What do you think about the new appearance of Universal Hub?
By Marc - 12/7/09 - 7:13 pm
Wicked Awesome!
7% (25 votes)
Awesome!
20% (75 votes)
Metza-metz
47% (180 votes)
Sucky
19% (74 votes)
Ridiculously Sucky
7% (28 votes)
Total votes: 382
Comments
Hey Adam...
Hey Adam, hope this poll doesn't offend you.
Appreciate all your work with this blog.
However, since the changeover, I find this blog almost impossible to use. Maybe the new design will grow on me, but based in the drop-off of commenting I've seen over the past week or so, I don't think it's just me.
It seems like the site is just hard to figure out now?
How so?
Thanks for hanging in there.
What's more difficult about the site now? I didn't think I changed anything fundamental in the structure or navigation of the site, but I could be wrong, so fire away!
layout
I realize each website will display differently depending on the computer, so with that in mind I'll add my 2 cents. With the old design I was able to scan several posts without scrolling down. I miss scanning quickly through many entries and picking out one or two to 'read more' or at times comment. The new design doesn't pack the same visual content punch... too much white space, the posts are too spread out. Not sure why that makes a difference, but I have noticed that I don't check in nearly as often as I used to.
That being said, I do appreciate all of the work you put into uhub and as long as it's local and updated several times each day, I'll be visiting!
Agree with above comment
I am definitely in agreement with the above poster. The most useful feature of the old layout was to be able to read the title and brief description of lots and lots of posts - enough posts so that, even if you only check the site once a day (like myself), you could almost always see all the posts that had gone up the previous day on the first page of the site. Then, as the above poster mentioned, you could pick the few posts of most interest and read further if you wanted. If you are a fast and lazy internet user (again, like myself), you generally don't go past the first page of any site or blog, no matter how interesting. I am pretty indifferent to fonts, colors, and the like, but in terms of functionality, I would like to see more posts displayed with the title and the "abstract".
Maybe I'm imagining things
Although I have to say, now that I think of the past several times I've checked here, I've almost always been able to see a full day's worth of posts. Case in point: this survey post was still on the front page when I came here this morning. So maybe I'm incorrect in thinking that there are fewer posts on the front page. Hmm. Was there a brief time at the beginning of the new layout when there weren't as many? If so then maybe I was thinking of that.
Something about it feels
Something about it feels less... "Boston".
Any more specific?
Anything in particular screams "New York" or whatever?
Could you make it more Webby?
But not too Webby?
Easy to Read
The site is easy to scan and feels very clean. I like that type of design myself. Especially since I do a lot of blog scanning for Mass Roundup.
thumbs down on the new look
its just really white and dull and the stupid dunkin donuts ads really pop out now.
Wasn't there a graphic of the boston skyline or something on the top of old page? that was much cooler
White space
Yeah, there's a lot of that, probably too much.
The skyline? Wow, good memory! I haven't actually used that in a few years here and in a couple years on Boston Online (I'd point to some examples on the Internet Archive, but it's down right now). Until the change, it was a subway token, only a bit bigger one than what's on the page now.
I dont get
the font on the main page for the title of each entry. Why is it different from the font everywhere else on the site?
Because I'm inconsistent?
I should change that. At least the headlines on the home page aren't blood red like I first thought of doing.
I think a few small changes
I think a few small changes would make it easier to read:
1) margins or padding so that the text is not flush against the edge of the browser window;
2) a more prominent divider between entries. The entries blend together a bit because the divider between them is so light; and
3) the right column should have a different background color so there isn't so much whitespace. Even if it was light gray, it would add a little bit of contrast.
Left margin
First, thanks!
What browser and OS are you using? I ask because you're not the first person to complain about the text smushed against the left side. Unfortunately, it looks fine on my laptop, which makes it hard to figure out what the problem is, since Drupal uses tons of divs and styles.
