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New site design

Page 48 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
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Oct 18, 2009
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new site layout pro/con

Im really late in on this debate.
But first of all thanks ben and the other adminstratrs for putting so much work into these changes which you say are necessary to keep the sight profitable.
My biggest axe is these pictures which reveal your race results before you get a chance to read them (spoilers?). Theres no describing how bitterly i resent those, because previously, I could come to the site a week after milansanremo and read an exciting live report with excitement like the race was still unfolding but to have that now I need to cover the spoiler with one hand, the news headline with my other hand, the race result text alongside spoiler with a friends hand and then somehow manage to click the live report link - and ill tell you, I havent succeeded in this yet.
Another thing is there used to be extensive access to old race results i cant remember if it was on the mainpage or a database but the results available now seems to be just the last 6 weeks and F*# all else.On the upside the site does look a whole lot better so well done everyone involved there its good to get cycling up to date with the times probably even more than other sports websites.
I do find some of the journalism in the articles now is too long, repetitve and boring because you guys have got to remember the people using this site are: 1. mostly after some quick results and squiz at the pictures. 2. currently getting alot of their results/news from other online cycling sites, twitter and magazines so we dont want to be told for the sixteenth time that "Tyler Farrar is having a great season having already won vattenfall classics and several second places in the- bla bla bla bla bla you get the picture. What i would want if youre going to write me a long article is to give original opinions or news thats not just been wholesalely cut and pasted from another source. If you dont have the time or resources to write originals then - dare i say it - dont even bother writing such damn long rubbish just give us full results, pics and a little comment on the weather.

Now i may be peeving alot of people off here but let me say I understand you adminstratrs need to keep us on the site as long as possible to satisfy the sponsors well let me say i used to spend hours trolling thru this site and even going into the sponsors pop-ups and sometimes buying some gear but now i just cant enjoy myself on the site anymore. How about bringing back the old design your own grand tour team competition form a few years back that was surely a good way to bring the punters in.
Ill continue using i geuss but i just had to let someone know how this sight has lost all of its punch and pazaaz.
Anyway thanx for reading let me know if you agree/disagree with my gripes.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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I have tried to hold off judgment on the new design to get use to it first, but I have to say that even with time I like the old design much better. With the new design I have a harder time finding things.

The tech section is something that I use to read all the time. With the way it is set up now it is like a after though and I usually don't notice when new things are posted. For example the headlines in tech right now are things like "On show: Interbike 2009 Part 20". In order to get more info I have to hover over each one, which isn't something I generally take the time to do.

Another thing I don't like is the way stage descriptions are done for stage races. It use to be very easy to move between stages with the previous stage and next stage links, but now I have to click around so much to get where I want I get annoyed.

I have also had instances where there is a link in the flash box at the top and I never could find the same article on the site. I use to be able to go right to what I was looking for but now I have a hard time finding things.

Finally, as most people have mentioned, the flash adds are annoying and take up too much space. Most of the adds on this site are from companies that I am interested in and that I would click on and visit if I wasn't so annoyed by them. If you make the adds smaller and not in flash they would be much better.
 
Jun 17, 2009
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Do you really work for Future???

SteveMedcroft said:
If you want to have an impact on the future look and feel of Cyclingnews, make some constructive comments - we read them and take them in when discussing how we want to move the site forward. Taking a shot at me personally is really a waste of all of our time.

I am not sure if anyone is listening at Future. The site is as bad as it was on 15th June. I never visit anymore, I am sure many other people have left too. If Future was listening, then they would have rolled back to the old site and worked on the new site until it was ready, not the months of work in progress that it seems to be. If you really work for Future then please tell them their site is rubbish and needs to be re-done...a la the old site with the improvements done on the back end, we all like the front end....WHY did you change it????

Kr

Peter
 
Aug 24, 2009
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No movement

I've not visited much lately, due entirely to the redesign. But it would appear that there's been no substantive movement on correcting the fundamental problems with the design of the site and and it just takes a glance at the thread tags to get the picture:

"all form and no function, alpes cycling trip, death of a legend, grammar, just say no to flash, new site design, new website, quality, sucks balls, terrible, writing"

After this amount of time, either the team is not listening to the users or they simply think they know better, which would be a strange stance to adopt.

It's a curious situation - most examples of disconnects between publishers and users can be blamed on poor content, yet in this case it seems that design is the undoing. Poor content is really hard and expensive to fix. Poor design can be corrected with one good design consultant. Can I suggest the publishers hire one, take a really hard look at the barrage of comments since the changes were done, and fix the holes that are threatening to sink your boat.

