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.
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Luminair - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Sorry but you fail. The new Engadget/blog/whatever style is generic and unprofessional and ugly. Try again with something that doesn't look like a wordpress theme, or go back to the old one that doesn't look like its trying to compete with Apple for the most pretentious user interface awardaguilpa1 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Good Job to all.MadMan007 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
That thing is a complete CPU hog. On a Q9550@3.6GHz I go from 0-25%+ CPu usage just by scrolling that bar. I can only imagine how bad it is on lower power laptops or netbooks. Just make it snap to the next article, no fancy 'smooth scrolling' needed.Voo - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Yeah, the article header bar lags when scrolling and it can need 100% cpu utilization of one e8400 core if I click more than once. Needs some love ;)FF 3.6.2; Win7; Flash 10,0,32,18
Nataku - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Just want to say that the new site looks great, my only comment would be on the front page if the latest post area can be shrunk a bit so we can see more head lines? my scroll bar shrunk alot when I first entered = more scrollingGood Work,
Thanks,
DDG - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I like the new design! Please keep up the good work!MadBoris - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Hey Anand and staff,Great work on the site. There is alot to like, but sometimes we first notice certain changes not as desirable at first.
First off, the decision to limit the width to 1024 pixels is still disappointing in 2010, and still seems quite outdated on a site primarily revolving around reading material. I may just start using the RSS/mobile link all the time instead. As someone who knows how to design a site with a minimum width that can stretch, I understand the extra design work necessary, but it's a shame my 1900x1200 still goes wasted with 900 pixels of grey on this site unless I flip the monitor 90 degrees for this site. 1024 pixel width with text limited to 800 or so pixels width, seems outdated to me. The site is now even more all about vertical scrolling on my wide screen monitor, seems counter productive in that respect.
Speaking of flipping the monitor 90 degrees, it makes me wonder if that isn't the way it was designed, in that ratio. Wide screen may still be a minority, but 90 degree tilted wide screens is even a smaller minority of that minority still.
There is a huge amount of vertical space wasted on the site, from the top down, to where an article begins in the bottom third of the 1200 pixel monitor. Waste above and below first ad, first main menu, main menu bar has tons of wasted vertical space below and above text. it would be fine if this was a console and I was using a controller, but I use a mouse so i can rollover the huge fields Then the three image scrolling menu, while fancy, it is too slow(on a fast machine) and too big. 4 or 5 menu items with pics seems better horizontally.
I wish I could rotate my 1900x1200 monitor for all my web viewing 5 times a day, but I keep my aspect standard all day long and it's a shame more sites don't support wide screen monitors properly, by auto stretching more horizontally, not making me scroll more vertically. I know some of this is too late as to the design, but maybe some of the vertical space waste can be fixed. So not only is the horizontal unused, vertical is wasted in forcing me to always scroll more.
Otherwise, it looks clean and I will find more to like, I like the colors too, I just wanted to share some of my initial dislikes while the comparison between old and new is still fresh in my mind.
james.jwb - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
hi there, this will take some getting used to!One thing that's putting me off as a web designer: the reply box immediately makes me think of a quote box. I think it would be far better to use a colour much closer to the normal comments colour, i.e, only a few shades lighter so it doesn't stand out so much.
superjojo - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I usually open read Ars, Techspot and Anandtech everyday. I set my browser to open all three tabs automatically. When I got to the new Anandtech I thought I was looking at Techspot. I looks exactly the same.Any relation between anandtech and techspot?
superjojo - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Don't get me wrong, I really like the new design and AT is by far my favorite. I was just wondering.