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])

ooooh - I found a mistake on it! Knew that sub-editor brain had to be useful for summat...

God, why can't people just leave stuff that aint broken alone?????

OhLITTLEFISHofBethlehem, trouble is, if you put them all one page (as now), you end up with a rather unwieldy list. In our research we found that most regular users of MN don't use the topic list. And new users are overwhelmed by a long long list. It's a valid comment though and we'll be interested to hear what other people think.

BitOfFunUnderTheMistletoe (only a bit?) you can change how many posts are shown on a single page by clicking Customize.

Is it the grown up site versus the not so grown up site then Slur?

definitely more navigable and that is vv good

BUT

The way I use MN is that I go to active convos and see what's up. I think lots of people do that. I like to see 100 conversations all going at the same time, and easily getting an overview of the mood. As it is it seems lively and dynamic, the new design is more static, iykwim

AND

I think the design/"look" is really bland - the fonts and the format are just like every other forum. It's so ubiquitous I almost can't read it.

sorry

navigable is good though

I think you should be able to click the "Mumsnet Talk" header and be taken to the Talk homepage.

moondog, thing is, it was/is broken. But that's perhaps a more philosophical discussion for another time!

KC whispers

But mine is a very important opinion YMT .

What would drop down boxes look like? That way, all sub-topics would be available at once.

LL, it has been tested in a pile of different browsers, but admittedly not for some time, so it could be that some things are broken in non Mac browsers. But that's part of the reason for showing it to everyone (200,000 free beta testers). If you care to email screenshots to demonstrate your points that would be fab, but no worries if too much hassle.

Yes abbreviations will be linked to - under a "Useful stuff" link, but that wasn't ready so we took it off for now.

twitteringbirds, it will work that way when it's finished.

ohlittlefish - drop down boxes are a PITA for a lot of people - too much clicking. The idea of the current site is that you can get to any topic with two clicks, and the most popular ones with one (though you might need to hit your space bar to see all the list).

Are you using Macs Tech? I'll luuuurve you if you are!

Thanks for replying YMT - I'll go back and try it again and see if I can get used to it.

However, once I'm used to it, please don't change it again

I have the hide, hide, hide too - when I clicked one it came up with the red 'have hidden' message

Have emailed a screen shot of the gap on the geeky topic

LL, "Is profile only available by clicking on the poster's name? as I don't think that is immediately obvious - will "Profile" be on there as text as well?"

Actually that was discussed before. You can fight it out with Slur who finds the blue bar too busy even now.

I quite like it. But I think the very small links at the bottom, to help, 'spread the word' (sounds exciting) etc are a bit pointless and a bit too much.

moodlumhohohoodlum, rationale behind the links at the bottom is that for you as a regular user, you don't really care about them because they're off the bottom of the page. But for people that first come in to MN by finding a Talk thread, it helps them find the rest of the site.

I get a big white gap between the thread title and the messages. If someone will tell me how to take a screen shot, I'll e-mail it to you as requested YMT.

Generally it is nice - my main gripe is that it is going towards being like other forums, and losing its uniqueness. MN was always simpler and more attractive to use than other forums. (But in the early days, most of us were forum novices, and other forums were v badly designed.)

Like the MN logos on the new pages, and the generally clearer organisation of the top of the pages.

TOPICS PAGE
yes, an improvement. Please keep the emphasis on text rather than fancy graphics, or directing uses to the content the site organiser wants them to concentrate on.

Am a bit unsure of the wisdom of repeating the same information twice (in the list and in the popular section) but there is no doubt it is useful.

DISCUSSION TOPIC PAGE, eg the thread list for AIBU?
Don't like this at all, sorry. It looks like other forums. Why list the number of replies?
Also, no need to list the latest reply, surely, because they are listed in date order?
Also, please dont do the tasteful pale blue table, it looks horrible!

THREAD PAGES
Please, not those heavy blue bars over posts. They may be the same size as the current ones, but they look bigger, and cut the discussion up significantly. I have classic view atm, so maybe others already see these bars, dont know.

oooo I like the look of it

Got to ask though WTF does this mean

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[frgin] (found on the side when I clicked on the "new messages" link