Testing Testing - Ok so now here's our new look (but you don't have to have it, do you hear?)

[JustinExcelsisMumsnet]

This is a sneak preview of our redesign - it's planned across the whole site but we thought we'd give you a preview of Talk so you could give us your thoughts. ETA is early in the new year (God willing).

Two things we should make clear:

First Customise talk and Mn Classic WILL STILL BE AVAILABLE so don't panic if you really hate it!

Second it's not finished yet so not everything works perfectly - it's a test site.

You might wonder why we are bothering with a redesign by the way. We have had quite a lot of feedback that newcomers find the site a little hard to find their way round at first so we are trying to simplify it. We haven't changed much overall in nine years but we've added quite a few bits and bobs on, and to newbies it can be quite daunting we think.

And one more thing - we've found in the past (and we know ourselves) that change can be disorienting but do give it a go for a wee while before you trash it completely, please? .

There's no link to it yet - YetMoreTech will post it in a minute - he wants to add more caveats before he posts it up!

Hope you like it (or at least don't loathe it) - let us know your thoughts.

(Please address all complaints to [email protected])

Looking good guys. Will have a good look round later since Dh has abandoned me in favour of beer and curry night.

Blimey

I like it

And I'm a mumsnet classic girl as well

I like the concept. It works well. I am sure members would get used to it very quickly.

Only feedback I have:
I would prefer when you are in the topic for list of active convos, that the text to be smaller or in normal weight, not so large and blue + bold as it appears too big and runs over too much. Makes 2 lines. Will you have a limit on the topic heads? If someone post a really long thread title there is a max of letters. Much better?

The other heads that appear "replies", "latest" and "by" headings read very well.
It is not very easy to read the thread titles AS THEY ARE SO BIG and shouty. The weight and size could be made smaller ie the Summer Holiday Survival tips text (in blue on the right) is a much better size if you stick to blue and bold.

Lovely though.

For TECH I am in a Mac using Safari.

well I am not "in" a Mac (that would be plain mad)
"using" a Mac

I notice some others saying too much blue for the text (topic titles for example).
I tend to agree

lol @ nannynick and his request for some padding
you geek!

I don't like how you have to click on more to find the rest of the topics. If you were quite a new member you might not remember which section a certain topic was in and you'd have to go through all of them clicking more to find it rather than just being able to scroll down the page.

The idea of blue for links is that it will be utterly consistent through the WHOLE site. As well as Talk we've redesigned all the other content and have a ton of fabulous new content too. Whilst talk is the most important bit of the site for many many people we want to try to get more consistency to make life easier for all. The blue bars (which as I've said a couple of times, are probably displaying as taller than they should for some users) are coming in for quite a lot of stick so we'll be sure to beat have a word with the graphic designer on that one.

For those that don't love the "more" option on topic lists, firstly keep in mind that you can click the category and it will expand - you don't have to click the more link. How about we add link at the top that says "Show All" and that would automatically expand all categories?

yes I like the show all option.

is there a way to stop really long thread titles going over the top of the mn latest bit?

Think Show All would be a good idea.

Hmm . . I don't do change either (still have my MN classic settings), and I'm sorry but I don't like it.

As long as I can keep my classic settings I will let you off.

My only worry is newbies may be lulled into a false sense of fluffy, ticker friendly related security, and then come crashing down to earth when they post. It looks to bright and friendly and NM ish for my liking.

Please can justine and tech promise we will never have tickers?

I have to say I have always liked that I can see all the topics listed, I am lazy andimpatient and would never click on the drop downs to view more topics.

WE PROMISE WE'LL NEVER HAVE TICKERS! The aim is not to dumb down here but to improve usability.

Please can we have some new emoticons?

How about one for the penny dropping, a yawn one, a puke one, a tongue sticking out one, a rolling eyes one, a confused one, a sarcastic one, a tired one, a serious one.

Oh thank you!

arf at 'dumb down' you are mn through and through aren't you

ooh! I like it!! Much better.

When can we play?

Tickers? Post counts, avatars, poster ratings, invitation only? Who ever heard of such a thing!

georgimama if by playing you mean posting on the new trial site, you can do so now. Just keep in mind that any posts there will evaporate pretty soon.

Tickers? Oh please can we have tickers, I feel everyone needs to know when my new bathroom will be installed, or how many days until I have my piles off....

I feel like we need a do not feed the troll emoticon actually. and perhaps a banging head against brick wall one. and a bowl of popcorn. and perhaps a whatever one

Soupy disagreed with me - I feel I have finally arrived .

I like it. The use of white space makes it easy to read the threads.

The primary nav area is nice and clean. But the search does look as if it's floating. Could be my browser?

Some niggly things...

When you show the items in the category, I also expect to see it to toggle back when you click on it again. (eg. if I click on "Becoming a Parent" I would expect to to collapse back when I click again).

Threads I'm watching is a bit of a mess.

I dont like the shortcuts at the bottom. There are too many links to be shortcuts

A rolling eyes smiley is definitely needed.

Even Bounty has one!

You can't be outdone by that lot!

I've not read all the posts. But...

The blue bands with the posters name are way too in your face.

If the old version is like a club sandwich - bear with me here - then the blue bit is like the bread which you don't notice that much. The black on white text is the "meat". Yum.

The new one is the opposite. Its much harder to ignore the blue bits whilst trying to read the content.

May sound bollox but I am a graphic designer BTW.