Wow really love the new layout on the front page, it really gives the website a more modern feeling. Good job ^_^

Forums next plox!

/agree

The new page layout looks great, clean, refined

A similair vBulletin theme would be fantastic

Epic win with the new frontpage Julio. Yeah, I agree with frost monkey, we could use a matching vBulletin theme.

I don't like it. I might quit now :|

I like the old homepage better. Maybe just 'cause I'm use to it.

Yup GOOD JOB on the redesign!!
It is slower somewhat (Takes more time to load pages),
but other than that its great!!!

Grats on finishing the makeover!

I really hate it when people say the word "Epic", it's one of the most over-used words on the internets. It has lost its meaning over the lifetime of the word, anything and most possibly everything that has existed, will exist, or has yet to exist could be classified as "Epic" by the people who use that word the most, under age children on the internets ranging from the ages of 12-through-15. If I hear the word one more time being used out of place I will slap the person who said it.

The word epic can be used perfectly fine the way Obi used it. But yes, it's overused in epic proportions

Ignore my other post. I've decided to welcome change with open arms. Good job Julio!

I was very suprised by the new look. It definately looks a lot nicer and cleaner, but took a while longer to load, but its worth it. And I agree with other above posts that a vBulletin theme would not be unwelcomed.

Thanks for everybody who has commented so far... I just posted my take on the redesign on the frontpage:
http://www.techspot.com/news/30749-w...-techspot.html

As mentioned there, the redesign for the forums come next.

Also for those of you who are experiencing longer load times, there are a few different explanations for this. The new design is actually much lighter but we do load a heftier JS and CSS pack. I still haven't experimented with gzipping CSS on the fly which should help. Also these files are always cached by the browser, so browsing within the site should be lighting fast after the first load.

Feel free to comment further or give me any suggestions

Load times are fine for me. Doesn't appear to be any slower at all.

Everything appears to be working fine with Opera as well which I am pleased to see.

I hope you don't mind that I put the new look on the wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techspot

It took me an hour to figure out how to use Wikipedia, the whole licensing thing was the biggest pain about uploading it but I think I have it right, I hope. Knowing my wiki history though I'm guessing that my file will get deleted for violating something and my IP will get banned again in the next 30 minutes xD

Thanks for updating the wiki, you may want to take a pic of the actual frontpage rather than the individual news story though

Looks good and futureistic but I dont dig it very much. The colors are almost hard on my eyes here at work on this standard CRT. I like the cool blue here on the forums. Looks neat but here at work on 1024x768 it feels rather crammed and not as well organized. Looks great on 1280x1024. Maybe it'll just take some getting used to. Just doesnt look or feel like the great old Techspot I've grown to love.

The new layout is kinda bright on a CRT, but looks beautiful nonetheless.
Good job!

Did you mean to make the background almost black? Compare to the old site:
http://web.archive.org/web/200701011....techspot.com/
The form and function are great, but to my eye, that dark blue background behind the white blotter is more of a hallmark for Techspot than the coloring of the logo. Sure, keep the gradient. Just match the darkest part to that dark blue #314252 down to a lighter tint of the same color, rather than gray - perhaps #C4D0DB. Likewise with the footer gradient.

I'm on the fence about googleapis. It's neat to offer tabs in sidebars, but...

Much as I depend on google for search, having to depend on it for display of content on my site is a bit like wearing pants, but having a guest (in this case, google) decide whether to zip them up or down. It's just a tad creepy. Of course if techspot is hosted by google, that's moot. But if not, why not host your own ajax?

I'd link the user profile to 'Welcome User' and make a separate 'Log out' link next to it instead of using 'Welcome User' to log out and having a link to 'My Profile'. That seems more intuitive.

Are you going to change the .ico ? Right now looks like it's still the old orange/yellow 'TS'.

I hope this helps.

P.S. I like that you made the logo 'wireless.' Sweet.

Hi Greenman, very insightful post to say the least.

Nice to see somebody else caring as much about the little details as I do, looks like you have some web programming/design background?

To properly address your concerns, I've already tried some of the things you mentioned and did not work for the best. Some others will take me back to the drawing board a bit but I'm more than willing to.

Let's call this phase one, for now I will focus on fixing any evident bugs on the main site, and get the forum conversion done. Then as we go I will try to polish this thing further, so your comments are more than welcome.

I love the new design - it's definitely a great improvement. The navigation is nicely done, the colors are pleasing to the eye and look and feel is nice and modern.

BUT - I have to call you out on the logo. It's just too plain. I'd really like to see something done with it, like a border, some gradients, a thicker font maybe or some customized lettering. It's the identity of the site and while it doesn't have to be complex, it should be unique. That logo is definitely the weak spot, in my opinion.

Love the new site. Modern and clean.
Don't forget to put up a new flavicon!!!!
Maybe a new blue graphic like on the homepage instead of the yellow TS font.


-PK