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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.

  • HeathrowFlyer says:
    18 Aug18 August 19:15

    I like it. My only constructive criticism – I think there is a bit too much Brilliant White everywhere. Slightly off-white might work a bit better for the background? Or use different shading around the comments – even using ever-so-slightly different shades of white for different replies? I think that would make it easier to quickly see who is commenting on what.

  • Doug M says:
    18 Aug18 August 19:16

    Not a fan of the update. I particularly don’t like the large white space to the left and right of the body text. As you scroll down an article or the comments it seems less than half the screen is used.
    If this is what’s needed to attract advertising it’s a great shame.

    • Rhys says:
      18 Aug18 August 19:20

      If you look at the old site it wasn’t using any more space – it was just bunched up in the middle a lot more!

      • Rob says:
        18 Aug18 August 19:45

        If you were using a new desktop with decent resolution, less than half the screen was being used before! You got huge blue borders down both sides. This is no less space taken up now.

        If you look at the text itself, the old logo and menu bar was VERY deep. This one takes up about half the space. The article text window is also far wider – it was 550 pixels before and is now 728 pixels. We’ve taken some of that space back by increasing the font size so there are, give or take, the same number of words per line as there used to be. Very long articles will be longer than before, admittedly, because the space saved at the top of the screen is eventually dwarfed by the additional line height due to large letters.

        • Peter K says:
          18 Aug18 August 21:04

          I thought the text was larger. Hopefully I will get used to it but I find that annoying personally. I often shrink large amounts of text to a smaller size as I find I can scan it better.

  • BS says:
    18 Aug18 August 19:22

    The comments use up a lot more space – it is difficult to see a lot of information quickly, and now has a lot of scrolling!
    In many other ways a good update.

  • Novice says:
    18 Aug18 August 20:01

    Wow… what a shock! Came on after a few days and …. will take some time getting used to it…

    But looks cleaner as first impressions…

    • Novice says:
      18 Aug18 August 20:07

      Also more professional; although the old wasn’t bad either….

      I do hope editing will be done more diligently of articles as sometimes in the morning I used to see errors and I can be a grammar Nazi ‘sorry not sorry’…

      • Novice says:
        18 Aug18 August 20:12

        I don’t get the Logo design though. What is that meant to be??? Buildings/cards on a slashing scale.

        Ok I will stop my one line comments now…

        • Rob says:
          18 Aug18 August 22:16

          That’s not the logo. We just put it on top of a picture of the Gugg in Bilbao to liven it up.

  • ChrisC says:
    18 Aug18 August 20:03

    I’m having difficulty in reading the text

    grey on off white os not good. Needs to be proper dark black

    miss the panorama page heading as well

    • Rob says:
      18 Aug18 August 22:17

      I am not sure how grey it actually is – will need to see the pantone number.

  • insider says:
    18 Aug18 August 20:22

    hmmm, it’s a bit ‘white’. My eyes are burning

  • marcw says:
    18 Aug18 August 20:23

    I don’t like the new design. The Points Guy and God Save the Points have much better designs… The comments section was much easier to read on the old design.

    • Peter K says:
      18 Aug18 August 21:06

      I agree that the comments were easier to read in the old style. I have actually found myself put off going through them (on my mobile) whereas on a typical day I will check them several times if not at work.

      • New Card says:
        18 Aug18 August 21:48

        Agree – much preferred the old design. The new design is generic looking, white background makes everything hard to read, and the layout is cluttered. Recent Comments was useful for regular readers but is inexplicably gone.

  • John says:
    18 Aug18 August 20:37

    Overall a big improvement, but I don’t understand the new logo. Can you explain it? It’s similar to our local tile store in Vancouver so that might be distracting me.

    • Rob says:
      18 Aug18 August 22:15

      The designers made an aircraft wing out of the bar in the H.

      • Barnaby100 says:
        18 Aug18 August 23:39

        So what are the 2 grey structures?

        • Rob says:
          19 Aug19 August 00:39

          That’s not part of the logo. It’s just something we put behind the logo to make the logo more interesting! I think it’s the roof of the Gugg in Bilbao.

          • John says:
            19 Aug19 August 13:04

            Thanks, Aircraft wing I got, it was the grey boxes I couldn’t understand.

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

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