2. Remove the Anand's Blog section. As already mentioned, there is a link on the LHS so this section is redundant.
3. Move the Anand's Picks below the news or remove the section all together. If I'm looking for a deal, I'll check the Hot Deals section of the forums.
4. Remove the AnandTech Product Coverage. It's unnecessarily redundant with the tabs at the top. Plus it makes the site look cluttered with too much text. Removing this section would free more space for more articles to be posted on the front page, which again is more in line with the "Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News".
Sorry if I'm being too critical but this seems like change for change's sake. And that's not always a good thing.
Eug - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
I don't mind the new site, but it does seem a bit busy with all the Product Coverage links. And, although busy, those links don't really describe what you should expect if you click on them. I personally had thought they were going to be ads.I do like the new tabs. I should point out though that the iMac for the Macintosh tab has been discontinued already. ;)
Phillip Doede - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
This seems like a definite step back from the previous layout. When I first saw the new design late last night I thought it was partially beta or something, I was shocked to learn that this is the finished product.I don’t get it…..personally I don't see how this is a step forward in aspect.
dtravis - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I like the new site. I was sure though there would be many that would not like it. It was the same when the Forms were changed too, so many complained and complained. The only issue I had was clicking on the Anandtech logo when on the Forms to get back to the main site. You fixed that so I like it. Otherwise it's first rate.Vecter - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Well the new site is different. I will give it a week of use to really make any judgement. I do not feel it is too confusing, I can already find the news, look at the current reviews, and actually have buttons at the top for sections that were not there before. I will agree though that there are just too many adds, maybe the number is fine its just they all are animated, it brings back the memories of using the good ole BLINK tag :) I am sure we all remember that.Obvioulsy being all CSS there are tweaks to be made, good job getting it to this point. Again with time getting used to it, I am sure it will be fine.
Seek & Destroy - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
The new front page doesn't look like a front page. Everything is a mess I don't even know what I'm looking at.2 big thumbs down.
Regs - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Everybody seems to like the old one better because they were use to it. But in time Me and others will get the hang of it.I like the improved navigation. Maybe A little cluttered.
marsumane - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I personally liked the old style better. Seemed easier to check if there was anything new easier then this new layout.tolgae - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
The old style was a lot more usable/useful.Will Taillac - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I have to put my 2c in the "preferred the old layout" bucket.I realize you're trying to save on front-page load time (and possibly even your own bandwidth costs and server load) but the new layout is significantly more confusing looking to me than the previous.
Even if you want to keep only the two most recent articles in the "large preview" format on the front page, it'd be less confusing if the "More Reviews" section appeared below the "Recent Reviews" because that would mean I could read the page linearly from top to bottom, instead of having to jump over columns.
But please, listen to the masses! Put it back the way it was! At least 3 or 4 articles on the main page!
JustAnAverageGuy - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
My only suggestions would be:1. More than 2 articles /w pics on the main page. 5 or 10 would be nice
2. Move 'Latest News' above Anand's blog
Latest News, Search AT, Anand's blog.
3. I'm sure you put some effort into the Product Coverage box, but I just don't really care for it. As long as it stays on the bottom of the page though, I won't care :)
ecmaster76 - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Oops, there is a news page. Sorry.Mitch Oliver - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
"I also like all the pictures on the right next to the articles and now you only have (2)."I meant on the "Left Side" ~ Sorry.
ecmaster76 - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I have been stuck on a dial up connection over the summer, and load time was never a problem for me before. I like showing the recent blogs on the front page, it saves me from having to check the link to see if there is a new one.If you are concerned about load times, put the news back on the front page. It takes me infinitely longer to load each story individually than the main page loaded before. Or, at least make a news page link that allows you to navigate from the main page to a page with all of the most recent news articles. On most stories I don't care to see the comments.
I do appreciate the effort and think that Anandtech is on the right track. You can't make everyone happy, but please listen to our suggestions and keep up the effort.
Mitch Oliver - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
AnandTech Product coverage is "redundant" from the top main tabs and the only thing I would like to see on the right hand pain is "NEWS". I don't care about the "Pick" or the "Weblog" because there is already a main link to the "Weblog" on the right and I will decide for myself what to buy so putting up your picks is useless for me. Your great reviews and information in the articles is all I need for that part. I also like all the pictures on the right next to the articles and now you only have (2).Like I said, other than the top part standing out for the new logo in blue, I like the old site better.