I think everyone respects the need for the site to run ads and be profitable. 8 rotating flash ads on this page as I write, so I figure you've been paid for for either 8 or perhaps up to 24 impressions while I write this, so that side of things seems OK. We can live with the annoying flash at the side.

There's no point in repeating what everyone else has said regarding specific faults. But I will add that the site is totally unusable on a 3G mobile browser, with load times almost universally above 40 seconds. It looks to be detecting the mobile browser as it rearranges the flash into a set of fixed headlines but there's just way too much other action to load.

It looks like the original site has become a victim of the one-size-fits-all template from Future Publishing. That's the real reason isn't it? I'm sure a designer worth their salt can take your template and the readers' suggestions and keep everyone happy.
 

dmcalpin

BANNED
Jun 15, 2009
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STILL A DISASTER – anybody awake at Future ?

Just back for my first visit since your disastrous re-design several months ago.


STILL A DISASTER – anybody awake at Future ?
 
Jun 18, 2009
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Instead of a daily visit.

CyclingNews gets a twice monthly visit.



Yep... YOUR NEW SITE RE-DESIGN IS THE BEST DECISION EVER!


Your like those big corporations that dis-continue lines because they aren't making a 'big enough' profit.

1% is 1%, and sad to say, those 1% stop buying your product once you 'supersize' it with bullcrap!
 
Jun 19, 2009
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I haven't been back more than 4 times since the redesign. Was just checking to see if you changed yet. NOPE Bye
 
Mar 12, 2009
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I have to admit that I still come back once and awhile to check the news and look at some of the photos that I cant get elsewhere. Which means that I come back about once a week and this is the first time I have been back to the forums in over two months.

The fact is that the new site is just so hard to navigate and is so slow to upload I just cant be bothered.

I also notice that those who manage the site just don't bother to respond anymore. I guess they just dont care.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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The new site has amore modern look and i find it much easier to use. Instead of having all the race results cramped on the side of the page they are nicely spread out. In stead of having all the news stories on 1 page they are all seperate so we can pick and choose more.
 
Jun 17, 2009
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I've been away

I just can not believe it. Cyclingnews still going...well when I say still going that is without me...and a lot more I guess. I have been away for several months, and just thought I would take a look. Still the same crap.

Kr

Peeps
 
Mar 31, 2009
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Flash :(

Is there any chance at all that you will drop the flash banner in your homepage? Frankly it's useless.

I won't install the flash plugin because it is such a resource hog and is insecure.

Surely you don't need to force your users to use outdated and exploit-ridden plugins when your content can be delivered without them (as the often virtually identical content in the bike-radar web site proves).

HTML 5 is on the way, isn't it time you used a current and more user friendly technology instead of a proprietary plugin.

Do you do it this way because your banner creator only knows how to produce them using flash? Perhaps you could ask your colleagues at bike-radar how they present their much slicker banner (which actually appears on my screen - not an empty grey box like the cyclingnews one).

Let's face it flash is losing ground to open standards and flash content is easily blocked, plus you must download and update the plugin (if you want your computer to remain secure). More people would actually see the content of your page if you stopped using flash.

Please...?

:(
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Still Crap After All These Months

Well its been a very, very, very long time since I logged onto CN and SURPRISE! it is still sh!te. I came on to find out who has won the last few editions of the Omloop. No dice - "404." So I thought. 'OK, maybe its a one off... I'll try the KBK page' ....Result? "404."

Nice CN.

I do not believe I have ever seen or even heard of an organization ignore SO much, so stupidly, the requests and preferences of its constituency. The only other group that comes close to the level of obstinacy was the late Bush Administration.

Future Publishing: This sight ba-lows. It is in no different from the other 6 million advertising-vehicles-cum-cycling-news pages on the net today. This used to be an ENCYCLOPEDIC resource for cyclo-PHILES.

Now it is a big steamy piece of fluffy advertising crap disguised ats a pretty purple steamy piece of crappy cycling articles. (I really feel for the one or two real journalists still stuck with you.)

Before July of last year I used to come on to CN and spend at least 1-2 hours a DAY on this sight... I promise you that the only times I will come on in the Future (haha. get it?) is to see if you have changed the sight back.... and I have a feeling that those visits will only last a couple seconds.

....er, wait I take that back.... I will certainly visit, often, the "ALTERNATIVES TO CYCLING NEWS" forum page.

