New Homepage Feedback Round 3

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The new homepage layout totally blows big time. If I want to look up reviews older than a few months I have to google them for the fact they don't show up. No offense but it sucks the big one, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice it. I don't see myself looking at reviews done on this site anymore for the fact I'm not going to spend the time hunting them down. It's a shame to because Iv'e used this site for years to look at the latest reviews, and to go back and look at older ones. In fact it's how I first came upon this site. Unless somethings done, I'm done for using this site for any kind of reviews.
 
I don't understand why the page layout mimics the typical A4 or Letter format when displays are mostly of the landscape format. This leads to much wasted display space on each side, and as a consequence one has to scroll more to see more information ....
 
I don't understand why the page layout mimics the typical A4 or Letter format when displays are mostly of the landscape format. This leads to much wasted display space on each side, and as a consequence one has to scroll more to see more information ....
Click to expand...

Making wide pages is tricky to get right. Simply expanding the width without filling the space with extra content (ie. stretching the columns of text etc.) is just a bad idea, because there is a limit to the number of words on a line that can be read easily. At the same time, adding extra content can lead to clutter and confusion unless it is carefully laid out to draw attention to the right places and direct the reader's focus around the page. It's easier to just make it narrow.
 
Sorry, but just abysmal. I've already spent enough time telling you why before, to no avail.

Well, all I can hope is when you see how much your unique visits drop (but your number of clicks and time-spent-on-site rise, because people are having trouble actually getting to the content they want to read (you are going to watch that, right? I mean, this level of design incompetence makes me wonder if any A/B testing is happening at all)) that a reversion to something more usable and marginally less misguided will happen.

Why a site as big as Tom's would apparently deliberately try to make it radically more difficult and time-consuming for users to find the main draw -- original content and reviews -- is bewildering.
 

+1
 
For every beta, and now the final version, Tom's has asked us to post comments. However, it seems that the majority of comments were ignored completely. What was the point then? It's just a slap in the face, really. Anyway, the betas were all no good, and the final version isn't any better.

The news needs to be in the center, and why are the chart icons at the very bottom? The forum feed is taking up way too much real estate. Feeds like that should not use more than a small corner of the screen. Finally, with NoScript enabled, the ad on the right-hand side is nothing but a big, blank space. There should be useful content there instead.

Really Tom's should just re-enable the old version of the site and go back to the drawing board for a new look.
 
Well, interest of access of decent websites do seem to very, and on many interests of course, for whatever reasons, hopefully more then none obviously, but lately as it seems more then not.

But is liked though obviously with reason, or not.

Alot of not, obviously, thats may bad, too take, but should make some sense.
 

Who would want a change that screws up the reviews/articles/benchmarks ?

The peeps that like this new layout are more than likely peeps who never read reviews, articles, etc... and have the IQ of a bloody turtle. Reviews is the main attraction and it's what google search picks up on and that in turn gets new readers which means more hits. Nobody cares about facebook, twitter, or whatever....we want the reviews...benchmarks...the articles for crying out loud...not some bloody FB that's nothing more than a kiddy fad..same with twitter and all those other social networks.
 
I don't get it - the reviews are up the top and span the width of the page, how much more prominent do you want them? Also, the social networking stuff is now shoved down the side and the Twitter feed is (thankfully) gone.

I'm not saying that I think the layout is perfect. I still want the featured topics where the vendor voice stories is, otherwise they're hardly featured. I also think that the forum feed is obnoxiously large, but I'm fairly sure people said it was too small before, so it seems they can't win.

The charts aren't really updated often enough to need prominence, but I think they should be above the forum feed nonetheless.
 
Well I came back this morning after a few days and noticed the site is still the same. Then I came to this thread to see what had been said and pretty much noticed that comments from the Community Manager indicate there is no intention of going back or giving us the option to choose the old homepage.

Just want to say that is very narrow minded. There is a reason you went through 3 betas and tons of feedback: All your betas were garbage compared to the original home page. You may not have realized just how many people disliked them because during the betas people were not forced to see them because the "old" home page was still a configurable option which kept a lot of people from complaining.

Having the "old" home page option was a wise decision that you should bring back. As a web developer I know just how easy it is to keep that. The page file should be very small (less than 200k) and you already have the functionality there to save a cookie on the browser or a config preference on a users account.

I know you wont admit it, but a developer can see what the goal of your redesign was. Forcing a page layout designed for small tablet sized screens on all your users (especially when most are pc users with high def screens) is not a very good or considerate thing to do. I understand the need for a page designed better for tablets but I dont understand the need to force it on everyone.

I will give this site one more week but after than I guess I will be sticking to AnandTech, Hot Hardware, and Engadget. I love Toms but there are tons of other options out there.
 


i don't know about that now. like was already posted they went through 3 betas before the final and they said they got constant feedback along the way from users. so before they even switched they already had a vote.

just sayin
 
how about a stretchable page, to fit both xga and wider screens?
nowadays, most people have at least a 1280, some of us have double than that.

at the same tone- with progress on BW and computational power, a bigger and more complex page still loads faster than 2-3 years ago.
 
I dont understand why they cant be an option to say for the fact of interest within different configs. This would be nice to have explained.
 
If you take a look at both previous beta threads, you'll note that many of the criticisms currently being lobbed at the new design run contradictory to each other.

More White Space! / Less White Space!
More forum engagement! / Less forum threads! / Make it customizable!
Go Widescreen! / Make it tablet-friendly!
Make the font bigger / smaller / brighter / wider.

We appreciate your feedback, and what's why we went through so many of these versions integrating as much of your input as humanly possible. I realize much of the complaints about change comes as a result of break from habit - this happens anytime something changes on the internet (see Facebook) and users start to acclimate. Hopefully you guys will give this new design a chance - it's definitely a whole lot faster than the old version (measurably!) and we're already seeing an increase in users. In the meanwhile, bear with us - and give some of those customizable view features a try.
 

Well said ! :)
 
It turns me off that I can't see all of the headlines in the "Latest News" without having to scroll down a little.

My screen resolution is 1280 x 1024.

Other than that it seems that is easier to navigate the site.

Please take this into consideration it may drive away users that routinely go to the site everyday to get their quick fix on tech news.

It is already bothering me.


 
This is the most bullshit ever, first off, YOU WOULD NEVER admit that your losing users to a change (...)

(...) Why would someone sign up because of a new layout is beyond me (...)
Click to expand...

+1 to this ^

I've been following Toms since 1996-97 and it's been my homepage for about 10 years or so. I have literally read every single article Toms has published for the past 14 to 15 years.. All my PC purchase decisions, tech research, etc, have been based on the content found on Toms. I was one of the first members of Toms Advisory Panel and about 2 or 3 times a day I recommend a post of yours on Facebook. I work with SEO and SEM (I am marketing manager for UnitedJoy LLP) so I know how important reader fidelity and Social Networking is for virtual business. My homepage is no longer Toms, and other than accessing the site to check out this thread, I haven't read a single article since that BS reply about "no not really" we got last week.

Value your base, it is the most important part of your business. This attitude of shoving this stupid layout down our throats and not even being capable of putting a button we can click on to use the old one (which really doesn't cost you anything) is just simply bad business.
 

I'd help you out by telling you when and where I am seeing .co.uk links, but I hate this layout so you idiots can figure it out yourself.
 
Another thing that pisses me off most is that they are lying to their fans about getting new users from this new layout that everyone hates (which is bull crap). TO TRY and persuade us to like it. INSTEAD of swallowing the labor hours and reverting it back to the old.
 
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