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´óÏó´«Ã½ News website redesign (2)

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Steve Herrmann Steve Herrmann | 05:15 UK time, Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Welcome to the new-look ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website. As previewed last week on this blog, we're introducing a number of improvements from today to our design and layout.

This video gives a 90-second tour of the new features:

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit µþµþ°äÌý°Â±ð²ú·É¾±²õ±ð for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.


The full range of content is still all here - the best of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s journalism in text, video, audio and graphics - but we've set out to make it easier for you to find, use and share. In summary, and to recap on my earlier post which gives more details:

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

As I also mentioned in my earlier post, some important things are staying just the same, for example:
• all the content is still there: the best of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s journalism in text, audio and video

• the latest news headlines will be as quick and comprehensive as ever 

• accuracy remains at the core of our editorial values

• we've been careful to keep things simple and easy to use; you have told us how important this is

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website has always evolved to meet the changing needs of its users and as we studied how people used the site, we saw there were things we could improve. For example: flagging the latest stories, displaying the top news and features better, making local UK news easier to find and providing better ways to get to video content.

We talked to audience groups, held one-to-one user testing sessions, and invited several thousand of you to try out a prototype version of today's new design. With this feedback, we arrived at the design you see today.

There's also been some major behind-the-scenes work on our production system which means we'll be able to adapt even more quickly in future, whether to the changing expectations of our users or to new technology as it emerges.

My colleagues from the design and technical teams, Paul Sissons and John O'Donovan respectively, will write in more detail about the design thinking that went into the project and the re-engineering of the production system later in the week on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Internet blog.

And if you are interested to know more about how the developments on the News website fit into the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s wider online strategy, Erik Huggers, the director of Future Media & Technology for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ talks about that today on the About the ´óÏó´«Ã½ blog.

Another important development, the launch of a North America edition of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website for users in the US and Canada, which I mentioned in my earlier post, is further explained here.

So please do have a look around, and see what you think. Tell us what you like and - just as importantly - what you don't like, and if anything's puzzling you, do ask. If you use Twitter, we'll be monitoring the #bbcnewssite hashtag, and you can message me at @´óÏó´«Ã½SteveH. We'll be waiting to hear from you.

Screengrab of FAQs pageThanks to everyone who has already posted comments and queries. We've used these as the basis for our , which we'll continue to update, and I'd like to briefly address the most common topics here as well.

The site has had social media buttons for some time so that those of you who wish to can recommend stories; we've now added Twitter and Facebook Like.

We have been working on making our video play on devices which don't support Flash and hope to be able to roll this out later in the year.

Our story pages are now arranged so that those who arrive at the site directly into a story are offered a selection of top content from across the news website and content related to a given story is now in context within the story body, and at the end of the story.

- and please ask any more questions below.

UPDATE 0700 BST: You might notice as you click around the site that some stories and sections are still showing in the old design. That's because there are still a few areas of the News site which we'll be switching to the new design in phases over the coming days and weeks. Also, old archived stories will still appear as they did when published.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the .

Comments

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  • Comment number 1.

    Hate the new look. Will start looking elsewhere for my news content.

  • Comment number 2.

    Very pretty, but I had the old page customised to let me see what I was interested in and not the stuff I wasn't, and it all fited pretty neatly on one screen - now I'm back to scrolling through stuff I really don't care about trying to find the things I want to read.

    Is the option to customise the layout coming back, or am I stuck with a 'one style fits all' layout?

  • Comment number 3.

    New homepage: okay, but much more like a tabloid (or, even worse, Fox news). Probably better once we get used to it though.

    News pages: why the big white space between the text and the sidebar? It makes them look a little strange. Also, dropping the regional information that used to be in the link makes finding the region harder with just a glance, though again this will probably be something to get used to.

    By the way - hartpark: the news is still the same (except for the noticeable drop in spelling and grammar checking recently) - why look anywhere else?

  • Comment number 4.

    Bah... ignore that last comment! For some reason the ´óÏó´«Ã½ home page wasn't keeping my settings, and I thought it was a result of the news page changes - seems it was something else entirely since it's now working as it always used to!