Micronaut - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Yeah, it now looks like a site that you'd get as your home page if you were infected with spyware, links EVERYWHERE!Man, Anand, as I stated before, I love your stuff - heck, I'm even a CPU subscriber because of your contributions... but this is a bad decision. Too many ads, not enough visible content.
Maybe if you even had an option to subscribe for a nominal fee to remove the ads and recover the area for content, like it was before - you might still come out on top.
But this is... poorly designed. It's very Toms Hardware, which I never visit anylonger because it's link city, impossible to find the good stuff! Don't go that way!
Mitch Oliver - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Main link on the Header bar and everything else I liked better with the old site. Sometimes change IS NOT a good thing :(I like the big blue top part but everything else is step down from the old.
HammerFan - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
It's going to take time for me to get used to the new site, but overall it seems o.k.Da3dalus - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
There are some good and some bad changes. Overall it's a step forward, but there are some things I'd prefer to see changed...The "Welcome, from Sweden it's..." is unnecessary, should be removed entirely. Doesn't need to be replaced by anything.
On the right side, the latest news should be at the top. Blog, Anand's Picks etc should be below the news.
Latest Articles seems like a more appropriate name than Latest Reviews since not everything there is actually a review ;)
The Latest articles should be 5-6 items instead of two. And Top Insider Stories should be moved to the right so it is below the More Articles column.
Mad Ad - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
awwwhhh :'( If its not broke.....Its my homepage your talking about here so excuse me if I sound emotional, its like losing an old friend.
Its very confusing splitting 'Top Insider Stories' from 'Latest Reviews' since now ive got to remember to check both columns. Theres also no orderly list (with helpful pictures) so im going to be doubly afraid of missing reviews or articles now.
The largest part of the page is given over to the 'Anandtech Product Coverage' now, whereas before it was the main review list taking pride of place. Its communicating that the latest reviews are less important.
Surely theres an easier way to keep the original review list?
Luke - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
There is a missing graphic right at the top right of the home page.Alt text is:
"Welcome to AnandTech from, Australia"
Other than that, the site is great.
Fr0zeN2 - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I'm also on broadband, but your site used to load slow for some reason. Only the top logo and bars loaded, then a few seconds, THEN the text article... don't know what you did to fix it but don't change it back.Oh yeah, and the Anand Blog right up at the top? Seems more like a forum thing to me... stick it way at the bottom or in the forum section and leave the top space for something important, like oh I dunno, the news?
Blubberboy - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Appreciate your comments on the page layout #36You da man!
Dave Klebbe - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
where can I get a msi k8n neo2 motherboard?The msi web site says there is no such amimal!
I'd like to build the high end system that is listed in the july article.
Thanks for the help
Guspaz - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I must admit I prefer the old site. The new site is MUCH more confusing and complicated!However, I think the new site shows promise, it just needs improvements:
1) Tone down the ads. There's 6 of the suckers visible on the front page, and they're way too tight together. There's a giant banner ad, and right underneath it is another banner ad, a little bit of content, then ANOTHER banner ad!
2) Put more full-descriptions with pictures and less "More reviews"! Perhaps you could make it customizable; I would like at least 5 "Latest Reviews", and preferably closer to 10. Instead we get 2!
3) I hate the "AnandTech Product Coverage" box. It's a massive block of text partially visible without even scrolling! It's ugly and makes the site look like a cheap advertisement-scam site. Hide it in a subsection, get it off the main page!
4) A bit more news in the sidebar; how about 2 full days instead of one and a quarter?
5) Been said before; logo should link to main, it's standard web practice.
6) If Anand's blog is going to be published to the front page, the titles should be more descriptive; the general titles are fine when the content is right underneath them, but what does "This makes me sick" tell you about the content of the post? Or "I'm getting old"?
7) The text at the top of the screen reads "Welcome, from Canada it's 9:07 PM EDT on July 5, 2004"... This is not grammatically correct. I'm no grammar whiz, but there should at least be a comma or period between "Canada" and "it's". Also, when I copy-paste the line, I get MORE text than I see, I get "Welcome, from Canada it's 9:07 PM EDT on July 5, 2004 Welcome to AnandTech from Quebec, Canada". Where does that second "Welcome to AnandTech from Quebec, Canada" come from? I can't see it in the browser, only when I copy paste. And if you know I'm in Quebec, why not show that instead of hiding it?
