CN website updates 2011

[L'arriviste]

Other than that, it would be really nice if you'd fix the photo galleries.

...I shouldn't I have to scroll down to click on the "next" link...

That's something that's definitely on our list to improve, especially as photos are so important to the site. Unfortunately it's a little complicated given the number of different ways you can get to a gallery. We are working on it though!

+1 to every Next click requiring reloads and scrolling. Come on CN guys, how hard can it be to preload the images, split them into an array for show/hide and then incorporate a return false; into your click event to stop the jumping? Or is it because you need the ads to rack up multiple page impressions?

 

[josnor]

Or is it because you need the ads to rack up multiple page impressions?

That's obviously a consideration, but something that can be worked around. The problem is that there's currently a few different galleries and trying to unify them so they all do the same thing is proving a little tricky. The actual Javascript is not a problem. As I say, it's something we're working on.

 

[josnor]

One thing: If when clicking on a results page, then I would prefer to look at the report, then the results, then the photo's... if the report is missing or short but there are photos then I have to scroll down a long way before I get to the results... then scroll back up to get to the photo's. For example the Energiewatch Tour report (yes, I always look at the womens races!). The gallery takes up too much space... although if the page could be made wider then you would be able to fit the results and the photos side by side again!

I think we've fixed that with a deploy this morning. If not, could you give us a URL where it's happening and we'll take a look.

 

[craig1985]

The biggest bug bearer for me is the news sections. As for before with each news article is a link to each article that appears on the front page, and then at the end of the day there is a round up of all news stories (like this) as it is how I read the news stories on CN, and with the new page design it isn't there, and I have to click the 'news' link on the front page instead. Why not just keep it how it was before?

Everywhere else isn't too bad, although I do a agree that it is a bit cluttered, but it will be something I will probably grow too.

 

[igamogam]

Not bad

Better than the last revamp and thank you VERY much for getting rid of the flash content, that was so annoying.

This is not a criticism just an observation, I realise they cater for different followers but when will you amalgamate bike radar & cycling news? I actually have to read the top of the page now to be sure of which site I am on. One site would be a lot cheaper for you guys.

 

[ThomoUK]

Better than the last revamp and thank you VERY much for getting rid of the flash content, that was so annoying.

This is not a criticism just an observation, I realise they cater for different followers but when will you amalgamate bike radar & cycling news? I actually have to read the top of the page now to be sure of which site I am on. One site would be a lot cheaper for you guys.

My understanding is that BikeRadar will be more of a tech news site, with CN being the race news site...

Paul

 

[ThomoUK]

I think we've fixed that with a deploy this morning. If not, could you give us a URL where it's happening and we'll take a look.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/energiewacht-tour-2-2-we/stage-1/results

Paul

 

[cineteq]

Much better look today, thanks!
Still don't understand why it needs to be so narrow though.

 

[Anonymous]

That there is a higher rate of click throughs from the carousel is obvious - because it's at the top of the page filling half the screen - therefore most of the links it's highlighting are further down the page out of sight... remove the carousel and you will find the normal links will get used. I'd have thought that was obvious?

As for the carousel and whether it generates traffic - it does. A huge amount in fact, so while it probably isn't the perfect solution it does have a benefit in that it showcases parts of the site that we - the editorial team - want to present to readers.

When you say traffic do you mean traffic in the traditional sense as in people visit the site because of the carousel, or internal page hits, in that the pages featured in the carousel get extra hits.

I would assume the latter, and I would suggest that the carousel has a detrimental effect on pages that arent featured.

For example, visitor goes to the site, visits the links on the carousel, and thats them done. How many people actually scroll to the bottom of the front page? I tend to rely on twitter for my news, but on the occasions I visit CN i rarely scroll down much past the carousel, and the top news items. As a result, I never get as far as the blogs menu, and Ive only just discovered at the foot of the page there is a photo gallery menu, I didnt even know it was there. Id be willing to bet that 70% of site visitors dont scroll down much past about race five/bottom ad panel

The carousel may get people visiting those pages, but I would guess that it actually reduces traffic to other parts of the site.

Replacing the carousel with the idea i had in option 1 still highlights articles, and Id be willing to bet that highlighted articles still got the hits, but it would also encourage browsing of the entire homepage.

For instance, photo galleries, which are buried at the foot of the page where nobody sees them: They are a big draw, people love race photos, ok, i run a site that only gets a few thousand visitors a week, but post a fresh photo gallery and you get hits galore. And this has been true of all sites ive been involved with in the past. And the great thing about photo pages is you can put adverts in them and people dont mind nearly so much as adverts within text articles. Put an advert every tenth photo and people can just skip past it put the click rate can be pretty high.

Secondly, videos, arent featured at all on the front page, Why not? youve just created the youtube account, so feature it with a latest video panel, again, people love videos, and with youtube revenue sharing you have the extra advertising revenue potential, and once again, adverts on videos people dont mind nearly so much as adverts within text articles.

The carousel is like a happy hour in the pub. Offer 5 drinks at £1 a pint and you will sell shed loads of that particular drink, but the rest of the drinks will on the whole just sit on the shelves with nobody buying them.

 

[Anonymous]

the blogs rss feed is still missing from the front page as well. (and colour font is wrong)

 

[josnor]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/energiewacht-tour-2-2-we/stage-1/results

Paul

Oh I see what you mean, yes that's a problem when there isn't any text in a race's report. We noticed it yesterday but unfortunately it requires a bit more thinking so we weren't able to fix it for today. It's on our list though

 

[balla5k]

HTML5 video support

When can we expect to see non-flash video presentations? Even in the iPad and iPhone apps, which are useful otherwise, the videos do not appear.

 

[Anonymous]

When can we expect to see non-flash video presentations? Even in the iPad and iPhone apps, which are useful otherwise, the videos do not appear.

