Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.
Smashing Magazine’s Redesign and Smashing Network
Something has changed here today. Smashing Magazine has shaped up. We know that extensive design changes usually create a split echo: some readers are happy and appreciate the additional features and benefits, while others don’t want to see anything change because they’re comfortable in their old habits. However, publishers have to update their websites from time to time to improve the user experience and add new features. And that day has come for Smashing Magazine.
[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]
Wet Paint!
Smashing Magazine’s redesign was done by Liam McKay and his design agency, WeFunction. We also tweaked a couple of things in the design. Footer and sidebar illustrations were designed by Pasquale D’Silva. Smashing Magazine may look a bit different at first glance, but keeping the general structure intact was very important to us. After all, we don’t want to confuse our readers; rather, we want their experience to improve.
So, minor details aside, what exactly has changed on Smashing Magazine? Here’s a summary:
- You can now visit pages of our regular authors (e.g. Kayla Knight). There, you’ll find information about them, see an overview of their posts on Smashing Magazine and follow their Twitter stream. You can also visit a page that lists all of our regular authors.
- You can now rate articles on Smashing Magazine (in the comments area of each post). The highest-rated and most-commented articles are displayed on the post’s category page (e.g. Graphics). And you can find an overview of our categories on the All Categories page.
- You can now leave threaded replies to comments. Pages that have a huge number of comments are now paginated.
- User-submitted design news now appears in the widget on the right side. This news is pulled from our sister website, Noupe. Everyone can submit news, which lands in the moderation queue and is manually approved by our moderators.
- This sidebar widget also features recent jobs and the latest Smashing Forum entries.
- We have re-organized our tags, removed duplicates and replaced some of them with more meaningful labels. You can now use our Tag Explorer (the “Popular tags” link at the top of the page) to navigate Smashing Magazine.
And Then There Is The Network
If you’ve already had a look at the new front page, you would have found some changes there, too: not just recent Smashing Magazine posts, but contributions from other design magazines. That’s because we’ve teamed up with 18 other magazines to house a productive and comprehensive meeting place for designers and developers, showcasing truly the best content around. Among those joining the game are Webdesigner Depot, Noupe, SixRevisions, UX Booth, Hongkiat, ThinkVitamin, Web Designer Wall, Designm.ag, Boagworld and Speckyboy. We call it the Smashing Network.
- The idea behind the network is to promote high-quality content on the Web design scene and to make it worthwhile for publishers to produce useful and interesting design-related articles. We want our community to benefit from these articles and support the publishers with direct traffic from the Smashing Magazine.
- Our main RSS feed (the one you are subscribed to) will not automatically contain excerpts of posts from our network members. We will have a separate SM network feed for that.
In fact, every network member has its very own channel on Smashing Magazine, with recent posts and Twitter updates. All content is manually approved and promoted on the network — no automation at all. So, you can be sure you’ll get only the best articles.
Needless to say, we will still be publishing our own insightful articles, which you can always find on our front page. The last article always appears at the top, with older posts clearly highlighted in a black box among the other SM network posts.
We are aware that this huge change will lead to misunderstandings and may cause problems at first. But we are certain it was the right decision and that everyone will benefit from it. If you prefer the old version of Smashing Magazine (the one without the posts from our network), you can use the Smashing Magazine’s channel page, which is exactly the same as our front page before the redesign. Or just stick to our main RSS feed, which contains only Smashing Magazine’s posts.
Want To Join The Network?
The main requirement for membership in our content network is that you regularly publish high-quality content on your blog or magazine. You don’t have to be popular or have a lot of traffic; you could be just starting out. You can apply for membership by sending an email to network@smashingmagazine.com. We will be reviewing membership periodically, so please be patient and stay tuned for updates.
What Do You Think?
This redesign is work in progress. Your opinion is very important to us. The design definitely could use some changes and we are willing to improve it with your help. Of course, we may have missed something. Have you found any mistakes, bugs, errors or problems yet?
And what do you think of the whole thing? We are open to your suggestions, ideas and criticism. Please let us know what you think in the comments to this post!
(sl), (vf), (al)
The team here at Smashing Magazine. Mostly Sven & Vitaly.
(248 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)
Loading ...- 463 Comments
- 251
- 252
November 2nd, 2009 12:46 amNew looks is a mess on IE6 – can’t upgrade because it is a work computer
- 253November 2nd, 2009 1:14 am
While you are at work, you shoud be working and not reading smashing magazine! :P
- 254November 3rd, 2009 9:38 am
Design is my work, and this is work related. :P
- 254
- 255November 2nd, 2009 10:47 am
I just checked IE6 also and it is a mess. I still use IE6 to test since 11% of my users still use IE6. I’m excited for the day when IE6 is gone forever.
- 256November 2nd, 2009 1:01 pm
I’ve always been on the fence about this issue with older browser support but now that IE is two versions out from 6 the design community needs to start taking a stand on it. Yeah it sucks that maybe you can’t view the pages anymore but hey, Netscape ended at what, version 8 (did 9 ever release?) so it’s almost like saying we need to code pages to look good in Netscape 6. Or expecting Office 2007 to run well on Windows 98 (or ME), which is essentially two versions back from Vista/7 and XP for most home PC users. And Mac OS X Snow Leopard won’t run on G3s either. Yes that’s a hardward thing but my point is: why has the web community developed this mentality that they are so special that sites should be available to them regardless of how antiquated their browser becomes. I know, “It’s the Internet and information should be free and accessible to everyone.” Well guess what, it’s the Internet and the Internet runs on computers which evolve every six months.
You don’t see some of these sites saying, “Oh I see your running Flash 3 let me automatically direct you to this version of our site that supports that.” It’s just not economically feasible to not draw the line somewhere when it comes to minimum requirements. So why should webpage/browser requirements be any different from computer hardware/software requirements?
When Apple releases a new version of Quicktime are you not forced to upgrade to the newest version if you want to view the movie trailers on their site? Does Google Earth not do the same thing? I’m not saying that there aren’t ways around being forced to do this but to the average user they click Okay and update their system. Browsers should be no different.
Yes, I know not everywhere in the world is fortunate enough to run on highspeed—or even medium speed—and this needs to be taken into consideration before developing any site. Definitely, if your target audience could include people in this demographic, it’s a must. Poor planning and design are one thing, but if you’re a company or government office that doesn’t want to upgrade your browser just because it’s an inconvenience I think you should expect to start losing accessibility to certain websites as the rest of the Internet and computer world evolves beyond you.
Rant complete.
- 257November 3rd, 2009 1:56 am
Absolutely agree 100%!
Yet we must make a difference here! Making the information available to everyone is important! It’s the main philosophy we should adopt as webdesigners.
But that doesn’t mean making layout and design available to everyone!!!
That’s a big difference. If I have a good and accessible site, where a float or two break in IE6, then to hell with those floats – so be it. The user will still be able to access the information, and that’s what matters!So layout that breaks in old browser versions isn’t tragic – as long as no content gets hidden when the site breaks. When you can ensure that the text is readable from any browser, then you’re on the safe side.
I just want to add to your statement that it’s ok not to care about CSS working in old browsers – but it’s not ok to lock up the site for certain browsers to “make a point”, like some webdesigners have started to do. Accessibility means in the first place, that one can read your content. The rest is makeup.
