CN website updates 2011

[Daniel Benson]

Please post your feedback here, including any bugs you've spotted.

We'll reply as soon as we can and keep you posted on any further changes as soon as we can!

Thanks

Dan

 

[Daniel Benson]

We're rolling out changes and updates now.

 

[Jamsque]

Why was the decision made to go fixed width? Suddenly there is a ton of wasted space, and the news headlines are cramped and narrow.

Also you really need to do something about the text in the headline box disappearing into the adjacent image if it is too light.

 

[Daniel Benson]

Hi,

We wanted to tidy up the layout of a number of pages and fixed width allows us to do that in a way that fluid wasn't always possible. There are still some tweaks to be made. The new width also, allows us a few more revenue opportunities in the future as well.

I know that this is going to throw up a few discussions but I dont want to insult intelligence and say otherwise - revenue is important and it means we can cover more races, have more pix, reports, interviews, videos and bike reviews, etc. without it we simply couldn't operate.

Headlines, in some cases will certainly need trimming.

Thanks

Dan

 

[Jamsque]

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\
Hi-five adblock buddy.

Well I think it's a damn shame you've gone fixed width, it makes articles harder to read makes the already-cluttered central space even more cramped.

I assume by 'more revenue options' you mean selling total site re-skins (i.e. turning the blank columns on either side in to giant ads)?

 

[Daniel Benson]

Sorry I had to delete that last post. The image destroyed the layout of the page. Suffice to say the poster said that "the website was too narrow"

 

[Jamsque]

Well great, now it looks like I am hi-fiving YOU, and I doubt you use adblock on your own website.

 

[Daniel Benson]

We can high-five if you like. I'm a big fan of the high-five.

Yes, re-skins, like a lot of sites out there is an option. Certainly.

Like I said, and will keep saying, we're fixing a few things and we'll certainly listen to feedback. We're not going to roll back on the fixed width side of things though - but tweaks and changes, as long as they're constructive, I and the rest of the team will be more than happy to listen to them.

Dan

 

[Scansorial]

I have to agree that it's way too narrow and there's too much wasted space. The main page is harder to read. I feel like I'm looking at a page on my phone, not my computer.

 

[josnor]

As Dan said, if you have any constructive suggestions about how to make the pages work better at the narrower size we'll definitely take them into consideration.

It's also worth highlighting that this is the first iteration of hopefully many. The change to fixed width has been the catalyst to improve many of the pages around the site and we'll continue that process throughout the year, de-cluttering the site, making things easier to find and generally making the site look nicer.

 

[L'arriviste]

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\
Hi-five adblock buddy.

Well I think it's a damn shame you've gone fixed width, it makes articles harder to read makes the already-cluttered central space even more cramped.

I assume by 'more revenue options' you mean selling total site re-skins (i.e. turning the blank columns on either side in to giant ads)?

At the risk of getting a virtual beating from CN, in Firefox for Windows why not try:

C:\Documents and Settings\<USER>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<HASH>.default\chrome\

(In Mac it's <HOME>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<HASH>.default/chrome/ )

In Notepad or some sort of text editor, create a file there called userContent.css and add this to it:

@-moz-document domain(cyclingnews.com) {
#wrapper {
width: 100% !important;
}
#content_container {
max-width: 100% !important;
width: 70% !important; /* change to 100% if you want full width */
}
#hub #content_main, #hub #content_support {
width: 50% !important;
}
#content_secondary {
display: none !important;
}
.results, .results table {
clear: none !important;
width: auto !important;
}
}

Restart Firefox and you're away again. Worked for me! That's a good starting point - there may be more!

 

[Anonymous]

Looks pretty much the same to me.

the fixed width looks ok on the laptop 15" but on the pc widescreen 22" it looks completely silly.

And the purple seems to have changed dramatically from 58307C to 522D73 which on the headlines and things looks no different but on the today on cyclingnews panel makes it look vile.

Still no rss icon on the blogs list

The blogs title is also a different colour to the rest of the page and is inconsistent.

 

[awesometown]

I'll be honest....

The ad stuff, the fixed width columns don't bother me because I'm reading on a 30 inch monitor and tons of chrome powered ad-block.

THAT BEING SAID

The purple gradient in the features box is horrible, and from a visibility standpoint you've made it harder to read. Fire the designer who chose "branding" over readability.

 

[Martin]

I don't like the fixed width... I have a wide monitor and now there is a lot of free space and I think the page make-up is a little bit annoying (while the text fitted in one row before, now you need two).
I'd prefer some proper liveticker aplication for mobile phones

 

[josnor]

I'd prefer some proper liveticker aplication for mobile phones

You never know, wishes do sometimes come true...

 

[L'arriviste]

The photo album on the Scheldeprijs report is broken.

Other than that, I can't see anything I'm not keen on.

 

[pwnerer]

Sorry to say, but fixed width is horrible. Worse to read and too crowded. And after reading what advantage can it bring, I need to say it is still a big mistake to change that.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Website indeed is too narrow :s

 

[josnor]

The photo album on the Scheldeprijs report is broken.

Thanks for pointing that out. We're working on a fix for it already, and should have it out this evening.

 

[agaler]

Fire the designer who chose "branding" over readability.

I think firing them might be a bit extreme. Don't you think we should at least get another design out of them beforehand?

 

[Daniel Benson]

Lets just blame the developers instead then ;-)

We're working on an emergency deploy now that will fix a number of bugs we've spotted in areas like results and reports.

We'll aim to have another set of fixes tomorrow. I'm also chasing up on the issue of size of the dimensions of the site for those that have raised that as well.

Oh and the point about colours too!

Thanks

Daniel

 

[Anonymous]

hmm.. whitespace (joke btw)

 

[ThomoUK]

we'll certainly listen to feedback. We're not going to roll back on the fixed width side of things though

Like most of the rest, I'm not keen on the newer narrower width - despite the claims it will allow you more ad revenue it is now getting to a situation where the whole point of the site is being lost in between the ads...
The front page for example now looks even more crowded than before with even less on view before having to scroll down.
I still say scrap the rolling carousell that was introduced last year (or year before?). It doesn't really add any value to the site as it's only showing links that are already there, plus with the images it provides plenty of spoilers - something that there was much outcry on the big revamp back then. Providing of course you haven't already seen the other spoiler images from the race links on the left... The 'Hide Headlines' option should similarly hide any spoiler images!

Paul

 

[Cobblestoned]

Why wasting so much space on the sides, dear designers. Best fitting for handys or what ?
It causes something like a tunnel-vision. Don't like it.

Besides that, my cats now disturb me reading even more, because the paws now reach into middle of screen to slap the flashing adds on the side.

 

[Daniel Benson]

To add, we did go through usability testing so a lot of the changes you've seen are from user experience and feedback. Cats were not involved or harmed during any phase of testing.

We'll be making two deployments tomorrow morning to fix a few bugs and some of the feedback you've posted.

Thanks for your patience.

Dan