People buy an ipad, they know it wont support flash before they buy it, so its their own fault

Im all for more flash, make everything flash, to hell with trendy gadget users

(i hate apple and fail to see why everyone should bend over backwards to make ipad users happy)

 

[ThomoUK]

Oh I see what you mean, yes that's a problem when there isn't any text in a race's report. We noticed it yesterday but unfortunately it requires a bit more thinking so we weren't able to fix it for today. It's on our list though

Make the site wider...

Paul

 

[manolo]

Ugly, ugly, ugly. (Sigh!) I hate it. I think I want to stop reading about cycling. It's just too disturbing. Try something easier on the eys. Something more normal. Please. It looks ugly.

 

[Martin]

Wow. I've opened your website on a PC with 17' monitor, with some standard intel graphic driver, the resolution is set to 1152*864, and your website is smashed all over the place.
It might be because there's MSIE 6.0 still installed here.

Edit: Hmm, it looks like there will be something wrong with the PC. I've changed the resolution, it didn't fix anything, and other webpages seem strange too.
Maybe a good point for you, your website was the first I've visited here

 

[manolo]

Ugly, ugly, ugly. (Sigh!) I hate it. I think I want to stop reading about cycling. It's just too disturbing. Try something easier on the eys. Something more normal. Please. It looks ugly.

Ihate the format. I didn't love the previous one, but it was less awkward than this one. It's ugly, boring, square, everything looks mispalced amatuerish, boxy (Sigh!). I wonder if there's a way to just see the page with no layouts and ploain text? Just because I think a plain white page with just plain text might and jut one column of news might be more atractivethan this. I hate it it looks blocky and amateurish. (Sigh!). I'm stunned. There have to be nicer layouts than this. Try somethign like Yahoo NCAA Rivals Basketball or Foot ball or As.com Deportes or your website from 3 years ago! All of them look better. Please!

 

[coldass]

WOW - I thought the last redesign was bad. Now its bad to worse.

I just don't get this. CN used to be such a simple, easy source of news. The Google or facebook of cycling news.

But this site seems self intent on self destruction and to make the user experience a video game.

WOW. No wonder I don't stay here much. Bye.

 

[dmcalpin]

Your "update" is rubbish once again - why would I want to go through ten pages of adds to read what used to be on one page.

Can you please employ some designers and developers who are competent

 

[auscyclefan94]

I liked the new design of the site that has been for the past two years as the original design was a bit old, mundane and bland. The new update is too crammed in and needs a bit more spreading out!

 

[Granville57]

Noooooo!

I wasn't really enjoying the fixed width to begin with, but now I'm getting both sides filled with the exact same ad from Mavic that shows up on VeloNews.com, since they recently switched to a fixed width as well. Since these ads consume SO MUCH of the visual layout, it makes the two sites way too similar in appearance.

In general, I just don't support ads that are that obnoxious and overwhelming in the scheme of things. But when they take up so much space, it's hard not to occasionally click on them by mistake. (Which is even worse because that particular site is not easy to navigate, so I won't be going back.)

I can appreciate that criticism without alternatives may not be very valuable so I'll point to ESPN as a site that processes a lot of information in a reasonable way. It's not my favorite site, but I do like how they allow you to scroll over various sports and THEN see a drop down menu for more info on that particular sport.

Something similar might be nice on CN so that I don't have stare at dozens of news items all at the same time on the homepage such as Track, MTB, CX, or whatever, especially now with the fixed width.

Once you enter those specific areas on ESPN you can peruse through all the details of that area without the distractions of so many other sports.
(But don't bother looking for anything on cycling. The "worldwide leader in sports" is embarrassingly and infuriatingly deficient in that area. Even under "more sports" you won't find a thing.)

I also like the simple, text-formatted links at the bottom of the ESPN page, and the fact that I don't have to scroll down very far to find them. I've never understood why CN has links to the forum on the homepage, especially when they are configured in a long horizontal list that, again, takes up way too much space.

One last observation:
I've never had much luck with the "search" function on CN. I almost always have to go to Google and enter whatever topic I'm looking for plus the words "cyclingnews" to actually find the pertinent link to the CN article.

 

[Anonymous]

I've never had much luck with the "search" function on CN. I almost always have to go to Google and enter whatever topic I'm looking for plus the words "cyclingnews" to actually find the pertinent link to the CN article.

Agreed, its about as much use as asking a blind, mute spaniard in turin directions to the nearest london underground station. (and thats really not being harsh)

Search on paris roubaix for example. Nowhere on the first page of results is the actual race page, item number TWO in the list says Flecha will ride for Rabobank, item number 6 is the barloworld squad, the team presentation article is from 2010, the paris roubaix VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS is from, wait for it, 2007, and "More cobbles for Paris Roubaix" is from TWO THOUSAND AND SIX.

In fact, you will struggle to find a article on the search page that is actually relevant.

http://search.cyclingnews.com/?q=paris+roubaix

I would remove it, its completely counter-productive.

 

[Anonymous]

one other thing, i appreciate the need for advertising, but advertising should never take priority over the sites masthead

its cyclingnews.com not ultralight.com - creates a really unsatisfactory initial impression. (but no doubt that spot is the biggest revenue generating)

 

[manolo]

WOW - I thought the last redesign was bad. Now its bad to worse.... CN used to be such a simple, easy source of news. The Google or Facebook of cycling news... this site seems... intent on self destruction... No wonder I don't stay here much.

Your "update" is rubbish once again...Can you please employ some designers and developers who are competent?

The new update is too crammed in and needs a bit more spreading out!

Ditto. I'm coming back but I keep wondering why I bother for such an unpleasant visual experience.

 

[gazmercer]

And logging on today the front page looks like an advert due to the side panels now containing ads