- 258November 4th, 2009 9:03 am
IE6 is shipped with XP, every time I install XP on a new machine I find myself using IE6. Usually just to download Firefox or upgrade to IE8, but I think the reason why sites should still support IE6 is because it’d be foolish to disregard a browser that comes pre-packaged with what is still currently the most popular operating system.
- 257
- 259November 3rd, 2009 9:57 am
Companies have different reasons for not upgrading from IE6. Most of the time it’s more complicated than that they’re just being lazy or want to annoy front-end web developers. I know, it’s unfortunate. On the other hand, I don’t see anything here that couldn’t be fixed with a conditional stylesheet or a pngfix.
- 260November 3rd, 2009 12:19 pm
I have a Mac Classic 2 on the shelf of my office. It won’t even work with IE6. In fact, the wireless here and Cat cables won’t connect to it… So no internet, period.
2010’s internet doesn’t run on 2002’s browser, sorry. Whatever the percentage, whatever the reason, if you’re using IE6 you’re gonna have to deal with white backgrounded PNGs and goofy margins/column widths.
Front end devs aren’t specifying sites for 800px wide monitor widths either.. if your work puts one of those pieces of junk on your desk, you’re gonna be hori-scrolling. Again, sorry.
- 260
- 261November 3rd, 2009 10:15 am
I think it’s safe to say the audience at smashing magazine does not use IE6. So why support 1 or 2 people?
- 262November 4th, 2009 3:00 am
Get over it guys. The big sites have to stop supporting the browser otherwise we will never move forward. I suggest you start doing the same thing.
And if you are a designer working at a company that won’t upgrade from IE6… I feel sorry for you.
- 253
- 263November 2nd, 2009 12:58 am
Please change it back, it has lost something……
- 264November 2nd, 2009 1:15 am
Great, there have some new features i like, such as threaded comments, navigation and so on !
you did good job !- 265November 2nd, 2009 12:04 pm
Love the threaded comments. I had been waiting for SM to implement this feature. I wish they also had subscribe to comments button so I knew when people replied to my comment.
- 265
- 266November 2nd, 2009 1:17 am
I like the overall new look, and the way the bottom of the homepage creates a better overlook on the number articles that you might be interested in.
The topnav seems a bit messy though. I think there are some loose ends in the design that needs fixing, but when you do that, you’ve got a nice looking fresh design.
- 267November 2nd, 2009 1:21 am
Can’t say I love it but I don’t remember the old one so I guess I will survive ;)
The network stuff is great.
- 268November 2nd, 2009 1:24 am
Good news, good look, good move!
- 269November 2nd, 2009 1:29 am
Very clean, sharp and simple! This is how I like it! Also love the network idea – I will be visiting your site more often now!
- 270November 2nd, 2009 1:29 am
Like the look! congrats!
- 271November 2nd, 2009 1:53 am
it’s too freaking cluttered. even the previous version.
loved it when it first launched. - 272November 2nd, 2009 1:54 am
Looking great guys, good job to weFunction for the new design.
- 273November 2nd, 2009 1:55 am
Congratulations great job, the change is better for the usability and is more clean, have more space more air between the elements…
- 274November 2nd, 2009 2:08 am
Nice design and I’m very happy to hear peoples that don’t support any more IE6, maybe if we will make something, so we don’t support IE at all then Microsoft will make a better browser or maybe quit the IE project will be awesome.
- 275November 2nd, 2009 2:14 am
Love it, especially the illustrations love the work Pasquale!!!
- 276November 2nd, 2009 2:16 am
i think you need to read your own advice on IE6! unsupporting the browser is not the answer it is just lazy
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/14/css-differences-in-internet-explorer-6-7-and-8/
- 277November 2nd, 2009 4:59 am
I have to admit, i expected IE6 to at least be readable. It is an absolute mess. Definately needs looking into…
- 277
- 278November 2nd, 2009 2:22 am
I like it. Well organized and clean.
- 279November 2nd, 2009 2:23 am
I’m an your’s big fan but i liked more the old site’s design. Specially the “menu” and the “post titles”…
- 280November 2nd, 2009 2:24 am
I really like the new redesign. Looks nice and clean! I can now easily filter old articles and find the one I want!! 5+
- 281November 2nd, 2009 2:29 am
I like it! Clean and easy to navigate! Change is as good as holiday!
- 282November 2nd, 2009 2:32 am
Nettes Redesign. Wirklich gut gelungen
- 283November 2nd, 2009 2:35 am
I like the new design but with less whitespace it would be better!
- 284November 2nd, 2009 2:52 am
It’s the content that’s important so i will always be a fan. I use this site almost everyday and it’s still as good as it was. loving the networking idea, may apply for that once i get my blog up and running :)
- 285November 2nd, 2009 3:04 am
I like it alot! Very clean and easy to search
- 286November 2nd, 2009 3:04 am
Wait wait wait, where can i click “show sm news only” ?
The Navigation is to high! I loved the old one :D
I alwaysy wanted to copy / steal it :P
And now its free again, thanks ;)No IE6 Support <3 I love you!
One more step to the future.Overall a good change! Keep on the development and you will stay at the top 3 of my fav pages!
- 287November 2nd, 2009 3:09 am
Very good, I like it, clean and easy to navigate
- 288November 2nd, 2009 3:23 am
Good to know you have withdraw support to IE6, i like the new additions to the magazine especially the network links on home page. But i like the old layout and color. New look is not ’smashing’.
- 289November 2nd, 2009 3:25 am
It’s really nice design and a better navigation… But it took to me a little time understand the way we go on it :-D
Thanks! - 290November 2nd, 2009 3:29 am
Great job guys! I like the new improvements!
—-
Teknotica - 291November 2nd, 2009 3:35 am
Good Job. But need some time to adjust in the new space.
- 292November 2nd, 2009 3:38 am
Looks SMASHING in Firefox, great work guys. It seems like the searh function is faster to. Keep it up ;)
- 293November 2nd, 2009 3:41 am
argh.. almost lost..
anyway.. cool..
but.. can u give me time… to familiar with it.. - 294November 2nd, 2009 3:43 am
Love it all, except for the menu bar. Those vertical bars should end on the red line :) just an opinion ;)
Keep up the excellent work guys!
Hugo
- 295November 2nd, 2009 3:44 am
Yeah! Design is much better. It is very good that u don’t support IE6, because if designers will than ppl will never upgrade to something better and I am sick of spending time on fixing it. And some things are not-fix-able anyway…
- 296November 2nd, 2009 3:54 am
This is great redesign !
- 297November 2nd, 2009 4:01 am
There are bugs in the layout (for instance, the comment box has a somewhat malformed comment ending on top of it), and I really don’t like the submenu of the categories.
It lacks “the smashing orange”.
- 298November 2nd, 2009 4:03 am
I’m really disappointed that you haven’t offered any backwards compatibility for IE6. I don’t care if it looks pretty or not, but it should at least function.
The only time I really get to look at SM is at work, and we’re stuck with IE6 here. And to those that say we shouldn’t be looking at SM at work, I actually work on the intranet here and SM has been very useful for things like icons and graphics, as well as inspiration!
