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´óÏó´«Ã½ News website redesign (1)

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Steve Herrmann Steve Herrmann | 12:20 UK time, Tuesday, 6 July 2010

In the next week or so, we'll be making some improvements to the design and layout of .

Since , we've worked to make sure the site continues to develop to meet your needs and expectations. This is the latest stage in that process of evolution.

We have focused on design and navigation, looking to see how we can make all the existing content we produce each day easier for you to find, use and share. I'd like to use this post to offer you a first glimpse; .

What's new:
Ìý•Ìýa fresh, updated design, with more space for the main stories of the day
Ìý•Ìýbetter use of video and images
Ìý•Ìýclearer and more prominent labelling and signposting of key stories, whether you are on the front page or a story page
Ìý•Ìýa better indication of which are the most recent headlines
Ìý•Ìýeasier ways to share stories with others, for those who wish to

Some things are staying the way they are:
Ìý•Ìýall the same content is still there: the best of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s journalism in text, audio and video
Ìý•Ìýthe latest news headlines will be as quick and comprehensive as ever
Ìý•Ìýaccuracy remains at the core of our editorial values
Ìý•Ìýwe've been careful to keep things simple and easy to use; you have told us how important this is

Millions of people use the site every day and there's clearly a lot that's working fine. But having asked users for input and looked at the way the site is working for them, we decided we could improve in some areas:
Ìý•Ìýindicating to those who arrive at the site straight on to a story page what else is latest and best
Ìý•Ìýproviding more ways into video features and clips
Ìý•Ìýindicating which are the latest published stories
Ìý•Ìýmaking local news from around the UK easier to find

This has led us to the biggest rethink of the design of the site since 2003.

´óÏó´«Ã½ News website in 2002

So, here's a summary of the main things to expect later this month:

New look: More space for the main stories of the day, video and pictures. We have moved the navigation from the left-hand side of the page to the top to give more space for stories and for bigger images and video. We will also be able to indicate on the front page if any of our top three stories have relevant related content.

Clearer labelling: More prominent labelling and highlighting of different types of content so you can pick them out quickly on any page.

Story pages: On story pages, we're placing the day's top stories and features alongside the story so that however you arrive on the site, you can quickly see the main content of the day. Related articles and collected further reading will be placed within and at the bottom of stories; we think in-depth analysis and context will fit better there than in the right-hand column where it has lived to date.

Video: A bigger video player, streaming with better quality. We'll place that at the top of the front page, because video is one of the key elements in what we provide and we want to make sure people don't miss it. On video pages, there will be more options for other video highlights, arranged by section as well as by popularity, so that those who want to watch more video won't have to look far to find it.

Latest: The most recently published stories will be flagged on the front page with a "New" badge.

Sharing: Links that allow users more quickly and simply to share stories with friends on social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

Two final things:

We are also launching a new edition of the site aimed at users in North America, coinciding with the changes to our design.

If you are in the US or Canada, you will automatically see a North America edition of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website, once the redesigned site goes live. Other international users will continue to see the current international edition.

The North America edition will still contain all our existing content, including the full range of coverage from the UK, and news from around the world. Our editorial team in the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Washington DC office will tailor the front page of this edition accordingly, working to provide the most relevant and timely news and analysis for users in North America.

We are doing this after listening extensively to what our users in the US and Canada have said, and with the backing of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s commercial arm, , which funds our online service internationally.

And we've done something which will be less obvious to you, but hugely important to the journalists working on the site. We've completely rebuilt the content production system (CPS) which we use to create content and run the site. The new version of the CPS is designed to be easier to use and - crucially when we want to get stories out to you fast - quicker too. It's also built to be more flexible, so it should be easier to keep the site evolving, and to produce the content in ways that work well on other platforms, such as mobile.

So that's a whistle-stop tour with the headlines of what to look out for soon. For the moment, we're still busy training people and testing things. Once the redesigned site goes live, we'll be very keen to know what you think as you start using it. As well as , where I'll be using the hashtag , I'll be back at this blog to read your comments, answer questions and tell you in more detail about it.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the .

Comments

Page 1 of 5

  • First
  • 1
  • Comment number 1.

    Great, keep up the good work on this excellent site! (Although I did notice that the image link to this article on the home page is broken...!)

  • Comment number 2.

    Seems very interesting. I await the refresh with interest.

