Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 29, 2010 11:52 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
That old design lasted us a long time, didn't it? :) Welcome to the 2010 AnandTech Beta. We've done a lot of updating behind the scenes as well as (obviously) on the front end.
Most obvious is the brand new look and feel. For a site that reviews the latest and greatest tech, we can't get by looking like we're still living in 2004. Now when the 80s make a comeback we'll be on top of that, you've got my word.
We've ditched the left hand column, streamlined some of the ads and widened the content column. While each article will still give you a preview of 10 comments, we finally have an option to view all comments on each review page. Right now we've got this set to 50 comments per page but we'll be tweaking as need be. We're also cutting down on the number of page loads you'll encounter. In view all comments mode there's no page refreshing between comment pages. We'll be bringing this feature to more parts of the site in the future. User friendliness is our drug :)
The front page allows for both linking to our superlong articles as well as shorter stories that can just appear on the front page for quick scanning. By default the latest 5 articles will appear in the rotating carousel up top, but if something super interesting comes up we'll promote it up there (similar to what did on the old site). The expanded summaries on the front page will give you more insight into what it is we're talking about in the article before you ever click anything.
Tags are enabled but not in full effect just yet. We'll be beefing up search, comments (the return of ratings!), galleries, Bench, user profiles and site layout/color customization over the coming weeks. We're planning on this being a regularly updated thing so if you see anything that warrants our attention let us know.
It's not all about a pretty face though, we're still going to be publishing the content that you demand from us. If you haven't seen it, be sure to read Ryan's GeForce GTX 480 & GTX 470 Review. And I'm commemorating today with a new SSD article addressing one of the longest running questions you've been asking: how do SSDs perform in RAID?
As always, thank you for your support over the years and for reading the site. It's been a pleasure to be able to write for you all over the past 13 years. Thank you guys for giving me and all of us the opportunity to do just that. If you haven't been able to tell by now, I love writing this stuff - and you all make it possible.
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eli2k - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Hmm, I suddenly miss the old design, but we have to move forward eventually, right?I like the larger font; makes it easier on the eyes. The header portion (logo, search box, etc) has too much space on top/bottom. I'm not too cool with the review box scrolling on its own, does anyone else feel this way? And I agree with some other comments here that I have to scroll a lot to get to the next story on the front page, eg one story takes up the entire height of my browser window
KaarlisK - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I second that - there could be less space between the row with the logo/home/about/forums/etc and the row with cpus/motherboards/ssds/etc.It also seems to me that there's too much space around "Follow Anandtech".
NullSubroutine - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
1) When making comments it takes you to a page where you can no longer see the other comments. When responding to someone unless you copy and paste everything they say it is easy to misquote them or even just forget what they are saying.2) No real real estate gained for the articles, if anything the articles feel just as narrow as the old ones.
3) the text and arrangement of the articles feel less polished and professional. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it just looks like a big wall of text when looking at the Fermi article
Zaitsev - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
It would be nice to be able to view the comment or thread we're replying to. It's a little annoying to have to click between tabs to see the other posters' text.Hacp - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
This lags a little on my netbook.Christoph Katzer - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
The best is the front page navigation that dates back 13 years !!!mjzglr - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Long time lurker. Just registered to post this. Since I visited the site daily I could look over at the Dailytech section and the article section and know what was new. Now in order to do that I have to scroll and scroll and scroll vertically down the page, or very slowly horizontally in the giant preview windows. It's a big disappointment in my mind since it makes finding content a lot slower which is all I cared about anyway.B3an - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
If you need to scroll that much, you should just get a monitor with a remotely decent res. As it sounds like you're using 800x600 or something.For me i dont have to scroll to see all the DT stuff on the right.
HotFoot - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I have the same issue with the Dailytech list of headlines. I liked them up where they used to be, right under the box that listed the new articles on Anandtech that I hadn't yet read. Those two boxes were the fastest way for me to find what I was looking for - fresh articles.The social-networking business that's taken that space now isn't something I plan on using - though I'm sure others will find it handy.
On the other hand, the site currently uses about 50% of the width of my screen (1920x1200). Maybe more content could be brought to the front where a viewer will see it without having to scroll down. I say maybe because I can also appreciate having a non-cluttered look.
Another point on site width - I actually like the articles coming out as columns about the width they are now. I don't like reading a mile-long string of text before hitting the next line. I think the article text field width has been pretty good so far, so please don't change that.
Cheers!
txriddle - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Agree with the poster- too much white space and not enough information.I'm using a 24" 1920x1200 and I prefer to have fewer expanses of white space that I have to scroll through.
It's inevitable that tech sites seem to feel the need to adopt advertising industry design standards.
GREAT site, btw, and a regular stop for the best technical analyses- however, it's a step backwards, in my opinion, for a site that has a lot of info to present...
To each his own-
I felt the same way about Tom's Hardware when they changed their format and I find I seldom visit that site anymore.