Daily Podcast: What Do You Think of the New Design?

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

As they used to say in England, TISWAS (Today Is Saturday, Watch And Smile). Oh wait, it’s Friday. MAN, what a week. The news cycle has been nothing short of ferocious, what with the financial meltdown setting a blowtorch to GM, Ford and (latterly) Chrysler’s assertions that they’re going to get the Titanic to New York if it kills you (i.e. taxpayers). Yes, there is that. We’re going to start our Bailout Watch 2 series next week, as it’s only a matter of time– and not much of it– before the whole “ Too Big To Fail” shtick pops its head above the proverbial parapet. Meanwhile, we’ve been grappling with the new site design. As expected, the new format killed a LOT of page views; visitors no longer have to click to individual news stories via the home page. We played with the idea of splitting the news posts up, “click through for the payoff” Jalop and Autoblog style, but discarded the idea (any such bisection would be more about us than you.) The good news: the galleries created a net page view gain. When the feature went live, we saw a net gain of 40k page views– in the first day. Fair enough. But that’s from our perspective. What’s your take on the new design? And while you’re thinking about that, Justin and I devote the entire cast to the pall cast over Detroit by, well, lots of stuff.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Argentla Argentla on Oct 10, 2008

    I don't like it. I would rather have it divided by section with recent headline links. The blog format is cumbersome, and on brisk news days, it makes it harder for me to spot articles I know I'll want to read (e.g., the GM Deathwatch series). The image-heaviness is also a pain on days when Time Warner Cable decides it hates freedom.

  • Gardiner Westbound Gardiner Westbound on Oct 11, 2008

    It's a return to an earlier TTAC format, which I much preferred. New material is readily apparent. Gallery navigation could be improved.

  • ZoomZoom ZoomZoom on Oct 11, 2008

    I like the layout, but it's taking a long time to load every last graphic, link, advertisement, and icon, even on my high speed DSL. Is there a way to at least "let go" of the web page earlier so that the user can begin scrolling if he needs to, while the myriad pieces continue to download? Forget it on a cell phone, even one using high speed 3G.

  • Dinu Dinu on Oct 13, 2008

    Like it MUCH better on my desktop, but the new site is a PITA on a mobile browser! Crashes over 50% of the time and IF it loads, it's SIGNIFICANTLY slower than before! Could you do a mobile site, without pics but with comments? Basically a narrower copy and paste job?

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