You might see a new front page layout as you scan the front page today. I’m testing out a new center column, a ‘fast lane’ for our smaller blogs or ‘microblogs.’ There are a few rough edges on the theme but i’ll be switching in and out of it as I mess around with the template today.
Testing a new front page layout
Posted on 10 December 2008, Last updated on 11 November 2019 by Steve Paine
I like the new design.
Like the look and feel of the design
but personally dont like the image size in the news section
too small and loses appeal
(besides the first one which is large)
I’ll try and enlarge it slightly….
S
Enlarged images now in front page
The images are better than before
But still not as good as they were in the older layout.
I am not an image-crazy person, but when I look at new-upcoming devices, I would love to be able to see larger images of it.
Anyhow there is image-size restriction coz of the layout design.
Another thing
When you click on the news link and go into full info page
There definitely should be LARGE images there (Full size ones)
I mean I am wating more info/new on the device/article and pictures speak a million words (more or less)
Thanks GeoffretM. Its not final yet but I think it’s nearly there.
Steve
Steve,
There’s a small error on the
Recorded Live sessions feeds section. the title bar is too short and the title has no space in it…i know it’s just testing..thought would give some feedback.
cheers,
fab
oops…already gone :-) sorry
its much more professional looking now. it doesnt look like an amateur blog anymore.
hmm. im not so convinced. whats up with the light blue? it doesnt math the dark blue IMO. And maybe make the background for the whole content part white or the light blue like in the top umpc bar.
hmm actually the light blue would look good if you left the background with a gradient like in the original theme. Maybe its time to loose your trademark blue chippy? and make logo bg transparent? Im guessing you are working on the color scheme.
links dont work on posts on frontpage until you view the whole post.
Using excerpts of posts not full?
NO AUTHORS TAGS ;)
but then again maybe im just different…I hate the gbm layout while everyone seems to love the greenish thing.
Thanks Doubery.
@kornel. Yes, the light blue needs to change. The more important issue is the lack of front page links…I think…
I’ll add those author tags ASAP. Thx
Steve
I don’t like the new format but will continue reading what ever the format. Tweak away.
Hi Travis.
What dont you like about it. Would love some feedback.
S
Too busy. I liked the old, simple format.
I agree with Travis, it is very busy.
It seems like the fashion is to pack everything possible into the main page. I don’t like this and find I look around on the page a lot without being able to focus on one thing. I find the area with the blog content and everything else gets zoned out. This is of course a personal preference/experience.
Anyway the content is what counts and the content of this site is great. You guys are doing a great job and I ain’t going nowhere, even if you pick mustard and napalm as your colour scheme. :-)
Regards, Martin.
hmm also im guessing the excerpts must stay? full posts would be nicer…but i understand that means less “clicks”.
also…gravatars show…twice? :S
also if the posts in the center column are “micro” blogs, wouldnt it make sense to have them show up completely? not counting the fact that the […] links dont work.
the email button links to the feed :S
google ad block is a few pixels too wide.
author tags show up now on posts, dont show on front page.
Am I the only one that finds the news posts too small? I don’t like the way it compresses the news stories so small and abbreviates too much of the news post. It deemphasizes the news posts too much IMO.
This seems to be a trend on quite a few website upgrades lately, I’m assuming it has something to do with wordpress? I think the news posts should take up at least 50% or more of the overall column width and show at least 2 paragraphs before cutting off, as it is now its about 30%-40%.
I hate to say anything negative about this site, because I think the work Steve does is fantastic, and it’s my favorite tech blog/site/forum, but thought I would add my 2 cents.
quick
You mean the front page news items right? The actual news posts are as wide as they were before.
I can probably turn on full size front page posts… .I’ll have a look.
Steve
Right, maybe I have already forgotten what the old layout looked like lol. Just seems quite a bit smaller that it was.
quick
Full posts actually clutter the front page and mean lots of scrolling around. I’d like people to be able to find the article they want, quickly, and then go away and read it. The links might have to be fixed.
THe microblog content will come. THose were just smaller posts I put there for testing. The center column might be a combined feed, I havent decided yet.
I’ll leave it up for a few more hours for feedback.
S.
These double gravatars have to go!
I liked the recent forum posts list from the old format. Any chance it could find its way to the bottom of the new page?
-Devin
Oh yeah. That needs to come back right now. Missed that. Thanks
Steve
how does the site look like on actual small screens and lower resolutions?
UMPC
MID
netbook anyone?
would be quite interesting to hear from people who use it.
the previous layout was no problem on desktops or large screens, but on small ones maybe too small font. how is it now?
It should fit into a 1024 wide screen perfectly. It looks good on my Everun Note. In fact, you’ll be able to see more with less scrolling down as there are two columns where there was one before.
One thing I also like is that the images are smaller on the front page meaning you see more text.
S.
