[Steven Swift]

Initial take is that it is a step backwards.
While it has a more "modern" look, I find it harder to scan the stories and discern the titles easily.
Font seems smaller and the blue just all runs together.
For years (5+?) I have visited almost every day, often a couple times to scan the headlines and read a few stories.
I can already see I am doing that less.
Just less appealing and easy to the eye = does not work for me.

[fluffers]

I can't see myself using this site. I loved the old one, but bemoan, most of all, the loss of accessible news stories on the new one. Without an accessible list of news stories, title after title a la "Latest Stories" circa mid 2007, why return? To compare inkjet printers once every three years?

I posted a separate thread about this just now, so I won't blather on about it here. Except to say what a shame to squander such a valuable resource for us, and such a valuable asset for Macworld.

I am heartened by the changes from the Beta 1 site to the Beta 2 site, indicating that Macworld is listening. Thanks!

However, I am worried that a false assurance from aping cnn.com, and an under-appreciation of News will turn the ears off. Please keep them on!

I know this isn't the most grievous issue facing the world today, but it is a shame to kill the goose that laid the golden egg in an attempt to sell a whole bunch of Egg Beaters. On the other hand, I understand Al Gore's next film is about the loss of accessible news stories on macworld's new site, so perhaps the issue is more important than we realize.

[Chris Breen]

fluffers said:

>Without an accessible list of news stories, title after title a la "Latest Stories" circa mid 2007

Doesn't clicking All Stories provide exactly that? If so, you can save that view as your default.

[fluffers]

[quote name='Chris Breen']
>

fluffers said:

>Without an accessible list of news stories, title after title a la "Latest Stories" circa mid 2007

Doesn't clicking All Stories provide exactly that? If so, you can save that view as your default.

I was hoping it would, but it doesn't.

There is insufficient width and length, and the hop to the News Page via "More" presents a list of titles tarted up with distracting textual explanations. No more easy scanning of a list of news titles anywhere. :(

Further explanation:

On the home page, the insufficient width of the middle column squashes its contents. This is the most important column for us and should not be squashed. Space dedicated to news titles is further reduced in "All Stories" by time stamps. Virtually every title in the middle column is forced to wrap around to a second line in a jumble. By comparison, the column on the right seems too big, dwarfing the jumbled-up news stories with large swaths of white space ads.

The length is also too short, cutting off the list at the waist. You have lots of wonderful content, but it's not there. And if you seek it out, clicking "more" brings you to the News Page where the list of news stories is gummed up by unnecessary textual descriptions, eliminating the ease of scanning a long clean list of titles.

Finally, I disagree that the primary interest in News is not what's new. I think new News is what people want to read most of all. Hence the word itself, and interest, particularly among your most loyal readers, in Latest Stories. There should be some way to arrive at a list of titles of latest stories without multiple clicks and concessions.

If the middle column on the home page cannot be widened and lengthened, I would suggest that the News Page revive the style of Latest Stories: a long clean list of titles without unnecessary and distracting textual explanations that make "list scanning" impossible.

Thanks!

-Fluffers

[PeteVG]

I agree with fluffers. What I used to look at was just the headlines of new stuff, be it news or features. I am capable of deciding whether an item is interesting enough to read further. The vast majority aren't. Maybe you went to the new format because you find it too difficult to write a good headline. Sorry about the attitude but I really dislike it when something that works just fine gets messed with just because you think it's time. The old format was just fine put it back.

[RhymingDesigner]

For what it's worth, I'm a senior level visual and UI designer. My comments pertain to your home page only.

First, I applaud you for taking on the redesign. I know it requires a lot of work and commitment. Your old site was looking, well, old.

The new site does appear more modern, but (you knew this was coming) some of the new page elements are dated. As long as you're doing a redesign, break some new ground rather than using certain visuals that are on the way out, or worse. Examples are the peeling red sticker and the Community Comments cells with the opposite diagonal rounded corners.

On my browser (Safari 3.0.4) at least, the left side shape of the News button appears to be trying to conform to the right side of the More Products button. Give it conventional rounded corners and move on.

The search field and Go button should be visually combined. I would reduce the height of both and place a thin distinctive rule or background behind / around both. Also, label the button Go. The right-facing triangle is best left for "expand" or "reveal."

If you want to use rounded corners, fine. Just be sure they're nice and smooth. Some might call this a nitpick, but it's also the right thing to do?and you only need to do it once.

The blue background behind your branding is excellent. I think it's unfortunate that you decided to darken the gradient going down. Using a blue to light gray gradient fill would be just as interesting and not create the stark contrast between page color and background. The same goes for the Community Comments area. What is it with all the dark colors these days (small rant)?

Related Mac Articles: great feature and it looks good, too.

