New site design being tested!

I completely agree, elegran, it is just ridiculous that these changes are being implemented to the active web site.

Oh what has happened now? Clicking on 'last hour' shows everything blue. It is not an improvement. I can't be bothered with it any more.

To be fair, tweaking can show up a lot of inefficiencies to be altered. My beef is that it CAN all be done behind the scenes so that the site users only meet the new version when it is up and running properly. You don't log into a banking site, or a major comercial site to find it all over the place. Gransnet/Mumsnet is a major professional social networking site, so why is it being tinkered with like a tuppenny-ha'penny amateur blog?

And not in a good way.

I don't understand why it's all (whatever it is) taking so long.

Building a website from scratch can take a while but this is just tweaking the old one.

Why doesn't tech do all the alterations on copies of the files and try everything out offline before swapping in the updated files for the old ones? It isn't necessary to do the experimentation on the files that are in actual use on the site.

If that is impossible, why not take the whole site offline for a day or two and sort everything out in one go?

I have just gone to the I'm On listing, as usual. It is very difficult to navigate now. The thread headings are blue, so are the names of the contributors, and there are no spaces between any lines. Please put it back the way it was. And then maybe get a different designer to try again.

Mobile site on iPhone. No 'last' button on this thread ot the kitchen. Is there a way to get to the end without scrolling page by page? More than tedious. Desktop has 'last' button for both on iPad. There's a major lack of consistency.

So, GNHQ what's the timeframe for all this being resolved?

Sorry, but don't like the font, font-size, background... I could go on! I have left it a week or so to comment in case I was just being a GOW and would get used to it but I really can't find anything positive to say. I actually spend less time now on GN as all the glaring white just gets too much. I much preferred the old site, admittedly very dated and a tad 'quaint', but IMHO it was functional and it didn't give me eye-ache. I know it is still 'work in progress' and I really hope you will take everybody's moans into account and have a big re-think...

I've just twigged. It's school holiday time, so GNHQ have the students in doing work practice.

I do not find this site easy to navigate and I am using a 17" laptop
The threads page headings run into one another and almost unreadable.
The last hour page is one complete jumble and makes no sense.

I agree and sometimes there is no space between two topics so it all seems muddled.

Soop's Kitchen is Scandi Noir......Who knew?

Agree elegran . It's another backward step. Another tweak which makes a bad idea even worse.

Given the volume of complaints I do wonder just how long this test will continue and when we'll have some straight answers from GNHQ.

Is it just me or does no-one else get any differentiation between the topic and the thread title? It is too easy to select what you think is the start of the title and find yourself with the list of the whole of the topic threads, instead of the thread you want. This was OK until today - now instead of being on separate lines and in different weights of font, they run together.

It's all a bit of a dog's dinner, particularly 'Last Hour' - I assume teething problems and will be sorted.

The new font, cropped old logo and general look is dated and twee. IMO the look has a downmarket, coffee-time, Woman's Own magazine, air about it.

I'd say it's an in-house job and GNHQ haven't engaged specialist website designers.

I agree about the site looking dated and uninteresting.
I truly believe if I cane to it new I wouldn't be bothered in joining.
Is it my imagination or are fewer role posting?

baggs there are literally hundreds of fonts available. Some are almost indecipherable. The fact that they are still available doesn't mean that they are in any way recommended for easy reading. A font used in books is not necessarily a good one to use on a computer.

I assume the revamp of the site is to make it more engaging and up to date. The font we have now (I assume it's Times Roman) makes the site look old fashioned no matter what the layout. Coupled with the 'new' layout it makes the whole site look dated and uninteresting.

I like the font, it is clear .
I do not like the layout. It is not easy to run your eye along the line to see who has posted. It seems to run into two or three posters. Also it doesn't go to the last post , you have to go to last page and then scroll down so I feel continuity is lost for those of us older GN'ers. Poor souls that we are.

Baggs I would say the latter.

It may be similar to old fonts but the reason those fonts are still around is because they are good. Try this test: open a library book, any library book, and you will most likely find a similar font to the one being used on GN now.

And here's a question for HQ: Is it, in fact, a different font from before or does it just look different because of the changed background?

I am in total agreement withIndinana and grumppa re the last hour and day. I am technologically challenged and that is something I would produce very easily. It is all crammed together.

I do like the larger font but I could live with the previous font if we reverted to the old design.

Absolutely dreadful!

Old fashioned hard to read font, confusing layout, meaningless logo, insipid colours.

Surely this can't be seen as an upgrade to the site? The old layout, whilst not particularly striking, was infinitely better than the present one.

Still no italics when using an iPad.

While you are tinkering about, a useful thing to have would be a preview option in private messaging. Don't know why there is one for ordinary posts but not for PMs.