That's it! I feel that if those suggestions were implemented, the new site would be as good as or better than the old one.
dvinnen - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I don't like it, but understand why you changed things. Maybe make a news page in the formatt of the old one? I hate the news archive.Now here's a big bug using Firebird .9. When you click on comments, and it opens up in a new window, it will open up and size the text width as if the window is full screen, and won't resize. Then shrink down to the pop up size, meaning you have to side scroll alot to read comments. In IE it works fine.
I hope I said that clearly enough.
Voldenuit - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I'm afraid I have to join the ranks of the many who do not like the new site design.The old layout with its more copious article space made it easier to catch up on recent articles if you hadn't been coming for a while. Any bandwidth saved by the new site design is obviated if we have to load the page more often to see what we've missed. Also, having fewer articles on the front page makes it harder to tell when we've missed a new writeup - it'd be a shame to have a recent article fall into oblivio because no one knew it was there.
Lastly, what's with all the flashing ads? I know the ad revenue is important in maintaining the site, but I seriously thoght I was going to suffer an epileptic attack when I loaded the site. Anandtech, being one of the largest and most influential tech sites, should have the clout to tell the advertisers to tone down their ads. In the meantime, I have been sufficiently annoyed by the ads to uninstall Flash.
Cheers,
V.
MKruer - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I like the layout of the old site better.Henry - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
To the editor:A comment and suggestion about your new digital camera site.
I really like this new digital camera research section. It is very timely, because I am currently researching which digital camera would be best for me. I am looking for a wide angle digital camera to take pictures of the landscape, yet enable me to take good close ups as well, with high resolution. I don't know if this is possible without buying a digital SLR camera with an interchangeable lens.
I currently have a 35 mm (film) Fujifilm, Panorama Zoom lens (38-120mm). So far, I have not found a digital camera that has enough resolution, nor the wide angle, and features and most importantly, a resonable price that would justify me not using the old 35 mm film camera anymore.
Mr. editor, if you should come across a camera (perhaps in the near future when it comes out), please publish the data. I will be very interested. I trust Anandtech's research and find it very reliable and trustworthy. Past data have been corroborated independently by other sites as Extremetech. I also like your other research sections (CPU, Motherboards, etc.) Keep up the good work.
Henry
Matt - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
New site looks great, and Lonyo, just click the main Anandtech emblem in the upper left corner to get back to the homepage.EPAstor - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Sorry, I much prefer the old site...If you want my opinion in detail, then I think the new site looks like a graphic designer was let loose on it, without any human-computer interface person to moderate it. Sure, it looks pretty and loads fast, but it also is more awkward to use. The news on the bottom of the front page actually was incredibly useful, and the new loss of space dedicated to recent articles really hurts the appeal of the site to me.
Look, I really appreciate what you at Anandtech do for all of us. You offer excellent coverage of the entire field. There's one problem - a significant part of the appeal of your site was exactly how nice it was to use. You lost that this time around.
I've been here, and I think I'll be here for a while... but it looks like it may not be as long as I'd like, if this is the design for the site going forward. I'm just uncomfortable with using it... the classic problem of the GUI designer.
nourdmrolnmt1 - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
personally id flip the order of the right column. Sure reading about anands personal life is cool, but the news is most important, limit the news section to about 10 items, and have Anand's picks right after that still visible. w/ his blog below it.right now there is A LOT of white space at the bottom w/ the gigabyte advertisement, and Anand's blog has a few lines between it and Anand's picks
The spirally thingy in the background of the logo looks like Sh!t, sorry but it is all pixelated and looks like a 6 year old did it, SOURCE is also moderately pixelated, if i were to change the logo, i would take the slogan, turn it blackish and put it below and start is about at the 'E' in Anandtech, it would make it flow better, however i see how something is needed between Anandtech and the right side of the page, maybe like get a closeup pic of a mobo, or the 'internal' of a CPU and make it bluish to sorta blend in.
there is a lot of spave in the News section between Systemax Hurrican 6K post, and the BFG Tech post.
in the forums is goes from the main site hearder to a light bluish tint, and then to grey, not sure what is going on there.
just a few nitpicks.