  • Comment number 5.

    Please let readers comment at the bottom of every news article, that's the only thing that needs improved.

  • Comment number 6.

    I like the new look. Now can we have less left-leaning bias and some transparency about the those writing the stories. If we knew who they were and what they are, then we'd be able to see the agendas being pushed.

    ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Online remains 90% excellent...only fair and balanced coverage will get it to a respected state of perfection.

  • Comment number 7.

    Love it!

  • Comment number 8.

    By the way - this post is missing the link for the information about the North American version - it just says LINK at the moment...

  • Comment number 9.

    Sorry to inform you but there is an alignment problem that reduces the maximum text size to smaller than previously.

    On my computer holding control and + or - to increases/decreases the text size in firefox and whereas before you could increase this significantly and have the text reflow itself in its container now, at a smaller size than before, it goes off the edge of the screen. There is a significant difference from before in that moving down one size to fit the text on the screen makes it uncomfortably small.

    Apart from this, the thing that has ALWAYS annoyed me about the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website is the insistance of having that double black and red bar at the top of the page. A single bar would in my opinion be much cleaner.

  • Comment number 10.

    Brilliant - love it !!

  • Comment number 11.

    Disappointed. Your previous website design was perfect. There was no need to play around with it.

    Now there is alot more whitespace and annoyingly more scrolling!

  • Comment number 12.

    The new look makes the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Website seem like a less sophisticated version of the CNN website. Wish you had not chosen to emulate mediocrity. Hopefully you won't try to load it with video versions of news stories from your broadcast news like CNN does. The new layout does seem to accomodate the ads we get here in the USA better - which may have been the point of it all. In the end it just seems too "busy". Not much of an improvement - more of a makeover. A poor one.

    Any chance you guys can do what Microsoft does with its Windows control panels and offer a "traditional view" for those who prefer it?

  • Comment number 13.

    All the ´óÏó´«Ã½ websites have a nice consistent menu bar across the top ... Sport, Radio, iPlayer, etc... they all look the same.

    Go the to new ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website? Oh.. it's completely different. That's just stupid.

    Why the change from news.bbc.co.uk to www.bbc.co.uk/news/ as well?

    have both, sure... but don't like the redirect.

    can't comment on the design of the content until all pages (especially sport) are changed over.. but any page with video that then has a 'grid' of other videos to play all stacked at the bottom of the page is ugly, and complete overkill. not everyone wants or has the time to watch video. i like reading things.

  • Comment number 14.

    Hired CNN's webmaster, huh?
    How about you just go back to the old look?

  • Comment number 15.

    Horrible, horrible, horrible new layout. Difficult to use, difficult to find things you want. Not to mention the quality of news articles here has been awful for a while, ease of use and habit is all that kept me coming back and I shall now be using an alternative. Any alternative.

  • Comment number 16.

    Don't like it - how much did this 'revamp' cost? - always remember "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

    Brian

  • Comment number 17.

    Why is sport not listed with the other topics but bundled with tv and radio?
    Will the sport section also have the same look?

    It looks a bit cleaner, was probably due for a change.
    There is absolutely no need to ask for comments on every article.
    You rarely publish the ones you do receive.

    Leave them to fume with each other in the Have your say section

  • Comment number 18.

    The double menu bar at the top is still as annoying as before. It would be really clean to have a single menu bar beneath the bright red block like a series of tabs and remove the maroon menu bar at the very top completly. Put it somewhere else, anywhere is better than having a double (or if you include the submenus a triple menu bar at the top).

    You can then put a narrow maroon streak through the bottom of the red bar if you need to keep the branding the same and remove the ´óÏó´«Ã½ logo in the removed maroon bar and place it in front of the Selected heading in the bright red bar.

  • Comment number 19.

    I hate new look. it is like going for a mile to reach the content i need. please go back to old style.

  • Comment number 20.

    The new look news page is horrible, difficult to navigate and supplies less information at the news front page than before.

    Quick tip, it doesn't have to look flash to be good. Plain and simple is always best.

