New site design

[Greg Johnson]

2) I really miss the aggregated stories on one page, in one or two editions per day.

We will continue to have two 'editions' of news per day. The items of news will be posted as single news items throughout the day, as they happen and will be complied into editions twice per day.

There's nothing since April 15 as there's still some work going on on the code for building editions - not far away.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Statistics

Wow, the new design made me a member today. After estimated 10 years visting the site.

I am SHOCKED !! It was the only site in the Internet with all past stats. Example: I could go back to Stage-Results of the 1999 Dauphine, to see how Vaughters drove "full loaded", or how Jan Ullrich "destroyed" everybody in the ITT TdF 1997 and so on.... All gone !!

Can anybody help.

P.S.: To the Editor; I still hope A L L past Stats will be replaced, thats what make this site special. I do not care of how something is looking, but what is inside

Thank you

 

[stefan]

Stats

Foxxy:

Try the link 'Full archive' from the nav - all historical information is still available, even where not migrated to the new format.

stefan

 

[Daniel Benson]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback you've posted so far, whether it's been good or bad, it's great to see that we've got such a loyal and passionate audience. I'll be along later to go through some of the specific issues that you've raised but I'm a bit tied up at the moment, so please bear with us for bit longer.

Thanks

Daniel Benson

 

[Anonymous]

People hate change. I will get used to the changes. So will almost everyone else.

 

[jobertel]

Viewing Issues w/ Firefox 3

There are places where images and text overlap. Otherwise seems to work reasonably well. I did like the old setup, but if the new setup can be made to work, okay.

JB

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Statistics

To Stefan

Thanks for the help. I am relieved, its still there.

To the editor: I hope you dont remove the "old" stats. But one problem remains: I can not go back to the 1999 results of the Giro Italia. How can i find those Stats?

Thank you

 

[Geepak]

I have no strong feelings towards the site - one way or the other.

 

[roseyscot]

if it ain't broke...

i'm sure people will come to accept the new design but I agree with the majority that the old design was good (much better than velosnooze and pez) and didn't need such a drastic overhaul.

 

[djconnel]

The results are key

I'm neutral on the new design, but the key thing is what's differentiated cyclingnews from its inferior competition is the completeness and the accessibility of its results. These have not generally been well organized, but the simplicity of the old <pre>preformatted</pre> format was relatively robust.

Integration was clumsy... for example, to find the final GC of an old tour I might need to go to that tour's main page, then find "stages" or "results", then go to the final stage, then find GC somewhere past the much less meaningful final stage results. But now I'm having problems even finding last year's results in the new framework.

So my message is: judge a format on how well the results are available. Everything else is icing on the cake. If I want slick, there's a lot of options. If I want the numbers, I always go to cyclingnews first.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

But one problem remains: I can not go back to the 1999 results of the Giro Italia. How can i find those Stats?

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/1999/giro99/giro99.html

Susan

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Statistics

Thank you Susan,

i am happy again

 

[ianfra]

Terrible

It seems that the majority of posters do not like the new site. However, as sure as eggs is eggs the editors will defend it and continue with it because they've spent months and a small fortune getting it this way. They are hardly likely to dump it.
Those who say that we'll get used to it, or we are resistant to change are wrong. My observation (and those of others I am sure) are based on usability. Previously we had two main feautures:
1. A list of races which we could click once and instantly peruse the results. So for example I could quickly track how my mate was doing in the Tour de Korea or check on the progress of David Millar in the Dauphine. Very easy, very simple, very quick.
2. The second feature was a package of news items grouped by date. Very neat and easy to use.

Now if I want to access results I have to click once, then again and then again until the full result appears - plus the typeface is so obscure that unless you know what you are looking for then you ain't gonna find it.
The news is posted on a one-by-one basis again with miniscule type used for the date etc.

This is a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. The designer can stand back and see what a pretty job he/she has done, whilst the CN production team has no choice but to agree because they have been involved in the road signing of the site for some time and it is what they do all day long. A clear case of familiarity breeding contempt (in this case for the user, unwittingly perhaps but still contempt).
Very sad and the more I try to use the site, the more I'd like to turn the clock back. Bring back the old site and we'll forgive you all.

 

[RhodriM]

The old site might have been a bit ugly, but it was a lot easier to find things.

All I wanted was to see the Vuelta page, but I can't find a link to it that works, if it even exists anymore, so I just went elsewhere. That's far from the only thing too, where have all the fitness Q&As gone?

Style's nice and all, but content's why I come here, and it's either gone or I can't find it.

The site manages to look as cluttered as the old one too, but with nothing jumping out at me like before. Sometimes, there's something to be said for old blue links.

The adverts seem a lot more in your face too.

 

[mashjaja]

this may be beating a dead horse, but I also am not a huge fan of the re-design. While I have no doubts I'll eventually get used to the new layout, here are my issues:

1) none of the links are working for me....any idea when that'll happen?

