New Tom's Hardware Front Page *BETA*

[Guest]

Hi everyone!

Some of you may have noticed during your regular visit to Tom's Hardware today that the front page has gotten a makeover! This is currently a beta test of a possible new design and is being shown to a small percentage of our visitors (roughly 10%).

The design has gone through a few stages of internal testing and we've endeavored to retain the overall "feel" of the front page while giving it some much-needed modern touches. The new Tom’s Hardware is sleeker, meaner and far more efficient. Now we want your help to refine it even further!

If you're part of the limited 10% being served the new design, we'd love to hear what you think! Please let us know how you feel about the design and any feedback you might have on how it can be improved.

You can identify which version of the front page you're seeing by looking at the link. The beta design shows (http://www.tomshardware.com/#v=beta) while the current design will show (http://www.tomshardware.com/#v=current).

Can't wait to see it? Here's a sneak peak!

And remember, this is only a beta! We’re always looking to improve and would love to have your input on the next steps in our design process. Now is the time to make your voices heard!


- Tom's Hardware Community Team

 

[USAFRet]

As one of the 10%ers, a bit of warning would have been nice

This is my screen. 24" 1920x1080, typical monitor.

The Top Stories tiles are too large.
The red thing that looks like a slider is just a 3 zone clicky. Give no functionality over the left/right arrows.
What used to be the Forum Live Feed is buried 'below the fold', and you have to scroll to find it.

 

[Titillating]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from JackNaylorPE : "Hate the Beta"

Bring back the rolling forum posts on home page

they're there, that's how I'm responding to you. I did notice some weird loading glitch though. They didn't appear when the home page first loaded, maybe like 5 or 10 seconds after everything else.

Don't worry, this beta is ONLY issued to 10% of the entire Tom's community. Were still making adjustments to the main page.

I like it for the most part. However I do not like that new live feed thing, I have no idea what its doing does it bring every post that gets a reply to the top? I liked the old feed much more.

Too busy ... and I left it for 30 secs

Don't worry, this beta is ONLY issued to 10% of the entire Tom's community. Were still making adjustments to the main page.

is there a central complaint thread somewhere? I want to get my old man on and write a sternly worded letter.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Definitely not feeling this - I miss the previous forum topic list.

 

[envy14tpe]

First reaction....looks great! And I am usually one to complain to major revamping of pages.

 

[Titillating]

Definitely not feeling this - I miss the previous forum topic list.

Anything in particular about it that you miss? This is a beta test and nothing is completely set in stone yet. We still have time to make some tweaks!

 

[Eximo]

For me the font size is a bit much in a lot of places.

The categories on the article is nice, but I don't think it should be the first line, or move it to right justified so it looks more like a tag and not the title. It is no longer possible to tell which articles have already been read.

I too preferred the older live feed, particularly the pages to see more.

 

[Titillating]

For me the font size is a bit much in a lot of places.

The categories on the article is nice, but I don't think it should be the first line, or move it to right justified so it looks more like a tag and not the title. It is no longer possible to tell which articles have already been read.

I too preferred the older live feed, particularly the pages to see more.

I definitely agree with your comments about the articles listing. I'll be sure that gets passed along!

 

[envy14tpe]

The more I look at it the more I feel there is too many words and not enough pics...like the Latest News column...too much to read before knowing if of interest...when a pic can convey faster what it is.

 

[Titillating]

Interesting that you'd bring that up about the pictures. One of the main complaints with earlier versions of this was that there were too many pictures under Latest News (and that they were too big) :lol:

 

[shoe59]

I do like the new look, but chalk up another vote for keeping the old Forum Live Feed functionality.

Also - the top 1/3 of the page is taken up by an advertisement, which I feel is a little overkill.

 

[pasow]

Pros:

• 
  • Responsive at last on the front page!
  • Mobile layout’s nice.
  • Displays better in narrow browser windows
  • Looks more in line with the time, even if I don’t like that…

Cons:

• 
  • Accent color is used poorly IMO in the Latest News, Reviews, and Forum section. Its drawing attention to category listings which are unimportant compared to the title.
  • A lot of space is wasted on the top stories section pushing latest news really low on the page.
  • Top stories scroll bar is not a scroll bar.
  • Clicked on hyperlinks no longer gain a visited color. I used that a lot to remind myself of what I had already read.

Comments:

• 
  • I liked the old page background color more even if it normally doesn't show. #e7e7e7
  • Tabbing thought page isn’t really possible, as there’s no hover state. (old site had hover states)
  • I wrote more yesterday but this thread vanished when I went to post...

 

[Titillating]

Apologies for the vanishing thread! We had to pull the beta yesterday to address some glaring bugs and it didn't make sense to keep this thread up at that time. Fixes came in quickly though, thankfully.

