Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 29, 2010 11:52 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
That old design lasted us a long time, didn't it? :) Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta. We've done a lot of updating behind the scenes as well as (obviously) on the front end.
Most obvious is the brand new look and feel. For a site that reviews the latest and greatest tech, we can't get by looking like we're still living in 2004. Now when the 80s make a comeback we'll be on top of that, you've got my word.
We've ditched the left hand column, streamlined some of the ads and widened the content column. While each article will still give you a preview of 10 comments, we finally have an option to view all comments on each review page. Right now we've got this set to 50 comments per page but we'll be tweaking as need be. We're also cutting down on the number of page loads you'll encounter. In view all comments mode there's no page refreshing between comment pages. We'll be bringing this feature to more parts of the site in the future. User friendliness is our drug :)
The front page allows for both linking to our superlong articles as well as shorter stories that can just appear on the front page for quick scanning. By default the latest 5 articles will appear in the rotating carousel up top, but if something super interesting comes up we'll promote it up there (similar to what did on the old site). The expanded summaries on the front page will give you more insight into what it is we're talking about in the article before you ever click anything.
Tags are enabled but not in full effect just yet. We'll be beefing up search, comments (the return of ratings!), galleries, Bench, user profiles and site layout/color customization over the coming weeks. We're planning on this being a regularly updated thing so if you see anything that warrants our attention let us know.
It's not all about a pretty face though, we're still going to be publishing the content that you demand from us. If you haven't seen it, be sure to read Ryan's GeForce GTX 480 & GTX 470 Review. And I'm commemorating today with a new SSD article addressing one of the longest running questions you've been asking: how do SSDs perform in RAID?
As always, thank you for your support over the years and for reading the site. It's been a pleasure to be able to write for you all over the past 13 years. Thank you guys for giving me and all of us the opportunity to do just that. If you haven't been able to tell by now, I love writing this stuff - and you all make it possible.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
277 Comments
View All Comments
NaughtyGeek - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Uhg, I cringed when TGDaily went to this style and now here we are at AnAnd. ICK!hko45 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Articles are more attractively displayed. BUT, you really need a quicker navigation option. I want to be able to see in one glance whether there's anything I'm interested in, and then to jump to it.lordmetroid - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I am missing the print this article link that would combine all pages of an article into one. Please add it again.MengNa - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
First of, congratulations on the overhaul! It's very nice and easy on the eyes.I have a small question for everyone, what is this banner ad on top everyone keep referring to? Is it the blank space above the AnandTech logo? 'cause I don't see any ad up there.
Also, I have a couple of suggestions:
1) In the comments it would be nice to have the buttons to choose which page of comments I'm viewing on top as well as the bottom.
2) When I do click on the next page of the comments it should anchor to the first comment and not stay at the bottom, which makes you scroll all the way to the top to read them.
3) I'd like to see the comments numbered, so I could find certain comments more easily.
Thanks!
sitswithmouse - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Like the new look, but just like some others have posted, please bring back the Print Article option.Please!
yacoub - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
So much wasted space now :(This new design is pretty poor from a screen real estate perspective. Why is there so much wasted space around everything?
Sorry but it looks amateurish.
yacoub - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
And yeah, it does look less professional now, aside from the new logo which looks nice.The harsh color contrasts (the orange submenu bar for example).
The lack of a simple, straightforward, cohesive menu/nav, replaced by two rows of disjointed, inexplicably differentiated options, plus a third row of options to the right of the menu, which sort of get lost in the header.
All the extra "space" around things really wastes efficiency and above-the-fold real estate.
DBissett - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
While there are some improvements with the "new look", the headline, rotating article teasers, bolded article titles, and ALL THE GRAPHICS are WAY TOO BIG. Especially the graphics. Not only does this kinda detract from the aesthetics of the new look, but it mandates way too much scrolling to actually read stuff. Anandtech looked better before, IMHO, because you could actually read a lot on each screen. By oversizing the graphics and bolding, it now looks like every other graphic designers inyourface idea of what a website should look like that you see around the web.Dave
yacoub - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
It can't be good when one's initial reaction to loading the site is an audible "UGH!! what the heck?!" :)log - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Much, much better! The previous one was horrendous. I actually found the version previous to 2004 better than the one you're now replacing.Congratulations!