NBCnews site redesign disaster

I wondered yesterday why the nbc news website was down, apparently they were in the middle of transitioning to a new site layout. Now i know that nbc is not the most with it place to go and get your info, but it's been a staple on my web go around list for so many years now, from back when Keith olbermann was still allowed to make tv. So every few days or so i migrate over there for a quick scan of the US headlines.

Well try making a quick scan of anything, using this website now >>http://www.nbcnews.com/

Nooo!! They have finally fallen prey to giant picture tiles (the home tab) and endlessly created full articles as you scroll down (the latest tab). Where's a quick list of what's on offer so in a few seconds i can scan a vast swathe of information in an attempt to locate what i might be interested in reading. It's like they skipped dumbing down their website for teenagers and went straight for something to amuse readers on the ages 2-5 fisher-price pink princess edition tablet.

Now there is a menu but it doesn't let you change the site layout. I remember when io9 and that family of sites switched over to an early version of this kind of viewing experience, they at least had an option to view the site in a blog layout. This is a useful way to have a news stream, for the kind of content that they provide, everything in the same theme, you've probably read all of yesterdays stream. After a while they seem to have set blog view back as their default, perhaps they found that everyone was choosing the blog view. This wisdom of the crowd however is not allowed on nbc's window to the web, i couldn't find an option to change nadda. It's typical of these kinds of rudderless monoliths to just do something because it's in vogue, without thinking it through.

Hopefully this is mark 1 of the redesign and we can expect some sort of viewing options in windows 8.1 hrmm i mean nbcnews.

"Responsive design" at its worst

garbage layout

At times that style of layout is appropriate. This isn't one of them though

IT'S WINDOWS 8!!!

If this square doesn't interest you, just scroll down through our endless feed of squares. You're bound to find the square for you!

The nadir of humanity right there

  On 2/6/2014 at 4:52 AM, sheatheman said:

IT'S WINDOWS 8!!!

 

If this square doesn't interest you, just scroll down through our endless feed of squares. You're bound to find the square for you!

HAH !! Good way to sum it up. 'Scroll through the squares people, behold their magnificence'. And the bigger they are the obviously better that then they are.

lol windows 8 is fully configurable, you know you can remove "squares" right?

agreed on the nbcnews site tho!

I was about to come in here and defend it, and say 'maybe they're getting more tablet/mobile use than desktop nowadays'.

But after 30 seconds on that latest tab, it sucks. One of the worst designs I've seen. So completely broken. What were they thinking?

Horrific. I mean, does anyone like to read this way? A randomly tiled window of competing headlines.

Whatever happened to that left-to-right eye path thing, at least for western audiences.

This NBC layout is click-baiting gone mad. Gotta get more people clicking around our site, so fill the screen with pictures and links. No space for breath, just pummel them with links.

I bet they think their heatmap looks great, if anyone's using it. Look at all the places that users now click, we've doubled our usage from the homepage. It works but it annoys.

Maybe I'm getting old. Do younger audiences read like this nowadays? Has the 'default eye movement' changed and kids are now goggled-eye rolling all over the screen/page for information?

Theyve done a similar thing to the resident advisor site, not a fan atall. I thought the old layout was fine. Ive never had a mobile to internet on though, still rocking the old desktop vista.

This is fucking hideous. Offensively bad

God, if this is the direction websites are taking then I think I'm gonna spend the rest of the internet using just the Wayback Machine.

  On 2/6/2014 at 1:26 PM, johnoise said:

lol windows 8 is fully configurable, you know you can remove "squares" right?

 

agreed on the nbcnews site tho!

lol a windows 8 defender, there's always gotta be one. It's pretty universally acknowledged that microsoft failed/pissed off most of it's userbase with the windows 8 interface (PC manufacturers are even advertising that new boxes can come with 7. It's a salespitch.).

I like a start menu with a programs folder, it's quicker, more information dense and takes up less space on your desktop whilst not navigating away from the desktop. So i use the great classic shell as a remedy. Apparently 8.1 will give you a start button but you will still have to navigate your view through tiles to get what you're after, this may change though.

8.1 has been out for quite a while now (you can get the free update through the Windows App Store). To be honest though, although about 5% less pervasive (you can now use the desktop wallpaper also as the start menu wallpaper), and you can now boot straight to desktop without any hacks, it's not really much different and have remained bypassing it all with Classic Shell.

Honestly, while it's pretty "me too" when compared to other news sites out there, I don't think it's half bad. Some adjustments here and there would help it more. I really think their focus was developing a mobile-friendly (read: tablet) interface, and they're ignoring/marginalizing the desktop experience.

Please don't do that to here. Think about that and you'll realise why that site is garbage. Not being able to quickly find information isn't optimisation. And i have no problem on a tablet looking at regular old webpages with normal sized txt hyperlinks if the font is too small you can just zoom in a little, certainly don't need a button that is one quarter of the screen real estate. And i find that the pictures actually distract me from the text underneath that headlines the picture above, further bogging the mind down in useless fudge.

*admits to never having been to nbcnews.com prior to entering this thread*

*celebrates quietly that nbcnews.com will never appear on screen again, having learned lesson*

*considers how lucky to have brain that steers in the right direction and doesn't subject self to further pain when unnecessary*

Terrible, I kept scrolling until the bottom, which was the first part that was tolerable on the eyes:

Is your texan heart dreaming of the cheap steaks that these steers will bring to your table. Once the farmer has to sell the lot to the slaughterhouse lest they starve to death out on the dry paddock.

There are some tastefully chosen pictures, i'll give it that.

All i get in Firefox is a white page - nothing else. Quite refreshing design actually. Very minimalist.

lol at chocolate pope, looks like antony hopkins in el rito

  On 2/6/2014 at 7:16 PM, delet... said:

Is your texan heart dreaming of the cheap steaks that these steers will bring to your table. Once the farmer has to sell the lot to the slaughterhouse lest they starve to death out on the dry paddock.

 

There are some tastefully chosen pictures, i'll give it that.

lol, "tastefully"

I liked the minimalism of the landscape coupled with a couple of goofy cows.

I haven't had a big, cheap steak in years, more of a tex-mex fan. Steaks are actually not as big a deal here, when it comes to meat fried chicken and BBQ is much more common and that's primarily brisket and pork.

Yep. Brisket, sausage, etc. Fajitas.

We drove all the cattle out of here, remember? Now it get's shipped back shrink-wrapped and marinated. Mmm