Hopefully, I’ll still have enough time to check SM at home once a week or so, but you’ve just lost a dedicated daily viewer here. At least when my Smashing Book arrives, I can read it at my desk. :)
- 299November 2nd, 2009 4:17 am
Simply great! Easy and clear, that’s what I want ;)
- 300November 2nd, 2009 4:33 am
I
agree
with
everybody
who
now
has
to
miss
smashing
magazine
at
work
because
of
some
stupid
IE6
compatibility
issue.
(and the format this comment is in is how we IE6 ppl see the page)- 301November 2nd, 2009 5:48 am
I do feel your pain! But then again… I really hope your work upgrades as soon as possible because IE6 is discontinued for support and upgrades. So their vulnerable for any hacks or attacks from now on! Not to mention the isseus your work will get in the future with compatabilty.
- 302November 2nd, 2009 9:25 am
I work for a fortune 500 company who, for a variety of reasons, some real, some real stupid, still only offers IE6 on it’s PCs. I HATE IE6, I curse it every day, and I am the squeaky wheel here at work along with lots of other marketing folks. But the reality is they likely won’t change it or offer us Firefox in the next year, so we’re stuck. Why punish those of us who understand the need to put IE6 in the grave but work for companies who are stuck on stupid?
- 302
- 301
- 303November 2nd, 2009 4:41 am
Not bad! Good additions, I was hoping that the external links will also open in NEW windows. Other than that good job!
- 304November 2nd, 2009 4:50 am
I prefered the old smashing mag look :(
But it will grow on me im sure.
- 305November 2nd, 2009 4:51 am
Pasquali… it’s okay.. IE 6 sucks really bad… but people still use it… not many… but enough that the website is “broken”…
I mean if it were IE 5.2 Mac… maybe you could let it slide…
Maybe OmniWeb… or even lets say Netscape… but not IE 6…
Just a thought…
I mean you’re not going to encourage anybody to upgrade… (They would have already if they could… Banks, Schools, Work places, ect…) You’re just going to send out a message that the brand sucks… or even worse… lose potential new readers…
IE 6 will be around for another year or so (hopefully less) for sure…
- 306November 2nd, 2009 11:13 pm
I hadn’t seen it in ie6, but I guess SOME basic readability would be good – though ie 6 really needs to die before the web can move on.
- 307November 3rd, 2009 6:54 am
Not really… gmail works in Explorer 6 right?
I am fairly certain there is about one thing you really cannot accomplish in IE 6… and that’s 24 bit PNG’s natively (you can still hack it if you can live with the occasional stretching)… I mean the rest is just a few javascript differences… then there is height and min-height… maybe fixed backgrounds… other than that… you can get everything to work just fine in it… I mean not everything… but there isn’t anything you really can’t accomplish…
- 308November 10th, 2009 4:14 am
That’s not the point. For modern technologies to be able to be standardised, we need to be using newer tools. How is ie6 going to deal with useful things like canvas? http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/ie6-must-die/
I mean, suit yourself if you want to defend a crummy out-dated browser. I guess you could call it vintage. It’s all yours :)
- 307
- 306
- 309November 2nd, 2009 5:03 am
Really nice, very clean and like the way the information are being display :)
great work - 310November 2nd, 2009 5:19 am
Great work! Like the new design! Looks very nice and tidy.
As we all know, IE6 was born dead…
- 311November 2nd, 2009 5:24 am
I like the new look. Clean layout which is easier on the eye. Better for the visual appearance (I think).
- 312November 2nd, 2009 5:33 am
Amazing good looking site. Keep up with the good work. :-)
- 313November 2nd, 2009 5:40 am
I dig the new design. Love the drawings!
My only request would be to specify the background color for the body tag explicitly. I have my browser default set to off-white, so I can tell which sites forgot to specify it. ;)
For those complaining about IE6, this seems like a golden opportunity to let your employer know how stale that browser is, and if they’re not willing to upgrade IE, then at least you should be allowed to download Firefox. If they won’t even let you do that, consider employment somewhere less backwards…
- 314November 2nd, 2009 5:46 am
What about the kids at school? I mean it was less than a few weeks ago that I got flamed on one site because a bank employee couldn’t find the contact info link due to an incompatibility with IE 6. Do you think I called the bank employee up and told them to find better employment? Maybe I called management and told them my website didn’t work with their equipment, so they should upgrade their machines?
What good is running a website if people can’t read the information off it?
Is everybody that elitist? I think it’s just lazy… and not very smart…
I don’t think I like where this whole culture is headed… Sure I mean I guess we could all “unite” and force away the evil browser… all in the name of progress… by why? It’s just going to go away eventually on it’s own anyways…
- 315November 2nd, 2009 9:50 am
“It’s just going to go away eventually on it’s own anyways…”
I don’t think it gonna go away just like that… it’s been around since 2001 and it’ll be there for another 10 years if web-designers, developers and website owners don’t do anything about it. Does Microsoft still offer support for Win98? Nope. So why should we support an obsolete browser?
Way to go SmashingMagazine! :)
- 316November 2nd, 2009 3:50 pm
I would have replied to John… But apparently I can’t with this commenting system…
It will go away on it’s own… Just like IE 5 did, and Just like Netscape 4.7 did.
Making something work in IE 6 is not that hard and there is absolutely nothing about this website which you couldn’t make work in it.
It’s just lazy, and it shows a real lack of professionalism, negligence, ect…
Were not talking about supporting an obsolete browser. Were talking about a browser which is still in use. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people who made this are total hacks and didn’t even check it for cross browser compatibility issues.
I mean don’t get me wrong. I am well aware the current IE 6 statistics are inflated due to bots and such, but there are a lot people still using IE6, I mean when I land on MSN Encarta, and I see that their website doesn’t work in Firefox, I don’t chalk it up to some sort of brand name war. I know immediately that they didn’t even have a clue as to what they were doing.
I am actually rather convinced at this point that this website is more like a collage of plug ins which sacrificed the user experience in the end. Form following function, one of the last things a professional development mag should have to settle for.
Is that what you want? Hacks teaching you how to make the web? I will never anything from smashing magazine as an authority again… it’s right right up there with mashable for having some entirely unprofessional content.
I believe it has been suggested in this thread… put a banner which encourages people to download another browser… Don’t break your website and lose your readers… the message is lost entirely… I think you guys just got shammed by a “web designer” who doesn’t know what they are doing…
- 317November 2nd, 2009 4:43 pm
Also this is a good reference for people…
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
IE 6 is in continual decline… eventually it will go away on it’s own… but right now… you have to ask yourself if you’re making bold statement or if you’re really just showing a lack of professionalism, which in turn damages your brand (considering the other problems it’s most likely the latter). I mean the real problem is that your going to lose the newer developers or designers who might have just woken up yesterday with nothing more than IE 6, and stumbled across your website by chance… Think about the kids at school… jmo…
- 315
- 314
- 318November 2nd, 2009 5:41 am
Terrible… Many lost features and useful navigation items… Improper linking to articles in the sidebar. Lost borders because of incorrect margin sets. Amateur illustration of the people on the bottom – i’m sure an ego stroke by the designers. Doesn’t even work properly on Firefox. Someone wasted a lot of money.
- 319November 2nd, 2009 1:54 pm
You are such a nice troll!!
