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Topic: Browser

ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

Summary: Welcome to our spring ZDNet refresh where we've cleaned up a bit, organized around topics and gussied up the place.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

Welcome to our spring ZDNet refresh where we've cleaned up a bit, organized around topics and gussied up the place.

As you go through the site, there are a few notable changes. Among them:

Navigation: Previously we focused on content types---blogs, video, whitepapers etc. Those buckets are still there, but downplayed. Instead, we organized around topics based on popular categories, internal data and editorial insights about where the industry is headed. Our blogs along with our library of whitepapers and other resources feed these dynamic topic pages. Of course, each blog continues to have its own door. The general idea is to give you more ways to get to the content you want. Each topic can be subscribed to as an email alert or RSS feed just as you would a blog. Dressed up blog pages: The biggest changes to the blog door include a summary of the post on the left and a refined sharing bar. Talkbacks should be easier to follow now: Talkbacks---even the ones handing me my keister---are the secret sauce of the ZDNet, where content can be a full contact sport. We've made a few choices that should make the banter easier to follow, and to engage with your professional peers on these important business technology topics.

Note: When submitting a Talkback comment, it's possible -- depending on your browser settings -- that you will receive a "permission denied" message. The fix: Log out of the site, and log back in. Alternatedly, clearing your browser's cache will solve the problem. We apologize for this one-time inconvenience.

Reviews will make the big stuff more obvious: The reviews door is more of a showcase for our best assets: Coverage from Andrew Nusca, Matthew Miller and the gang as well as screenshots from experts like Ed Bott.

Showcasing our resource library: We have the largest whitepaper library around and the redesign is aimed at showcasing trending topics better. We'll be developing more features around our directory going forward on ZDNet and TechRepublic.

The aforementioned items are a few of the highlights. There's also a gallery walking through the changes.

Walkthrough: A little Spring refresh on ZDNet

We look forward to your feedback as we tweak going forward, as we strive to make this your primary source for market leading news and analysis in business technology.

As usual, thanks for reading and interacting with ZDNet.

Cheers.

Larry

Topic: Browser

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Talkback

92 comments
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  • Beautiful, elegant and snappy!!

    As is often the case, I love most of the changes (No more tags making the pages "bounce") and some I could have lived without (e.g. "More from..." section's new position/size/item count.) But all in all, a very positive change (from a visual perspective.)

    One tiny gripe though... the AJAX animation on the front page doesn't pause even if you are hovering over a link. It's a bit annoying if you "see" something interesting and it disappears as soon as you decide to click the link. Hulu (albeit with Flash) has a perfect implementation of a similar feature on its front page.
    m23weiu@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

      @m23weiu@... Thanks I'll pass along the AJAX stuff...
      Larry Dignan
      Reply Vote

      • Bad Parameter errors half the time..

        ...when I hit reply.

        What's that all about?
        ubiquitous one
        Reply Vote

    • Another minor bug

      From the home page, if you click on "News & Blogs", then in the left column, click "By Blog" to organize articles by blog, the links aren't being generated correctly. For example, all of the links for "Between the Lines" point to the story about the Lower Merion webcam scandal.

      Really like the changes (though they will take some time to get used to).
      RationalGuy
      Reply Vote

    • Maybe if you are able to see it at all

      Haven't had any success with my iPhone to connect to ZDNET since the new design. I saw someone posting the same error - server cannot be found posted by an iPad user
      Thod
      Reply Vote

    • Change just for the sake of change...

      @m23weiu@... Change just for the sake of change is usually a bad idea, and the changes to the talkback section just prove that point!! Obviously who ever did the design work here followed the FORM-OVER-FUNCTION school. Click on a post and suddenly you're at the top pof the page and seperated from the thread. How about keeping the last post clicked on highlighted. Where are the NEXT POST and PERVIOUS POST buttons? Suer the TREE design was old school DOS structured, but at least you could find where your were and follow the comments. Now if you decide to read a comment that's 100 comments down the list, good luck finding it again! Hey, if you wanted to make it look better... Great, but don't sacrifice functionality and useability!!
      Scubajrr
      Reply Vote

  • Thanks; items in the articles/blog frame should include AUTHOR'S NAMES

    The subject.
    DDERSSS
    Reply Vote

  • Also, there should be way to see discussion threads in more COMPACT way

    The new look is more readible, yes, but sometimes it is convenient to see whole discussion at one glance as it was before (not as by default turned, but just as accessible option) -- because now even with the "collapsed" view discussions tend to generate pages, which is not that convenient.
    DDERSSS
    Reply Vote

    • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

      @denisrs we're working on this one. We had some performance issues going out the door. And apparently there's a google news penalty too with having too many comments showing. The spec was to show all, but we had some compromises at the last minute. So you're talking a simple threaded view option right?
      Larry Dignan
      Reply Vote

      • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

        @Larry Dignan: yes, something which would be even more collapsed than current "View All Collapsed" mode; thanks again.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

        @Larry Dignan

        Indeed. Bring back the simple threaded view. On another article, I just had to scroll down and hit "View More Comments" 7 times just to get to the last of a mere 74 comments.

        I don't even want to think about trying to read a talkback where there are 300 or more comments.
        Hallowed are the Ori
        Reply Vote

      • also, the "previous post" and "next post" links were handy

        when viewing specific posts
        SonofaSailor
        Reply Vote

  • Links are BROKEN sometimes:

    <b>All of those chooses (from "by blog" selection) lead to the first article:</b>

    Everybody hates browser applications

    Exposure to the limitations of the new browser-based help system for Visual Studio 2010 made me realize a fundamental truth: people hate browser applications, which is why web developers work so...

    * Microsoft changes the Windows license
    * Apple's play for platform dominance
    * Games could save 3D TV
    DDERSSS
    Reply Vote

    • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

      @denisrs
      What are you a female?
      No one can read your mind.
      Finish your sentences.
      satovey@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

    Looks nice. Only thing that stands out to me is that the Author's picture at the bottom of the article seems distorted.
    LandonAB
    Reply Vote

  • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A distraction

    from the flame blogs that prevail here. I notice the attempt to make ZDNet more like a social networking tool. Picture icons, distorted images of the authors. The prominent ads at the top of the main page tells us ZDNet is trying to squeeze additional revenue. I note a large amount of wasted white space. I also note the talk backs are more difficult to follow and will become excessively long in expanded view. As for collapsed view, there's that ton of wasted white space again.<br><br>I am not sure what the objectives for this redesign were, but it looks more like a big change for cahnge's sake...
    jacarter3
    Reply Vote

  • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

    Looks better than the previous layout. Although some articles look like they are getting squished in the middle of the page due to the summary on the left and the information in the very right columns on the page.
    Loverock Davidson
    Reply Vote

  • Presentation Great, though replies are now cumbersome

    The previous reply tree layout gave you a faster way to address selected replies. It would be nice if the new collapsed view would offer something close to that.

    The res is great
    Uralbas
    Reply Vote

  • Suggestions

    There is no way to "unrecommend" the article. It was good to be able to have "-12" recommendations for some of the past pieces. Now it's onlly "I don't care" or "I like it". The negative recommendation is gone.

    The old system with hierarchically numbered comments was good for referring to some comments, especially from people who liked to reply to every comment: those numbers didn't change when more replies were added.

    It would be nice if it were possible to expand a single comment in the collapsed tree without redrawing the full page.
    Earthling2
    Reply Vote

    • RE: ZDNet's redesign: A walkthrough

      @Earthling2 Yes we're the land of positive thinking now. Sorry. I'll pass along the talkback stuff.
      Larry Dignan
      Reply Vote
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