On redesigns…
As I'm guessing you've noticed, Corporette has been given a minor facelift this past weekend — I hope you guys like the change! While on the front end it's a fairly minor change, on the back end it's a new system (moving from Thesis to Genesis, for those of you who know/care about WordPress) so please let me know if anything isn't working properly.
There is no place for us to comment, or to review the r e t t e comments. I hope this is just an oversight!
Looks like Facebook
I like it. It’s much more modern than the old template.
There is a problem with Firefox compatibility, however. On Firefox, the H4 level headings on the right bar are rendering in comic sans, a font which is the design equivalent of wearing fishnets in a law office.
Firefox is much more strict about cross domain font linking than IE or Chrome and won’t load the cursive font in the template. There needs to be some kind of non-ugly font fall-through in the template CSS for the H4 headings to render more properly.
Mari — how is it now?
JadeMoon — I’m confused — you just commented.
Mari, this made my day: “comic sans, a font which is the design equivalent of wearing fishnets in a law office.”
As for the site, the comment threads are much more difficult to scan now–is there any way to adjust the tab/inset levels?
Really hard to see where threads start and end, and that makes it difficult to skim until you find the threads that interest you. Also much harder to read the names of the various posters. Maybe some of this just takes adjustment to the new layout, but if it doesn’t, it takes a lot of the fun/usefulness out of this site.
This look’s diferent to me! It’s a lot more modern but i hope it work’s! Yay for Kat!
(Sorry if this duplicates – the connection ultimately timed out when I tried to post earlier.)
I like the new logo and cursive font (and the fact that it looks like Google is now the search tool!)
I do miss the differentiation of fonts/sizes — with the “you might like” links in the same size/font as the main text (and with other footnotes, tags, etc. not much smaller), it makes the overall look of each post a bit more cluttered IMO. (I’m also a serif font fan, but realize that is totally personal preference and I’m sure will get used to Arial if I must :) )
oh, one other comment – under the old layout, people’s usernames were bigger and the little picture (which almost no one uses, as I’m sure you know!) was off to the right – I preferred that layout, especially because posters would sometimes use the “username” to highlight the topic of their questions.
Sorry for more critical comments than nice ones! The content and community are always great :)
I would agree that it would be better to put the little picture back to the right, if possible, or remove altogether, since no one seems to use them on this site. Liking the fact that its easier to read on my phone now. The little logo next to the URL in my browser/tab looks kind of like a G though, more so than a C – not sure what you were going for, but it doesn’t make me think “this site” when I see it, my first thought when I see a G is google.
It was convenient when there used to be a “Next Post” link at the bottom of every old post, so you could go right on to the current thread. In order to get here, when at the bottom of the Weekend thread, I had to go back to the home page and click on this post’s comments icon. Otherwise, seconding the comments above too. Thanks for all your hard work.
yes, I miss the previous/next post links too!
I like the way it looks. I do wish there was a Next Post/Previous Post link at the bottom of the comments, but that may just be me.
I miss the old logo!!!! When do we get to buy the official bumper stickers? I WANT STICKERS, KAT!!!!!!
I too miss the old logo. This one looks down right childish. Otherwise, the page looks great.
I concur that this version of the logo looks much less corporate/professional than the old version.
Agree. Content is always great, though!
I also agree that the new font for the logo strikes me as childish. I definitely prefer the old one.
And agree x 1000 about the comment indents being very difficult to differentiate.
Agree on the indent/thread issue. It’s a lot harder to see who’s replying to whom and when something is a new comment instead of additional replies to the last one (or replies to replies). This might not matter as much on other sites but, c’mon, we all know what the comment section on this site is.
This is precisely my c
This was precisely my concern. Sorry my comment got posted too early.
This is my only criticism of the new design (the rest looks lovely!). The indent between replies is not as distinct, so it’s very difficult to see the chain of comments. I do like that “original posts” are shaded a bit darker than replies, but the contrast could be amplified a bit more as well.
Agree. For instance, I can tell that May and KC replied to TBK, but I can’t tell if TBK’s comment is a reply or a new comment (I assume a reply because it’s in the center of my screen, not on the left, but I can’t tell to whom she’s replying.)
Hi – Does anyone have any experience living in East Africa?
I have a friend on a lawyer program in Tanzania and would like to make her a care package. Was planning to toss in some tiny maple syrup and similar Canadiana and some high end beauty products but was also wondering about everyday useful things she might find hard to find in Tanzania.
Oh gosh!
I’m kinda sad to see the old comments layout / style gone; the posts linked up to each other so neatly, and I was so used it, I suppose!
Let’s hope this turns out just as great.
Go Kat!
I have to be honest – I find the ads to be a bit overwhelming in the new design. I think it makes the site look less reputable. I understand that ads are necessary to make the site profitable, but over time there has been a slow creep of more and more advertising, and now the main text is nearly overwhelmed by ads, and many of the ads are moving, blinking, and generally being distracting. It looks less professional than the old design.
I agree. My first thought when I opened the page today was “where is the text?” It displays as very ad-heavy on my large monitor – not sure it would be as evident on a laptop. Like Fiona, I understand these are necessary to the business model, but they are just way too much in this design.