- 320November 2nd, 2009 3:58 pm
Like I mean look at this… Even the employees have a serious attitude problem and they run rampant calling people trolls and getting entirely offensive over some criticism…
Is this magazine run by professionals? Or two year olds?
This is called really bad PR guys… if you think it’s just the modern way a hack should communicate with the community, well your wrong…
Pasquali… take a hint… Try accepting some criticism for once… I mean everything which isn’t a blatant ass kissing has somehow offended you… not only is your design un-professional, but your attitude is too…
- 321November 2nd, 2009 7:42 pm
I’m not an employee :)
I take criticism on board always, but not when it’s unjustified!
Your rambling is hurting my eyeballs.
- 320
- 319
- 322November 2nd, 2009 5:42 am
So nice!!
- 323November 2nd, 2009 5:44 am
Nice job S.M.
- 324November 2nd, 2009 5:52 am
Well, here’s a bug: I can’t see any comments. Must I switch to a browser who allows any and all scripts to run on it? I’d rather not. I don’t mind “We don’t want to support IE6″ but I’m no fan of “we choose not to support mobile devices and others with Javascript off.”
Possibly another comment has mentioned it already, but as I can’t see them… there’s the end of a comment line before the name field of the form. I hope this comment even makes it through…
- 325November 2nd, 2009 5:55 am
ya very nice and clean design… So Finally Designers and Developers going to spends his life’s in Smashing Network…. Cool…
Please increase the font size for “Popular Tags” Button… Its too small or Highlight it. viewers want to know its link…
I’m very happy with Smashing Network viewer… - 326November 2nd, 2009 6:08 am
Love the new look, congratulation… well done! just one little thing to point out, would have been nice if you had a font size about 1 or 2 pixels bigger. of a way to increase the font.
- 327November 2nd, 2009 6:18 am
It is right that SM have decided to drop support for IE6. The web is moving forward and we can’t hang around for useless IT departments to ‘um and ar’ over upgrading 9 year old software.
However not supporting IE6 doesn’t mean that the content should inaccessible to users on that browser. A website like SM should at least be applying the rules of Progressive Enhancement. Most users on IE6 could handle the site looking odd as long as they can read the content, but that is next to impossible.
This might interest you – http://forabeautifulweb.com/blog/about/universal_internet_explorer_6_css
Also whoever wrote your Javascript should revisit their code as vital parts of your site are totally inaccessible to users without it enabled. The comments don’t appear and the tag slider at the top of the page ceases to exist.
These are really bread and butter things for any UI developer.
Overall I love the design but you guys need to practice what you preach.
Cheers
Simon - 328November 2nd, 2009 6:19 am
Looks amazing. I think the SM logo at the top should be just a bit bigger.
Thanks - 329November 2nd, 2009 6:26 am
A complete mess in IE 6. The old version worked perfectly. As I’m unable to update my browser (work), I will be missing Smashing magazine…. sad, really sad.
- 330November 2nd, 2009 6:49 am
I mean, wow, if the majority of people who read SM are designers, and (according to the comments, at least) there are more than a few readers still using IE6 then I have two observations:
1. If you’re ONLY option for reading SM is IE6, then it’s safe to say your main browser during development is IE6…. ouch!
2. And honestly, there is nothing about this new layout that can’t be tweaked by SM for IE6. I opened it up in IE6 and it’s not THAT far off. For as much time as we all spend making fun of developers who flat out refuse to support older browsers, it seems kind of silly that Smashing would just completely give up.
Let’s give SM a little time to get things together. They do alot for the community and don’t ask for much in return.
- 331November 2nd, 2009 8:02 am
” If you’re ONLY option for reading SM is IE6, then it’s safe to say your main browser during development is IE6…. ouch!”
I think people are just saying its their only option during work hours – not all the time. It would be a shame if regular readers could no longer read SM in work.
I agree it would be easy to tweak to be legible,not amazing, but legible in IE6.
The reason companies do not upgrade from IE6 is not because its difficult it is because their intranet and other internal websites are not tested past IE6 and for some high tech, high requirement systems it would be a huge undertaking to retest everything in a more modern browser.
- 332November 2nd, 2009 9:59 am
“I think people are just saying its their only option during work hours – not all the time. It would be a shame if regular readers could no longer read SM in work.”
What Mason is saying is that the only option these designers/developers have to TEST in at work is IE6. That would suck! How can they design for modern browsers if they don’t have access to one?
- 332
- 331
- 333November 2nd, 2009 7:14 am
Great update, I like it clean and sharp, will be spending some more time on it later today.
Thanks for stopping IE6 support.
- 334November 2nd, 2009 7:23 am
I like the new look. I haven’t been able to completely dive into everything yet, but quick glance I’m liking what I see. I will admit, it’ll get some getting used to, but I’m always open for change! Great job guys.
- 335November 2nd, 2009 7:28 am
I don’t like new look, reminde me on some average joomla template.
The old version was ethereal, simple and you can say originally.
Specially dislike navigation, fancy and trendy.Best regards, still on your side, keep smashing.
;)
- 336November 2nd, 2009 7:41 am
I think if designers stop designing for IE6, then companies will finally step up and upgrade to at least IE7. I also think that one of the reasons many companies will not upgrade is because then there will be access to many more websites that they don’t want their employees to surf to. That’s just my conspiracy theory side of things… Love the redesign though, except for the top nav. Too black. Why not orange? Orange is Smashing’s signature color and I miss it.
- 337November 2nd, 2009 7:41 am
I like all but the navigation. It’s not that I am afraid of change, but what I don’t like, is the inability to see the categories unless I hover over the link. It’s interesting to see “inspiration, tools, freebies etc.” displayed on the menu. Now that those are hidden, I go to the site and think.. boring! What can I click on!? If I was new to your site, I would think typical, and there wouldn’t be much to keep me on the page. I want to be able to see your categories initially.
- 338November 2nd, 2009 8:01 am
The menu at the top is a little too big, isn’t it? Takes up too much space in my opinion. The new design is nice and simple and I’m sure I will get used to it. I love the new tag explorer. Great with new features and all, but was a redesign really necessary? I didn’t see any trace usability problems or outdated look in the old design…
And I think at least that you should move the ads in the sidebar and posts down a bit, so that I don’t have to scroll my way down just to start reading or click a link.
Anyways, thank you for great articles, keep up the good work! - 339November 2nd, 2009 8:14 am
I love redesigns! great job. most awesomest thing: cartoon in the footer. Just when you think it’s all said and done… BAM! more inspiration. Great job guys, two thumbs way up to the best web mag in the world.
- 340November 2nd, 2009 8:20 am
I agree with a number of these posts. You should be above the “This site is best viewed in…” browser support. Although you don’t actually say it the site is so broken in IE6 that you should be.
There is a big difference between “degrading gracefully” and “not bothering”. You have clearly applied the latter and a web mag of this caliber really should be practicing what they preach.
Sorry but poor show folks!
- 341November 2nd, 2009 8:26 am
I think the redesign is slick! I personally think you should drop the GoogleAd’s from underneath the post titles. This is ruins the experience for me.
- 342November 2nd, 2009 8:26 am
I’m sorry but I like the old look. I’d like to see more contrast in the menu hover effect. I do like the little guys in the footer.