    Also please remember that many workplaces filter video out, so loading the page with more and more video links just means there is less news for people to read.

    Sorry ´óÏó´«Ã½ but Nil point here

  • Comment number 21.

    Absolutely horrid change; needlessly chaotic and glitzy. Resist the need for constant change, change and progress are very different things; this is very definitely not progress. If it stays this way I too will rapidly vote with my feet and go elsewhere.

  • Comment number 22.

    Poor - Now your users have to scan/scroll through content to reach navigation points?

  • Comment number 23.

    @ #3 Simon:

    "the news is still the same (except for the noticeable drop in spelling and grammar checking recently)"

    I've also noticed an increase in poor grammar lately and also more American/jargon words appearing, such as "fall" (instead of Autumn) & "incentivise".

    Regarding the redesign: it's like going to your usual supermarket to find they've rearranged all the shelves & you can't find anything. We'll get used to it, I suppose, but what was wrong with Verdana anyway?

  • Comment number 24.

    Ok, here's one. Where is there an annoying column of white space on the right part of the story, before the right hand column.

    if the image of a story can use that space, then why isn't the text of a story also wrapping to use that space? sloppy.

  • Comment number 25.

    It wasn't broken, you fixed it and now it is. :-(

    Superficially, it's 'prettier' than the original layout, but it's not as simple to navigate - especially with the screen-reader I sometimes have to use - and the only possible reason I can imagine for all the extra white-space is that you're paving the way for a whole pile of advertising...
    All the extra white-space makes the pages really 'glarey' and uncomfortable to look at for more than a few seconds so I fail to see how any designer would have considered it a good idea unless it was forced on them by the design-brief.

    Unless I'm offered the option to revert to the previous layout - which worked beautifully - then I'm afraid you've lost a reader.

    All it would take is one button and a cookie to remember the choice - retaining the original stylesheet would involve no extra bandwidth overhead - the content itself would flow just as easily into both styles at once just as it does at many other site which offer a choice of themes.

  • Comment number 26.

    Oh dear, this is the same as the digitalspy redesign: less content in more space, therefore more clicking and scrolling, which means more wrist-ache. Please can we at least have the option to go back to the old layout on a per-user basis?

  • Comment number 27.

    Where is the 5 min news summary and the listen live to the world service players???

  • Comment number 28.

    Horrid, if you want to see your regional news it's now 3 or more clicks away rather than the previous 1 or 2, I'll be choosing a different site for local news from now on as I find this new ´óÏó´«Ã½ look far too "empty" (too much space) and too much hassle to use...why break something that worked fine before???

  • Comment number 29.

    I hate the new look. It's very unprofessional. Also, navigating to various sections provide inconsistent views...

    For example, from the 'new' main page, navigating to the section for the website re-design (Welcome to our new look) produces a page which is in the old style of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website.

    Clicking on 'Home' from here takes you back to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news front page, but it is displayed in yet another new format (which is actually quite good!)

    From this front page - clicking on the 'Sci/Environment' button take you to the old style web page, and then clicking on the 'Technology' button takes you to the ghastly new style again.

    Also, when viewing the new pages on my lap-top, I cannot open the browser window wide enough to view all of the content (at least I can't have the 'Favourites' pane visible at the same time...)

    Not good!

    Like the first poster said - I used to have the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website as my home page on all of my PCs... Sorry to say that this is no-longer the case. I too will be going elsewhere for my news.

  • Comment number 30.

    You have a glitch with your "watch/listen" video box at the top right of the home page: it appears stacked during a refresh, then pops back to side-by-side.

  • Comment number 31.

    The first thing I thought as your page loaded was, O crap, what is this? Honestly it was much easier to get the jest of notable world events of the day before this alleged "improvement". I'm not sure what that huge waste of space map is doing in the center either? To teach geography? So we can scroll some more?

    Your page was original and well organized before, now it looks like some slop a novice at coding put together for 200 bucks. It's very shiny though, I'll give you that. I'm still going to check up on it, but I'm not so sure I want this as my homepage anymore.

