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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Hlafordlaes - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Hey, there, Reflex! Beat ya to it a page or so back.Icehawk - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Not as terrible as Gizmodo or Engadget's terrible redesigns but I much prefer the cleaner and simpler previous site - I don't need to see 100 things at a time. I feel like this is the Metro version.Sudhakar - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Just a few comments. Been a regular reader for 7+ years, first comment.I come here to read about PC components. While I understand the new format / emphasis on other segments like mobile, I would still like to have a single page for all PC components. For example make the PC components tab at the top an actual page, instead of a placeholder for the drop down menu.
Also, the site has to much white. I liked it where there background was blue.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
So make the supercategory link to a supercat front page, not just a dropdown - interesting idea, will note it.Do any of these options help on the contrast side:
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/grey.jpg
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/lightergrey.jp...
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/reallylight.jp...
Take care,
Anand
tzhu07 - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
From the perspective of a front-end web developer, the loading time of the site can be improved if you placed all the JavaScript before the closing body tag. That way, the primary elements of the site (HTML / CSS) will always get loaded quickly while the JavaScript kicks in afterwards.As for the design, there is a lot of white contrasted against very dark elements, which doesn't jive together. Take a look at this page:
http://www.coastdental.com/careers/
The above is an example of a very bright website, however because of the color pallete used, the header, footer, and side widgets fit in nicely and nothing feels overpowering or distracting.
Pfffman - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Just read the About page. The comment about treating readers like idiots, while I understand you actually mean people who just make the comment "Andorid is ugly, Apple is pretty therefore get Apple", most of the time I feel like an idiot when I read some of the articles just because I don't know enough to fully understand/appreciate it. More so for the PC components, I generally look at the introduction, some benches and then conclusion since I every time I try to read the other more in depth analysis, I feel completely left behind (CPU architectures especially). Is there a recommendation to a reliable and way to come up to speed about these things (apart from Wiki)?I also agree with what the others say about usage of screen. Currently I just zoom in to fill the screen. While I do appreciate the larger font it gives (no I don't need glasses), the sheer amount of white space there is at 100% zoom is maddening. I use Chrome on at 24 inch 1920x1200 screen and 150% is comfortable, but I zoom in one more increment just because I can.
Nice redesign as well :D And keep up the podcasts!
Murloc - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
make the background not 255 255 255 outside of the text area like it was before, right now it stings a bit. I can see that the new design is following a trend of simplification, but the shiny plaque thingy where you put the logo goes in the opposite direction imho. Other than this minor stuff it looks cool.10101010 - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Anand, overall the new site design is a good step forward. I especially like the improved speed of the comment system. But please fix the overwhelmingly bright theme. It isn't healthy for one's eyes, especially at night.Fom the marketing angle, the bright theme usually means "fake". I'm not sure that's what you want for your brand. Keep going with this redesign. There's some good stuff in it, but there's more work to be done before it reaches the quality that is synonymous with your brand.
mokahless - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Please, please please bring back the old design. It was easier on my eyes.http://web.archive.org/web/20130215182244/http://w...
The new site looks like the random mess most other sites like TomsHardware look like. I liked the simplicity of the older site with the scroll topics at the top and the single line feed at the body with the preview of the topic. I could see at a glance what is new and it was easy to use. I think the new site is a mess. The old one seemed more organized with all the elements attached and looking like they belong together.
Barring that, the white everywhere theme is over the top and makes it difficult to read.
I believe the old site was both easier to read, easier on the eyes and looked more professional.
So I would like to request that the site be reverted. If more people disagree with me, then I guess I don't have a case but this is my opinion.
AgeOfPanic - Saturday, March 9, 2013 - link
Nice work guys. Looks a lot more modern, maybe a little bright. I find the frontpage a little confusing though, with pipeline stories divided over different boxes and then main stories divided by one of the pipeline blocks. Not as self explanatory as it could be.