Figured it out...sorta
I don't know what HTML is doing it, but here's the deal:
Both Firefox and Safari on my Mac do this. I'll have to try it on my PC at work tomorrow to test it. When you shrink the window width to the minimum necessary size (to remove the horizontal scroll bar), the window's edges are the very left side of the text (where the logo pic starts on the left, for example) and on the right where the rightmost ads stop.
Basically, just inside the white border. Whatever distinction is being made in the HTML to make the "extra" background greyish and the center box with all the content white is NOT making any impression on the window size or what the browser is considering the farthest left and right points to consider "part of the 100% width". Does that make sense?
As for anyone on a Mac, if you just make the window a bit wider, you'll avoid this problem. On my 17" MacBookPro at native resolution, 1680 x 1050, if my window is about 2/3rds of the width of the screen, I see everything including the grey farthest back-most background and the text is not on the edge of the window. If you have screen real estate, widen your browser window and see if that avoids the smushing problem.
Aha, thanks!
I like things big (ahem), so always have all my windows for every single application fully expanded (guess I'm just old school, from back in the days when I worked at a newspaper and we all marveled at the new publishing system that let us have TWO windows open on the screen on the same time, only we didn't call them windows, because the whole thing was built on DOS - they were "split screens").
So now I'll start playing with padding on the inner part of the page, so the text doesn't bump up against the left side when the window's a bit less than maximized (since I'll be adding padding, I'll need to figure out where to take out padding or margins or whatever so it doesn't wind up looking odd for us maximizers).
You're on the right track with the background: It's not controlled by the divs and stylesheets but with an old-style background GIF that's white in the center with some gray on the edges. It eliminates a problem from the old design (where the entire page would start out gray and then, sometimes stay like that for a bit until the entire page flowed into the browser), but obviously introduces this new one.
Replicable in XP/Firefox too
Yeah, there's just no "permanence" to the background image, so without any kind of padding to the left and right, if you minimize the window to only the most necessary width, you slam everything up against the left and right just inside the white border.
looks good!
It's as easy to use as before, and the site has a bright clean look to it. I like it!
I like the re-design - there
I like the re-design - there was nothing wrong with the old layout, but this one's a fresh change. I've noticed two problems though -
I also have the same problem with everything being too close to the left side of the window - I'm on a Mac and using Safari.
Also, for some reason, the "new comments" are inconsistent - sometimes it won't show that there are new comments on a post I already read, sometimes it will, sometimes the number of new comments will be wrong - I'm not sure if that's a bug in the layout or if there's something wonky with my computer, but it didn't happen on the old layout.
Safari margins
I just opened the page in Safari (usually use Firefox) and the layout looks nearly identical. But on both browsers, the text will be way the ass over on the left side only if your window is tiny (like, several inches narrower than the default window size on a 12" MacBook). Otherwise, both browsers have nice light blue marginny things on the left and right. I like the layout for the most part.
Oh, and as far as the ads go...are there really people out there who care about how things look but aren't using an adblocker?
(And if you really can't stand how the page looks, you can change it using this: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/)
if you really can't stand how the page looks
The Readability tool got kind of funky on me, but you can also, if you're on Firefox, install the No Color add-on. It makes a button you can click to send tacky graphics down the drain. (NOT referring to any tacky graphics in particular!)
Ooh, I just stretched out the
Ooh, I just stretched out the window. Thanks for the tip! (No idea why I'd not tried that before...)
Number of comments
It's not your computer and it's not the layout - it's something in the software here. The new version has lots of caching mechanisms, which in general is a good thing, but which *might* be responsible for the odd "new comments" numbering. Will check.
I like the new design a lot,
I like the new design a lot, but find that appears poorly on mobile devices.
nice job adam
it always takes a minute for my eyes to adjust to new website layouts but they always do adjust. keep up the good work, the new layout is great.
Red, White, and Blue?
Why red white and blue? This is Massachusetts! At least throw a sickle somewhere
Adam- I'd read UH everyday
Adam-
I'd read UH everyday even if you changed to a pink and purple color scheme and included lots of animated gifs of bunnies.