- 343November 2nd, 2009 8:31 am
i like the clean look but i dont like how on the home page i only get 2 articles. i sometimes dont get to check the site for a couple days and i like scrolling down to all recent posts.
- 344November 2nd, 2009 8:49 am
I know it sucks and not supporting IE6 is bad, but you know what!? It takes someone big like Smashing Magazine to start this Anti-IE movement. People that still use IE6 should not be on this site anyways. I say Bravo! And Please do not add support for IE6 or we will be defeated. I say make it even worse if you can!
- 345November 2nd, 2009 8:50 am
I have to say I like it. Nice restructure and some nice new features like the tags and the rating of articles. Also like the idea of the network on the front page. I also think it is a good move to stop supporting IE6. If anyone who visits this site as a designer/developer is still using a 10+ year old browser then shame on them.
One comment I would make as a designer is the top nav bar looks unusually high. It appears as though it should lose about a 1/3rd of it’s height as currently it looks a little odd with those dividing lines stopping part way down the background colour. Only a minor niggle though, I think it is a good improvement on an already good site. Thank you SM
- 346November 2nd, 2009 9:12 am
Looks Awesome love the feel of it for sure. The Popular tags is open on load for IE6 just a heads up but Im sure your working on it or at least I hope you are. I just tested it in IE but I’m by no means an IE6 user :) cheers everyone and great job
- 347November 2nd, 2009 9:17 am
overall a clean and welcome job, and quite effective at that.
- 348November 2nd, 2009 9:17 am
Excellent work! The re-design looks fantastic, plus finding content is much easier. Great work!!
Brian - 349November 2nd, 2009 9:23 am
Looks good so far. Can’t wait to browse around. Congrats the network too. You guys are great for bring us more relevant, interesting content.
- 350November 2nd, 2009 9:25 am
Maybe supporting IE6 could be done simply by using this? http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/
I haven’t used this much myself, so not sure how great it is. But I’ve seen it referenced several times…
- 351November 2nd, 2009 9:27 am
the funcionality has gone up, but the design and overview and easy to scan content is lost.
I love to just scroll through blogs to read the topics. Now it`s a mess. I really have to adapt to this page only. It is outstanding, but not in a good way.
The right hand side navigation looks like a giant google.ad and nothing like something that actually belongs to the page. Banner blindness is the keyword hear. Horrible :/
To be honest, this is a major step back – as said, not in functionality, but the general overview is horrible. It’s not easy to scan anymore. I’m really disappointed :(
- 352November 2nd, 2009 9:42 am
Please notice that you can still use http://sm.smashingmagazine.com to see only Smashing Magazine’s posts.
- 352
- 353November 2nd, 2009 9:35 am
Overall it’s very good, the site feels more accessible now.
However,
The two column structure makes for less natural browsing. It requires the eyes to focus on two places, making us more likely to miss great posts.
In the sign up form, if you choose a password that doesn’t have the necessary characters, it tells you just that, but it doesn’t let you know what the necessary characters are.
- 354November 2nd, 2009 9:40 am
Schrecklich!!
- 355November 2nd, 2009 9:40 am
if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
for a site like this usability is more important than appearance. There use a be a column on the right with links all the categories such as javascript, css, wordpress, etc making it easy to find stuff. You got rid of that and after some searching around i found the TINY popular tags link at the top. poor usability. you’re making me think and search around too much.
I’m shocked to see such a dumb move come from a site that has articles about good usability.
Eye tracking research done by marketing sherpa has shown that fewer columns are easier for people to scan, read and has a much higher user satisfaction rate. you’ve created to many columns making it difficult to focus on things.
ask yourselves why people come to your site and design it with that in mind.
- 356November 2nd, 2009 11:05 pm
I totally agree with billybob. New design looks crap. I dont understan whats the need to change the design when it is so good and clean.
- 357November 3rd, 2009 7:44 pm
Totally agree….love the old one… and tons of headline from other sites in front page is really a mess. I don’t even notice that’s article from other site until a new window is opened and I’m arrive at other sites. I don’t know how to find the rest of latest article from SM like i used to. Yes I know later that it can find here http://sm.smashingmagazine.com/ but I don’t think it’s clearly mentioned in the front page.
Please…please bring back the old one..
- 356
- 358November 2nd, 2009 9:57 am
I like what you guys did. Very reserved overall, but very dramatic changes in places. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the amount of horizontal padding between the content and the sidebar. It seems a little crowded, and text feels like it’s running into the next column. Other than that… great work, Smashing!
- 359November 2nd, 2009 10:16 am
Looks good!
- 360November 2nd, 2009 10:17 am
Mmm no me gusta, pero seguro me acostumbraré !
- 361November 2nd, 2009 10:26 am
I seem to like this design. I do not like that to leave a comment, I have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to post a comment.
There is no leave a comment button at the top of all of the comments.
This gets annoying when the page gets extremely long.
- 362November 2nd, 2009 10:33 am
The re design is not that great.. Really confusing design and the regular readers arent able to understand how to navigate through the pages….
Really disappointed !!!
- 363November 2nd, 2009 10:36 am
Looks good overall. I love the new functionality.
LOL, This is turning into a massive beta test!
- Way to take a stand on IE6, though I feel sorry for the people who have HAVE to use it because of stone-age IT departments.
- Please add some padding in your side bar on the home page for the news, jobs and forum sections. For me they are nesting right on the border.
- I agree that the twitter bird is too big and your logo is too small.
- found a bug where the text overlaps the forum feed icon after the feeds failed to load. Oh and, the feeds failed to load.
You guys are VERY VERY VERY brave releasing a new design to a bunch of designers! I know you expected this, but sometimes too much constructive criticism hurts. The site looks good! *Pat on the back*
- 364November 2nd, 2009 11:11 am
- Why is the logo not centered vertically? I also agree that being bigger wouldn’t do any harm.
- Nav is too big, search isn’t big enough and I’d also prefer something a bit different for the hover, perhaps the introduction of orange.
- Have the twitter / rss images linked as well? Seems pretty pointless not to as you’re drawn to them before the text links.
- Loss of the category bar is somewhat annoying.
- Too much white space although I guess it’s more of a case of getting used to it. - 365November 2nd, 2009 11:27 am
wow… what a disappointment SM. I am so NOT impressed, and expect so much better from you guys. First of all, the CSS doesn’t even validate. There is so much wasted space and the top navigation is just poorly done.
It’s one thing to not want to support IE6, but to completely disregard and not offer any backwards compatibility for IE6 users is just so unprofessional.
@Simon, I completely agree.
- 366November 2nd, 2009 12:05 pm
If Smashing Magazine drops support for IE6 than I will stop regarding Smashing Magazine as an authority on webdesign and development. Eat your own dogfood and live your own dogma’s, else every article about accessability will be hypocrisy.
The old menu dropped of the forum navigation link on smaller screens. With white on white background, it was nowhere to be found. I can forgive such mistakes.
I am certain this same design is possible with valid css and html and no hacks, and it will render perfectly on IE6. Next time employ a company that can validate the page that they offering their accessible web services on. I like the design, but still majorly disappointed – no more suprised – about the development fail.
Gross: just checked this page without javascript on. FAIL! You can’t even make the dropdown navigation work degrading.
