Techdirt Look And Feel... Set Your Own Preferences

from the have-fun-with-it dept

Wed, Mar 29th 2006 3:46pm — Mike Masnick

It's been a few weeks since we launched the big redesign of Techdirt... which elicited a ton of great feedback, both positive and negative. The majority of folks we heard from all really thought it was an improvement. Certainly some people were less thrilled with it, but we've been working on understanding what problems people had with the new site. Some of you may have noticed that we've been rolling out a variety of small changes since we first launched to respond to some of the suggestions or issues people found. We've adjusted a number of things subtly to make the page work better and look better. We also now have the page set to load a mobile version if you visit from most mobile devices. However, by far, the biggest complaint from people was the fact that we made the new design "fixed width," despite studies that have shown reading a site with fixed width tends to be faster, as it's more readable. It appears there are plenty of readers here who would disagree with that sentiment -- and they let us know it (even to the point of a few people insisting they would never read us again, due solely to the fixed-width issue). The second major complaint was that the old design had "threaded" comments, that let you follow when someone replied to a different comment. Both of these features had been in the pipeline anyway, but we sped up the development time, and are now letting you set your preferences (also available in the upper right corner of the site), that lets you set defaults (by cookie) on fixed/variable width and threaded/flattened comments. We've tested everything on a variety of platforms, but we're quite sure that the readers out there will come up with some problems. Please feel free to let us know, and we'll do our best to fix whatever problems you come across. We'll also keep rolling out additional new features over time, so we hope to get those anti-fixed width readers who abandoned us back over time. Thanks for any and all feedback.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

32 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Dan Ushman, 29 Mar 2006 @ 3:51pm

THANK YOU
Thank you so much -- LOVE the new feature!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2006 @ 3:52pm

no dorpus ignore?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2006 @ 4:19pm

Yeah, thanks, also. I posted a comment in the earlier thread that was pretty positive about everything except the fixed width.

Now I'm not sure what I can complain about. Nice to feel heard.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Kirsti, 29 Mar 2006 @ 4:44pm

Options are good
People did seem to feel strongly about it, so I tried out your variable width option. I'm with the research, fixed width is much easier to read.

That said, more people can have it how they like it, and that's always good.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ZOMG CENSORED, 29 Mar 2006 @ 4:52pm

Options = Success
I love the settings options, now it's back to the way I like it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
discojohnson, 29 Mar 2006 @ 5:08pm

Re: Options = Success
definately! i enjoy reading techdirt when i get in to work, after lunch, and around supper time. i frequent it *often* and i'm glad to see that *gasp* consumers are what have driven design. kudos. i think the fixed width cry was partly due to the width being too small, but i think it was widened after a few days to be what feels 50% larger. that was enough for me to make the fixed width worth it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2006 @ 5:13pm

i use google personal pages to read it, it is all the same to me. i just read the articles on the front page, the only difference is the page layout, i got used to it quick though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ben McNelly, 29 Mar 2006 @ 5:43pm

Nice...
Very nice...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Arochone, 29 Mar 2006 @ 5:45pm

Yay!
Yay! I like the variable width myself...fixed is ok for the shorter stuff, but for stuff like this where it's kinda large the fixed width makes it a pain....
Threaded comments is nice too...I hated how you'd get, like, a comment, and then 30 lines down there'd be a response to it....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
seth, 29 Mar 2006 @ 5:56pm

Found a bug
If you go to http://techdirt.com/ instead of http://www.techdirt.com/ then the cookie won't work. Looks like someone hardcoded the domain.

Although the cookies do work for the commenting system.

I like finding bugs ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Stu, 29 Mar 2006 @ 6:48pm

Set Your Own Preferences
Thanks for caring. Glad to have the choice. (Variable for me.)

To get to the next subject after reading all the comments, I have to scroll to the top of the page. I'd like to see lots of links to the "top of page" along with the comments - maybe after each one or at least one at the bottom.

Thanks again.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dennis, 29 Mar 2006 @ 6:52pm

Re: Found a bug
Thanks for finding that bug, Seth. It has been fixed now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
bfkennedy, 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:23pm

Variable Width gives a much cleaner look
It is also much easier to read and browse using 1600x1200 screen resolution.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jared, 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:23pm

What the hell? I just changed my pref to see the difference and I cant switch it back?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:27pm

Re:
What the hell? I just changed my pref to see the difference and I cant switch it back?

What do you mean you can't switch back? You should be able to switch back on the preferences page.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Maresca, 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:41pm

Icons still HUGE
The icons are so large (and loud), it hard to pick out the headlines. Could you at least tone them down a bit?

Thx.

Chris.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Maresca, 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:43pm

Re: Icons still HUGE
Relying to my own comment, I just ad-blocked them using Firefox, and the site looks much better for it.

Chris.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:43pm

Re: Icons still HUGE
The icons are so large (and loud), it hard to pick out the headlines. Could you at least tone them down a bit?