  • Comment number 32.

    each time a page change is made there is a very disruptive jump. this was always the case with firefox, now it's there with ie. not good. and there's far too much red. never fix a running system.......

  • Comment number 33.

    I hate the new look. Why fool with something that worked fine.

    Its now just a copycat of the american news sites and not as easy to navigate as it was before.

    Time to switch to another site as this one is a mess

  • Comment number 34.

    Don't like at all. PLEATSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE go back to the old one.
    YOu left the good for the bad

  • Comment number 35.

    Always puzzled by your insistance that Sports News is a section in its own right rather than a sub-section of News (i.e. in your hierarchy it ranks alonside "News" rather than alongside "Business" or "Politics".

    This looks like a reflection of your own internal hierarchy rather than reflecting how users want to see things. While it doesn't confuse for long it does make navigation a pain when using the mobile site. The website should be about presenting things the way the customer wants them not reflecting ´óÏó´«Ã½ internal structures.

  • Comment number 36.

    Not a good design for a news home page. Text style is irritating to the eye. Poor attempt from the web design team.

  • Comment number 37.

    There is a huge amount of empty white space. On articles which contain indented quote text the text is such a light shade of gray that it hurts to read. Basically on any widescreen monitor the site is impossible to read long enough to finish an article.

    Example:
    /blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/07/how_influential_are_you.html

    And just to echo something that's true but probably overstated; this is cnn2.com now.

  • Comment number 38.

    Hate this redesign so much I created a ´óÏó´«Ã½ id to voice my ire.
    The previous design was well thought out using space very efficiently to display the majority of stories in a single page, no scrolling required.
    This home page shows some stories and has a huge amount of space wasted on banners and headings.
    ´óÏó´«Ã½ news used to be different, it used to be concise and didn't look like cnn or the guardian, with sprawled links and lots of scrolling. Now what is it that makes you different?
    I used to have this as my homepage but it gives me a headache to look at it I will have to change it.
    Can you please, as some have suggested, have a "Classic view" option.

  • Comment number 39.

    Got to be honest, when I first went to the news pages this morning my initial thought was that something hadn't loaded on the page properly. The way it is set out looks very odd, the wider margins almost make it look like there's no borders at all and it makes the alignment look quite strange.

    To be fair, it may just be because I've gotten used to the old style, but first thoughts of this is it's a step backwards rather than forwards.

  • Comment number 40.

    Yuk! Ugly,confusing and messy. Much preferred the previous look....

  • Comment number 41.

    Nooooooooooooooo - I loved the old site very easy to navigate. Don't fix what isn't broken. Bring back the old site.

  • Comment number 42.

    As with most things ´óÏó´«Ã½ these days, "dumbed down" is the expression that springs to mind.

    If you MUST continue with this unprofessional "new" look, at least put the navigation bar at the very top of the screen and lock it in place so uses don't have to scroll all the way back up. When you reinstate the "old" professional page (with an option to switch between the two, as already suggested), you should lock the sidebar with the navigation, again to avoid the need to scroll to the top of the page. That, in my view, was the ONLY thing wrong with the previous iteration.

    But then, you ignored the outcry over the change in the weather forecast maps a couple of years ago, so why should you listen to us now?

  • Comment number 43.

    Unfortunately I must agree with those who dislike the new look, it's way too busy and honestly my main reason for coming to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ was the simplicity and ease of access. I've been using your website for years and sadly my reason for creating an account was this eyesore of an update. Please, revert back or give your readers alternate layouts, as I am also finding less reason to come back.
    P.S., More scrolling and clicking is NOT a good thing.

  • Comment number 44.

    Very good. Like it. Well done. Please get rid of Jonathan Ross quicker.

  • Comment number 45.

    The change is a disappointment. I have often cited the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news site as a good example of clear and compact design. But that was then. Now I'm afraid the site is wasteful of valuable screen real estate and appears to be more cluttered than ever with ads. I hope I'll get used to it. Otherwise, there's always Google News...

  • Comment number 46.