Is loading the comments via javascript such a server load success that you value that over those with noscript browsers?
And since when are you supposed to use javascript to layout your sidebar-widgets?
Was this template made on lorum ipsum content and 10 fake comments? It looks like it, else any designer with an ounce of usability would have placed the comment box on top, and at least offered pagination above and below the content you are listing. Never was I lost on a site: how to get to the older comments or “view all comments” when you are anywhere near the top of this page?
For a site that suddenly cares so much about SEM, know that you lose much more readers and potential moneymakers with dropping IE6, than forcing ads in natural reading flows.
- 367November 2nd, 2009 12:15 pm
I really enjoy clean designs but this design is too clean for a design webpage.
- 368November 2nd, 2009 12:22 pm
Congratulations. They’re the best of the Web
- 369November 2nd, 2009 12:55 pm
Looks great It’s really i nice update!! Cheers!!
But something are still a bit buggy. in my firefox mac on a 1027x 768 res the read more buttons are overlapping the next post and are un clickable!
sure you will fixt it!
- 370November 2nd, 2009 1:25 pm
You guys no offense, but I can’t keep my mouth shut when literally my favorite website is clearly making the wrong move.
First of all the navigation tabs look unfinished, especially next to the search bar….and just unfinished in general. I mean this is not a Samsung or a GE website. I dunno it looks very technological/mechanical. As I said something that one would see on a technology related website.
You guys are clearly a design site, no matter what aspect of it you deal with, from print to web to advice. w.e. At the end of the day you should have something eye-catching (like b4) and not dull.
The footer however is really nice and neat, full credit for that :).
Sorry if I’m out of line, I just want you guys to be the best you can, and I know that you can do better than that greyscale.
- 371November 2nd, 2009 1:35 pm
Love the new design guys. The footer is awesome. Great work.
- 372November 2nd, 2009 1:51 pm
Congratulations, I like the threaded comments, looks fantastic It’s really i nice update…
- 373November 2nd, 2009 2:35 pm
SM please make a post about the reasoning about dropping IE6 support. Explain the ideal if wellthoughout or admit lack of luster or skill. Right now this is a very anti-webdeveloper move. With such an expertise on design, you should be teaching the limitations of webdesign and inventive ways to work around or against them, not let a design cripple the development and user experience. IE6 might not be so important for design magazines, or those with a free-monthly wordpress template, but are those your target audience from now on? Or those interested in webdesign and development where IE6 still matters as much as providing alternative content for screenreaders.
On a more serious note: you are right now fully stuffing all h1 headings on all articles. Removing the tiny “we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.” from the logo, really the only place where this text is found right now is on negatively indented nowheretobeseenland. Relying on javascript this much right now, I doubt you really make it easier for search bots or those with lynx or screenreaders.
- 374November 2nd, 2009 2:39 pm
Hmmm… no not so happy about the design. Good idea with a network but it should have its own website instead. I will stick to Smashings channel since I have my own mashup and feeds that I read, some of those in the network of course. The layout is to messy and breaks in Firefox 2xx that I have to use on my netbook. Thumbnails covers the toplink or hides other text.
Content is good, design is bad. The boxes looks like the ad-boxes and the whole thing is ugly and not so fun to use. I will look in at times anyway but read the smashing posts daily. - 375November 2nd, 2009 2:44 pm
Btw, I agree dropping IE6 from all designwork but a site should degrade in a good way so that the content is still readable even in the dinosaur browsers… not that I use that myself… but that is pro webbdev!
- 376November 2nd, 2009 2:45 pm
I like it that you bring in content from other sites and yet let users filter it out if they want. However, I am not keen on the oversized top Nav bar. 82 pixils high is too much. With my viewport usually reduced to around 780px high its more than 10% of the vertical height. There is plenty of space there to make the post categories quickly accessible too.
IE6 is officially unsupported and is officially wasting resources. Instead of supporting IE6 go for a bike ride, read a book or play with your children. If you feel the inclination for poor crippled users of IE6 then use the “IE6 No More” script to encourage their bosses to fix their unsecure broken software.- 377November 2nd, 2009 3:52 pm
Yeah, IE6 be gone. Let’s focus on IE for the Mac…
/* Hides from IE-mac \*/
- 377
- 378November 2nd, 2009 2:47 pm
I love that I now have so much more information at my fingertips while visiting Smashing, however it will definitely take some getting used to. Smashing was always so clean and direct, and this feels a bit chaotic.
- 379November 2nd, 2009 4:18 pm
Microsoft should just take a cue from Firefox. Auto update the browser by default. It is so nice when Firefox say “Next time you open Firefox your version will be x.xxx.xxx .” Very nice and convenient and it is great for security as well. IE6 can get hacked by a 5 year old and everything being designed or developed in the last 3-5 years looks like crud. Yes I do agree to make it look halfway legible in IE6 for those who can not view it without IE6.
Dig the redesign other than that. Not horrible but the navigation is too high on the page.
Oh yeh, IE7 jacks up the search box and the little Popular Tags slider accordian thing. IE7 should at least be considered. IE8 and Firefox look fine.
Oh yeh, please push your ads to the bottom of the sidebar. It is a pain in the rear to scroll 5 times just to see your side nav
- 380November 2nd, 2009 4:26 pm
Congratulations! It’s great! I adore this blog. Goooooooooooooood.
- 381November 2nd, 2009 4:34 pm
WOW……….this is…..HORRIBLE!!
be far one of the worst redesigns this year!everything went wrong….
the design is awful
the “network” make no sense
the illustration in the bottom……yuuk….no no no
i don’t like it at all. - 382November 2nd, 2009 4:46 pm
God I love the new look! It’s awesome guys, keep up the good work.
- 383November 2nd, 2009 6:03 pm
It looks good, but I liked Smashing for a one-stop place to check up on tech-style stuff. I already have 18 other sites bookmarked and forgotten. You always had contributors from other sites, but I never HAD to go to those sites to read before. Maybe you got too successful (or too tired) to do your own thing. Maybe if all them tiles weren’t on the home page, it’d be less (mentally) cluttered…
- 384November 2nd, 2009 6:07 pm
i even like it too.. very clean and smooth on reading.
- 385November 2nd, 2009 6:37 pm
I really like that the new design is substantially wider than 960! I’m very excited about the possibilities offered by the post-960 era :)
- 386November 2nd, 2009 8:08 pm
Love the new design and style, very easy to navigate, the graphics are excellent and the content superb, well done
Thanks for a great resource I use this site daily for just about everything I do.
Regards,
Larson-Kansas City - 387November 2nd, 2009 8:23 pm
Look, I hate having to make sites cross-compatible with IE6 as much as the next guy, but I hate your smug attitude even more. Unsuscribed.
- 388November 2nd, 2009 9:32 pm
REALLY don’t like “the network” taking up 80% of your front page… Do a “links” page or “around the web” or something, but filling your front page with blog posts from other sites is confusing and irritating.
I just want to scroll down the page and read SM posts.
Seriously. I want SM posts. That’s why I’m here.
The rest is fine. IE6 sucks.
- 389November 2nd, 2009 10:55 pm
Clean and simple… with many more features… Me lovin’ it! :D
- 390November 2nd, 2009 10:56 pm
When a change brings good then its appreciable. SM change is a disaster and tough to digest the new change.
