Tom Whitwell and Michael Moran
Tell us what you think of the new Times Online
.
The Good:
Daring Fireball "Nice layout, good on-screen typography, and some interesting use of color. The Times’s own coverage of their redesign includes interviews with the graphic designers, Tomaso Capuano and Jon Warden (including the question as to whether the site uses Times New Roman; it doesn’t) and Melissa Fleck, the information architect."
Laurel Papworth "The rest of the site looked pretty good. A comment option on EVERY page... What I do find interesting is that they are driving user generated content on travel - a really easy thing to do -by offering a holiday as a competition incentive. The business model is that this section is brought to you by BMW. No, you are not bombarded with banners and popup ads - think more of product placement like in the movies."
Nik Silver "Late last night (UK time) the Times Online launched their new design, and jolly nice it is, too. It’s clean and spacious, and there’s an interview with the designers who are very excited about the introduction of lime green into the logo. Personally, I like the columnists’ pictures beside their pull-quotes. That’s a nice touch."
The English Guy "The Times Online has refurnished its website. I say refurnished but I think I really mean invigorated. It looks great, what a change it has made. Browsing the old one was fine but this one is a lot better - clearly they got some web design experts in. I’m not so sure about the green colouring of the letters, but I suppose that will grow. Not quite certain what they’re trying to aim for there."
5 Tracks "Times Online has had a major re-design and I have to say it looks fantastic. It’s clean, clear, user friendly and easy to navigate - but by god is it slow this morning. I get the feeling everyone in the world has descended on the new look newspaper site at the same time. I waited nearly three minutes for the ‘comment’ page to launch this morning but it was worth it. OK so the content on the site hasn’t really changed but this is one of the first new British newspaper sites to re-design itself around the new wealth of content the papers are creating. The old site worked really well for the standard news, comment and features that a newspaper would traditionally publish online but when they started squeezing podcasts, video, blogs and more into that template it didn’t really work. The new site has moved to a top menu system instead of side which gives them more freedom to play with the primary content area (the body) and more freedom at the top. This means that you can easily change the template to incorporate new services like blogs, webcams, videos and anything else that might come along in the future. Love it but it needs to speed up a bit."
Thoughts of Nigel "It will take some getting used to but first impressions are that navigation is a lot clearer. The switch between the Uk and the global edition is more immediate and obvious"
Techscape "They’ve put lime-green in the logo, which will hopefully make the more buffer-ish element of the Times’ readership splutter over their keyboards"
The Bad
Gadgetizer "One of the most notable differences of this drastic change is the new logo and its color – lime green – which sucks (in my opinion)."
Lewis360 "Another day another exciting re-launch... with all manner of new and interesting features. Not to mention a new modern lay out and the inclusion of new media guaranteed to whip even the most mild mannered of news observers into a frenzy. But it seems that we are not the only ones who are thrilled at this news, and for large parts of the morning the site has been unavailable citing server issues, causing much outpouring of frustrations, furrowed brows and smacking of foreheads around the office."
YouthNet Blog "Anyone who has struggled to launch a new or redesigned website could have been forgiven a smile this morning if they clicked onto The Times Online. At time of writing the homepage looks fine, albeit painfully slow to load. The section homepages are OK. But dig a little deeper and you get pages like this... Perhaps it's the latest low-fi design chic. But I think something's not working quite as it should."
The Ugly
A few bloggers saw the site while it was having a poorly day on Monday, when the site design wasn't working correctly - with the CSS files which control layout, fonts and colours not loading.
Greg Bowers wrote a lengthy and 'baffled' review of the site while it was completely broken: "I don’t mean to be condescending to the designers, but did someone skip their colour theory class?" before updating his post: "I’m now seeing the proper, quite a bit more lovely, redesign on my end."
Des Traynor was similarly harsh, writing "How is it that professional web designers can go through all the motions of site design...and no one even thinks of saying 'Lads, blue on blue probably isn't a good idea'", but later said "this morning everything seems to be working well and looking legible"
Rachel Campbell-Johnston at Tate Britain for the new Hogarth exhibition
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It's now actually harder to find things. And also, the Sunday Times sections (Culture, Magazine) aren't available at all. Do I really have to start reading the Telegraph to find out what's happening in the world? Please don't make me!
ALi C, London,
As regular reader of the times this is my first visit to the Times online site. I must see That once used to it's layout I found it easy to navigate and very intering place to visit.
By the way the Population of forms I believe you will find In Windows it is forever telling me that it is populating a list.
Brian Bucknall, Kinmel Bay, N Wales
congratulations on a superb site
rob, london,
basically I am happy with the new look and feel (after the first rush of "bloody hell, yet another website to re-learn!").
BUT - the email funciton is still not working - clicking the email icon just opens up an email, with no attachment of the subject message.
Al the debate about the colour is disappointing - surely in the serious journals we still value content over style?
mark, dubai,
I read the Times to be informed of, kept up to date on, & ever so slightly entertained by, the important issues of the day in the UK, Europe & the rest of the world.
I do not read it to know the views, educated or not, informed or not, opinionated or not, of other readers.
Tony Robson, Basel, Switzerland
I have read your enterview with Iñaki de Juana and I think it is a very good job.Well done.In Spain there is no newspaper who dares to give this kind of news.Keep in this independent way.
Roberto, Bilbao-, Basque Country-Spain
Interesting but nothing like the real thing.
Pat Smyth, Cobham Surrey, UK
Looks good, but I tried to find Giles Hattersley's piece What big downloads you have, grandma in the Sunday Times to e-mail to a friend. OK, the e-mail facility isn't working yet, but I can copy and paste, but finding the article was (for me, at least) impossible.
It wasn't listed anywhere, nor was the 'search' facility any help. So far, the Old Look seemed more efficient.
Peter Cornforth, Guildford, Surrey
Great first impression - but where is the crossword !
Alan Lee, London, England
I think that the new format is exciting. However, it will take some time getting used to. I do not find the 'Book Reviews', where are they? Nor did I find any reference to that excellent supplement, "Your Brain and how to use it". Has that disappeared.
Possibly, a re-organisation and clarification of categories might be helpful.
Raymond Noronha, Alexandria, VA, USA