    Before you inevitably get flamed by everyone who doesn't like the refresh (talk about pre-judgement) and who moans once it happens, can I ask a question: What are you doing to make the "geo-tagging" more robust? I'm fed up to my back teeth to be sitting in London and be told I'm in the UK on the front page, but then be not allowed to access video content for "being outside the UK". Even more frustrating is to be sent to a non-UK front page.

    Await your response with interest.

  • Comment number 3.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 4.

    Looks great. Can't wait.

  • Comment number 5.

    Will the Sport website be 'relaunched' next week as well?

  • Comment number 6.

    Good luck with the new design. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ news website is an excellent 'one-stop-shop', so I am sorry if this sounds a bit churlish. If I may suggest, there is room for improvement in your Search facility. If you 'search' for a story, usually what you are offered is list of old stuff, mostly out of date, and often not relevant. It is often much quicker to go to an outside search engine (eg google), search for a story and add '´óÏó´«Ã½' to the item you are looking for. Google can usually find archive ´óÏó´«Ã½ stories better than using the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s own search facility - which is a bit odd! You have an excellent archive of news stories, so it would be great if they were easier to find!

  • Comment number 7.

    I assume video still won't be available to those using an iDevice? Obviously Steve Jobs bares a responsibility for this but it would be ever so nice for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to implement HTML5 video.

  • Comment number 8.

    It's about time the ´óÏó´«Ã½ moved forward with it's website. I like the fact that they're finally moving the left-menu to the top as I have always felt that the current layout gave the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website a cluttered feel.

  • Comment number 9.

    The new design appears very similar to CNN.com to me

  • Comment number 10.

    Very cool indeed. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ News page has been my homepage for many years and if anyone asks me why I pay my licence fee - I point them here.

    Bring on the new look!!

  • Comment number 11.

    Looks good, although it looks more of a design refresh rather than redesign.

    Good all the same, since you're generally perceived as the benchmark for sprawling sites.

  • Comment number 12.

    Very exciting stuff, guys. I've been waiting for this for ages. Looking forward to it.

    Any chance of seeing some screenshots of the CPS? I appreciate we don't need to, but it'd be interesting as both a web developer and someone interested in journalism to see how your journalists actually provide the news we read.

  • Comment number 13.

    Should be interesting to see.

    The current ´óÏó´«Ã½ News site represents the perfect design of a news website in my opinion and will be hard to improve on.

  • Comment number 14.

    As 1981suede says, I guess the videos won't be HTML5? or have mp4 videos for those without Flash?

    I believe the internal version of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website has this, or at least the iDevice ´óÏó´«Ã½ apps (not allowed in the UK, thanks ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust) play videos, so the encoded material must be there somewhere!?

  • Comment number 15.

    But will external links open in a new window?
    Nice that you add links to other websites with a news story but I still end up losing the original bbc page when I click one.

  • Comment number 16.

    Even more prominence given to Facebook and Twitter.
    Once again I ask, isn't this against the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Editorial Guidelines?

  • Comment number 17.

    Looks good in the slideshow, but as ever the proof of the pudding emerges when it is eaten!

    Like the idea of a top navigation bar, and the clear arrangement of connected stories and follow-up links boxes.

    I'd like it to be easier to choose which national version you want to view, though. It's frustrating when globe-trotting to be directed to one 'where you are now' when you might be wanting to check up on something 'back home' - like continuing to follow a story that you were interested in before you left, or finding out the weather and road conditions at home just before you return from a trip. Or you might want to see what the news is in the place to which you are going...

  • Comment number 18.

    Looks very good, though there will be the inevitable backlash when users are asked to adapt to something new.

    I hope that you make full use of newer technologies like HTML5 in this redesign (without going nuts with the jQuery animations as is so fashionable on modern websites nowadays). It would be a shame to have to re-adapt it again in couple of years' time when such standards are in common use and expected.

  • Comment number 19.

    The redesign looks good - in most places you've pruned the unnecessary and emphasised the relevant. The only negative criticism I've got is that I don't feel the numbers in the "most shared/read/etc" side panel have any function. I can count to 10 without help, and I suspect most readers can as well. ;o)

  • Comment number 20.

    Switching from Verdana to Arial, eh, after all these years?

    Have to say, it makes it look a lot more modern (though expect complaints from users of older Windows PCs where arial renders less attractively).

    Now all you need to do is get your global ´óÏó´«Ã½ branding bods to ditch Gill ;)

    #9:
    // "The new design appears very similar to CNN.com to me"

    That can only be a good thing, IMO.

