Welcome to AnandTech's 2013 Redesign
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 9, 2013 1:16 PM EST- Posted in
- Site Updates
In 2010 we went through the single largest redesign in AnandTech history. We modernized the site, finally moved to a tag based architecture and made a number of other tweaks. The web moves a lot quicker than it did even just 3 years ago, so last year we started working on another significant redesign. Today marks the debut of that design.
Going into the redesign we wanted to accomplish three major goals. First, we wanted to have a design that put our smartphone and tablet coverage on equal footing with our traditional PC roots. The redesign consolidates our coverage areas into four major categories: PC Components, Smartphones & Tablets, Desktops & Notebooks and finally Enterprise. The super categories are largely self explanatory and you can drill down into each one of them for more specific navigation.
It's important that our site design reflects our internal focuses. We are as committed as ever to our PC component coverage, but we also devote an equal amount of time to what we're doing in the new mobile space. From my perspective, whether it's a smartphone or a server, we're still talking about some form of computer - just in a different case.
Our second major goal with the redesign was to more prominently feature Pipeline, our short form content section. We launched Pipeline in late 2011 as a way of dealing with content that either didn't demand our full review treatment or that we didn't have time to dedicate deep analysis to. Since then Pipeline has become a very important part of the site, and we wanted to elevate its position on the front page as a result. Pipeline stories on the right are ordered from newest to oldest, with even older pipeline stories appearing under the 2x2 grid of featured articles.
Finally, we wanted a design that would be more accessible and speak to the broader nature of our audience. While you all know why you come to AnandTech, it's very important to our continued success and ability to remain independent that the site accurately reflects the diverse audience. Whether you're coming to us for motherboard reviews, analysis of the latest microprocessor architectures or to figure out which smartphone or tablet to buy, you're likely a person relied on by dozens of others for recommendations. We remain an independent website, which comes with its own challenges when it comes to proving our worth to the agencies and marketing organizations that help keep us operational. Looking the part is just as important as having the content to back it up.
We made sure not to take away any features with the redesign. We still include our well used Print View on all articles, but now allow you to use it both for single page reading as well as for actual printing. The previous Print View didn't have all of the styling of our article pages since it was purely optimized for printing, now we have both modes.
Other features have been enhanced as well. The View All Comments button now actually lets you view all comments on a single page, rather than just showing you 50 comments per page. You can also now permalink to individual comments. I'm always humbled by just how awesome your comments are, now we can finally link directly to individual ones.
We now support larger images inline (we will be adding site-wide retina/hi-DPI support soon!) and our graph style has been updated as well, which you'll start seeing us take advantage of with all new content going forward. The review body text is also larger and hopefully easier to read, which should help when we post some of our ultra long form content.
The Podcast now has a permanent link at the top of the page as well - thanks to all you who have been asking for that.
The Twitter feed on the front page now includes tweets from a number of staff members including Brian, Ganesh, Jarred and myself. We've also made it easier to follow us on Twitter and Facebook with direct links in our header (hint: it helps us tremendously if you do). Our most recommended content on Facebook is also nicely streamed in to the right of the site as well.
There are more functional changes that we'll be introducing throughout the new year. We just had to get the redesign out of the way first so we could start building on it.
I hope you all enjoy the site redesign. I know big changes aren't always easy to get used to, and as always you have my commitment to fix/improve anything that truly needs it. I'd love to hear your feedback on the design in the comments below.
I'd like to close with a thanks to all of you for continuing to read and support the site. I've always said that AnandTech is your site and I do firmly believe that. We are here to serve you and you are what make this site possible. Thank you for reading, and thanks for making the past 16 years possible. If you are a relative newcomer, please be sure to check out our About page that helps explain the philosophies that drive us.
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fog - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
I should clarify some things:I think the middle section is fine (except for the colorfest in this "Post Your Comment" box). Top menu, footer, "Pipe lines stories"-box, Tweet-box needs rework imo.
Dailytech news works best of all the right side "boxes".
I like the background in the header, I'd like to see that as background for the menu-bar too.
I should add that the site looks completely different here on my Linux workstation than on your screenshot in regards of fonts. That wasn't a problem before either. Something to keep in mind, if you care about us Linux geeks :)
ludikraut - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
I rarely post to comment on site layout, but when I logged into AnandTech today I was quite unpleasantly surprised. Quite frankly the redesign looks _awful_. The look and feel I could probably get used to, but what really kills the design for me is that I find it much more difficult to quickly scan through the main page of the site. Going from a main article header that is a tile two columns wide representing a picture with embedded text to a secondary area that is two columns wide with each 'tile' being comprised of a picture on top with text underneath to then a two-column-wide list of information to then (omigod how many times to we need to change the format???) another two column list were each entry is two columns wide with a (too large) picture on the left and text on the right ... W-T-F?!? Honestly it seems like an exercise in how many ways can we mash up content given two columns. Even Metro is less of a cluster**** than this. Isn't the point of good web-design for a page like Anand-tech to allow the reader to quickly, at a glance, identify the latest content and to then just as quickly go to previous content?Please, please, give the readers at least an option on how to format the layout. ARS is a prime example of how to do this correctly, and I am super happy that I can still view their site in a simple two-column layout: articles on the left, toolbars on the right. Not only is this easily consumed, it should also be super easy to code. I really don't care about the color schemes, etc. (make it pink for all I care), but at least make the information legible again.
michaelheath - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
I only have one comment, though it's a minor aesthetic criticism:Against the subtle diagonal striped header at the top of the page, the horizontal 'brushed' background of the AnandTech logo looks out of place. Someone should probably decide on a design cue and stick with it.
The0ne - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
Like the new design. The color scheme is easy on my eyes too. The black background gets my eyes all fuzzy :) The layout is fine how it is but having an option for a wider layout would be nice. I have to agree that reading a longer line of text is much harder then a few more lines; but then again having layout such as these may produced longer paragraphs and more so than anything bad writing, imo.I have 30"s but I wouldn't want wider pages. The layout is fine and it doesn't seem like the sides are "wasted" on tons of ads.
NanoTec - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
MinorBug: To reproduce: Be on the last page of the comments, click on the lowest visible page number which is not a 1, and then click on the previous page arrow. There will now be the last page number listed twice. This occurs when you're on that page, not necessarily by following these steps. Thank you.NanoTec - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
The last comment posted is not showing up in the paginated version, but is indeed when view all is selected.NanoTec - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
The comment this reply referred to, was on the very end of page 37, it is not visible, and is the last non nested reply comment.The reply created a page 38. Page 38 is not selectable from any other page but page 1 at this time.
AwesomeAD - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
This appears to be a bug with the logic of the pagination code.From playing around with various starting sites and using the 'back/previous' and 'forward/next' links, what the code seems to do is load the next set of pages so that the new 'current' page retains the same index among the pagination list.
Example: if you are on page 9, and 9 appears as the third number ( [1] [8] [9] ...), if you now click on 'next', you will be on 10, so the code shows [1] [9] [10]. The current page, 10, is still 3rd index from the left.
What happens though when there are no new pages to pull from the right to fill the remaining indices? That's when the code decides to display the last page twice.
watersb - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
Love the new design. Color scheme works fine for me also in "reverse color" on my iPad 4 (late reading in bed mode)otherwise - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
One major nitpick here -- clicking on the subheaders at the top "PC Components, etc" should bring me to a page with all PC Component reviews. Having to choose a sub category is already frustrating.