MIKE
Micronaut - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I really really prefer the old site.It's just junk on the front page now.
I'm bummed. I've been coming here for years, and I may have to find a better site now :(
CrystalBay - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
It's much cleanerjason clark - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Actually, there are alot of readers on 56K modems, and slower broadband connections. Rendering speed is important, as is page size. The old site took at least 4-5 seconds to load for most people, if not much more on slower connections.Whether we like it or not CSS layout is the standard for web development.
The top bar takes up no more space than before, infact it's shorter.
We'll work on linking the logo, it's a background image which is why it is not linked.
The tabs are organized to most popular sections, navigation always goes left to right.
Resolution hasn't chagnes, only more articles is a smaller text, to fit it in.
The div layout looks identical to IE in Mozilla, FireFox and netscape. Not sure what "Gecko" browser you are using?
Change is good, but we are listening.
Casper - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I would have liked it better, had the "Latest Reviews" exchanged place with the "Latest news" (which as been pushed into the small right column).Bad Ass - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Old site was much better. I've been an avid Anandtech reader for 4 years now and thought I had typed in the wrong URL!I go to the site for the quality articles and reviews that I love anandtech for, and I liked it when those were the most prominent elements on the home page.
Eri cPittman - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Can you make the Anandtech logo on top of each page link back to the front page?Novaoblivion - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I like the new site better. It loads a lot faster for me too. When it first loaded up i was like wow cool.christopher - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Liked the old page better. I thought 'where did all the reviews go?' when i loaded up. I much prefer the picture and the article summary for all articles instead of just 2 and the rest in text.Very much like the Product Coverage section. The old search was terrible. Now I can just click on whatever product I want.
Also layout at the top looks bad in Mozilla/Firefox and removing the logo link to Home was a bad idea. The Home link at the end of an article took you to the home of the corresponding tab from the top not the home page so I would always just click on the anandtech logo.
If you change the way the reviews are laid out it will make all the difference in the world about this new site.
Despite new good things, overall site change is negative for me.
davegod - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
My 2p- On the RHS toolbar, swap News and Blog headlines so news is at the top. Its the regular AT'ers who will be interested in the blog, they wont need it listed prominently.
- In my IE, the search is immediately under the LHS nav links, but in my Firefox it's far below, so not visable without scrolling down.
- maybe have Latest Reviews longer, maybe latest 5/6? tbh I'd much prefer it Latest Articles ;)
- Anandtech Product Coverage looks a bit like a space filler, though useful navigation tool. imo let the bigger Lastest Articles fill this and put Product Coverage either somewhere in an advanced search or on a seperate page linked to on left navbar.
- no offence, but "Welcome, from United Kingdom it's 6:49 PM EDT on July 5, 2004" is a bit "how you like my home page!!!". I know where I am, and the date/time is in the corner of my screen. Hide it at the bottom, if anywhere.
- if the ads were hosted at anandtech.com, I might see them ;)
- maybe rearrange the tabs so theyre grouped more systematically, e.g.
mobos / cpu / memory / video / storage / casescooling / displays / systems
mobile / linux / mac / digicams/ multimedia / IT comp / trade shows / guides
Sorry I'm harsh, but you asked :)
justbrowzing - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I'd second most of those negative comments already posted about the site changes, esp. about screen scrolling. The old layout was clear and intuitive and frankly had more visual authority (for one powder blue is not a particularly authoritative color)--you knew what was where and what was new. Just change the crt in the old logo to an lcd. The idea of a category/component list at the bottom of the homepage is sound (though then why still the tabs up top?) but the execution recalls the wretched Pricegrabber homepage (is "more" really a category?)That said, the complaints clearly come from dedicated readers, incl. this one.
BTW, happy belated birthday; I'm shocked 1)that you're only 22 & the site is 7 years old and 2) that you're already complaining about feeling old! At almost twice your age I can assure you that you're still a baby! Enjoy; you'll look back on that remark and shake your head in disbelief when you get this far.
Adam K. - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I must agree that the resolution is too small. But the new colors are really really nice, Anand. I am looking forward to seeing something in the Mac section!thermal - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I prefer the old design as well.I typically use AT by reading down the list of recent articles, opening any I am interested in until I come to articles I have seen on my last visit. The article images were a great way of easily identifying where the new articles end.