Definitely appreciate all the comments and feedback though! A lot of those points have been echoed by others. We're taking note of everything, aggregating comments and filtering for actionable items. The page can certainly be improved further and we want to do just that!

 

[spdragoo]

Like it for the most part. It's different, but although I'm usually one of those "hates change for the sake of change" people, I do like the new look of the page better.

My only complaint is on the "Forum" sidebar. The overall look is nice (especially like being able to see what forum/area the topics are posted to), I miss the "4 pages" option. Sometimes it's nice just to see the most recent posts, & being able to see more than just the 8 most recent is pretty handy.

 

[USAFRet]

Like it for the most part. It's different, but although I'm usually one of those "hates change for the sake of change" people, I do like the new look of the page better.

My only complaint is on the "Forum" sidebar. The overall look is nice (especially like being able to see what forum/area the topics are posted to), I miss the "4 pages" option. Sometimes it's nice just to see the most recent posts, & being able to see more than just the 8 most recent is pretty handy.

What he said.

 

[Titillating]

A sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with! Will do what I can to have them bring back the pagination there.

 

[why_wolf]

From a few days of seeing the new homepage I have these thoughts.

Pros:

• 
  ■ Looks visually nicer
  ■ seems to load at a good pace

Cons:

• 
  ■ Top stories are wasting an enormous amount of space. Either get rid of it or cut its size down by at least 50%
  ■ Feel like the "Best Picks" could be reduced to a single "Tom's Picks" and save some space there as well.
  ■ Rolling Forum section; only single page now, the logic behind what shows seems to be very different from what it was before. Potentially broken, I'm seeing very old threads every now and then as opposed to only fresh ones posted today.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Like it for the most part. It's different, but although I'm usually one of those "hates change for the sake of change" people, I do like the new look of the page better.

My only complaint is on the "Forum" sidebar. The overall look is nice (especially like being able to see what forum/area the topics are posted to), I miss the "4 pages" option. Sometimes it's nice just to see the most recent posts, & being able to see more than just the 8 most recent is pretty handy.

What he said.

Agreed.

 

[alidan]

I hate it, its less functional then the prior one.

I open toms, and I scroll down, I use to be able to see at a glance if anything was purple (read) or blue (unread) but now, that no longer works. It may be something I can get use to, but if I don't have to I don't want to.

Also, no matter the link I cant get the normal page.

 

[why_wolf]

Like it for the most part. It's different, but although I'm usually one of those "hates change for the sake of change" people, I do like the new look of the page better.

My only complaint is on the "Forum" sidebar. The overall look is nice (especially like being able to see what forum/area the topics are posted to), I miss the "4 pages" option. Sometimes it's nice just to see the most recent posts, & being able to see more than just the 8 most recent is pretty handy.

What he said.

Agreed.

This = True

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Please provide an "old format" link ... when I arrive seeing this, I just leave. Reminds me of the circulars we get with Tuesday s paper so wifie can see all the sales and cut out the coupons.

 

[JustLurking]

Please provide an "old format" link ... when I arrive seeing this, I just leave. Reminds me of the circulars we get with Tuesday s paper so wifie can see all the sales and cut out the coupons.

Agreed, I do the same. I'd love a link to the old layout.

It reminds me a bit of Yahoo's Tech page - too many pictures, and too cluttered/disorganized to catch the latest info at a glance.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

Too busy with pics and forum is difficult to find the Q&A's.. Prefer the older page better.

 

[wpgwpg]

Hi everyone!

Some of you may have noticed during your regular visit to Tom's Hardware today that the front page has gotten a makeover! This is currently a beta test of a possible new design and is being shown to a small percentage of our visitors (roughly 10%).

The design has gone through a few stages of internal testing and we've endeavored to retain the overall "feel" of the front page while giving it some much-needed modern touches. The new Tom’s Hardware is sleeker, meaner and far more efficient. Now we want your help to refine it even further!

If you're part of the limited 10% being served the new design, we'd love to hear what you think! Please let us know how you feel about the design and any feedback you might have on how it can be improved.

You can identify which version of the front page you're seeing by looking at the link. The beta design shows (http://www.tomshardware.com/#v=beta) while the current design will show (http://www.tomshardware.com/#v=current).

- Tom's Hardware Community Team

I rarely go to the main page because I'm not interested in much besides the forums. But you wanted our feedback, so now you have mine.

 

[Chugalug_]

Maybe the forums and reviews sections should be merged into a two horizontal slideshow style bars with thumbnails with titles.
An example would be like WCCFTech's homepage, but with a horizontal compact design.
The color palette is also quite overwhelming, SO MUCH RED!
Maybe some silver accents would work well around the individual boxes.
As mentioned above, replace all the "Best Picks" boxes with a single Tom's Picks, and bring back the recent forum posts box with the pages, was much more efficient in answering questions ASAP, especially those that would get less attention.
E.g. not under GPU, CPU, PC Parts.