I’ve just looked at the site on my 800×600 UMPC and it feels very “visually busy”. Part of that is undoubtedy because I don’t have any real interest in the microblog stuff, so it appears as a distraction; maybe if I did it’d feel like the busyness was a trade-off with usefulness. I agree about what feels like a reduced length of quotes from the major articles. Finally, personally I don’t like the content titles “microblog” and the use of small pictures in lots of places on the screen: they feel obtrusive enough to grab your eye without being informative enough to be worth spending attention on.
Of course my tastes in a UI often differ from most other people!
Yeah, the microbog title can change. It will be short-form blogs. Mainly news that I don’t have a lot of time to do editorial on but I want you guys to see.
S.
Does ‘quick news’ look and sound better?
Sorry for the delay responding. It wasn’t so much what the title was that there’s this title at the top of each item of its type. I know it’s a trade-off that’s probably useful for first time site visitors but I find them visually strong elements that pull my eye to something I already know (“its in the second column so it’s short news”).
I don’t think any layout will please everyone; I was just commenting for your information.
I prefer the old one its too cluttered
Even though you get too see more content without scrolling on the front page?
Steve.
New layout is Great!!!!!
Needs work, but is good.
Oh… “central line” sometimes makes troubles like move left line… to the bottom…
Still having that problem? I think I fixed it.
I dig it.
chippy, how about go back to 2 columns but still keep the short-blog feature by styling the category differently? so that they appear as little boxes inbetween normal posts. K2 theme has this built in, but a google search for “styling wordpress categories” should turn something up. This would be better, IMO. Looks good now, except for that third center column which i find annoying as its so narrow.
I like the new layout (suits our new site colours / adverts :) )
but…
Is it possible to run both new and old layouts (try to please everyone :) )?
or is that too much work ?
like:
old: classic.umpcportal.com
new: http://www.umpcportal.com
Good idea. That might cause duplicate content problems (Google doesnt like that) but I guess I could hide it from google. I’ll have a think about it.
Steve
Here’s what I like about the new format.
– It looks more professional (to me.)
– The layout fits better with the different types of content we have. For example, I want to highlight certain articles for longer and keep the quick news type stuff out of the way. I want to increase news-type posts so that you are all kept informed but I don’t want a huge front-page trail of articles that looks like they are simple re-blogs.
– All the images are compressed meaning faster load times.
– There’s more new content visible above the fold
– There’s an integrated ‘subscribe by email’
– Theres a nice latest/popular/comments section
– Scrolling down and scanning the front page stories is quicker
– You get easy access to tags which take you to related stories.
What I dont like:
– Links need to be available from the front page
– POssible longer content so that some articles are complete in the front page?
– That others dont like it!
Steve
The site looks weird on my big monitor .. possibly give an option to the user to choose the width?
One such example is techreport.com. You can see a icon near the top right on the site to expand or contract the width. Can you possibly think about implementing something similar or will it be too much work?
Its the same width as before AFAIK. 960 wide.
Unfortunately this template is now elastic and there’s no expansion button/feature.
I’m keen on an elastic page so I will definately look into it. No guarantees though!
I meant ‘not’ elastic. Sorry.
I liked the old format a bit better. It seemed a bit better spacing to me. New layout Feels a bit busy to me.
I definitely prefer scrolling and having some things at least feel spaced out more.
The news sections does look cleaner in this new format.
I definitely like larger photos. BUt all my browsing is done with fairly high res screens.
Personally, this layout doesn’t seem more professional to me. I find it too busy.
All you seem to have in the central column is quick news. Stick it to the left and reduce the width of the right column slightly and then the main news items will be clearer, larger and gain focus whilst allowing you your “Quick news” items to be on the front page. Or better yet stick most of what you have on the right, to the left. Leave the advert and picture below on the right and move the Quick news below it. I would actually call “Quick news” something like “Other news”, “In brief”, “FYI”, “News bites”
I also would think about its impact on your latest news selector as I would assume that you would have a lot more quick news items than main news items.
Vakeros. Thanks for the feedback.
The problem I have with putting quick news into the main stream is that there’s a lot more quick news and that pushes our editorial and review work out of the front page too quickly. For example, the buyers guide should have stayed on the front page for longer as it has far more value to readers than announcing the upgrade of a navigation package. At expo-times, we have the same problem too. Increasing the length of the front page to compensate for this just increases load sizes and times which I definitely dont want to do.
What I need is an efficient way to have two streams of news within the left-hand 600 pixels (to avoid left-right scrolling for small-screen users.) I’d also like to retain the ‘highlight’ article too as I like that we can highlight articles that we’ve put extra work into and have more value to the guests here.
Any thoughts?
@animatt.
Thanks for your feedback too.
If I could easily implement resolution checking, I would but i’d need to invest quite a bit of money in dev work for that so for the time being, i’m looking for a one-size fits all screens from 800-wide-up solution.
