New site design

[The Dr]

This new site is a disgrace! The old site worked perfectly well, and for it isn't an issue of change it's an issue with the new site not working properly, taking too long to load, being VERY difficult to naviagate and generally looking like a dogs breakfast. What really concerns me though is that we have been told that "WE" voted for this change, but going by the posts here MOST people didn't want change. WHAT A JOKE. Please change it back, or I like many other people simply wont come here.

PS Looks more than a little like Bikeradar doesn't it.

 

[Rentakill]

Rubbish

I think the new site is rubbish fellas I dont know why you would make it live when you dont have the code for the up to date news only April, I check in a few times a day to see whats happening, and often follow the links and buy stuff which is how you guys make money i.e. selling advertising, and I can tell you unless it improves and is more functional I wont be looking at it as often, and if a few people vote with their feet your web hits go down and so does your advertising revenue if I am not mistaken.

Whoever made the decision to make a not finished site like this live has made a massive stuff up and so, I just go over to Pez or Velonews or somewhere else.

As my erstwhile namesake would say, you aint a Koala Bear you are not a protected species.

 

[BroDeal]

I have come across quite a few 404 errors...

 

[manolo]

What a beautiful letter! Thanks for writing it, Bill! Nice job!

 

[niterider]

I guess regressing your design was one way to boost forum subscription.

The idea of a redesign is a good one, if you're looking to correct deficiencies with your previous site. Unfortunately your previous site didn't have many and was loved by so many, myself included, because of its clear focus and ease of use.

Issues you seriously need to address with the new design:
1. Spoilers on the front page. Really not cool.
2. That flash thingy at the top of the page is unnecessary and contributes nothing. It just wastes prime page real-estate.
3. The old design showed different colours for links that had been clicked. This made it super-easy to spot today's new news, and go straight to that. From Jakob Nielsen: "When visited links don't change color, users exhibit more navigational disorientation in usability testing and unintentionally revisit the same pages repeatedly."
4. Not sure what your page viewing stats said, but my behaviour and that of every other cyclist I know, was to go to "Latest News" to catch up, before viewing details of specific tours or other interesting content. Now "Latest News" is waaaay below the fold, as though its something irrelevant. Latest News is the PRIMARY reason to visit Cyclingnews and not one of the several other sources on the web. #bigfail

I'd suggest your designer catch up on same basic interface design guidelines, like these:
* http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/
* http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html
* http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html
* http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030908.html

Confused and disappointed.

http://twitter.com/#search?q=cyclingnews

 

[jmo001]

The new site sucks

The first I found out about this update was when I tried to access it from my mobile to see who won the Tour de Suisse last night and couldn't load it properly. No worries I thought I'd check it at work only to find the spoiler up front telling me who won. No need to check anymore hey? I then had more of a look around and couldn't believe my eyes.
I'm sure some of the additions might be good but don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Why change the reason that everyone comes to CN in the first place? The info! Results, latest news etc. All of this is harder to access than before not easier which is what CN promised.
And not to mention making changes that mean it won't load to some mobiles??? I mostly only access CN via my mobile...

Someone has stuffed up monumentally here!
And yes, I like probably quite a few have registered just to write this.
Looks like I'll be checking out Velonews from now on.

 

[Blakeslee]

I'm somewhat amused by all of the complaints about the Flash teaser at the top of the home page. This kind of feature is being used by many web sites these days, and the technology certainly is not new. Web sites in general are moving towards involving more and more multimedia content. I don't think it is fair to lay into Cycling News for using one small piece of Flash in what even with the new design is still a very text heavy site in terms of content.

 

[badboyberty]

dogs breakfast



The new site makes my eyes hurt. Give us back CyclingNews!

 

[bikingbadger]

New Site Look

Well done on the new look of the site. Looks cleaner and more high tech in a way with the new interface. One question: What's happened to the daily news editions? I see that the current editions stop in mid April. This is my first read of the day and would be a disaster if it disappears.

 

[Sticky Wicket]

CN was perfectly fine as it was.

I don't find the new design to be user-friendly or easy-to-navigate. Also, I'm pretty bloody sure that my experience is not richer and more dynamic.

Keep it simple, please.

 

[lucybears]

give it a week for CN to sort out any teething problems, then run a poll, simply asking is the new site
(a) BETTER
or
(b) WORSE
than before.
However, this being their forum, I doubt the poll will take place. If it does, I suspect that (just like Iranian voters), we already know the result.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Site looks great

 

[danielhynes]

I think the new look is great. Everything you had before is still there, but now in a much easier to navigate layout. Keep up the good work cyclingnews.com!

 

[whiteboytrash]

Well done on the new look of the site. Looks cleaner and more high tech in a way with the new interface. One question: What's happened to the daily news editions? I see that the current editions stop in mid April. This is my first read of the day and would be a disaster if it disappears.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. How does this new site work on the iPhone ? It doesn't. So much for progress. VeloNews & Livestrong for WBT now. Did I mention stupid ?

 

[phamcam]

Redesign

Hi,
I joined the forum to let you know i do not like the 'new' design.(initial reaction)
If i wanted to go to bikeradar i would select that link.
To be constructive i would give you the following feedback:
-site way toooo busy
-hard to find what i want to read, that is the news
-the old site seemed to have a formular that worked & was simple to use
I will keep coming back for a few visits, but if it doesn’t improve i will go elsewhere, pity i liked the site, but i must admit it did seem to be going down hill slowly. By the way i did visit very regularly & have been know to visit the advertisers
my 2cents for wot it is worth.

