New SOTT FrontPage Design

Thaigrr said:
Thanks for the improvements, awesome job!

It is an improvement on my handheld as well, good for the visually challenged. Is there a mobile version in the works in order to access the right hand
column?
Click to expand...

It's a possibility. The sidebar is much "smaller" now, although I just added the Facebook and G+ boxes back. :oops:

Aside from the "Latest Articles" and "Recent Comments", everything else in the sidebar is accessible from the dropdown Sections button on the top menu bar.

The rest of the sidebar will be for ads and such, which hopefully we'll rotate a bit more often to keep the clutter down. I might also improve the mobile accessibility a bit more, but the general idea was to make reading easy on smartphones, but the rest requires a bit of zooming. It's a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure if/how it will evolve more in the future. Lately, 40% of our traffic has been mobile (phones + tablets). That's up quite a bit, so we had to do something.

As for the design itself, I didn't really like it at first, but after staring at it for weeks on end while working on it, it grew on me. ;D
 
Scottie said:
As for the design itself, I didn't really like it at first, but after staring at it for weeks on end while working on it, it grew on me. ;D
Click to expand...

Happy Birthday SOTT! :flowers:

Yeah I think I'll have to get used to it, but it's easier to read and more streamlined. It's similar to how a lot of websites look with the text on the left and the ads and extras on the right.
 
Scottie said:
Thaigrr said:
Thanks for the improvements, awesome job!

It is an improvement on my handheld as well, good for the visually challenged. Is there a mobile version in the works in order to access the right hand
column?
Click to expand...

It's a possibility. The sidebar is much "smaller" now, although I just added the Facebook and G+ boxes back. :oops:

Aside from the "Latest Articles" and "Recent Comments", everything else in the sidebar is accessible from the dropdown Sections button on the top menu bar.

The rest of the sidebar will be for ads and such, which hopefully we'll rotate a bit more often to keep the clutter down. I might also improve the mobile accessibility a bit more, but the general idea was to make reading easy on smartphones, but the rest requires a bit of zooming. It's a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure if/how it will evolve more in the future. Lately, 40% of our traffic has been mobile (phones + tablets). That's up quite a bit, so we had to do something.

As for the design itself, I didn't really like it at first, but after staring at it for weeks on end while working on it, it grew on me. ;D
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware that you could access data such as this. I started reading SOTT on a smartphone and still do when away from home. I can forget my

reading glasses and still stay up to date because of the improvements that y'all made!

Thanks again!
 
Great job, Scottie! I'm so happy that I don't have to zoom out to read on the phone any more :)
 
Yesterday while i was reading the SOTT i click to open new section on the left side menu and the new section opened in a new look. First i thought that my browser didn't load the page correctly and i tried to refresh it a few times but it was the same. After a while i understand that the page is loaded but with a new design. In first few minutes i cant use to this new design , but after a while i like it.
Great job :perfect: :clap:
 
Hey Scottie, I also have some opinions on the new design. Personally, I find it confusing. I am not sure why a new design was needed, what was needed more was to restructure the ways of communicating content.

After doing 3 years of design school I would pose you these questions; firstly imagine you are a new user:

Ok, as a user I got aprox. 10 seconds until I get bored and leave the website, because I don't really understand the arrangement and what content is actually promoted/provided etc.

First question is, where can I find the menu? There is no proper proximity and similarity related to the menu Icons, according to the Gestalt Laws.
Why is there an american flag? Should that really make me think it is related about the option of choosing a Language? Nope. It is rather making the user thinks that's a section for News from America.
Then we have the Topics icon. What is that sign? So we already have a menu, that contains an Icon that leads to a Menu? Nope. That's not good.
So you have a colored icon, a grey one and then 3 blue? Thats not good.

Firstly, you have to think, why do we need to modify the design? What was wrong about the first one? Do I want to engage more the users or bring new users? Because with this kind of deisgn you will scare them away.