  • Comment number 21.

    So long as I can get to the sports page within 1 click, you can do whatever you like with the rest of the site ;)

  • Comment number 22.

    Well it can't get any worse than the last "facelift" where the low bandwidth text only news site disappeared a month or two ago leaving us with the current mess with pages loading and immediately starting to stream video when all I want to do is read the story.

  • Comment number 23.

    I assume the omission of any mention of HTML5 video means it's not coming any time soon...

  • Comment number 24.

    I like the new look, in particular the improved navigation. Excellent work.

  • Comment number 25.

    Will the videos be in HTML5 or something else that I can view on an iPhone?

  • Comment number 26.

    Looks great! I look forward to seeing it appear. But why make the regressive change to the distorted world map showing Greenland huge and Africa tiny (slide 7)? You currently use a much more representative projection and, although it is a nice improvement to show a bigger clickable map, it looks silly to illustrate continents using what seems to be Mercator projection.

  • Comment number 27.

    I guess when your new site goes live, you'll check the spelling of 'environment' (slide two in your slideshow)

    Otherwise, I like it!

  • Comment number 28.

    Can you put sub-titles on all the video clips on the site and the text transcript of radio articles.

  • Comment number 29.

    Excellent as usual, but can't believe the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust still thinks it's OK to cut the online budget by 25% - just as the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website was becoming its own. Really hope the changes don't affect the core websites that we all value so highly.

  • Comment number 30.

    Why do news sites (and here, ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not alone) feel a need to tailor content for US readers? It gets harder to stay informed about the world when news organizations buy into the false notion that we don't care about the rest of the world. I hope it's easy to switch back to the international version.

  • Comment number 31.

    Good move to get as much done as possible before Hack 'n' Slash (Cameron & Clegg) takes a 25% bite out of your online budget.

  • Comment number 32.

    Any chance of some HTML5 video for iPod/iPhone/iPad's?

  • Comment number 33.

    @Rod Smith

    Depending on your web browser, you can hold down Ctrl (to open in a new tab) or Shift (to open in a new window) when clicking on a link.

    Alternatively, if your mouse has a middle button or scroll wheel, if you click a link with that (instead of your normal mouse button) you'll probably see it open in a new tab.

    Personally I think it's better for websites to leave it up to the user like this. This way I always know what a link is going to do when I click on it, rather than not knowing whether it'll be a normal link or whether I'm going to get a new window

  • Comment number 34.

    Good spot, Rich Mase: now fixed. Thanks too to everyone else - please keep your comments coming; I'll reply to them next week.

  • Comment number 35.

    Are you going to include Cheshire in your list of local news regions?

    Our TV news comes from Manchester (NW) and our local radio is from Staffs (Midlands) so we continually get shortchanged as there's no cohesive service for our region. When looking for local news we have to choose Stoke or Manchester basically, neither of which is local.

  • Comment number 36.

    I sincerely hope you adopt HTML5 video and audio instead of attacking my computer with even more dreadful Flash instances.

    Also I pray you will have a leaner Website. I hope "progress" does not mean double the page load size. Think mobile. Think widening your audience to the globe where the Internet speeds are slow.

    I don't like the idea of a site catering for North Americans either.

  • Comment number 37.

    I think the ´óÏó´«Ã½ ought to make up its mind whether it's is offering a AV site... sort of 24 news in snippits or a print + picture site. (or both but not at once) In News with few exceptions a vid is NOT worth a 1000 words. Nowadays ´óÏó´«Ã½ vids and indeed TV programmes move far too slowly for me so I pass them over. It's the bane of the portable vid cam and reporter vanity (and his pets too).

    Actually I would put more money into better jornos. Some of the writing is dire, and the red top cliches suggest its all done by hoodies 1950 vintage.

  • Comment number 38.

    I hope you are not going to try something clever with Javascript, which ca cause problems with Internet Explorer 8, forcing people to use Firefox.

  • Comment number 39.

    What about the ability to personalise the content on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news homepage?

    I'd really love the ability to say "never ever ever show me anything even vaguely sport related".

  • Comment number 40.

    Can you go back to having easy to read black text rather than the awful grey text which you currently use.

  • Comment number 41.

    Ever heard the expression "If it ain't broke"...

    At a time when the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is under scrutiny in respect of costs, why spend more money on fixing something that is not broken? Whilst I'm at it - who needs "canvas"?

