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Welcome to the new-look Head for Points

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OK, we’re back after a couple of hours of downtime.

Things look a little different as you can tell ….

After eight years of using a layout which was, to be honest, already dated when we started using it in 2012, we have pulled the site into the 21st century.

I know that our core readers didn’t really care how we looked but the old theme was starting to take its toll.  HfP should hit 20 million page views this year (we are around the 450th biggest UK website) with a further 9 million articles read via email.  However, the old look was starting to impact our ability to attract new readers and secure large advertising contracts.  We hope you like what we’ve done.

I don’t want to say any more at this point because my prime consideration today is making sure that everything is working as expected.

If you see a technical issue – a broken link, a formatting issue, something which simply looks wrong on your device – then please tell us. Do NOT comment in this thread.  There is a separate ‘noise free’ thread for technical issues which is here.  Post your problem and we’ll get onto it.

If it’s a formatting issue, please say what device you are using.  We expect some issues with some mobile devices.

If you simply want to say that you like or hate the new look, then feel free to say that in this thread!  If you have any requests for new features we could add in the medium term, please also put your ideas in this thread.  The other one is exclusively for short-term problems requiring a quick fix.

You will see some minor differences around the site in terms of menus and layout.  However, there are no fundamental changes and all of the old content remains.  There are no changes to the usual ‘three articles, all posted by 6am’ scheduling.

Tomorrow I will run an article explaining exactly what has changed in terms of site functionality.

In a couple of days I’ll write a longer piece on what we’ve done, why we did it, who did it and what we learnt whilst doing it.  Given that we started approaching design agencies back in November, it has been a long process.

Thank you for your continued support, especially in the current climate.  Our revenue may be down but our page views have been consistently higher than the same period in 2019 which keeps us motivated.

Rob

PS.  If you made a comment on the ‘old’ site this morning then you might find it has disappeared.  Apologies.  Please feel free to post it again.

Category

General

Comments (204)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • John says:
    18 Aug18 August 17:38

    Much easier to read in the dark (don’t ask).

  • Ben says:
    18 Aug18 August 17:54

    I guess all websites need to update at some point but I personally preferred the older site. I think the new one is *too* white and as other mentioned, isn’t as easy on the eye. It all looks a bit sterile..

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    18 Aug18 August 18:05

    Overall looks like a nice refresh. My main bit of feedback is that on mobile it is two screen lengths for me between the end of the article and the start of the comments. Comments are a huge part of the value for the readership and I expect do a lot for repeat engagement, so I think there’s a risk to tucking them so far below the content. At a minimum I’d recommend having a second ‘XX comments’ link below the article. It might be worth exploring an option to let users hide the ‘top stories/subscribe’ bits (no need for a user model, do it with a cookie like remembering commenter name). I think this would appeal to the power users visiting >30 times a month who will get less out of top stories and an invitation to subscribe.

    Other than that: I find the headline font weight a bit heavy, too similar to the logo, and I would expect the nav to expand on mouseover on desktop, not on click.

    • Rob says:
      18 Aug18 August 19:54

      The headline font weight has been a source of much grief. I also think it is too heavy, on Chrome, but this is down to how Chrome renders it. It is less heavy on other browsers. I have not ruled out changing it.

    • RussellH says:
      18 Aug18 August 21:16

      > I would expect the nav to expand on mouseover on desktop, not on click.

      NO, please, no. That has to be one of the most irritating things ever.

    • Crafty says:
      18 Aug18 August 23:17

      The “two screens” scrolling point is the one I was trying, and apparently failing, to make earlier.

      That and clicking reply requires a further apparently random amount of scrolling to actually find the reply box that has popped up.

      • Rob says:
        20 Aug20 August 14:38

        There is some sort of javascript conflict causing the reply issue. Oddly it does not happen on our test site which implies it is either Adsense or Cloudflare causing it.

  • Ben says:
    18 Aug18 August 18:18

    Also – I liked the recent comments section on the old desktop homepage.. has that gone?

  • Trevor says:
    18 Aug18 August 18:22

    Really can’t cope with this. The end of my days with H4P. Sorry

  • BJ says:
    18 Aug18 August 18:23

    It might be an idea to use the software used for the HfP awards last year to collect some more meaningful data on reader response to the new site, and inform any further changes. It would be more analytical and very likely more representative of the wider readership than comments from us usual suspects.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:
    18 Aug18 August 18:30

    “If you want to make enemies, try to change something” – my favourite US presidential quote (it was Wilson). You will innevitably meet resistance from previous users. I like it overall.
    Things I think you could learn from very well known websites (that will have spent billions tweaking site design to the n’th degree – as even the tiniest change can affect the bottom line by millions) for desktop.
    1) It’s VERY white – a little painful to the eye on a desktop monitor. Head over to Facebook for desktop and look at their background shade if you want a white background that is optimised for reading.
    2) You need some colour contrast on the top banner menu with the dropdowns. Look at Amazon’s top banner and see how much it contrasts to the rest of the page – and is more instantly identifiable to the brain as separate and different from the content below. You need some similar contrast.

  • AJA says:
    18 Aug18 August 18:47

    I know it’s already been mentioned but my name and email isn’t being saved despite clicking the “Save my name, e-mail and website in this browser” button so I have to keep entering it. Also where did the website field go?(not particularly bothered by that as i dont have my own website but it’s a glitch) Other than that what happened to the recent comments list? I found that useful. Also do we need to resubscribe or will we continue to get the daily emails? All of this is based on using Android mobile. Yet to view the new layout on desktop.

    • Rob says:
      18 Aug18 August 19:50

      The email list has carried over.

      We set it up so that poster names are no longer clickable. It had no real benefit and big downsides – over time, many of the websites linked to get closed down, and Google starts seeing lots of ‘dead links’ on the site which gets us downgraded.

      Recent comments – we didn’t feel there was much love for it, to be honest.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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