New Irish Times website

boombang · 09-03-2013 12:49PM #1

I don't like the new Irish Times site that went up today. What do you think?

It's harder to get a quick overview of the stories. They made changes like this to some of the specialists sections previously, such as motors, which made it less easy to read. I think the previous format was better.

Maybe we could set up a poll to give the IT some visual feedback.

I still like and appreciate the IT.

WoollyRedHat · 09-03-2013 04:50PM

Why can't websites be multi-facilitating, is this not possible... like forums and ability to choose skins and such. I know it's not a like for like comparision but isn't there a way where the user could pick the layout. New one comes automatically, but if you wished to revert you could.

Zaph · 09-03-2013 04:55PM

There's far too much empty space on either side of the screen, and everything is condensed into the middle. The old site was definitely better imo.

RayM · 09-03-2013 05:13PM

I think it's an improvement - and far easier to navigate. Website redesigns always take a bit of time to adjust to. I think it would benefit from less white space and smaller (preferably sans-serif) fonts. Serif fonts look fine on paper, but very messy on a screen.

fitz0 · 09-03-2013 06:57PM

It seems to be built for tablets and for easy resizing on mobile devices. Even with the perfect resizing on mobile devices, we now have yet another bland news site with zero character. It looks like a poorly formatted blog. The old site wasn't fantastic by any means but this new one is just plain dull.

The desktop version can probably be summed up as 'More pictures, less text.'

The Black Oil · 09-03-2013 08:45PM

It's a bit like the Guardian's site only they seem to have given up on the design half way through. Bland, indeed.

zoobizoo · 09-03-2013 09:18PM

Terrible.

I knew where I was going on the old one.

jmcc · 09-03-2013 09:32PM

Good in parts (the multicolour navigation bar) but absolutely dire in others. It seems that the multi-page breakdown of articles and sections is an attempt to ramp page views and advertising. The technology section seems to be using more wire stuff but the Polly Filler/Phil Space lifestyle waffle is still there. They really need to iron out some of the bugs in the design.

Regards...jmcc

Yakuza · 10-03-2013 01:30AM

As I posted on P.ie:
Awful, awful, awful. I can't bear to think what it will look like on a smartphone - they've gone and Windows8ified their site- square boxes and garish colours everywhere. I liked it fine as it was. Also, splitting articles into several sub pages - what a pile of crap. We have "scroll bars" allow content to fit on one screen - no doubt some lame attempt to up their hit count? They should add a "see this all on one page" link to prevent having to load a new page every few lines...GRRR:mad:

P.Walnuts · 10-03-2013 02:13AM

Anyone have any idea if/where the actual "paper" section as it were will be? Or if its now subscription?

One of the joys of working nights was coming home to read the Irish Times at 3 am before anyone else

Worztron · 10-03-2013 10:38AM

Its terrible! The old version was much better.

jack presley · 10-03-2013 12:14PM

Too many pictures.

IRE60 · 10-03-2013 02:08PM

Zaph wrote: »

There's far too much empty space on either side of the screen, and everything is condensed into the middle. The old site was definitely better imo.

it built for a tablet in mind

Qualitymark · 10-03-2013 08:33PM

Can't find a thing! Where's Martyn Turner? Where's the letters? Where's the Irishman's Diary? Where's Ross O'Carroll-Kelly? Where's the news focus pieces?

It's so vulgar. Ick!

Techies seem to like it, though; they say it's faster and more responsive and has a better type size. I just wish they'd achieved these things without making a navigable and pleasant site look like a particularly nasty blog site.

ArthurG · 11-03-2013 08:20AM

Is it just me or is pinch-to-zoom not working in iPad?. Which kind of makes the move to a 'tablet focussed' layout a bit of a nonsense.

Also, today's letters page seems to be from last week, and no amount of F5'ing seems to update it.....

Qualitymark · 11-03-2013 08:24AM

ArthurG wrote: »

Is it just me or is pinch-to-zoom not working in iPad?. Which kind of makes the move to a 'tablet focussed' layout a bit of a nonsense.

Also, today's letters page seems to be from last week, and no amount of F5'ing seems to update it.....

And the letters are separated so you have to click click click click click click effing click to open each one, then use Safari's 'Reader' to get a readable version, then close it, then look for another one.

And I still haven't found Irishman's Diary or Ross O'Carroll Kelly or Martyn Turner. Have they been dropped?

MrCreosote · 11-03-2013 08:43AM

They used to have a "news features" section with the decent articles from the Saturday paper. Can't find them anymore. Boo!

Seems to me a lot more will be behind the paywall. One way of getting your traffic to drop by 95% I suppose...

zoobizoo · 11-03-2013 09:11AM

This is the way I used to use the site:

Go to comments and read the letters, then opinion.

Then I'd go to Irish news. Then I'd click on later in the day for breaking news.

I cannot find either of those now.

The layout is all over the place, the photos are different sizes, it's a bit of a shambles.

ArthurG · 11-03-2013 09:13AM

zoobizoo wrote: »

This is the way I used to use the site:

Go to comments and read the letters, then opinion.

Then I'd go to Irish news. Then I'd click on later in the day for breaking news.

I cannot find either of those now.

