New TTAC Site Design: Your Comments Please
Published: March 1st, 2007
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OK, here it is. And it's already evolving. Our web gurus, Mark Madden and Kyle Morton, are on the case. The font size will grow. They're going to decrease the column width within the Review pages. The search box will be restricted to selecting makes (the current search engine is basically worthless). The stats and stars arrive next week. There will be lots of tweaks in the days ahead. Now, before you let rip, try to keep in mind our goal: to make the site user-friendly for mainstream car buyers while maintaining our full editorial and review mojo for the faithful. OK, the floor is yours.
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I'm seeing the new 'Review at a glance' and like Horse from Ren and Stimpy would say "I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it at all". Where does roominess factor in? What about ergonomics, utility, efficiency, noise all the things performance afficionados aren't supposed to care about but everyone else does. And then you throw in 'Design'! As if the styling wasn't perfectly subjective and shoppers couldn't judge for themselves at a glance. Really, all automotive qualia can be grouped under four headings; economy (purchase price, depreciation, operating costs), performance (accelerations, response, balance), luxury (features, comfort, safety, yes safety) and utility (how many horses fit inside, how deep can you take them into the woods and how easily can you clean it up afterwards). For the benefit of the casual web surfer/car shopper I think you owe it to yourselves to revise these ratings while also providing a quick explanation of what each one means.
The updates to the look of the site are an improvement each time, and I'm warming up to it compared to the original look. Minor nit-picky comments/suggestions: - The "corner cut-off" on the title boxes and tabs(don't know the technical term for this): Personally, I think it flows better if you cut-off the right-hand corner instead of the left. It feels more natural to me since the eyes move from left to right. - Leave out the "Find reviews by make" drop down box at the top. It's unnecessary in my opinion since I would expect a majority of front page views will be looking for the latest articles. The listing at the bottom is adequate since the page is intentionally not meant to be too lengthy. The listing of all makes right there is more convenient and looks more in line with the rest of the text on the page. - The gradient on the footer should match the gradient at the header. - The background is broken for Category views when using Firefox. Hope this helps. Love the site, new articles always seem to brighten up my day. - Category views are
Just two more, and I'll stop before I get too OCD you guys :) - The word search appears twice: Get rid of the "Search: " or rename the button to "submit" - The word Reviews doesn't need to appear above every review anymore.
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