Official New Design Thread

i am not a big fan of the color scheme, liked the old one better. homepage looks a little to congested. the layout and the way the site is set-up is much better.

 

Seanblee: As has been discussed, if you know what you're looking for, our new Search function will whisk you there in a jiffy. If you want to browse around, ok sure, you now have multiple pages of Archive rather than one big one, but under the new design you have a thumbnail for every article, as well as a short description detailing what each article / review is all about.

We have also added Related Articles, which still needs some tweaking. However, that will suggest articles similar to the one you are reading so hopefully you won't have to browse for content: it will be presented to you on a silver platter (with blue LEDs mounted Alien-Glow style of course!)

We think it's a big improvement over the old design

 

Well heres my comments, but just before I say that, well done for all the work you've put in.

Personally, I think its an interesting colour scheme. Splitting the site up into sections works well considering you're obviously trying to cover more elements than Bit-Techs original remit.

However at the moment the screen just feels too cluttered to work for me. Theres too much going on, and it feels like there is nowhere for my eyes to focus upon. There is also some clashing between the colours.

So, good and bad really, but well done obviously for all the work you put in
Although I think its a bit of a shame to say "no changes" as thats a bit closed minded, I would prefer a kaizen style continuous improvement

 

The new site keeps growing on me.

Kna, RTT, and Pope: I just wanted to say thanks for listening, responding, and doing a great job trying to tweak this for us while still sticking to some of your (very loaded, as evidenced by McGuinness) guns. The site is coming along nicely, and I think it's impossible to have released it and had it work for everyone...just nice to see the tweaking effort being done.

If I may make one more subtle suggestion... since we're changing forum skins and everything already by selecting below, is there any way that the "retro" could turn the buttons and the side bar to the same color blue that the titles of posts are? Would help bring a bit more continuity and be easier on the eyes for a lot of us, without having to disrupt the design. I think part of the problem of the side-bar is it is a bit disassociated from the actual forum, being a different color. And a lot of us like the retro skin...so maybe it would be less "intrusive" (for lack of a better word) if it could be colored to the skin that you've selected. Possible?

RTT, you have excited me to no end with a mobile.bit-tech on its way. Can we just please stick with a google text ad or two on the mobile version? And you'd better make the forums work!!!!

 

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the new look, I thought the old one had a more professional feel to it, this one looks like someones whacked it toghether in e107 or something

 

Mixed feelings. Main site looks cool (Still prefer the old look though) and the photography pretty funky. Not big fan of the forums though, would like the ads on the right to be somewhere else but I spose you guys put them there for a reason.

 

I have found the new design to be wonderful in bringing about epileptic seizures, it looks good but I personally feel it is now just like the other sites with too many colors and a "younger" feel to it rather than the simple, adult like orientation of the previous format. But good job to whoever designed it.

 

My Dad, having read bit-tech on and off for the last year or so, just said to me this evening out of the blue "I didn't know that that site you moderate at was a professional publication"...I'd call that a thumbs up

 

Bad
- I hate the right bar on the forum, it just doesn't belong there.
- The top banners don't seem as professional as they could be.

Good
- The color coding is nice (blue for hardware, red for gaming.. etc)

But overall, I really think the bar on the right needs to go, otherwise I'm going to hack it away with some modifications to my browser.. sorry.

 

The colours need a little more depth; ie, a 3d look or similar. The buttons look like a kids game, rather than a professional website. I keep expecting them to flash - 'simon says' style

Side bar is terrible, definitely something that needs to go. Horrible for poor plebs like me on 1024 res, must be awful on 800*600

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=89556

 

Ok, since ive had a few days now to get used to it, this is how it is.

Pro's
- Bit gets lots of moneys from adverts
- Nice logo
- The ability to change between the site and the forums without a URL change (i.e. a click does it)
- The pictures on the about page, and in general, nice bright pictures all over the site
- Nice search function

Con's
- The navigation buttons looks like my first site... I created it on homestead
- Forum buttons and stuff (i did think this before, but i thought it would be finicketty to mention. but since others have )
- The side ad banner (goes without saying i guess)
- The homepage on first inspection looks like a whole page of ads. I usually wouldnt wait around to look at it if i didn't know Bit-Tech better.
- IMO it only looks professional because of all the other hardware/magazine sites which look very similar! Bit doesn't stand out anymore (for worse or better, being known is all bad )

Looks like the bit-tech button maker wasn't up to the job

In short, after a few days getting used to it... I dont like it very much. Though i will still read the articles

 

Well I suppose you can't please everyone! Because of my poor vision, I can see black on white better than anything else and the brighter the better!

 

I have to say I was less then impressed when I laid my eyes on V4.0, I may have even cried a little...

But, now I think its rather uber, the retro skin for the forum is a must though, it looks nice and professional, just took time to adjust.

'doc

 

For everyone who was complaining about fixed-width, you might care to read THIS article at 1280-wide maximised: http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD0xMTY1

I was ready to criticise the author for SINGLE line paragraphs until I windowed my browser and it suddenly doesn't look as bad... we avoid this with out fixed-width design, ensuring that the reader sees things exactly as the author intended them to be seen (minor bugs aside obviously)

 

Getting used to the design (very thankful for the dark forum option though).

But got a minor suggestion....

On the reviews/articles/etc, you have a drop-down to select a page of the article. Would it make more sense to not have this for single-page articles? I find it slightly misleading/unnecessary.

But kudos on all the hard work!

Must have had a few sleepless nights recently!

 

i really dont find anything wrong with it... my browser displays it perfect and its nice and easy to look at..

 

agree with this one. I guess i'll get used to it, though.

is there a possibility of getting a function where we can compose out own colorthemes?

I would like a black/dark gray one with white text. (way more comfortable to read in the dark. (i sit in a dark room most of the time))

 

There seem to be a lot of adverse comments on the strong blue border. Here's a thought - swap Forum & News tabs and colour themes, the dark grey fits in with the popular Retro theme and is less in-your-face.

 

http://www.aeondesign.orcon.net.nz/bitech.htm

my 2c - its quick, its not neccessarily right (i dont like some aspects) but i think it shows the potential of a a few very small changes.

Purple + turquoise isnt the best complimentary colour combination in my opinion.