    Hate it. Hate it. Hate it! I hate the glare of all the white space, and I especially hate the endless scrolling now needed to read the front page, much of which is repeated in the specific categories like Technology, Science, Entertainment etc. The previous layout was excellent, and I have had it as my home page for years. Doubt I will for much longer unless you give us the option to change back.

  • Comment number 47.

    The new design certainly looks very pretty, but it isn't anywhere near as user-friendly as the old layout. This seems to me to be change for the sake of change, rather than an improvement that will actually benefit the readers.

    As others have said, I will be looking elsewhere for my news. I used to really enjoy browsing the site over breakfast, but just can't get used to the new layout. Byebye ´óÏó´«Ã½.

  • Comment number 48.

    I'm sure you think this is an improvement, and I can see what you've tried to do but I would suggest two things: (1) the site looks FAR TOO SIMILAR to CNN, really it's almost indistinguishable, (2) the main home central strip of stories was a good chronological way to catch up when hitting the site, with the one lead story design now it's confusing to say the least.

  • Comment number 49.

    Why did you do this, it's like looking at CNN or Sky newsm or the MSN homepage...too much information The site was perfect prior to today, easy to navigate, well laid out and pleasing on the eye. I can see why people may start looking elsewhere. I have always stayed with ´óÏó´«Ã½ news mainly due to the design of the site, it was a pleasurable experience. This is horrible, time to look elsewhere. Who designed it, Mr.Maker?

  • Comment number 50.

    Oh ´óÏó´«Ã½ why did you have to change your website. ´óÏó´«Ã½ News was the best for quickly finding news articles and there was nothing wrong with it. The new site is all over the place and the layout, for me is awful. The old adage springs to mind "If it aint broke don't fix it." It wasn't broken but you "fixed it" Argh!!!

  • Comment number 51.

    It looks awful. I hate it!
    It looks like CNN just vomited allover your website.
    Bring back the old look.

  • Comment number 52.

    This is absolutely terrible. It looks utterly cheap and like something from a local Russian website. Seriously, this is the sortof thing that you would expect from a high school web design competition. Who in their right mind chose this and how much did it cost?

    This is the ´óÏó´«Ã½?! A global broadcasting organisation? If it ain't broke don't fix it.

  • Comment number 53.

    Its not too bad, I suppose I'll get used to it - but I do have one problem. ITS NOT CENTRED! Everything seems to be left aligned, and I'm actually having to adjust how I look at the screen to read. Honestly, reading an article, all the text starts EXACTLY at the very left edge of my monitor. Its not very comfortable and just looks completely wrong. Theres a benefit in having some MARGINS please.

  • Comment number 54.

    Love the new design, and I hope it's kept as is and isn't fiddled with too much.

  • Comment number 55.

    Good grief, what is the matter with everybody this morning? Hate it, loathe it, can't do this, can't do that. What's wrong with it? I love it. It IS professional and looks the business. The old one was tired and looked it. Now we have a site that is easily navigable and with so much more interest.

    Time to wake up people's this is a new dawn. Enjoy it 'cos it won't go away whatever your view is.

    Well done the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

  • Comment number 56.

    Can't say I'm a big fan. Too much wasted space, the stories don't have links to other websites next to them anymore, which was handy if I wanted to get alternative info or opinions. It was neat and tidy before, much more professional looking. This, as others have said, looks like a tabloid, not the most respected news source in the world.

  • Comment number 57.

    Yuk! Besides all the things that others have already said, there's NO LEFT MARGIN, either on the News main page nor in the articles.

    Please go back to the way it was.

  • Comment number 58.

    Everything on the homepage appears to be in bold font. It feels like my eyes are being assaulted. Please tone it down!

  • Comment number 59.

    It really does look a lot like CNN.com, which is a shame because the bbc news site was always better.

    The best thing about the old site was that you didn't have to scroll around to see all the news, which I find very irritating, but now your site just looks like all the other ones on the website; full of waffle (features, videos, commentary etc.) which makes it more difficult to read the news. Please move all the "web 2" stuff, like the videos, to the bottom so we can read the news again.