1. Helvetica font horrible and bad on FF3.0 and IE 7
2. Lost its web2.0 look almost
3. No cross browser compatible any more
4. Sidebar and footer illustrations looks like as if the site is made of patches.
5. It lost its consistency.
6. Verdana font in Web2.0 era? LOL
7. Old design was outstanding and pleasant.
8. I am sad that a good design was dumped for a bad one.
9. Site looks clutter.
10. Green color headers were so distinct on the page.
11. RIP old site.
12. Smashing Magazine will soon be history. - 391November 2nd, 2009 11:33 pm
Now it more clear and clean look with lot of white space. Looking great
And Network idea is awesome.
- 392November 2nd, 2009 11:52 pm
Another problem, after the font size issue (in the comments section) and the dominant white background, is the lack of reference number next to messages so if you want to respond to let’s say Jen or Mark you have to scroll down all the way to find them. Not so sure this new layout is an improvement.
- 393November 3rd, 2009 12:55 am
again i love the design. It’s clean and very good to read but that illustration isn’t so good! This website is the top of the bill in webdesign and that drawing isn’t.
I’m sure you had a lot of fun drawing yourselfs but maybe that’s more something to put on freezer or something!cheers!
- 394November 3rd, 2009 1:29 am
Ooh marvelous. Abandoning IE6 is premature and foolish. Many corporates have yet to transition to updated browsers, employees at which view the site ‘at work’ because their job involves web design activities. I thought the people behind this site knew all things about web design – obviously not.
- 395November 3rd, 2009 2:54 am
i agree with santosh
- 396November 3rd, 2009 3:45 am
Twitter fonts could be smaller….
- 397November 3rd, 2009 5:11 am
I agree with Marcelo, Twitter fonts are too big. In fact I haven’t even noticed them in the first place, probably thinking they were Google ads, therefore subconsciously avoiding them.
Besides: Ads by Google on top.. can you place them in 2 colums so they take the whole width and half the height?
- 398November 3rd, 2009 6:18 am
Like the new look, especially with the golden ratio. Not so sure bout the illustration, on the fence, don’t see much of a relationship with other elements, but it works to an extent. but like it overall!
- 399November 3rd, 2009 7:55 am
A iPhone version is comming too?
- 400November 3rd, 2009 7:57 am
In my view the design is a bit of a backwards step. The grid layout is ok, but overall it’s too light – so there isn’t a clear separation between the main content areas. The header links look unfinished. I’m not sure why the dividing line doesn’t extent to the full height? I thought this was a browser issue at first… but apparently not.
- 401November 3rd, 2009 8:00 am
That’s great! I like the new design. Good job SM!
- 402November 3rd, 2009 8:05 am
The overall design is good, but shouldn’t the entire page still fit within a standard screen resolution of 1024 pixels? Just to avoid a horizontal scrollbar?
- 403November 3rd, 2009 8:15 am
The top menu is a bit confusing. in the old design it was clear what caetgories you offer articles in. But now its hidden.
- 404November 3rd, 2009 8:52 am
I didn’t really like it that much . maybe I need some time to get used to see it this way :(
- 405November 3rd, 2009 8:56 am
I love the look, it’s very clean. I like the whole idea of having a network full of the web’s best design content!
- 406November 3rd, 2009 9:35 am
Normally I’m a fan of Liam’s work, but I have to say I’m not liking the re-design. The header navigation is odd and appears broken, and the page in entirety just looks stark and lackluster now. Has that point on the G always been there? looks a bit off from the rest of the logo.
Anyway, just my two cents.
- 407November 3rd, 2009 11:18 am
It lost its smashing 2.0 look! Totally agree with Santosh… Everything looks HUGEEE !
- 408November 3rd, 2009 11:34 am
Can someone point me to the tut how to make menu like categories is on SM? Please.
- 409November 3rd, 2009 12:21 pm
Great choice having the older articles shorten and split up into 2 columns, it makes navigating the home page and recent content history a breeze.
Looks great guys, keep up the good work!
- 410November 3rd, 2009 1:02 pm
Guys… I think it’s time to change it back…
or here’s what’s not so good:
- very confusing… the borders are too light.
- the headlines are too small
- it’s a mess, and i can’t find out if new content has arrived.
- the small photos are realy not tempting to read the posts.
- the header is few steps back
- the whole thing is tooooo main stream… I think smashmagazine should lead… - 411November 3rd, 2009 1:12 pm
Redesign looks solid. Nice new features. The whole IE6 thing is a real bugger though.
Maybe Chrome Frame will help.
<3 Google
- 412November 3rd, 2009 3:36 pm
i like the new design, except for the searchbox, it looks just crappy
- 413November 3rd, 2009 5:36 pm
Looks like lot more to explore with the redesign. I do miss the long list of previous article titles that I could scroll down and find an old article quickly (or was that just a more extensive tag list?). I used it a lot! Hope the “popular tags” and search will work as well.
- 414November 3rd, 2009 9:19 pm
I don’t like too much outer content on your front page, sorry guys.
- 415November 4th, 2009 12:10 am
sorry, I don’t like it either. It actually makes it look more complicated, gray color makes it look dull. Old one in this regards was simple and colors were better. And on top Tabs – News / Jobs / Forum, behind News tab there is some text hidden or may be just lost behind it.
- 416November 4th, 2009 6:09 am
Hmmm, I actually had to do work to re-find this article. OK, not coal mining, but since this story is no longer on the home page (where there are only two of the “latest” articles), I had to click a bunch of other stuff to find this. So, the Categories dropdown > Events… not a life-threatening 5 minutes, but aren’t web re-designs supposed to be easier to use? Now why should I go to Smashing for articles when it’s easier to just use bookmarks to those other sites anyways? No no, don’t answer.
Maybe a “users are losers” category for people like me.
- 417November 4th, 2009 8:22 am
agreed. I was hoping for a “Recent Articles” link under the 2nd story on the home page. I actually used the search box to find this back.
- 417
- 418November 4th, 2009 6:11 am
You asked for everyone’s comments, so at least reply and justify many of the decisions that your users are questioning.
- 419November 4th, 2009 9:57 am
Hey guys! I’m a big fan of smashing magazine and I love the redesign, but I noticed a pretty big overlooked item on your redesign. Right now the giant bird and rss feed illustration in the upper right grabs my eye. I love them, but they do nothing if clicked. I was trying to subscribe by rss and couldn’t figure out why the rss icon was not a link to a feed. Then I saw the text links to the left. I don’t see why the illustrations are not also linking to the feed and twitter.
- 420November 4th, 2009 2:06 pm
After a few days with this re-design, I’m starting to get used to it. It’s OK (unless you’re at work and stuck on IE6 (no prob. for me).
But IMHO the ‘network-idea’ i a bad one. Yes, I know that I can choose to see just the SM-articles (and I do); but does newcomers know so? If I where new to this site, I would not – easily – be able to distinguish SM-stuff from external stuff.
There are already waaaaay to many sites out there doing nothing much else than collecting links to other sites. SM delivers smashing content on their own, no need to mess it up in a big mash-up with links to articles from external sites.