    I'm sure the money spent on both of these added to that which was used to make the drivel we are about to be subjected to on a Saturday early evening, could have been used to make something that went near one of Lord Reith's values?

  • Comment number 42.

    new design looks really good. hopefully the masterhead won't expand and shrink to accommodate advertisements. ever since the bbc have accepted ad banners for non-uk residents and the design has beeb degrading as it seems the bbc cared more about placing those banners than the actual ergonomics of the layout and for few years now that has been the trend.. hope that new design won't be uglified by badly placed ads as usual.

  • Comment number 43.

    I agree with BobRocket's suggestion. I almost always access the site in places where audio would create a nuisance, such as at work, in a library, or on my mobile while waiting for an appointment. It is frustrating to access a story, only to find a video window with a short paragraph of text. Video is a nice addition, but it shouldn't be a replacement for text.

  • Comment number 44.

    The new website looks amazing

  • Comment number 45.

    Again, would like to add my voice to call for support for iDevices, HTML5, a bit narked that theirs a ´óÏó´«Ã½ app that works but isn't available in the app store of the country that paid for its development!

  • Comment number 46.

    Here it comes, yet another site overloaded with Flash. I "love" clogging network with pointless code. ´óÏó´«Ã½ turning slowly into more serious version of YouTube. In truth every modification to ´óÏó´«Ã½ websites making it less, and less accessible. Time is coming when I will not bother with visiting ´óÏó´«Ã½ anymore.

    Clear HTML is the answer, not wasting time with Fla$h. Atrocious World Cup 2010 Live Text Commentary is perfect example. It lags PCs and network to hell. Problems are/were gone instantly as soon as Live Text is/was closed. [Tested with various network configurations in different locations and every internet browser imaginable]

    It would be a good idea to remove all multimedia content - Flash Player in particular. It is utterly useless addition considering the fact that vast majority of visitors to ´óÏó´«Ã½ News/Sport connecting from outside UK and ~85-90% of it is unavailable outside UK.

  • Comment number 47.

    Congratulations to the best news organization in the world for making their website even better. The website is indispensable for Americans to keep in touch with the rest of the world. The redesign ideas seem like they will work well. I can't wait to see and try the new layout. Keep up the great work.

  • Comment number 48.

    Disappointingly, the word "accessibility" does not appear at all , in your post. What does the new design do, to improve the accessibility of the site?

  • Comment number 49.

    Great!!. Congratulations!!. This will be a base for future improvements.I like it!.

  • Comment number 50.

    Now, I'm guessing that you didn't painstakingly craft the new user experience all yourself? So why not name drop or congratulate the teams that did all this sterling work?

  • Comment number 51.

    Lots of comments asking for HTML5 video, but I'm not sure this is a good idea. HTML5 isn't a completed standard yet, and in any case, there are far too many different video standards being used by different browser manufacturers, some of which are not high quality. If your device can't handle flash, direct your complaints to Steve Jobs...

    The design refresh looks nice and clean, although I've never liked having that amount of navigation at the top. For some reason, it's always harder to scan a long, horizontal list than a long, vertical one.

  • Comment number 52.

    Why constantly redesign this site, have you got money to burn ?
    The only issues Ive ever seen people complain about this site are allowing people to vote on comments and stopping people who dont pay any licence fee accessing it, both issues the ´óÏó´«Ã½ totally ignores.

  • Comment number 53.

    "A better indication of which are the most recent headlines" - great news, well done as I'm sure many of us are frustrated in constantly seeing 3 year-old articles in the 'Most Read' section! If this is combined with a good Archive search / content organisation for articles which are only a few days old (and drop off the main pages but one might still want to read), then this will be a great step forward.

    iPlayer videos are of course already available in HTML5 for the iPad and iPhone, which is great, but News clips certainly should be also.

    P.S. When is the UK 'switch' coming back please? My frustration at being forced to view the International version at work (through a proxy server) has meant I've switched my reading to Sky and The Guardian!

  • Comment number 54.

    Fab. Looking forward to it.

  • Comment number 55.

    I hope the change to shared content will prevent the seemingly deliberate pushing of old stories to the top of emailed and shared stories. Seen too many of those in the last few weeks. Example, Guinness good for you, snake bursts..., untidy beds..., etc.

  • Comment number 56.

    Great work I like the design very much,

  • Comment number 57.

