New Homepage Feedback

[WyomingKnott]

I prefer the old one, but then again I'm an old man and I'm used to it.

My number one suggested improvement: whichever browser I use, when I'm reading news and hit the back button I go back to the front page with the first page of news headlines. If I was reading from the third screen of news headlines, I'd like to go back to the third screen of news headlines.

(yes, I know that there is an all-news view, but I prefer the densely-packed version on the front page. Like I said, I'm set in my ways.)

 

[coffee_man]

old one muchhh better layout, new soo cluttered

 

[jpishgar]

Great suggestions! Keep 'em coming!

 

[megamanx00]

I like the concept, but it feels a little cluttered. Having a slight outline around content blocks (like you do currently) and putting a little more white space between them would make the whole thing look more organized and less cluttered. Not having that small outline lets the eyes wander and lets it appear that all those content blocks were just thrown onto the page.

 

[adbat]

New layout dos not show me the links I have visited - other then that is see little difference so it is not looking good.

 

[niconomad]

I don't like the fact that there is no more categories shown. I used to like to see the graphics articles shown in the main page. Other than that it looks good.

 

[JeanLuc]

Is it me or does every time TomsHardware updates their homepage they actually make it worse!?! I hope the new design is a late April's fool joke because that really is a horrendous layout.

The "Live feed" is annoying, I'm trying to look or read at something else on the front page and your live feed keeps moving and updating which pulls my eyes away from what ever I'm looking at. The 'follow us' table is far to big and takes to much space, this should be at the bottom of the page ideally underneath the subscription.

The way you have the news, featured topics and latest articles laid out is just beyond poor, it's all to cramped and nothing stands out. Your new articles say a review on the latest and greatest CPU should feature prominently and should be the first thing the reader sees all I see is jumbled mess of information.

One of Tomshardware's best features is the interactive charts and where do you put that? Right at the bottom where nobody can see it, get rid of the 'vendor stories' crap and move it up.

If you really want to improve this sites functionality can you please improve the search function for articles, I mean type in 'Radeon HD 6990' in the search box and you expect to find the 6990's review as one of the first links but alas that's not the case in fact the results doesn't even list a single article on the card, also in your reviews if I want to enlarge a screenshots I get a new windows open up.......what's going on there? You seriously need to get some new web designers if that's the best they could come up with.

BTW last by not least make it wide-screen compatible.

 

[ubercake]

I like the new design. The links I use most are near the top in the new design. Also, why not add forum links if possible as they display on the forum page so you know if you have responses to questions or if someone's added to the discussion. Link on the homepage can take you straight to your forum threads.

 

[joshyboy82]

I like it better than the old version. The new grid and included info is better than the old. My only complaint is as you move down the index/ homepage your grid gets lost. Near the bottom nothing is aligned and it kinda looks like the old page format of three column in portrait-shape. Keep your theme throughout. Throw another landscape table in there. Still better than the old. The old index/ homepage read like the wanted ads in a newspaper.

 

[SmileyTPB1]

Some of the new features are nice but I don't like there is less information and links to articles.

 

[iamauser]

Content discoverability is way down, to no discernable advantage in layout.

People don't come here to read Twitter feeds. Prominence of the forums feed at the cost of space devoted to actual editorial content may signal a shift in focus to crowdsourcing content, but I would wager most people hit the front page for the articles, not for content from yet another forum (no matter how good it may be, and to be honest much of it is incoherent and semiliterate).

Four paginated mini-regions (and the annoying autoscrolling Twitter thing) are at least 3 too many -- it tastes like javascript toys for the sake of having toys, and breaks the first rule of progressive script-based site enhancement, that it should be unobtrusive.

All research indicates that people prefer to scroll a content-rich page rather than click through or fiddle with widgets.

Overall, it feels like change for change's sake. Featured content sliders are already last year's news. If the rework is actually designed to address issues with the current layout (of which there are admittedly many), I'd be interested to find out which issues and how the new stuff is intended to address them, because in terms of appearance, usability and content discovery, it's a pretty big step backwards.

Thumbs down from a web designer here.

 

[ecrenshaw]

Overall, I have disliked the format of the website since the last time you all changed it. This time it is even worse. The person above me (iamauser) is spot on. People come to your site for reviews. That should be the focus.

Your news page is usually lacking. I go to other sites for tech news anyway.

I have been reading your site since the 90's. In my opinion, that was the best. Your reviews were better (but I have matured so maybe I expect more). Sometimes you had 2 reviews in a day.

All this flashy stuff takes away from the primary reason for the site. I overcome most of it by adblock.

I manage programs to get hardware and software to the men and women in the military and I always have to remember the reason for the kit is the reason for the kit. Flash and pizazz is only good if it meets the users requirements. A gun is only as good as how accurately and faithfully it shoots when covered in grime or how stable the software and to ensure it gets the user the data he/she needs easily.

Focus on the reviews. If you want to have a news page, then get a better news reporter because there are several sites with better more info. Get rid of the twitter feed...it's hokey.

Spend the money you make from ads (which the site in the 90's didn't have by the way)...spend the money you make from ads on the writers, get rid of your current web designer and find one who likes simplicity.

remember k.i.s.s.

