What are your options on sitepoints new design? I hate it.

my options? :D

I don't think I have any options for their new design...

opinion-wise though :stickout: - I like the new design... very effective for the kind of community that they are! as I said at SPForums and vBulletin forums, I'm glad they did not go to the graphically-chaotic route, navigation is very easy without any fuss, light-colored so its not much of a strain on your eyes...

also, sitepoint is now running vbulletin 3.0 beta 1 - so small design changes in terms of misc elemental placement might be related to the changes in vB3's templates although I hear vB3's template have not been finished yet.

also, I think the use of the word hate is a bit strong... it's only a design afterall

Maybe you should mention it over there? :confused:

http://www.sitepointforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=97182

I think 'hate' is a strong word, but I don't think a whole lot of it. The old one made SP pretty distinctive, while the new one's a tad on the plain side.

Seems there's a bit of discussion about it on their forums too :)

Greg Moore

Since you seem to passionately dislike the new design, you can always leave the community can't ya? But then again, the only thing that should really matter is what you contribute and gain from such a community and not how it looks.

Originally posted by alpha
Since you seem to passionately dislike the new design, you can always leave the community can't ya? But then again, the only thing that should really matter is what you contribute and gain from such a community and not how it looks.
Luckily this is true, because if it wasn't...

Anyway, I posted my opinion. Matt seems like he thoughtit was the greatest thing ever, and the egos of their developers and designers are likely to be hurt by my post, however I disagree with his claim that, "Our designers and developers have been around a long time, they know their ****" When I look at that, I just feel that those are just words because I just don't see it.

Also, I'm not upgrading to vb3, I've tried it a bunch of times and it just annoys the crap out of me.

wow! Thats a pretty crappy site now!

No offence but its quite the downgrade from there last one.

I disagree

I actually like the new design.. Yea, the old design was nice also, but the new design is pretty nice also. For some reason its just simple and right to the point to me.

It is simple. Anyway, Matt doesn't like my attitude and went on about that I'm...
obvioulsy not understanding the point that the site has been designed using purely CSS. Aside: We're launching a book on the topic in a month or so (moving from table design to CSS design). Perhaps order a copy so you're better informed about what this actually means. I would have sent you one free, but I don't like you're attitude.
Perhaps I won't and we'll leave it at that.

Originally posted by adminME
wow! Thats a pretty crappy site now!

No offence but its quite the downgrade from there last one.

I agree with you.

Hmm.. not taking the opinions very well are they. You'd think any designer/developer that had been around the block a few times would have developed a thicker skin by now. Design's a pretty subjective art.

Greg Moore

I am with most of you on this. I find the site rather unappealing. Their old design was much more comfortable (easy to tolerate) than this one...

BTW... what's up with that ride side following me as I scroll. That's got to be one of the biggest *DO NOT DO THIS* for designers. How newbie-ish can it get?

To Chicken, I find it almost humorous to see Matt's attitude about your comment's. When I first started hanging out over there, it was a pretty tight ship. It seems that the moderation, and control of the moderators, mentors tounge has gotten a good deal relaxed. When I DO go by sitepoint... I notice its not as popluated as it once was. Perhaps that is part of the reason why, dunno.

omg, i really dont like this new design... No offense intended, but it looks like anyone could have made that layout..

I think sites like sitepoint should at least show off a little. It is waay to simple.

Talking with one of the SP DB developers, they have apparently been receiving very strong opinions on both sides of the fence, with a lot of the negative stuff verging on hate mail. Apparently the scrolling right nav is really sh*tting quite a few people.

Personally I'm of the opinion that it's brilliantly usable and navigational, and the information architecture is improved, but I agree that visually it's taken a slight step backwards. It's 'fresher' but not quite as graphically juicy in agreeance with the opinions already posted in this thread.

But let me pose a question for you designers: if you were going to make SP 'snazzier' (as is the general gist of some of the opinions), how would you, without compromising the usability of the site?

just noticed that sliding thing on the right.. aaaaaaaaarghhhhh how did a webdesigner even think of that crazy idea.....