That said, I find all the white space on the new design less than pleasing...especially the big chunk to the right of the top ad. I find I need to scroll down an entire screen to get to the content. I'm running Windows XP and viewing with Firefox.
Here is a screenshot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girl_named_fred/4168761529/
:)
I hear GeoCities rotating icons are going cheap these days
Wow, that screenshot, um, really makes the site look like a giant pile o' suck.
Does that happen all the time? Does anybody else see that?
It's obviously not supposed to look like that. That big square ad is supposed to be under the red menu bar on the right side, not up on the left hand corner. Oy! Time to go upstairs and check out the site on Kidlet's XP computer.
No idea what anyone else is
No idea what anyone else is seeing.....but this is indeed how it looks on both my home and office computers (each running XP and Firefox but slightly different versions/updates.)
The content is worth scrolling down for...but I suspect the advertisers would prefer it is readers could see the ads and content on the same screen.
Thanks, will try to find a fix (first have to replicate it)
Never mind the advertisers, it annoys the readers!
Do you by chance know if you're doing anything unusual with your Firefox settings? And if I can ask a favor - if you have IE, could you take a look in that, too?
WTF?
Um, I'm on XP and Firefox here at work right now...it looks nothing like that.
That's some sort of user-specific issue.
via IE from office computer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girl_named_fred/4169012263/
good results when viewing from personal laptop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girl_named_fred/4169804192/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girl_named_fred/4169041171/
...I'm starting to think that my problems viewing the graphics may be the result of some overzealous filtering from my employer's IT department.
Looked OK on Kidlet's XP desktop
Although with lots of white space, which I clearly need to do something about.
If anybody else sees Butt-Ugly Garishness on the top of their screens, i.e., a big fat square on top of a long horizontal ad, please let me know.
Not sure how filtering would cause the problem, since you're still seeing the ads, just not in the right place (I notice the right side of your screen is also messed up a bit) . Sigh. I'll be playing with the right side tonight (both with background colors and to fix up an issue in IE), maybe that'll help.
Too much white space. The old
Too much white space. The old website was much denser and more satisfying (to me at least). This one is too fluffy... Also the titles should be a bit bigger and bolder, and perhaps dark blue font.
Grey background
A grey background would be easier on the eyes!
New Look
Agree that there is far too much leading in all text areas. Hard to view multiple posts, too much scrolling. UH logo text (Verdana?, a typeface that was not invented until 366 years after the incorporation of Boston as a town) too "modern" for a Boston blog. Sorry, Adam.
Fonts
Heh. I forget which fonts I used (one for "Universal" and one for "HUB") but I'm pretty sure Verdana was not one of them.
But what's a "Boston" font look like?
Well, here's some relevant historical typography....
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h18b.html
Ye olde
Univerthal Hub!
Fonts
Maybe something with Serifs... Garamond, California FB, or something.
Anyways, yeah. Making the right hand column a different color would help with the white space, at least below where the right column ends and the left column continues.
Also! I miss the categories at the bottom of page 1! They were there for a couple days, and now they are gone again...
Or
Univerfal Hubbe
Is that what ...
the Mrs. calls Adam?
HI
So, have you noticed a drop-off in comments the past couple of weeks? That would be indicative of a change. Or, maybe they've increased?
Sluggish loading. Sluggish comment software.
Sluggish, universal hub takes too long to load. And the comment mechanism is too sluggish as well.
Thanks for fixing
the weird thing where only the first 12 items would show up - then the previous 12 were in that table where you couldn't scroll through and had to click on each one to see what it was. After a couple days of that, I stopped going directly to UH and just started reading it in my blog reader, since I usually just check it once a day. Now I see that I can come back to UH itself.
The headline font looks too big and pale; things are too spread out; too much white space; the serif'd font just doesn't look right. I only see 1 or 2 items on the screen at a time. It feels like it takes a very long time to go through the new postings because of all the white space.