The Public Opinion Soapbox

hotdog · Guest

What do you think of the new look of the Public Opinion's web site?

Voice your opinion now.

pwdeb · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

The home page is too cluttered now. Why did you mess with a good thing?

I used to work in advertising and I know that "white space" is a good thing. Not much white space on the new home page. Old eyes like mine need to see less clutter.

Deb

hotdog · Guest

Just wanted others opinions. Personally, I think it looks good and has a modern look but, it will take some users time to get used to as change is not always well received but, I think it looks good overall. Probably a few cosmetic things you should change such as the blue colors to a slightly darker blue, your logo at the top of the page looks blurry, and that image isn't very distinguished but, good job.

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

it's ok....i used to work on websites before i took my teaching job and it follows the 2 scroll rule, which i like....video feeds for papers are becoming the norm so a lot of papers are redesigning with that in mind. i used to work for an area paper (not the p.o.) and our website had issues with the feed not working via a.p.

since the flash ad space to the right is the same size as the video space to the left, i'm assuming that's why the went w/the 3 column. might have been interesting to stack those 2 together to give column variation.

the background variation of the photo gallery is nice...maybe if it was repeated in one of the news sections it would make for some easier readability. css FTW!...but i'm usually one who doesn't like visual clutter....easy read for the people accessing the page.

top navigation is better....left navigation just gets cluttered if to much is added to it. top nav is the way to go, for sure. let it trickle down from there.

Coppy · Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 2267 Location: Chambersburg

I think it's much more modern looking. I don't think its very cluttered when you consider the accessibility and I think that this "template" is pretty typical of local news organizations. The idea for a news website is to give you access to all content right from the home page, rather than having to go searching for it. Having navigation at the top is better than along the left side and XML menus are much more user friendly. I also like the "Most Viewed" section and events.

It had to be done, particularly to enable RSS which is absolutely necessary to participate in Web 2.0.

Two section I could do without (and would probably significantly lessen the clutter) are the "Top News Video" section and "Photo Gallery."

Overall it's a huge improvement and will likely be much easier for everyone to navigate after a few weeks; like anything new in technology, just give it some time.

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

coppy....the way you talk xml and rss feeds...it's music to my nerdie ears. it just might be love. LOL (j/k!)

personally, i'm a css fan. makes for easy styling...bam! easy changes!

yeah, this site is pretty much a template of others. i was working on a redesign of the one where i worked with and if i had stayed it would've be WICKLY awesome....i had such a nice color scheme for it and the pages i was allotted...

top nav FTW!!!!!

Coppy · Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 2267 Location: Chambersburg

CSS is soooo 2002 Razz

I like CSS since that's how I learned and, from a development standpoint, prefer it. Once RSS hit the scene though, I sort of went from being interested in website construction to website consumption.

Top navigation is far superior. Studies have shown that when most people go to a website, the first place they look is at the top and the last place they look is on the left. It's not like reading a book.

It's pretty similar to news websites though; in fact, I think it's far less cluttered than other local news websites, particularly on-air stations.

alright · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 6 Location: Chambersburg

You can't please everyone, but I think it looks good. It will take some time to find everything now, though. I still haven't found where to view the previous day's articles.

Good job though.

sassy moose · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 250 Location: Virginia

I like it. I prefer CSS also.

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

jamiesgirl · Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

[quote="alright"]You can't please everyone, but I think it looks good. It will take some time to find everything now, though. I still haven't found where to view the previous day's articles.

Good job though.[/quote]

I agree. That is one thing that I liked with the old website.