The layout is all over the place, the photos are different sizes, it's a bit of a shambles.

Same as me.... can't make the new-fangled site work at all. God I've turned into my father.

gandalf · 11-03-2013 09:22AM

The new design is extremely user unfriendly. The IT site used to be the first one I loaded and I used the menu bar extensively. Now I am avoiding it. The new look is a mess, you can't find things simply at all.I know it is supposed to have been optimised for tablets but this morning I had to attempt to click through to an article three times before I got to the one I wanted. Also zoom doesn't work. I'm using a nexus 7.

legrand · 11-03-2013 10:26AM

Whilst the last version was very 90's in design and there was much I disliked about the design at least it as navigable - the new one is very poor indeed.

Look at the Letter page (under debate tab) - no sorting by editor it seems.

The Front page (at time of writing) has 3 photos in separate sections related to this weekends Ireland game (why).

Very poor execution - IT take a look at BBC website and learn from others..

boombang · 11-03-2013 10:30AM

I understand that the site may have been redesigned for tablets, but what proportion of online readers use those devices?

I might also understand that the IT might want to put more behind the paywall, but is this the way to do it? The new site is so unattractive and user unfriendly it would greatly diminish my willingness to pay for access. Even if it is the case that more is now behind the paywall, the site does not communicate that to me at all.

I think the main problem is that one can no longer get a glance over the headline for most articles from one day on one page. Being forced into sub-sections such as politics or crime and being faced with a mix of new and old stories is slow and unappealing.

I would love to see the IT publish some visitor statistics, including estimates of dwell time for before and after this change. I assume it can only go one way.

I know it takes time to learn a new layout and unfamiliarity is initially unwelcoming, but this new design is a disaster.

jmcc · 11-03-2013 10:49AM

If users have to think too much about a new design and cannot find things then that design is a failure. The Irish Times website is an abject failure in the same way that the Irish Independent website is an abject failure. Where the hell do these "web developer" bozos come from? It is basic information architecture and good sense that you make the content easy to find as that keeps users on the site. It is like the IT got its technology section to advise on this and accidentally used an example from the worst of the web.

Regards...jmcc

IRE60 · 11-03-2013 10:49AM

Best estimates are that 30% of interweb traffic comes from smartphone/tablet devices.
But, it's the fastest growing medium by far. Papers are really relying on the tables to transform their fortunes - otherwise its the last throw of the dice!

IRE60 · 11-03-2013 10:51AM

jmcc wrote: »

If users have to think too much about a new design and cannot find things then that design is a failure. The Irish Times website is an abject failure in the same way that the Irish Independent website is an abject failure. Where the hell do these "web developer" bozos come from? It is basic information architecture and good sense that you make the content easy to find as that keeps users on the site. It is like the IT got its technology section to advise on this and accidentally used an example from the worst of the web.

Regards...jmcc

Its very easy to review your current analytic data to see what information is sought after - and then make that accessible at the outset.

jmcc · 11-03-2013 02:39PM

IRE60 wrote: »

Its very easy to review your current analytic data to see what information is sought after - and then make that accessible at the outset.

It is a basic navigation structure failure. People are no longer sure where various sections or subsections are to be found. It is far worse on the Indo site though - there's a complete absence of information architecture and competently designed navigation there.

Regards...jmcc

CelticRambler · 11-03-2013 04:00PM

... and they've changed the favicon, so now my bookmarks toolbar has four black news icons in a row.

Totally agree with the comments above regarding "more pictures, less text". I've just been over to have a look at the Indo's re-design and I think that's where I'll be going for my quick fix of Irish news headlines in future. If I wanted pictures, I'd buy a telly ...

Edit: have just come across this quote on the BBC in a different context - “The job of the designer,” he told me, “is not always to make something that looks dramatically new. Sometimes, you bow to tradition.” (Sir Kenneth Grange, designer of the up-to-date Black Taxi of London)

expectationlost · 12-03-2013 01:56AM

desktop web browser really is the poor cousin, ok redesign for mobile but don't make it so bad for the regular web browser

i'll hold off criticising, there obviously still putting it together even though they've been working on it for months, still having problems, but seems like IT and Indo are using similar or same software a backend? cms called atex polopoly, although i guess they are using a number of things, wonder what they all are

Qualitymark · 12-03-2013 09:31AM

Some letters to the Irish Times commenting on the new site http://www.irishtimes.com/debate/letters/changing-times-online-1.1322421#.UT7PVeBBWlU.twitter

IRE60 · 12-03-2013 10:02AM

expectationlost wrote: »

cms called atex polopoly, although i guess they are using a number of things, wonder what they all are

Atex are providers of software, primarily to the newspaper industry. The Indo use a combination of atex (which would be the main driver) and quark to produce the paper.

Atex most likely have a module that publications can buy to take the 'paper data' and transform it to web.

boombang · 12-03-2013 10:34AM

Qualitymark wrote: »

Some letters to the Irish Times commenting on the new site http://www.irishtimes.com/debate/letters/changing-times-online-1.1322421#.UT7PVeBBWlU.twitter

If I navigate to the letters page I can't see those letters given in the link above. Also, if I go to the letters page today I only see yesterday's letters. I am confused.

New Irish Times website

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