Steve
Steve,
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. I can dig 3 columns, but you have to avoid clutter. I see your wish for “In brief” articles which won’t affect the main articles. So why not designate them to the right, with a feeder (with just one liners) on the left and what was on the right moved to the left below the feeder (That is popular, latest news and latest comments + forum posts), (leaving ads, latest devices and top 5). Then when someone has say a 800×600 res. screen, they will get the two columns and when scrolling right will get the third column. Or if you are aiming for those with a Smartphone @ 640 x 480 res. then the same should be the case.
This would then mean that the feeder would show news highlights and if there was something of interest the person would scroll right, and if not then they would get all the juicy bits straight from the off. This could also mean that your “In brief, (Quick news), whatever… :-) ” would not impact your latest news list, keeping your main articles on screen for longer.
OK. I think I got it. So on the left col you’d have
HIGHLIGHT
FEEDER (popular, latest, etc)
MAIN ARTICLES
Steve
Not quite,
Left would & right are both thin. So HIGHLIGHT and FEEDER (popular, latest etc.)
Middle, which would be far larger, (i.e 400 pix to the left and right of 200 each or if you are overall 960 and you want to fit within 640 then make the side columns 240 wide each. This does mean you waste 80pix.)
Right as is minus the FEEDER.
my 2 cents
dont like the new layout on my 800*480
looks like a magazine index page . photos are tiny .
the main page should be nice to look at and uncluttered otherwise , especially for new users , they think the site is too complicated. its like a shop window , you should make it visually appealing as possible. currently the page looks like a stack of shelves .
other than that i like the colour change . looks much smarter.
I’m just putting up blog.umpcportal.com on the old layout so we have options….
Will be ready later.
Steve
Nope, that didnt work. Will have to think of another way.
I have mixed feelings. The new layout do look more professional but I liked the old one as it had a “nicer” look, not so gottabemobile’s. Now it seems there are so many thing that feels confussing. I like this site because there are FEW news and that´s why they are interesting. In sites as Gottabemobile one has to choose what to read as there are so many news and besides only a part of it are of my interest. I would prefer to have less but selected (and long) news.
I also coincide in that the news are just too small and cramped in the front page.
Anyway it will still be the best site about UMPCs even if you miss the front layout but then: Why to change it?
Sorry about the last sentence. You must have gave a lot of effort to this change.
I would like it just to have a little of the old familiar look and that´s about having longer and more selected news. I liked when there was usually one or two posts a day as they where really enjoyed. Each new was a gift. Even if one day was not a single new post I used the time to serch the forums. I liked those times. So perhaps it´s just that the new layout is too modern for my nostalgic personality.
Guess I’ll be a naysayer: I liked the old layout better. This one is too busy and too generic.
Change isn’t always necessary…
Isn’t there a way to put the old format in a “news” page? Ars Technica has a similar front page layout, but I bookmark their news page which has a wide, news-only format.
Hi
This is exactly what im working on now!
Steve
Hi Steve
Nice looking main web page.
Just one suggestion: how about colour background for the quick news column?
Regards
John M
Liked the old design better; too busy…
2 colums max I would say; 3 is too many, ! is ideal.
My 2 cents
i think now i can say i liked the older version better. 3 columns is too much.. that’s why i’m reading gottabemobile.com less…unfortunately. it looks a bit cluttered now.
sorry, gottabemobile does not have 3 columns, but the older version of that website was easier to read. umpcportal was very good to read, now seems full…don’t know where to start.
The blog format is now an option….
http://www.umpcportal.com/blog
I’m still fine tuning it so expect the occasional hiccup.
Will link from the front page.
Have also put ‘latest’ news list at the top of the front page. Not sure if i’ll keep that.
As for the homepage itself, there’s two or three things that make me want to keep it.
1 – Higher content/ad ratio. We had ten stories before, now you can glance over 20.
2 – Smaller size. The front page loads a lot quicker now due to the smaller images.
3 – THe highlight feature.
4 – Keeping ‘re-blog’ or ‘microblog’ type posts out of the main stream.
I’m going to leave it for a week like this and we’ll see how it goes in terms of traffic and feeback.
Steve
Prefer the old 2 columns layout; hate the small column in the middle and the HIGHLIGHTS on top left. When I reload the home page I want to see the latest article on top left; not always the same one…
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Love the blog and will continue reading, but I have to admit, I’m visiting twice as fewer times due to the new interface. Prefer pocketables or JKK…
You rule man, don’t get me wrong; just having a hard time with the layout.
Cheers
I’ve enabled /blog for people that want the old style blog layout.
http://www.umpcportal.com/blog
Steve
Testing out the front page without the featured article
OK. I think i’ve settled on the current layout for the time being. I won’t have any time to do changes before CES or the MIDMoves tour so i’ll leave it like this for now.
Chippy, I was simply confused on first look. It’s kind of outlier and neither normative or intuitive. If QuickNews serves as proxy index, readers will expect it either on right or left column. slashdot.org is a prototype for that layout.
OTOH, the much respected Foreign Policy magazine (foreignpolicy.com) runs Flash Points in as center column bordered by 2pt red box. It seems to work.
Richard