Yesterday I launched the new and improved look for the blog which I worked on with the team at Wavai. I tried to keep everything mostly in the same place, I just cleaned up and simplified the layout a bit. The biggest change is that the blog is now finally mobile-phone friendly. If you access the blog from your phone (which 65% of you do), then you’re going to see a much simpler and clearer 1-column layout.
There are a lot of issues that still need to be worked out with the new design, and I’m still working on a lot of random little things behind the scenes so please be patient. It’s probably going to take a couple of more weeks for me to finish everything. Once I’m done with the main page I’ll work on applying the new look to all the other sections on the blog like the Events page and Classifieds. For now, let me know what you think.
47 replies on “New Look!”
It looks cleaner & better.
Definitely looks cleaner and better but if I really have to point out something insignificant; it’s that I think the previous font looked better and crisper.
I’m personally not comfortable with the new font yet. Not sure if it’s because it’s new and I’m not used to it or something else. Will see how it goes over the next couple of weeks.
Also noticed while typing this comment that the font color in this comment form is too light. Need to darken it a bit more.
ok solved the font color in the comment form, it’s a lot darker now
Keep the new look .. go back to the old font and keep it in black. the ash grey color is too light
I just changed the font color to black so it should be slightly crisper. thing is i can make the current font slightly thicker but I like how it looks right now. but the more i use the new site the more i’ll have a better idea of what needs to be done. i might change the font completely or i might just get comfortable with this.
are u on the desktop of mobile phone? windows or mac? i haven’t tried the new site on a windows computer so it might look completely different.
The white is too bright. Try the grey color in the middle as well.
Like this https://www.gamespot.com/ and https://www.pcgamer.com/
The blog has always had a white backdrop since day 1, thats not new.
Wonderful !!! Enjoying the New Look on my PC and a little less on my mobile…
The old fonts were easier to read on PC.
On the mobile, the new fonts are fine.
On PC – the top banner has no transition when scrolling down. It just goes from big to small – it is a bit distracting (OCD alert). On the mobile there is a slight transition.
Like the small horizontal ads – but have them after the content / post rather than before. The adverts are the first thing after your banner, I would skip that and get directly to the post when reading / browsing the blog.
There are no spelling mistakes – if you have enabled a spell checker please switch that off ๐
I’m actually thinking of turning off the always on top navigation strip but going to leave it for now to see if I get used to it.
In regards to the ad banner, the reason its the first thing on top is because its what would make it interesting for advertisers (which I still want to continue earning money from).
Fair point on the ad banners
If you turn off the always on top nav strip – what is your idea for dealing with having to scroll up every time to access the menu
you just scroll back to the top? I mean thats how it was before, not sure how often people click on the other sections but i’m assuming having the nav strip always on top probably increases that in a good way for me.
You mentioned of turning off the always on top navigation strip – I thought that meant that the strip would not show when you browse down (some of the sites I visit hide the nav strip when you scroll down on the site)
The current burger menu on the top is easy to access on the mobile. Only gripe from a user perspective is that with the text centered I have to hold the phone with two hands to access the options (big phone / small hands). If it was right aligned it could be accessed easily while holding the phone with one hand, but would look plain ugly
For the love of God, could you please justify?
“Justifying text adjusts the spaces between words so that the text is aligned relative to a column.”
Thanks !
Full justification is terrible for typography because you’ll end up with awkward and uneven spacing between words. Left justification as it is now is the easier on the eyes and easier to read especially since the blog doesn’t use columns like a newspaper.
Yes! Please dont justify
Looks clean, but the delicate font is hurting my eyes already!
Definitely looks clean! But adverts after every blog is not good, reminds me of Instagram, which is painful.
Congratulations .. The theme is beautiful and simple but still needs more modification. Good luck
Looks much better than before
For pc i do not like it ( like something is missing cannot pinpoint ) . Its good for mobile. Could you add night mode option
can u take a screenshot and share it here?
If i remember well, in the previous version while reading a post, there was an option to go to the previous post and the new post (if available) without having to go to the homepage. I mean both the posts titles were shown under the current post’s title. Was this removed intentionally? I kinda preferred that.
yes, thats one of the things i need to bring back
Looks good on my mobile. But the font is too thin/delicate and needs to be darker/black.
Thank you!
i want to say something constructive but, all i have is that im just not comfortable with it, politley saying i don’t like it, think wavai should have done a better job on such a important site
What don’t you like? You can be critical I won’t take it personally. Is it the font? Is it the colors? etc..
I like the increased font size and increased picture size, I feel like it really takes some strain out of my eyes.
Pretty neutral with most of the changes. Not exactly how sure I feel about the expanding/collapsing main bar when I move from the top of the page
What happend to 248PM?
Another small point to mention (which isn’t a big deal), the web page seems to load slower than before with the ads loading first and then the content loading afterwards.
Using Google Chrome on a PC
well i was barely posting there so i’m killing it. i can’t be too sentimental, if it was anyone else and i was giving them advice i would have been like just kill it and simplify things.
To be honest my eyes strained reading through the comment section. I think the new font is too thin and the black color although dark isn’t helping enough to keep my eyes from straining compared to the bright white background.
this seems to be the collective answer so i’ll start exploring new type options
As mentioned by others the font is really uncomfortable looking at, needs to be bold.
I liked the previous layout. It was just easy on the eyes and was derived from your earlier designs. This looks like the KITCO or KDD rebrand, completely different.
I like the new design, itโs sleek and fresh. Iโm using the mobile site on iPad. There should be a search bar in the website banner, because it looks a little bare.
Old font and size for all text (titles, comments, etc.) was a lot easier to read IMO. Otherwise looks good.
In my opinion, from a revenue point of view. My strategy would be for placement of 4 to 5 horizontal banners in between the blog posts as people scroll. A. Resizing of ad banners is ideal, ads at the bottom of the page are getting zero page real estate. Freeze pane versions of ads, are rather annoying for users and make me feel of turning on ad block in my head.
Sorry if this is jibberish, just outward thought.
Thanks!
I love it! We just need dark mode!
Everything looks great except for the body text font! the headlines look clean and easy on the eyes. The body text font has to go!
FINALLY !!!
๐
Ok made it bolder guys, let me know what you think.
Looks fine here ๐
Mark, if I recall you were having that predicament how to position the ads.
Not sure if you noticed (and not sure if it can be applied on your blog) but most news sites I browse on mobile device have their ads embedded within the post.
Not like a “static” image in the middle, think of how u scroll through one of those panoramic images in FB.
wwwdotscmpdotcom has it.