    Backing up what Chris said - I live in the US, but do NOT want to see a US-centric ´óÏó´«Ã½ news page. The whole reason I get my news from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is to find out what's really important in the world, not just the insular content we get from other American sources. Please - all it takes is for us to be able to set a cookie to choose between the UK / North American / World versions, with a default based on location.

  • Comment number 58.

    Can I just say, if the final design isn't rotated from the vertical like these mock-ups we shall be *most* disappointed. :-D

    Also, add me to the clamour for HTML5 videos so it'll be more useful on an iPad...

  • Comment number 59.

    I'll respond to the excellent questions and comments coming in about the redesign next week. Meanwhile, a few of you have asked specifically about non-Flash video - not part of the redesign, so I thought I'd post a quick response on that: Alex, vintology, Nathan, Kai - we are working to ensure our video can run on devices that don't support Flash. Though this isn't ready for the redesign, we hope to roll it out later this year.

  • Comment number 60.

    A very impressive and much needed update. Great job. As an editorial based creative director I must admit this is perhaps the best update to one of the news "big guns" (Guardian, Times, Telegraph etc).

    Long may it continue.

  • Comment number 61.

    As well as having a "New" logo next to new stories, can we have a little "Old" logo next to the random old stories (e.g. more than 2 weeks old) that crop up on "Most Popular" and "Most Shared", so that I know to not bother clicking on them? Once they appear on the list, self-perpetuation ensures they stay there for a while, even though they're only relevant to a tiny subset of the population that have clicked-through from a link on a blog, or similar.

  • Comment number 62.

    Will it work with AOL? Pages/video often don't load when acessing the site via AOL, I do hope you've sorted this out.

  • Comment number 63.

    The ´óÏó´«Ã½ seems to be a massive fan of Twitter recently, and I see that a Twitter button will be coming in the pics of the new design; but why not use the Tweetmeme Retweet button?

    It's by far the most widely recognised and popular way to retweet something! I'm sick to death of having to shorten the URL with bit.ly and then tweet it manually when I could just click the button and be done with it.

  • Comment number 64.

    Any kind of progress on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ sites is a positive sign. Also i'm missing the shortwave service for europe but this is another theme. What worries me is that from time to time there are articels in the news that the funds for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are step by step being dried out. Systematically. One of them seems to be the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s internet presence which will be reduced to a certain primary content in similar ways as the media laws in germany which restrict state funded media so as not to be too competitive with the private media corporations. But then again, this is in a somewhat "natural" accordance with the neoliberal premisses that state funded systems shall not be in competition with private entities. I'm of the strong opnion that private media systems are inherently not capable to deliver unbiased nor neutral news whereas state funded systems are inherently capable of doing just that if the management of content and publishing has democratic roots. I wish that the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s will manage this delicate path and withstand any influence or pressure form private media lobbyists. I also wish to have more demanding news here instead of this easy going or outright silly content of the private media outlets.

  • Comment number 65.

    Re: the North American 'international' version. Thanks, but no thanks. I have plenty of news sites here in the US to get my US-centric news from. I specifically come to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ site to get a NON-US viewpoint of news items.

  • Comment number 66.

    Looks good, but one thing that often frustrates me is that I'll read a story, perhaps a court case or crime, and then have it lost in the mists of time...

    Is there no way for a user to flag a story so that if anything linked to the story comes up in the future, it alerts the user...

  • Comment number 67.

    The list of links along the top looks liek it will be hard to chnage... with the links at the side, it was easy to add or subtract something as needed (e.g. Election 2010).
    Also, surely it's "USA & Canada" not "US & Canada"? I thought USA was a noun, and "US" was an adjective. (Hence "news from the USA and Canada" vs. "US and Canadian news").

  • Comment number 68.

    I like the extra space gained by moving the navigation from the left to the top but the sub menu should appear at the top of every page; not only on the news Home Page. I don’t want to have to click on Home to get to Have Your Say or Video etc. The double menu should also be repeated at the foot of every page so that readers don’t have to scroll back to the top after reading an article.

    It’s a pity you have to abbreviate the word science.

  • Comment number 69.

    why are we limited to only 10 news stories?? We're not going to get scared away by text.
    If it's a news page... GIVE US NEWS!

  • Comment number 70.

    Now that you have a surplus of cash to spend on Americans can you return our HYS back to its former glory?

  • Comment number 71.