 

[Hilarity Unit]

Doh!

Doh!

You can't navigate from one news item to the next.

There are no photos with the race reports.

You can't navigate from one stage to the next in the race reports as the control that is meant to allow this disappears the instant you move the mouse away.

The long promised RSS feeds aren't there yet (or if they are they don't appear in Firefox).

It looks a mess.


Apart from that its all hunky dory....

 

[nz-tim]

Registered just to reply..

Its good to see that others have some of the same issues I have with the new design. There are two in particular that are really bugging me:
1) The spoilers on race results. For all the previously mentioned reasons.
2) On the news pages the news takes the left half of the screen, then the right half is almost blank. Waste.

I'd rather the site hadn't changed, I thought it was an amazing site beforehand. When I filled out the earlier surveys I was thinking more minor usability improvements and extra features/sections to the site, not a complete redesign - which makes me learn where everything is again. Since the new site is here and obviously not going anywhere hopefully cyclingnews takes the comments made on this forum on board.

EDIT: ditch the news on the home page and bring the 'News Editions' up to the top of the page

 

[Lones1]

Gotta say, I hate it too!!

Much preferred the old way.

Hate the spoilers
Hate all the clicking to get to what I want to read
Site is way to busy now, I liked the original uncluttered version

Daniel, Greg, please let this new idea go, bury it and let it rest in peace.

Give us back the old version, if you go by the number of people who registered just to post their disapproval you have to know that something is really not right with what you have done....

I too will be looking for another site, which makes me sad, I have been reading this one for a long time now, it was great.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Design is better.
Navigation is easier.

Lots of bugs though

 

[bobbins]

Logged in this morning to look at todays cycling news, just a list of individual headlines instead. The twice daily news editions were what differentiated the site from others, now it is just another velonews, bikeradar, cyclingweekly clone. Such a shame. RIP cyclingnews.

 

[lucybears]

some other comments @
Poll Do you like the new CN?
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2009/6/15/910416/poll-monday-do-you-like-the-new-cn

 

[Dinggo]

To the staff at CYCLINGNEWS,

Hey Guys and Gals PLEASE RETURN TO THE OLD SITE. I have been a passionate reader of this site for as long as I can remember. I visit first thing in the morning, numerous times during the day and last thing before bed at night. I LOVED it. Tonight when I turned on it was a case of shock horror. Had a bit if a fumble and immediately came to register on the forum to see if I was out of step with other viewers. Apparently NOT it seems,or about 90% of them. I would like to hand you a face saving solution. Lets say a challenge. I CHALLENGE YOU TO HOLD A BINDING REFERENDUM , to simply ask your viewers. 1. Do you want the new site. or 2. Do you want the old site back. Its simple really. 2 boxes, one tick and you undertake to stick with the majority vote. What could be fairer than that ? You could also be sure that you had the full support of your viewers. Sounds like a win win situation to me.

 

[JamesB]

Needs to fix the basics

In addition to what others have raised some of the ‘core’ things that need addressing:
1) Link Colour - make the links a higher contrasting colour or make the ‘hover colour’ brighter so I know exactly what I’m clicking on.

2) Visited links - make visited links visible so I know where I have been. I don’t want to waste time reading a news feed twice.

3) Daily news round-ups are the main reason I visit. I don’t want to click back and forth through 10 different news articles – get the daily news up to date and higher up the page.

4) Next and Last news articles – at the very least give us a link between news stories without having to go back to the home page each time

5) Complete results need to be the default view, not the option

6) The Flash header is pointless and annoying. I’ll put up with flash adds as I realise they pay the bills, but don’t add to it.

I do like the page tabs, team’s database & tech sections. But they are not the reason I visit 2x a day.

I really love cycling news and have been reading it since 1995 so I’m willing to persist and hope you guys listen to your users.

 

[EyeBallsOut]

Not Happy Jan!

Sorry guys I understand you need to move or die but this one is a loser. I much prefeered the old site. It had the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. I could clearly find what I wanted. Not now. I like to find:

a) Race Results and not know the winner until I have opened the page.
b) All results of that stage and the classifications of each stage without having to search for the "show more" button
c) Clear indication of each riders place. It is hard to work out this new style and above 10th place gives the number first digit of their place.
d) Where each classification starts and finishes (bolden the titles so you can search for it straight away)
e) Daily News reports with the date of the report so I can see where I am without reading every report.

I have been an avid fan of Cyclingnews since inception as before then in Australia all we had were maybe maybe not reports in the sports results of the newspapers. Being starved of decent cycling news throughout my childhood this was my dream come true, but now I am afraid you are going in another direction to what I the user seek.

Sorry for the negative feedback but this is my opinion and I have only registered an account on this Forum to voice my frustration in the hope you revert to what we want or modify this new site to replace it with the good features like the old one.

 

[wow this looks like bike radar]

i have joined just to say i don't think i'll be reading cn again not a fan of the new look or should i say a copy of bike radar with new colours.
lets hope cn bosses weren’t charged too much for the design as all they did was steal it from bike radar
what about a poll???????????