 

[iamauser]

I'll actually go further: if I hadn't been visiting Tom's for -- what, more than a decade now? -- and landed on that new page as a new user looking for useful information on actual hardware, I wouldn't stay and I wouldn't come back.

The old design wasn't great, but there was a wealth of easily discoverable content right there on the front page.

 

[keeptheoldlayout]

I do not like the new layout. As others have said, it just looks like everything was shuffled around, and a lot of info was removed. I prefer having the featured articles in a column, not a row. The news section is too short in the new layout, and having it on the left is awkward. All the news sites I've visited have the articles listed in the middle. If anything, I think the news section should fill the entire middle and be expanded to include excerpts from the articles.

 

[Daave12]

It looks good, would be really good to watch more of it.......Great job being done....

 

[karan_kewlz]

Traditional homepage much better, much more user friendly.

 

[JBrav]

JBrav sends..

I agree with others in the forum, the pieces and parts are the same, just moved around.

I for one am not a fan of the live Twitter feed, a bit distracting and repetative, more of an ad space than an information source.

For me and many other long time Tom's fans, I look for the charts for hardware comparisons and I would prefer to see them up top somewhere as they were before.

I guess we should all say thank you for allowing us to choose the OLD or the NEW version....just in case we don't like the new one......

 

[ubercake]

Even though I didn't include it in my original opinion, everyone's opinion about not including twitter is valid.

Tech people don't really like twitter. It's their girlfriends who are constantly trying to get them away from their PCs who are most likely using these social sites. Tech guys don't want this reminder in front of their faces.

We tech guys are the people who understand these social sites are just free info for "the man". And while many mainstream iPhone/iPad users putz around with these things, we understand these services are there for one purpose alone: To gather info to Drive the Corporate Machine.

Screw Twitter. Screw Facebook. We don't need Farmville or Angry Birds.

Give us some tech info to digest and we're happy.

That is what makes Tom's Hardware a great site and why we come back.

 

[mayne92]

- I personally like the fact that it is more organized. Condensing more articles/categories into fixed containers of horizontal paging is a nice touch. I prefer to develop this way for organization...but that is just me.

- There are less ads...good for us...not so much for you

- Definitely with Toms on the Live Feeds. Nice.

- The polling rate of the Twitter feed is not bad or distracting to me.

- I would like to see the modal advertising cease-to-exist. In the web development community...that is called modal abusing by-the-way . Or how about forcing the user screen to the top because of all the scripts Toms is loading on page load it is around the last thing loaded. I will be at bottom of page before and everything will turn white so having to scroll ~3000px to click on the close link that is 8px in font-size directly above the AD is a PITA and frustrating! A little less frustration there would be greatly appreciated.

- The 'old' site layout was definitely vertically oriented - now horizontal. That does have its benefits which I'm sure Toms already knows since the change is relevant...but just saying...I like it.

- 1024x768 is still the norm for page-width optimization so need to target the majority of user's monitors. People won't understand this so I say just let it go. A poke - My dual monitor at work is 1280x1024...how come Toms didn't redesign the layout to accommodate my monitor resolution because a resolution under mine must be obsolete???

- People complaining about 'if it ain't broken then don't fix it'...that is not how it works. I like to look at website redesigns like owning a Windows machine...a simple refresh fixes many problems and a new/fresh beginning

- A request - Can we have the edit buttons out front also for commenting to review articles or is this just a redesign project? Having to find the 'go to forums' link then page-to user posted comment then scroll down ~3000px is another PITA. Just saying...


Anyways, good work Toms. Looks good to me.

 

[Sabiancym]

It's slow and cluttered. Absolutely terrible.

 

[Dr_VinniGoombatz]

I usually come to Tom’s for technical information, benchmarks, and then sales. It would be better for me if links to HW/SW articles and technical reviews were featured on Home Page.

 

[bikeracer4487]

Not a fan...I mean, I could get used to it, but overall it just seems like someone removed a bunch of sections and then scrambled the remaining sections. I just feel like you shouldn't change the main page unless it's an improvement...this is just different, not necessarily better...

 

[AKASH NAIN]

I think the old one is much better than this. It is not well aligned and has less info than the old one.....The font is small and not readable, the content is lesser than previous one and looks untidy due to lack of well space between each post and column.
i think u should focus on providing better and more new tech news rather just changing the style and font....

 

[clonazepam]

For the News part, just keep an eye on the articles that get added. Sometimes a news article gets added later, but must have an earlier creation date so instead of appearing as the latest news article, it gets thrown in half-way down the list on average. That part would be annoying on new or old. I think last night I counted about 4 or 5 news that got thrown in later and halfway down. Not a huge deal, but since this is put front and center of the site, I suppose it deserves some attention.

 

[amxcoder]

I too found the new home page to simply look like things had been shuffled around. I am not dissing the new home page. Actually I am very happy with tom 's hardware in general and read it almost every day. The only serious problem I have is when I want to read reviews of some type of hardware like for instance a video card, my search always turns up a huge amount of junk written by tom's readers. I want the reviews to jump out at me. I don't like needing to search endlessly through comments and 3 year old reviews which are totally worthless.

If I type in video card reviews in the search engine, the latest reviews by Tom should be in bold at the top of the page. PULEASE!

Michael