    My biggest problem is that I can't always tell before clicking on a link whether it's going to be a news article or a video - particularly if you go from a 'most shared' link. This can be really frustrating as the video pages can take longer to load and try and start playing automatically. Can/has something be done to help clarify this?

    Also, as an expat in the USA, I'm not sure I want to default to the North America version of the site. Why can't the articles which appear on the front page be more personalised rather than localised?

  • Comment number 72.

    I'm not a fan of horizontal nav-bars, but I'll reserve judgement till I see it. Sometimes they can be done right, sometimes wrong.

    What I really hope though is that the site remains lightning quick, and doesn't go the way of the sun's website, which not only looks awful, but is one of the slowest on the planet to load.

  • Comment number 73.

    I hope the 'twanging' or 'drumming' or 'tomtoms' will cease from all News Bulletins on the Web pages and on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 1 in particular. Whoever arranged that in the first place must never listen to the News!
    It is banal, irrelevant, and totally unecessary. It even continues when people are speaking and reading the headlines. It is like having the News read during the Proms in the Albert Hall.
    I have asked ´óÏó´«Ã½ to do that - to have thirty people chatter through the musical presentations!

  • Comment number 74.

    It's ironic that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has focussed on its "Big" website when more and more users are using "small" websites on mobile devices in order to access the internet. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has a mobile site, but Sky, STV, Le Monde and La Stampa all have free apps, which are a much better way of reading the news on an iPhone. It grieves me to use the Sky or STV apps, but if the ´óÏó´«Ã½ can't or won't...

  • Comment number 75.

    I agree with previous posters, please stick to proper reporting. Twitter comments from people who can't be identified are worthless and devalue ´óÏó´«Ã½ journalism.

  • Comment number 76.

    BigStu82
    "As well as having a "New" logo next to new stories, can we have a little "Old" logo next to the random old stories (e.g. more than 2 weeks old) that crop up on "Most Popular" and "Most Shared""

    Haha, yes - good idea!

  • Comment number 77.

    Well done, you basically are turning ´óÏó´«Ã½ into Telegraph. It is better as it is now, please don't do it! :( well, it's alright, i will get adjusted.

  • Comment number 78.

    Now a "North American" version.

    There are those of us stuck with "The International Version", when what we really want is a customisable UK version with UK (´óÏó´«Ã½) news from a UK viewpoint, where we live (or lived). To be screwed into an "international version" (which we can get elsewhere) is not what I want.


    Hello Steve, we meet again.


    Is it not possible to have a fully customisable UK orientated news page? (In my case NO SPORT).

    The adverts I will accept- as long as they:-

    don't last longer than the news item they precede, (when running video),
    don't obliterate the entire page by suddenly expanding, from a small box to half a page.

    I await the new site with great interest.

    However, get the journalism right as fast as is necessary.
    "First with the news" isn't important- "The news- RIGHT", is.

    Oh, and stand up for your journalists, and crews.




  • Comment number 79.

    The ´óÏó´«Ã½ continues to do brilliant work online. Can't wait to see the new website in the flesh!

    I'd add to comments calling for HTML5 video asap.

  • Comment number 80.

    Is it possible to include hover text over the links, so I don't have to click to determine nature of contents ?

  • Comment number 81.

    As long as I'm not forced to always start on an Americas only front page, I'm content. When I want local news I can always click on some US news site, but I go to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ when I want world news. Otherwise, why bother.

  • Comment number 82.

    Why all the fuss from I-thingy users about wanting the site to work on their devices? When you all bought your 'cutting edge devices' you knew that they couldn't run flash, so why moan? You could have bought any number of devices that worked on nearly every website. But you didn't and now you can't.
    Probably the same people who go abroad and want to find fish and chips and a pint of warm beer every night. I bet there's an app for that.

  • Comment number 83.

    I do specifically like the old 2003 format and layout. Sometime back even the 'low resolution' version was replaced with a mobile version. I am not a fan of the mobile version, rather the older 'low resolution' version loaded very well on mobiles and had plenty of content/links to read in single page than the current mobile version. Hope the mobile version can be improved as well. How about ´óÏó´«Ã½ News releasing an APP for Android / WinMobile / iPhone platforms.

  • Comment number 84.

    I live in North America, but I have no desire to see a US-specific ´óÏó´«Ã½ webpage. Will I have the option to switch to the international version, or am I going to be stuck with the US version?

  • Comment number 85.

    Lets hope the new site adheres to web standards, it took ages for them to fix things last time around...

  • Comment number 86.