:confused: :( :mad:
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Greg Johnson said:
...

It's not so bad. I do understand much of what's being said by our users and that it's emotive due to the relationship shared with the website over an extended period of time. It's just a matter of trying to facilitate the best outcome for our readers possible within the limitations that have been set, then try to convey that to the readership in a way that doesn't make them want my head on a pole. Not sure how successful I've been with the latter.

...

Cheers
Greg Johnson

Sorry to all as I didn't read past page 21 (we're at 32) but this says it tall to me. Its obvious the CN people don't read English or at least the English the rest of us are posting. Like most companies that grow past a critical point communication totally breaks down and it rolls on by some corporate lead blind men/woman/other. The end is here folks, soon expect TMZ type reporting or more of it and they will eventually stop listing the race start lists, results, photo's and just post the garbage we see with all the other on-line publications.

I find it shamefull of the reporters who take this and can still post that they are keeping an optimistic view of it all when if they ask any fellow reporter in another field they know they're just squeezing themselves into the same propaganda the company is feeding them. Then again they probably got 401K's now (retirement money) and health insurance or at least a steady paycheck. We understand but just state that not some spin-ed up story or post that things will improve. Remember, it will be you staked out at some bar looking to see if Boonen visits the bathroom too many times as you boss expects that photo of him with some magic dust under his nose, not us.

Cycling News Reporters today, Cycling Paparazzi tomororw!
 
Mar 12, 2009
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ElChingon said:
Sorry to all as I didn't read past page 21 (we're at 32) but this says it tall to me. Its obvious the CN people don't read English or at least the English the rest of us are posting. Like most companies that grow past a critical point communication totally breaks down and it rolls on by some corporate lead blind men/woman/other. The end is here folks, soon expect TMZ type reporting or more of it and they will eventually stop listing the race start lists, results, photo's and just post the garbage we see with all the other on-line publications.

I find it shamefull of the reporters who take this and can still post that they are keeping an optimistic view of it all when if they ask any fellow reporter in another field they know they're just squeezing themselves into the same propaganda the company is feeding them. Then again they probably got 401K's now (retirement money) and health insurance or at least a steady paycheck. We understand but just state that not some spin-ed up story or post that things will improve. Remember, it will be you staked out at some bar looking to see if Boonen visits the bathroom too many times as you boss expects that photo of him with some magic dust under his nose, not us.

Cycling News Reporters today, Cycling Paparazzi tomororw!
Been a while since I was on the forum, the only reason I came this time was because the subcription notice that I recived. Even had a look around, you could see the tumble weeds floating around the forum, and it did not take me long to catch up.

CN you really need to look at what you have done with the site. I now only look at it once or twice a week and generally get my news and results elsewhere. I did have a look at your ticker feed for about 30 minutes for PR the other day, you really dropped your standards with that didn't you?
 
Mar 10, 2009
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No one seems to have cared. Yet the website is still as bad as when it first was migrated to this new un-official-offspring-ized format.

Search still is bad. Try finding the results for last years minor races (non-GT).

Then, if you are on a current race result you can't view the previous years results, or beyond for that matter.

This all worked flawlessly before, the suppose-ed improvement to a new site is still broken.

Any timeline when the site will finally work?
 
Feb 27, 2011
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raceright said:
Having looked at some of the sneak previews of the 2nd phase of redesign, I have to say that I am not too impressed.

Rather than create something original for a site with a great cycling history, it seems to replicate the bike radar templates to produce just another version of it. Pretty disappointing stuff from future publishing.

This is less a forum thread and more just feedback on the design. Wasn't it possible to look at it from fresh eyes?


Thanks,
Neil


http://www.raceright.cc


I can't imagine that they are design. I don't know why they include them as a design. :confused:
 
Why not try usability testing and put a bit of thought put into the user experience by people who actually like cycling. Try talking to your users instead of ignoring them.

It's really not that difficult to make quite significant improvements, especially when you have a large, well-disposed community like the members of this forum at your disposal.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Hey, is this thread not informative enough on what's is wrong with the website that you have to start yet another thread? I hope us forum users get the same consideration for starting a thread in another section on the same subject as one that already exists! OK, we'll add 2011 at the end, that seems to be the MO for not having a thread merged.

For who ever is seeking additional feedback on the WebSite, just go back to page 1 of this thread and re-read, saves on posts or actually re-posts, re-flaming, re-banning and just saves everyone time and effort, its all hear already.
 
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