    Thank you

  • Comment number 60.

    Dumbed down, poor design, loads of empty space, is this ´óÏó´«Ã½ news for idiots or did the idiots do the design. Oh well, I've moved to Sky news on television, looks like they do a better job on the Web too.

  • Comment number 61.

    The website does not auto-adjust for widescreen displays. I have a 21" monitor and now have 4" of blank space either side of a 17" white bar down the middle of the screen that contains the website.

    As a result i have to scroll DOWN DOWN DOWN to find the content that i am looking for. In fact it doesn't appear that the website is capable of adjusting to ANY change in browser window width. (tried Chrome AND explorer). Fix this and i'll give it another chance

    I have to say that i also do not find this a more effective use of video and images - liked the 'front page of the paper' appearance of the old website

  • Comment number 62.

    Regarding the UK local news and weather box - I'm an expat on work assignment in Spain.
    The previous UK local news facility allowed me also to add local sport (e.g. football teams).
    When the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website enforced the 'international' option a while ago, the local news options disappeared also and were eventually brought back.
    It exists now I see, but there is again, no local sport. Will it be re-introduced?
    Otherwise, I understand the need for re-branding sometimes but there is far, far too much scrolling required ont he new front news page.

  • Comment number 63.

    Sorry, I need to comment again after trying to read the news page for a second time. It's far to messy making it hard and unpleasant to read. What happened to the marketing lingo:
    -simplicity
    -clean
    -uncluttered
    etc......
    please remove all the distractions from the home page.

    Thank you again.

  • Comment number 64.

    Sorry, but I hate the layout which is not pleasing to the eye. The whole thing feels like many other sites, unlike the old style, (which is why I had the old style as my home page). I will probably try another site from now on.

    ps The site also does not recognise my Postcode

  • Comment number 65.

    Absolutely awful!!!!
    I have had the ´óÏó´«Ã½ as my homepage for years and everything about the site worked practically perfect for me.
    Now it's harder to navigate and the layouts and colours used are much less easy on the eye.
    It may well be the same content but as I now find the site far less friendly to use I will have to find a new site to serve as a homepage - unless you can provide an option to have the old style.
    I'm no Luddite but why change something that worked so well?

  • Comment number 66.

    Goodbye clear intuitive layout....hello rubbish new one.....revert please!

  • Comment number 67.

    I'm aware there is a tendency not to like change, and perhaps given time I'll grow to love the new look, but at present I really don't like it. At first I thought there was a problem with the site - it looked like the style sheet had misfired and I was getting a bad page load - I reloaded 3 times until I realised it was supposed to look like that.

    White space is good but there is far too much of it and everything feels big and clumsy - it means a lot more scrolling required to get a good overview of what is going on in the world. Before I always felt that with one glance at the page I had a good idea if there was anything important going on that I wanted to know about. I don't feel that now.

  • Comment number 68.

    The page layout generally is OK with the exception of the masthead - the upshot of more news space has made the navigation at the top a bit of a mish-mash and cramped.

    Wide margins between stories is good but never, never at the expense of navigation.

    So the design team have succumbed to the thinking that menus must be horizontal and all in the initial viewport - good idea in theory but less relevant on a well used news site as opposed to selling trainers, for instance.

    It looks like it will not be so easy for people with restricted eyesight who have to zoom text - just had a play with that and not so clever. Vertical borders between menu items are of a very low contrast. The accessibility help is a small link right at the bottom of the page as well...

  • Comment number 69.

    Very tabloid. Bland. Big. No identity.

  • Comment number 70.

    Sorry, do not like the new layout.

    Far too much whitespace, and actually harder to navigate.

    Navigating to a county is now much harder. Why do I have to keep scrolling from the top to the bottom of the page.

    Very annoying - but the ´óÏó´«Ã½ have never listened to complaints about their website, so sorry am not expecting it to start now :(

  • Comment number 71.

    Any reason why there's still not index page for "Features" articles? I'd love to have a place where they're all together, separated from the new stories.