I don't think file size should be a big issue as I would immage the high majority of readers have broadband. For me the new design will be slower to use.
PhatMhat - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
i liked the old layout better becuase it was more visably organized. you had all the pictures on the left then all the summaries then all the news, all in nice columns.Alex - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Anand,I been going to this site for a while. The old old design, the design before the one you just changed was just perfect because I got used to it. For the people here, it makes them feel at home and changing the layout puts them in a distance. So what I would suggest, don't change this design unless technology denies it.
steve - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
not enough content on the home page... i liked it before better.Boz - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Yeah, not liking the new look too much either. Getting the page size down was kind of splitting hairs if you ask me. Most of your readers (if not most of the average internet users) are on broadband now and 300Kb is a slight hit to take to get the easy to read news prompts like you had before.Also, seems like much of the div layout is not correct in Gecko browsers. In Firefox the tabs are separated, they don't overlay the bottom of the banner correctly anymore, and the banner is 1 or 2 pixels offset from the main content.
Never understood why the webmasters got all geeky about div layouts.. they never come out right, at least not between different browser engines.. and they are slower to load. You can actually SEE the different stages of the page loading now.
And who :giveaf: about the speed of the homepage loading now if it's not as intuitive and informative? Great so now I can get to it quicker except, it doesn't have what I want to see.
Overall, upset about the change.
Anonymous - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I would like to be able to click on the AnandTech logo to return to the main page. Also, I think the layout could be simpler/better/easier on the eyes. Tech people shouldn't do interface design ;-) Ask some of the new Mac people (where's the content here?) for help ;-)Chris - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Just a little constructive criticism. Please don't take it the wrong way.The tabs take up too much real estate. You have to scroll over to see them @ 800x600. It looks like you targeted 1024x768 browser size, but most people keep their browser at below 700px width even if their desktop has an insane resolution.
The top logo is a little amateurish. The font is using too much anti-aliasing and makes it look a little blurry. That combined with the (intentional?) mosaic in the background just does not sit right.
You could probably make the logo a little smaller in height then shrink the tabs in width and height. Then butt the tabs against the left. The smaller heights will let you drop the nav-bar down so you can also butt the banner ad against the left as well. If you shrink the right column (news) about a third, combined with everything else, you can probably shave 200px off the width of the page and still keep the ads visible.
Just my 2-cents. Sorry to nitpick.
Anonymous - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Yeah, you guys are following TomsHardware type front page with tons and tons of front page links. I will get used to it after a while so no worries.As long you keep the quality of reviews up, I don't really mind.
lobadobadingdong - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...^ ^ ^ Poll I started in the forums to make sure it wasn't just me.^ ^ ^
In the forums there are now no links to the home page.
The smaller reviews is too small and should probable go back to the top down linear setup as before. I used the small pictures to know which reviews I have already read, now I have to keep up with the titles instead (I can probable get used to the cluttered feel after a while)
It looks horrible on 800x600 desktops as you now have to scroll left and right to see the news and older reviews.
Jason Clark - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
The loading of white issue is browser side, we're all css layout now. When the divs load, depends on what content is in them and the way the browser parses the html.L8r
sdfg - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
It looks nicer overall without changing too much. I think it could be improved if a few more reviews on the front page were shown with the picture and article excerpt - it'd give some room to focus on something other than a barrage of links. Also, the white background for the articles loads after the green background for the page, which is kind of odd, but not particularly trifling.Jason Clark - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Hey guys, good feedback. We took news off the front page as it caused the front page to total 300KB, unacceptable size. We're down to 34k, 5-8k compressed html now. Home links to home, but we hear you about linking the logo.Falco-r - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
i kinda like the old layout better..all the news right on the front page, didn't have to go to a different page just to read it ..
at the very least.. a link to a " news page " would also suffice .. :-)
Fr0zeN2 - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
everything loads much faster, and news layout is accessible while reading individual articles. this new layout rocksLonyo - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Kinda sucks, I want more recent articles displayed on the front page with small text and pic, like it was before.Also, PUT A LINK TO MAIN PAGE IN THE HEADER BAR!!!!
There is a link to every sub section, but not the damned front page, especially annoying when on the forums page.
Will - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I like what I see so far :)