    I don't like it. On my computer the current site lines up with nice horizontal text and vertical borders. I don't want to have to angle my head to read the news as per your slideshow, no matter how "edgy" you think the design. Please fix this immediately.

  • Comment number 87.

    looks great, I hope you've also considered the mobile website, which will grow a lot in time

  • Comment number 88.

    Please don't get excessive with the video content! For one thing, we're still a few years away from the technical standards settling into place... you'll have to support a half-dozen standards simultaneously in order to please everyone.

    More important, there are reasons why read textual news on the Internet rather that watch video news on television. Chief among those is the fact that you can read a website on the job and appear to be working, whereas you cannot so easily get away with watching television on the job! Content made available in video form only is wasted content for most office workers.

  • Comment number 89.

    WHY????????????????????

  • Comment number 90.

    "16. At 1:56pm on 06 Jul 2010, FishFingers wrote:
    Even more prominence given to Facebook and Twitter.
    Once again I ask, isn't this against the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Editorial Guidelines?"

    Seeing as it's happening, the answer would be "no" then.

  • Comment number 91.

    I say leave the site as it is.

    I use the site daily, I know where the items I need are and it works very well for me.

    Having worked in IT for the past 20 years I know about the desire to tinker and also the problems it can bring...

    The site is brilliant as it is - don't gild the lily!

  • Comment number 92.

    Can you make it much easier to search for recent news articles in any given section? I find it almost impossible to find a news article once it has slipped off the front page of any given news section. Even something as stupidly simple as a link to "Other recent news stories" which is a list of headlines and links from the past 7, or 10 or 14 days or so. It really doesn't need to be fancy, just functional.

    Oh, actually, the other thing that I really want to moan about... Can the journalistic standards rise just a little? By that I mean have better headlines which actually state facts rather than rhetoric. If that means having longer headlines then do it. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is supposed to be (and should be) at the pinnacle of journalism but I've noticed more and more headlines appearing on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website which wouldn't be out of place on the Sun website.

  • Comment number 93.

    Very exciting. I only want videos in HTML5 instead of Flash :(

  • Comment number 94.

    dotconnect, if you were anything of a true typeface enthusiast you would be championing Helvetica and not a poor mans PC version (Arial).

    Gill? Are you serious? Your stock just took a tumble in my book. Don't knock what you can't design.

    … ...

    Site redesign is not before time. …hate to repeat previous comments but the menu move from side to top was screaming out for ages. Also, the site search has always been terrible - I too use Google to search the ´óÏó´«Ã½ site, how backward is that?

    I'll chime in with everyone else and say that more-or-less this overhaul is a good idea - unlike your change to HYS, the inability to favour or rank down comments is quite annoying and if you don't check the internet allow me to tell you you're swimming against the tide as more sites (newspapers) are adopting the format. Sift the wheat from the chaff - I don't like reading through +1000 comments - don't have the time.

  • Comment number 95.


    This might be due to the website changes currently under way however I must point out that lately the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website has been crashing my home, my friends and work computers. Unfortunately I think your putting to much information on one webpage. The inclusion of video content on pretty much every news article is causing internet browsers to simply slow down and crash.

    When your new website is released I do hope the ´óÏó´«Ã½ pay close attention to the publics ability to access the website.

  • Comment number 96.

    So no more Verdana. Nice.

  • Comment number 97.

    Oh dear. Why ditch the useful, expandable and versatile left hand menu in favour of what will either be a fixed width, limited scope top menu or a horrendous "fold back on itself" mess for those who need larger text sizes?

    Instead of losing this why not sacrifice the stupid links on the right that most people ignore anyway, just put them in a box at the bottom of the pae if needs be.

  • Comment number 98.

    I'd agree with the comments regarding video; this is annoying at work, particularly while loading in a new tab in the background and it suddenly starts broadcasting to the office!

    Secondly we don't all have the latest lightning-quick machines with cinema-sized displays. So again, video takes an age to load and also I've been finding the current site is a struggle to fit onto the 1024x768 screen of my laptop (especially the In Pictures sections). I strongly believe that websites should fit to my browser window, and not the other way around.

    Other than that, looking forward to trying it out!

  • Comment number 99.

    Looks great to me! I prefer the two-row "banner" style menu... it works well on the Guardian's site.

  • Comment number 100.

    Whatever you do I am sure it will be brilliant. I live in Sydney and I use the site every day to keep up to date. Congratulations on a great resource.

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