Chris,

We did tone down the icons... and actually, the response to them has been quite favorable as well... What do you dislike about them?

Mike
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2006 @ 7:53pm

Re: Re: Icons still HUGE
you should say the site looks better to YOU.

it's your opinion.
not everyone thinks like you, so you can't say "the site looks much better for it"

I like the icons.

I swear. You're too damn picky. I like Techdirt for the content. The way it LOOKS, doesnt', and shouldn't, matter that much.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Swati, 29 Mar 2006 @ 8:00pm

YAY! I love the variable width. I had no problem with the previous layout, but this is much better ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
kweeket, 29 Mar 2006 @ 8:03pm

links at bottom
Overall, I think the site looks way better.

I agree with the above poster (Stu) who said that it would be nice to have links to previous/next articles at the bottom as well. I usually read to the end of the comments and then have to scroll all the way up...kind of a pain.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
EdB, 29 Mar 2006 @ 8:12pm

Cool. Of the two optional decisions I get to make here I decided to go away from default on both. I like a page that uses my window, and I like to see when a comment is related to a comment. Well done.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous, 29 Mar 2006 @ 10:38pm

Hmm Odd
Well, I clicked the link in the story, and changed my preferences. only to find that I was still stuck on fixed width. UGGH. But I clicked the link on the top right corner of the page and changed my preferences and now everything works great.

And regarding the poster who said it would be great if links at the top were replicated at the bottom .... Great idea! I get to Techdirt through Google's news pages, so my process, visually, is always to skip down past the headline and to read the story. And since there's nothing at the bottom, I'd completely missed that the links mentioned were even an option! LMAO. So yeah, um, putting them down there at the bottom would not only be an added convenience, but it would also let people who are not familiar with your site know that such options even exist. :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dennis, 30 Mar 2006 @ 12:12am

Re: links at bottom
Great suggestion Stu and kweeket.. you can now find story navigation links at the bottom of each story...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jasper, 30 Mar 2006 @ 6:36am

Why Min Width?
Ah, now I understand the fixed/variable width option, after trying both out. However, it's still not right :) "Variable width" does not enforce a maximum column width, but it still enforces a minimum. That's my chief complaint with this, and many many other web sites. There's almost nothing worse when reading than a column that's wider than your window, and requires side-scrolling to read each line. Webmasters should honour users' ability to reformat the way they want. Better, browsers should honour it. I don't understand why Opera Mobile's ability to force columns to fit into a narrow browser window isn't standard on PC browsers....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gary, 30 Mar 2006 @ 6:47am

Variable width: Much better!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Xanthir, 30 Mar 2006 @ 7:16am

Liking it
Ooh, I'm glad I can set it to Threaded by default.

Hmm. I'm not sure whether I prefer Fixed or Variable width. Gah!

Overall, though, great job guys.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jared, 30 Mar 2006 @ 8:04am

Everythings working fine now Mike,I did go back to the prefrence page and it wasnt allowing me to switch back but it worked now. :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Maresca, 30 Mar 2006 @ 9:26am

Re: Re: Icons still HUGE
They are big and bright, more so that the headline itself and I find the distracting. If they were actual 'icon' size (32x32 or similar), or colors more muted than the headline, that would be perfect.

But, as a poster upthread said, it's probably just me, and adblock works just fine. Looks great without the icons and you still get the category from the bar above the story.

Chris.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Scottitude, 30 Mar 2006 @ 11:31am

Nicely Done
You'll never make anyone happy but it's nice to see you're trying.

My personal "issue" with every website that uses it is black text on a white background...it's so 19th century paper & ink yet legitimate sites continue to believe it somehow validates their presentation.

Just as studies have shown that fixed width pages are easier to read, studies have shown that black text on a white background causes greater eye-strain than light text on a dark background.

I guess all these studies are a waste of money, huh?

Black & white and eye-strain aside, overall I like the new look and the options you've added. Nicely done.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TJ, 30 Mar 2006 @ 6:00pm

Link color DIY fix
Alright, I already used Proxomitron to solve annoying web site design problems. Now have a filter specific to TechDirt that puts link colors back under the control of the browser where they belong. With that change, I not only like the style of the redesign better, it is functional again too. And primary blue for links looks just fine, even if it isn't that drab blue code "1a518f" that is used throughout the new design.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Mar 2006 @ 9:35pm

Let me be the next one to say Thanks!
The page width setting -- allowing it to be dynamic -- is fantastic. I was just getting "used to" all of that nasty white space (and the fact that it made entries look *really long* causing me to skim far more than I would otherwise).
This is *much better*. I liked the new design, graphics and *most* of the layout, but I couldn't stand the two large bars of wasted real-estate on the edges of my browser. It just felt *wrong* to leave so much space so white!
[ link to this | view in thread ]