The right column needs a lot of work. Ads are mixed in with content and the line is blurry, to say the least. We all have the "ad blindness" conditioned reflex and will consciously or subconsciously skip that 40 percent of the page.

Thanks for placing the apostrophe correctly in "Editor's Pick." It is the pick of the editor. Even if more than one editor is involved, you still need to employ editorial license for the sake of simplicity (It's like using the "editorial we"). Hallelujah.

One other thing. I liked the way the comments area on the old site was accessed by clicking. Now, there's too much scrolling and the column width is too narrow.

As far as this forum goes, why aren't the most recent comments at the top?

Good luck!

[tuburan]

I'm glad there is no signatures! That's all hogwash anyway.

[Bruce8]

1) Overall look and feel is good
2) But, it was very hard to find this feedback page. I could find no link to it on current (Monday) Macworld page. I had to search back through all the articles till I found one saying new macworld look. This is a no-no unless you are intentionally trying to limit comments by making it hard to post them.
3) I am missing the Print Format button. Please bring back the Print Format option button feature. (Take a look at pcworld web site to see they provide a Print format button at both the top/start of an article and also at the bottom.)
4) Is there no more Software section? or did I miss that somewhere.
- that would be both software reviews and shareware items.
5) Unfortunately, it seems the ads have gotten larger.
6) Having the row of tabs and links at the top of each page is a Good Thing, thank you for that.

more to come as I get used to it and have time to explore more.
Thank you and best wishes.

[Ralph_Thornton]

I'm getting used to the new look and feel but there are a few areas I like to see changed.

1) When I go to the forums there is a list of forum subjects on the left. I'd like those subjects with new posts to be in bold or have some identifying feature to indicate there are new posts. The speed of this site is slow and I don't like to wait when clicking on a subject area only to find there are no new posts to view.

2) News stories on the home page should be grouped by the day they were posted.

3) When composing a reply (like this one) I only see the most recent post in an area below where I am presently typing. Many forum allow scrolling in that section and show all previous posts. It is usually very handy to be able to scroll through (from most recent to earliest) the previous posts.

4) Did I mention this site (both news areas and forums) are slow! It takes way to long to load pages probably because there are too many features requiring access to other servers. I suggest that everyone working on this forum go off site, use less than the highest speed access and see for them selves what I'm talking about.

[edunaway]

The new website looks nice in a generic CNet kind of way but its soul is gone. This is because the comments are hard to find and poorly organized. There seems to be barely any news on the front page so I have found I am visiting Macworld less.

[alterbentzion]

~Login:

Maybe it's just me, but while browsing the "Community" home page it took me a long time to find the link to log in.

And I don't recall seeing "reply" links until after signing in. If those links would have been there before, and would have led me to a login dialog, I think it would have been simpler.

~OSXHints

Where have they gone? I don't see them either on your home page or on the Mac IT page. Are you no longer affiliated?

[XMattingly]

pkeene said:

I was dreading this when I heard you were going to use the same software as Apple's Discussions. One of the things that killed those boards for me is the "points hunting" that broke out when Apple introduced this system. Instead of people posting replies when they genuinely could help, you had a rash of "repair permissions", "zap PRAM", "fill-in-your-own-example-of-asinine-help", followed by "please give me points" begging and post-inflating "thank you for your thank yous".

Dude, I know exactly what you mean! I have the exact same problem over on Adobe's forums. There are a number of a-rods over there who do nothing but hover around all day and give generic responses, with no real thought put into the question or comment or a sincere effort to help someone out. Because it's all about the points.

That's what I don't want this forum to become; another Q&A-styled message board that lends itself more towards panty waist geeks looking for a way to stroke their egos and less towards a true community of Mac users and open discussion.

[fluffers]

[quote name='XMattingly']
>

pkeene said:

> I was dreading this when I heard you were going to use the same software as Apple's Discussions. One of the things that killed those boards for me is the "points hunting" that broke out when Apple introduced this system. Instead of people posting replies when they genuinely could help, you had a rash of "repair permissions", "zap PRAM", "fill-in-your-own-example-of-asinine-help", followed by "please give me points" begging and post-inflating "thank you for your thank yous".

Dude, I know exactly what you mean! I have the exact same problem over on Adobe's forums. There are a number of a-rods over there who do nothing but hover around all day and give generic responses, with no real thought put into the question or comment or a sincere effort to help someone out. Because it's all about the points.

That's what I don't want this forum to become; another Q&A-styled message board that lends itself more towards panty waist geeks looking for a way to stroke their egos and less towards a true community of Mac users and open discussion.

That's the first response I've ever felt motivated to give a point for! I completely agree. Plus, I can't resist the irony.

-Fluffers

[XMattingly]

fluffers said:

That's the first response I've ever felt motivated to give a point for! I completely agree. Plus, I can't resist the irony.

-Fluffers

Haha, well thank you very much... I think. :)