The thing on the right is the most annoying thing ever.

However, it's very nice. I like how it was all done using CSS.

i actually like the design. I didnt see the last one so i cant really compare anything to it but hey :)

It reminds me of devarticles.com a little bit?

Originally posted by shoney
To Chicken, I find it almost humorous to see Matt's attitude about your comment's...
Well, he's apparenty overly emotional over the whole thing. he seems to be o the opinion that since his designers/developers know their ****, the design is wonderful, and that's fine, I just don't hsare that opinion. The construction of the site may be technically brilliant and cutting edge, but the visual result isn't. As i said in that post there, if they are happy with it, then that's all that's important.

You can ask anyone I've spoken with about design and HHO, when they asked for examples of well designed sites, (the old) Sitepoint/Sitepointforums design was first on the list.

yup, the old look was a lot better; this one looks a bit corporate with the logo etc.

I can't stand the new SP design personally...

Seems to me that any time there is a new design on a popular site there will be detractors. I recall seeing a bunch of posts objecting to the new design here, recently too. Anyway, I'm design-challanged, so I look more to the content than the design. As long as the text is readable, I'll read it.

LOL peter, interesting take on it. Actually, I like the new WHT design, I just think SP took a step backwards, I liked having all the primary sections along the top.

I've never actually visited that forum. Looks like another good place to hang out.

However, the design isn't visually appealing to me and also I can't believe how ungodly large (almost 1/3 to 1/2 a page) their banners are. That's bothersome.

I really do like this site, the one thing that I think MUSt go is the sliding bar on the right. I can scroll mysel,f no need for you to move things for me, thanks.

But I like the simplicity. I can't stand sites that have 1001 bells and whistles. I much prefer clean, eficient valid code that looks pleasing to the eye. Not something that screams look what I can do. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

The new design is o.k.
But the old one was much better.

I think some of the dislike for the new design comes from the fact that so many loved the original site point design. Myself included.

Beyond that, I too dislike the new design. Not because its simple, or plain. But rather I dislike the new logo and the orange at the top/bottom is a yucky orange.(yucky, now there is a good professional term lol) It looks like an orange that is trying to bleed into red. It bugs my eyes. I also get this unfinished feel. I have no idea why. It feels like a site that was thrown together quickly. (I know it wasn't, just trying to explain the feeling I get).

I love that its all css driven, and love its ease of navigation now. They weren't out to get us to drool at a design, they were out to have a good coded, easy to navigate site. And they succeeded. Sometimes in judging a new design we need to understand what they wanted to achieve and not what we personally would have wanted them to do.

But again, I feel that the biggest problem is that so many loved the original design. And the famous quote works well here, "Why fix what is not broken?"

Bingo Corey, even some simple templating to allow folks to use the older design would've appeased 90% of the disgruntled.

In the end, I don't care, the forums are excellent, as well as many of the articles, and that is what I really go for.

Originally posted by MDJ2000
Bingo Corey, even some simple templating to allow folks to use the older design would've appeased 90% of the disgruntled.


That is what i want.

LOl....i use to visit Matt's site years ago when it was just webmasterSOMETHING.com ..err forgot the domain..hehe

Anyhow, the new design is crap.

So what...it uses CSS..lol..like anyone cares? I just want to visit my good old sitepoint ...one with a professional design...not something that looks like a first year designer did..gezz

What's with that left bar following me when i scroll down the page anyways? Talk about steeping back to the stone ages of web desgin.

:rolleyes:

I get the gut feeling that the new design is a type of design that says "Take Us Serious" I can't explain what I mean by that, but when I kept starring at the design I started to think about it, and came to the conclusion that their saying "We're a company, look at this simple,easy navigational site" and I think they pulled it off.

I also agree with Corey, I think most of the disagreement is mainly because many loved the old design.