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])

I'm afraid I don't like it at all. I think the Talk page (the first you link to) is very busy, and I'm not keen on it all being so blue. But then although I currently bookmark directly to Talk, I then always click last 15 mins, or threads I'm on, except when I'm after something specific, when I find the topic page perfectly easy to navigate. I quite like the shortcuts bit at the bottom, but then I don't understand why you need both. I don't like the selections showing in the blue bars, and then the drop down when you click more. How was it decided which ones show and which ones only appear in the drop down? quite like the tab bit. The links in the main blue bar (Conception, Pregnancy Toddlers etc) are they meant to go somewhere? If so I am presuming that you will have more options there? For primary and secondary age (or teens)? Otherwise it doesn't look like somewhere for those with post toddler children. The page that you have created when you click on a topic is clearer than the previous version, which was a little dense, and the link to start your own thread is easier to see (I remember this being tricky when i was new).

My biggest gripe is with the way the thread themselves look, but I am a classic user, and I like the way that looks. I actually find the new look quite hard to read. It's busy and the text just looks too close together somehow. Agree with others the ad box on the right is very big (quite intrusive). The bottom box has gone a bit wrong on my browser (Safari on a Mac).

However most importantly the option Find discussions, last 15 mins has gone. This is how I use Mumsnet!

I like it.
I know you need the advertising but can they be smaller PLEEEASE.
Seriously I would pay (a small amount) NOT to have adverts.

is there any chance at all of getting the first few lines of a post to show up when you hover over the thread title? like when you get alt tag info? i frequent another forum that does this and it's sooo useful (saves you clicking through into threads you have no interest in) and i find myself hopefully hovering everywhere else i go in the vain hope someone else might have cottoned on

nooka, the lists of topics that you see always, as opposed to the ones that drop down, are still in a state of flux. The idea is to show the most popular ones.

The links at the top will go somewhere, but as per earlier in this thread, they're not ready yet.

And remember, if you don't like the new threads themselves look you'll be able to have them just the way you have them now.

So, see? You like it more than you thought!

apuppydaviesisforlife, it's a good suggestion. There is a (boring techie) efficiency question, but we'll consider it further.

I joined MN 2 years ago but only started posting a few months ago. The problem was trying to navigate the site - seemed so huge and I couldn't get the hang of it at all.
So anything that will help out even newer newbies is a good think imo.

Though I've just got the bloody hang of it and you go and change it!

Right, will be up at 5am and possibly between now and then too, so am going to knock off now. Keep the feedback coming. It's been very helpful.

But saying that I DO NOT LIKE the big white borders on either side of the text! Makes it very Bountyish with the text all sqished in the middle.

For some bizarre reason, I don't think it's clear as to which post is from which person. Once I start to scroll down, it's not obvious if the person who left the message is named above or below.

Probably sounds bollox, but I know what I mean.

Purely out of interest, has anyone at Mumsnet Towers heard of the expression "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."?

But if MN Towers are getting hundreds of emails telling them that it is broke they may not feel that that expression applies...

I quite like it (thats high praise from me as I usuallyhate change)

oooh, I like it.

This is high praise indeed. Am often a change-hater

dh, who is a web developer says that he thinks classic Mumsnet looks very nineties. I guess I just like it the way it is, but so long as that is an option, I'm happy

"Purely out of interest, has anyone at Mumsnet Towers heard of the expression "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."?"

Of course! However, I think anyone who has seen the effort that has gone in to all this - I can think of 8 people who have been directly involved with this work and that many again who have chipped in - would realise we didn't just do it for fun. We have plenty of evidence that the old design is broken, in so much that it was turning people off. We wanted to make it look better and be more functional in to the bargain.

Every single link, every shade of every colour, every single line drawn has been thought about, discussed, debated and in the case of me and Justine, shouted at each other about. It's really not something we just tossed together in an idle moment and we hope it shows!

The feedback we've received so far would suggest that most people are either indifferent or like it, and those that really don't like it are generally happy to stick with the various classic options. This is great news. We'll take the various comments and see how many of the suggestions we can implement. Keep them coming though - nothing is set in stone quite yet. Clearly there are a few issues in Internet Explorer to be resolved and we'll get on those on Monday.

Thanks to all those that have commented, positively or negatively.

I like it

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr I use Mn as nooka does, I will be using Classic [grump][grump]

The big white space on the sides that people don't like I'm assuming is because it's a fixed width site and they have a large monitor/window size to view it, whereas the current fits to your browser window.

(my preference is for variable width too, but fixed width doesn't bug me too much)

I'm guessing that's because fixed width is easier to implement, but have you checked that a post with a long single-word title or single-word post doesn't break stuff as a result?

It does go a bit funny if you have a long single-word title or post.

I can't even tell

Oh the shame...

I suppose that it would help if I followed the link, eh?

I don't really do change well.

dont like the fixed width, makes all the threads start underneath the huuuuuuuge adverts!

and the blue bars are made double thick because its fixed width, can this be changed?

I like it too

Not sure if this has been discussed before, but I would find it really useful if the person who starts a thread could then have every subsequent message highlighted in some way. Sometimes I just skim down a thread looking to see how the OP is, or has responded and I can't always remember who the OP is! This is happening more and more as Mumsnet gets bigger.

Perhaps it's just me and my limited brain/memory capacity!