  • Comment number 72.

    this looks cheap & nasty. You've lost me for good now. bye bye ´óÏó´«Ã½.

  • Comment number 73.

    The new HYS is more unwieldy than the previous version.

    The news layout seems to have similar problems.

    When everyone else is cutting back on costs, how much did it cost to redesign these?

    If it came out of licence fees, does the ´óÏó´«Ã½ actually need licence fees at all - if money had not been spent on redesigning, what would it have been used for?

    I thought the idea was to utilise space - not create it. And I don't like the appearance of a tomoto soup stripe across the top of the screen - red is not restful on eyes.

    You silly, silly people.

  • Comment number 74.

    Early days for the new design. However an early yechnical hitch where in Firefox you have lost the left margin at zero zoom setting. IE8 works fine. Is the new design any better? Time will tell over new few browsing days.

  • Comment number 75.

    Looks good. Only gripes I have is the removal of the ticker which was really useful for finding out what the latest news was. Not sure how this will be done now other than a 'new' next to a story but that's unlikely to show breaking news without some sort of content - which is why the ticker was good.

    Oh and what about flash? Why are you still using it? Need html5 video!!!!

  • Comment number 76.

    It's horrible, the old site I could pick out items I wanted to read easily on the new version I can't. And come on HTML5 video PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Comment number 77.

    I have tried and better tried to come to terms with this new style but I'm sorry, I hate it. Too messy, cluttered and as others have noted, lots of other niggles so, afer many years, sadly it time to say goodbye.

  • Comment number 78.

    Intensely disliked it when I beta tested it, and it's not improved as far as I can see.

    Major bug on the local coverage panel also: I expressly tell it I am in Surrey (GU9), yet it insists on giving Hampshire news. I try to disable the panel, and it blasts my ´óÏó´«Ã½ Weather site preferences also. If you're going to do this kind of tight integration, make sure it actually works first.

    As with poster #1, will be seeking alternative news sources.

  • Comment number 79.

    Why not fill the screen? - Why the blank spaces each side?

    Everyone else can fill the screen properly.

  • Comment number 80.

    I liked the old look much better. The new one does certainly looks much more like a tabloid. The old one was clear, elegant and neat, very difficult to improve.

  • Comment number 81.

    Feels a bit 'looky looky at the shinies'. There doesn't seem to be as much actual news available - what used to be a quick drop in to news.bbc.co.uk to get an overview of what was happening is now a bit of a trawl. Also, what's with all the wasted real estate?? Huge columns either side...I don't know, I'm trying to like it but it just looks a bit of a cobbled together mishmash of ideas lifted from other places.

  • Comment number 82.

    The web designers can't even get the site displaying properly - surely that should be one of the most basic things?
    As others have said, far too much white space; the worst thing is lines of text on top of each other in places - totally unreadable!

  • Comment number 83.

    I used to be able to monitor Kent local news and London local news, and only the weather forcast was post code dependant. Its great that "all the old content is still there", but how do I see it?

  • Comment number 84.

    Not impressed at all, way too much padding. Font sizes are too big in parts, boring useless data now added like the Market Data section. What is that huge grey box now in the middle? Its like something out of a website from '95.

    The more I look at it the worse it becomes, why do you not provide a beta and get feedback from actual users for a month or so before you go live with something?

    I used to spend hours on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news site and thought the layout and content was spot on. You seem to have gone backwards.

    Bye.

  • Comment number 85.

    RobertIain - you are confused - you could never customise the news page, but you could, and still can, customise the ´óÏó´«Ã½ homepage at www.bbc.co.uk

  • Comment number 86.

    I hate to be negative, but I really dislike the new look.There is too much white space and having to scroll down.The banner headlines are particularly unwelcome.
    To be fair,the design may just take a bit of getting used to,but at the moment it seems like a step back from what was previously a well presented and easy to navigate site.

  • Comment number 87.

    Hate the new look. If this was a newspaper it has moved from being The Daily Telegraph to being The Sun.

    Why do you feel the need to tinker with a product that does the job was easy to navigate and was pleasing to the eye?