One more thing? How many different fonts do you use on the website? Should not be more than 2, max. You have 4-5 .Thats again very confusing.
Try to do user test, but not with Forum people, they tend to bias about it. Do it with people you don't know.

All in all, what I see now is just a bad user interaction design. Read if you have the the UX manuals.
But please don't get upset; If you want to defend your idea, you are free to do it. Send this site to web designers, or interaction designers to get more feedback.
Honesty the other design was just fine.
 
edgitarra said:
Hey Scottie, I also have some opinions on the new design. Personally, I find it confusing. I am not sure why a new design was needed, what was needed more was to restructure the ways of communicating content.

After doing 3 years of design school I would pose you these questions; firstly imagine you are a new user:

Ok, as a user I got aprox. 10 seconds until I get bored and leave the website, because I don't really understand the arrangement and what content is actually promoted/provided etc.

First question is, where can I find the menu? There is no proper proximity and similarity related to the menu Icons, according to the Gestalt Laws.
Why is there an american flag? Should that really make me think it is related about the option of choosing a Language? Nope. It is rather making the user thinks that's a section for News from America.
Then we have the Topics icon. What is that sign? So we already have a menu, that contains an Icon that leads to a Menu? Nope. That's not good.
So you have a colored icon, a grey one and then 3 blue? Thats not good.

Firstly, you have to think, why do we need to modify the design? What was wrong about the first one? Do I want to engage more the users or bring new users? Because with this kind of deisgn you will scare them away.

One more thing? How many different fonts do you use on the website? Should not be more than 2, max. You have 4-5 .Thats again very confusing.
Try to do user test, but not with Forum people, they tend to bias about it. Do it with people you don't know.

All in all, what I see now is just a bad user interaction design. Read if you have the the UX manuals.
But please don't get upset; If you want to defend your idea, you are free to do it. Send this site to web designers, or interaction designers to get more feedback.
Honesty the other design was just fine.
Click to expand...

It's cool that it's better designed for mobile devices, as Scottie mentioned the stats show it's worthwhile. I'm a user experience lead designer, done a lot of large scale sites for desktop and mobiles and apps. In my opinion it's improved for the better, I like the responsive / adaptive design features. Thank's for the work Scottie, should make it easier on my mobile (have to have a look later on it). Edgitarra's got some good points, like maybe menu design could be a bit simpler. I came across this site that curates articles from various sources: http://qz.com There's some good ideas on how they do categories I feel. Worth a look if needing any good references.
 
At first I found the new layout confusing because I liked having the sections on the left.
I've never used the latest news option, I just review all the sections. Now I have to scroll down, but I think I will get used to it quickly.
Other changes are :thup:

Happy birthday, SOTT :)
 
Happy birthday, SOTT! I noticed it on my SOTT calendar too recently.

I saw the new design this morning. Both old and new are good for me (never use mobile devices). It's the content that matters most for me, as long as the design makes things easy enough to find what you're looking for.
 
Kasia said:
At first I found the new layout confusing because I liked having the sections on the left.
I've never used the latest news option, I just review all the sections. Now I have to scroll down, but I think I will get used to it quickly.
Click to expand...

I got the same feeling about it. Never use a smart phone so needed to play with zooming on my screen and then I just found the right way of displaying the content. I totally understand the need to make the site easy-2-read for mobile device users. It goes in line with all the members' activities on FB, Twitter etc. The era we're living in requires that.

As noted by others above, the menu could look friendlier (again, mobile phone users might see it differently), especially the Sections/Topics icon and perhaps the Home button does not need to be there at all since the logo plays the same function. The Flags... I don't know. Maybe combined with text ENG, CRO, ESP in it?

After all, as SeekinTruth expressed, the content is what matters so it could be said the regular readers should find their way around once they lose their sentiment for the former layout. And the new ones will likely come via mobiles mostly which was, as I understand from what Scottie said, the primary reason to change the look.

Thanks for all your hard work, Scottie & Happy Rebirthday, SOTT ! :wizard: :flowers: :headbanger:
 
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