- 421November 5th, 2009 1:22 pm
I’m not sure if comments here will still be read as I’m behind on coming across this change, but here goes:
I think the site looks great, I only have one issue but for me its a big one. I have a serious problem with the fact that I literally have to turn off the network posts just to be able to scroll through Smashing Magazine articles. Its counter-intuitive and also goes against the learned behaviour of your users from coming to this site that when you click on the 1, 2, 3 etc. at the bottom of the page it is merely scrolling through the network posts. Nothing indicates this would be the case. There is no way to simply click through the latest SM posts that I can find.
Don’t make us disable the new stuff just to be able to use the old stuff. Not everyone has the ability to come here every day to see new posts, and you will lose a lot of attention some posts could have by burying them in the categories. I have often come across posts in the list that I never would have looked for or noticed if I had to go digging for them. Once shown the “hook” though, I am intrigued and can see how the article could be useful for me. Previously, you had two or three pages of clicking before I lost interest.. now you have two headlines only to get my attention. This does not seem logical to me.
Right now you are making me choose between viewing the network posts or having the meat of this site be accessible to me. This seems totally unnecessary, and I’m definitely part of your audience that would happily eat up both. At the very least, please give a way to scroll through the latest articles even if it has to be annoying and only show two articles at a time.
A lot of harping on this one issue, but honestly if not for this I would think this redesign is fabulous.
- 422November 8th, 2009 7:38 pm
I think you make some very nice points. And you present them well. Certainly backing up your concerns with some suggestions and ideas is a great way to go about getting yourself hear and getting your point across. I can’t speak on behalf of Smashing Magazine, but I’m sure anyone who posts a similarly useful post have more of a chance of being taken seriously.
Thanks for your feedback.
- 422
- 423November 6th, 2009 12:07 am
Loved it! But, umm, why isn’t there one “print friendly version” button for posts? Really, c’mon!?
But hey, keep up the good work guys! :)
- 424November 6th, 2009 9:06 am
There is no need for one due to the use of a print stylesheet. You just hit print and it will print in a friendly fashion.
Print friendly links are old school :)
- 424
- 425November 6th, 2009 4:47 am
Thanks for making the article pages printer friendly though I noticed the comments were not included. Since I do a a fair amount of reading offline, I sometimes print to paper or PDF so I’m missing out on the discussion. Or did I miss something?
- 426November 6th, 2009 5:05 am
Hello there,
I just want you to know that i am (was) doing a redesign of my own blog based on your previous design. I guess ill have to re dot it. Your current design is awesome!
- 427November 11th, 2009 12:54 pm
I’ve used this post and thread as a launching point for my latest blog post, “IE6 Scolding: Blaming the Victim?” You can’t link here, I guess, but how about bit-dot-ly-dot-ie6scolding. Or go to HowWhyWeb dot com.
- 428November 12th, 2009 1:31 am
Really disappointed with the design. It does not appear to be a mature refreshment. Done very quickly probably. Thats why most people seem to say, ‘Hey, I liked the old design, maybe it’ll take some time to get used to.’ The idea to include more articles was neat. But the overall layout design seems to be somewhat loose. The top navigation for instance, any reasoning behind the look it was changed to. The bottom looks missing. The twitter and RSS illustration, the News, Jobs tabs, the over-simplistic icon set, the entire right column seems to be worked out in too much hurry. Sorry, if these comments are disappointing to someone, but I expected Smashing’s design to stand up to the quality of articles it used to stand for. And yeah, I doubt whether directing links out to other blogs is a good idea, earlier we could read something in the smashing frame itself. It would have been great to separate the two out.
- 429November 19th, 2009 3:12 pm
Have you had a look at how your new design renders in IE 6? many corporates are still on IE 6.
I know backward compatibilty is always problematic but I expect high standards from Smashing.
Tudor ?8->
- 430November 22nd, 2009 8:52 pm
I like the new look. I don’t know if I like it more than the previous one but I like it – it’s just different. A bit more streamlined, maybe even bare-bones a bit but in a good way – lets the content stand out. I also like the cartoonish graphics – there’s only so much gradients and gloss one can take :)
I love the idea of smashing network – I know there are tons of web design and development related sites and blogs out there but I don’t have time to search through all of them and figure out which ones are good and which aren’t. So it’s nice to see that you’re gonna be taking care of that for me.
I do have couple of issues. I realize you want to highlight your network sites, but I think you should have at least 3 SM articles on front page, not two. More importantly though is that the link to SM only page is not very obvious. In fact, why is it hiding inside a paragraph of text? It should be a proper “next” like button below the SM articles. Like the pagination links at the bottom of the page but between the SM articles and the SN ones – something like “More Smashing Articles”.
Finally, two more tiny things that I’m sure you thought of and have good reasons for doing so but…
The green “post comment” button is completely out of place – green isn’t really part of the websites design, as far as I can see, other than that button. What’s wrong with orange, blue or black?
The footer area needs some SM branding.
Between that and the green “post comment” button, as I am now typing this comment, I don’t really “know” that it’s on a Smashing Magazine’s website. All I see is a lot of white space, some subtle footer area with a bunch of cartoon characters and a green button – it could be any website, but it sure doesn’t look like SM.Despite all my gripes – good stuff :)
- 00
There are no trackbacks at this time. If you are interested in leaving a trackback, please use this URL.
Leave a Comment
Make sure you enter the * required information where indicated. Please also rate the article as it will help us decide future content and posts. Comments are moderated – and rel="nofollow" is in use. Please no link dropping, no keywords or domains as names; do not spam, and do not advertise!
Interact
Popular
- 100 Wordpress Themes
- Photoshop Tutorials
- Fantastic Wallpapers
- 40+ Excellent Freefonts
- Dual-Screen Wallpapers
- Wordpress Themes for 2009
- Illustrator Tutorials
- Incredible Free Icon Sets
- High-Quality Free Fonts
- 30 Scripts For Galleries
- Photoshop Text Effects
- Useful Icon Sets
- Web Design Trends
- iPhone Wallpapers
- Before Launching a Website
- CSS Layouts And Templates
- Photoshop Actions
- Stunning Pictures and Photos
- Fantastic HDR Pictures
- Logo Design Tutorials
- Free Design Templates
- 10 Mistakes In Logo Design
- Photoshop Custom Shapes
- 40 Creative Design Layouts
- 8 Layout Solutions
- 53 CSS Techniques
- Photography Techniques
- Black & White Photography
- Styling Design Elements
- CSS-Based Forms
- 50 jQuery Techniques
- 50 Portfolio Websites
- 50 CSS Techniques
- Creative Logo Designs
- Desktop Wallpapers
- 25 Open Source Mac Apps
- 50 Free Icon Sets
- We’re Ready for CSS3, but are we Ready for CSS3? - http://bit.ly/cKN7Bz
- lovely-css: a grid-based CSS framework - http://bit.ly/ayA0wb
- How The CSS Selector nth-child Works - http://bit.ly/cgPMqe
- 33 New High Quality Adobe Illustrator Tutorials - http://bit.ly/bTgFbu
- How to Drastically Improve Your Designs - http://bit.ly/a9L1sb
- A Quick Look at Mobile Web Designs - http://bit.ly/9TCWCG
- How to Test your JavaScript Code with QUnit - http://bit.ly/da853c
Nice! I like the clean look. Overall it looks more like one solid style now.