    I suppose you also paid someone to redesign the look. Typical ´óÏó´«Ã½ spending money where it doesn't need spending. The least you could do is to offer both and compare the hits and go with the winner.

  • Comment number 88.

    Looks like it's aim at 3 year olds.

    Not really impressed.

  • Comment number 89.

    Why no link to sport in the main title / headings bar? It must be a popular click-through. And a lot of stuff (e.g. podcasts) is now buried in sub-menus. My bet is that the wide range of ways in which people use ´óÏó´«Ã½ content mwans that a single - albeit long - list of locations & functions would have served better.

  • Comment number 90.

    Ignore the negative comments, the new site is much nicer to use.

  • Comment number 91.

    Dumbed down.

    The triumph of style over content and readability.

    Ever noticed how newspapers print lots of words close together, because it makes it easier to read and your eyes don't have to travel so
















    far.

    Where are my 4 locations? I can't see Berkshire, Cornwall, Devon and Oxfordshire headlines at the same time.

    Fixed something that ain't bust again ´óÏó´«Ã½

  • Comment number 92.

    I really, really do not like this new look. First of all, let me just say that I am not someone who is against change. I usually welcome a fresh new look, as long as it is beneficial. It would seem that this new look is very unintuitive - my mouse goes wandering all over the page searching for things I usually click on. Why is there so much spacing within the text and links? This makes no sense, and the page has ended up massive, however it seems like there is less content. You have moved some of the most important aspects of glancing at the headlines further down, and there is so much dead white space! This is even more apparant when you go to sections or stories.

    All in all, it feels wrong. And not in a way that could simply be misunderstood as "getting used to" the new site. It looks and feels terrible. The thing that annoys me is that you just changed the news site - for the better! You modernised it, but kept the original feel and content there. This was perfect. There is no way it needed changed this time. This is absolutely unnecessary.

  • Comment number 93.

    Oh my - felt so strongly I had to register.

    I don't mind the new look, but why are the stories no longer in true paragraphs - why all the white space?

    Are we really so dumb we need news in short sentances?

  • Comment number 94.

    What a mess... hate it.
    The old news pages weren't broken & didn't need "fixing" they were nice & simple. I wasn't bombarded with stuff I'm not interested in... if I want to know the market data or iPlayer programs I'd go to the relevant pages. Why does the sports section get more prominence than the "More from ´óÏó´«Ã½ News"?
    Another case of change for changes sake.

  • Comment number 95.

    Did you actually test it??? The type is hideous! I've just tried it on a variety of browsers. It doesn't look too bad in Opera; Firefox is so-so; Google Chrome is poor; IE8 is dreadful. Oh, and as for Safari - the text turns into garbage. Back to the drawing-board, guys.

  • Comment number 96.

    Not much of an improvement! a poor version of CNN! ´óÏó´«Ã½ should be setting the standards not making bad copies!

  • Comment number 97.

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The new layout is counter-intuitive, ugly and more difficult to use for someone with disabilities. I'm now looking for another news site that meets my needs as well as the old site did. To sum it up in one word - goodbye.

  • Comment number 98.

    Why fix something that ain't broke? The version we know and love was great. The new one will no doubt also become familiar, but I resent the waste of my time trying to get used to it, and the waste of my taxpayer's money in generating this pointless change. At first view I'm as happy about this as I was to have Microsoft Vista forced on me.

  • Comment number 99.

    Sometimes you take something for granted and don't really appreciate it fully until it is gone. Oh how I miss the old ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website. It was the best. This new layout is so much harder to get around. It takes so much longer to quickly scan articles. Going to local news takes so much longer. Having to click on a stupid map and then click again to select an area is ridiculous. Who on earth thought this was a better layout. It is just like the rest now and does not stand out as outstanding, unlike the old site. I would like to know how much this revamp (bodge up) has cost the TV Licence payers.

  • Comment number 100.

    Very, very horrible. Messy layout, less actual content, and poor formatting in places. ´óÏó´«Ã½ news was my homepage, but I'll have to change it now. Inexplicable....

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