2) font is really small and therefore hard to read

3) why is the news edition last updated April 20?!

4) Are we going to have to click one by one for each news story instead of being able to read all the news at once?

5) Not a fan of the race results listing the winner....CN is my homepage. Sometimes, I'll log on to the computer to check mail or something while watching a Tivo of a race. Now, however, as soon as I get on the computer, I'm going to already know who won....kinda hard to avert my eyes. It's a spoiler!

6) why does clicking on the "full archive" lead me back to the old website? Am I always going to be able to view the old website with updated race results and/or news stories?

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Statistics

Now that i found all past Stats again, am o.k.

So as long the old Stats will be available "forever", i have no problem with the new design. We all will get used to it.

The Team-Page looks better now. I can now even click on the riders names to find some information. So i think the new design will improve the site (by the time the editors will have finish their hard work).

Good luck and thanks again.

Great Site

 

[stefan]

Team page

The Team-Page looks better now. I can now even click on the riders names to find some information. So i think the new design will improve the site (by the time the editors will have finish their hard work).

Good luck and thanks again.

Great Site

Cheers for that, Foxxy. You'll also find a fast and working search, and cross-referencing of all migrated content - pick an article, and by clicking on a rider's name, you'd get a list of other content where this rider was mentioned.

 

[Hasherdan]

I like it.

Seems like a lot of people are taking the time to chime in about not liking the new site design.

I, for one, think it's a much more usable design and that's after only an hour or so of using it. It will only get better from here.

Dan

 

[laura.weislo]

I think the old site appealed to the web-savvy folks who have been on the internet since Mosaic, like me. But there are others (like my parents!) who looked at the old CN site and the type was so small and crowded that they couldn't find a thing and never clicked a single link.

The new site will hopefully touch a broader audience and it will hopefully be simpler to find the content you want. But like a previous poster said, people hate change. So complain all you want! Let it all out! Just be sure to tell us how much you love it after you get used to it ;-)

 

[ElChingon]

I think the old site appealed to the web-savvy folks who have been on the internet since Mosaic, like me. But there are others (like my parents!) who looked at the old CN site and the type was so small and crowded that they couldn't find a thing and never clicked a single link.

The new site will hopefully touch a broader audience and it will hopefully be simpler to find the content you want. But like a previous poster said, people hate change. So complain all you want! Let it all out! Just be sure to tell us how much you love it after you get used to it ;-)

Well who are you catering to? The die hard fan that's been here since Bill or some newbie who clicks once and never comes back? Remember we know who your sponsors are , some of the oldies know how the internet works if not are running it

-------------------

Back to the site; the problem with the new design is you are not qualifing why the change.
* Its too small (text) there's a feature in almost all browsers "Control +", increases font size across the board, so that's fixed.
*Second, why in the #### do you need flash! It is first off a memory hog and uses up CPU time eating into the green factor, making you anti green, don't believe me load up 20 or so pages and see what happens. 20 too much? Well some of us are tab happy and have an extremely large amount of tabs open, hey that's why the browsers have that.
*Navigation; I could always find race results, news, old races, teams, tech at the drop of a hat! I used to also pre-read your news by guessing the URL, well it wasn't too difficult, sure it wasn't done but I knew that, I just needed to read it at that time and you weren't ready, that was very cool! A non-advertised feature for me.
*I normally don't even see your site as most do anyway, mainly because I'm after the information not neccessarity the fluff (Flash, adds, pictures) I view it in a text browser just fine (old verson that is) then with the addition of AdBlock, Flashblock, NoScript & Greasemonkey (using Firefox), I optimized it for my sake rather easily, all non-essential was removed or reduced to a nub. Now the page is cluttered with junk and stories I do not read.

Really man, is there a justification other than its old code? I can't tell you the amount of people that love the info only and no fluf feature of your old code.

If it truely is the death of the old code, let us know because things can change one way or an other.

 

[ElChingon]

Forgot you are also catering to cyclist who still use a form of transportation that requires manual labor, in case you forgot.

 

[andrewfmartin]

If I wanted to read the scrambled mess that is BikeRadar, I would. Cyclingnews was clean and organized and I could read it on my blackberry. No more - time to move back to Velosnooze. Poor direction decision.

 

[mcgovski]

sucks

the new site sucks...wastes too much of my time just trying to find what used to be right before my eyes... velonews.com here i come

 

[Dualthreat]

Not impressed!

News Editions Last updated: April 20, 20:08?? WTF.

isn't this June? get it together, If I wanted to look at BR I'd go there.

And don't say it's what we want!

Newer in not Better!

 

[cat2dog]

New Website... Background image

I find the background image on the pages to be quite distracting. I keep wanting to maximize the window to get rid of it.