That’s what I thought immediately too, and I have a fairly small laptop. The ads have a WAY (sorry for the Ellen) larger footprint on the new site than the actual content.
And ditto about the indents for the comments section. It’s really hard to parse out the different threads. Honestly, 89% of the reason I come here for the community and the comments, so it’s irksome that they are less user-friendly.
Same issue on my computer. For a moment I thought that the content hadn’t loaded, because all I saw were the large ads. I would also prefer to see more text in the post before clicking through. Is this to increase the page hits? The size of the posting is pretty similar to the size of the ads, which I believe adds to the visual confusion.
While I like the concept of the Corporette logo switching black to another color, does it have to always be pink? What about changing fonts from Times New Roman to a script option?
Great idea to update and modernize, but still needs work.
I agree – the large blinking add and the small text make it a less relaxing site to take quick break and visit.
I’m also viewing on chrome, so maybe that’s a layout for chrome issue?
Agree- Kat, is there any way to have only non-moving/blinking/flashing/talking ads?
I’m using Firefox and I can’t tell *at all* who is responding to whom – the comments are rendered in one non-indented block. Also, all the text looks scrunched into the center of the page, with the margins (especially the right-hand ad margin) taking up way too much space.
I don’t mind any of the font changes, though. :)
Yes, this is my experience exactly. Everything is kind of scrunched together.
And I’m using Firefox
I read this site as much because of the posts as anything else, and I’m
Finding it hard to read with the chunky bars the posters’ names are in (is there a name for them?).
For comments the older version worked better for me. The older ?serifs font was more conducive to professional / related topics.
This ubiquitous font feels sterile.
Now I’ll try to stop being negative. Sorry. It’s my change-defying Aspergers traits acting up.
I just tried the site on IE and, minus, the ads, it is a lot easier to read than on Chrome. I use Chorme with adblock 99% of the time. The font is much smaller and a different style I believe too. The page is stark white with small comment boxes in the middle, with some comment boxes highlighted grey and the rest white. It is much harder to read and looks still “under construction.” The tons of empty space may be due to blocked ads but if that is the case, there are WAY too many ads.
Was there a particular reason to move from the Courier font for the “Corporette” logo? I felt like the old font embodied more of the “Corporette” theme. The new font just doesn’t seem to mesh with the “corporate” part of “Corporette” – feels almost as jarring as an executive using Comic Sans for emails.
Kat, I appreciate your work on the site. A few comments/recommendations:
– Avatar/graphics for commenters are rarely used and could free up some space
– The poster’s name in a larger pitch would be helpful
– I like that the first post in a new thread is gray and the responses are white
– However, since the first post in each thread is gray, it creates a thick, gray border for the entire thread and a thick, gray line between each response – this makes each response look like a new thread
– Increase the width of the comment boxes for readability (maybe 2/3 of page?)
– Increase the indentation of followup comments for readability
Thanks again – change is rough and it will take some getting used to.
One more:
– Increase space between new threads for readability so the eye can pick up that a new thread is starting (the gray text box doesn’t always signal that, to me anyway).
Thank you!
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I’m totally smacking my head for overlooking how the design change would look for the comment thread (but there’s a reason for that that will hopefully be revealed sooner than later). But I’ll look into making it more palatable today.
Re: ads: it’s the exact same number as on the old site. This may also be a design issue (it feels like the ads make it busier because the padding is off). I’ll play around with it.
Is anyone else getting Comic Sans? If you are, please let me know — it should all be the same cursive font in the new tagline, or failing that, Arial.
In Firefox and no comic sans.
I’m getting arial, and the tagline is in cursive. I have the latest version of Firefox on a PC. I tried it in IE and it looked the same.
I recommend something other than Arial, if you can.
I have a strong aversion to Arial (as do many design professionals/nerds and Matthew Butterick of “Typography for Lawyers”) and it makes my experience with the site less pleasant.
I do like the cleaner setup of the page now, however.
I agree… I am partial to the old font!
I really don’t care about what other font is used, just please-oh-please not arial.
I personally do not like the replies in the boxes whose width decreases with successive replies…I find that annoying in other blogs as well. If there was a “flat view” I’d use it. Just my personal view though, I guess this is the way things are done now.
yep – it’s comic sans on my end; just a thought, but I”d consider hiring a graphic designer to make a logo for you instead of relying on a font.
OH! And: I’m checking on those “In the Raw” banner ads at the top with my ad network.
I like that there’s a search function (I think there wasn’t before?)
A couple more things.
1. Can you put a link at the bottom of the comments to the previous post and the next post? It’s sort of annoying to have to scroll back up, click back to the home page, find the next post and click on it when with the old design we could just click on a link at the bottom of the thread.
2. The drop-down links at the top of the page (home, about, contact, etc) drop down when you mouse over them. Whenever I scroll up to the top of the page in order to click on “Corpor e t t e” and get back to the home page, I end up accidentally mousing over one of the links and then clicking on the drop down instead of on Corpor e t t e.
3. I agree with those who liked the old logo better.
4. Regardless of the site design, I freaking love this blog.
Just testing to see if I can comment or go the moderation hell still.
I’m using the latest version of Firefox and the pictures from pre-facelift posts are not showingup. Just the name of the photo, which you can click through to.
Please, could we have indents on replies to comments? I still cannot read the new format AT ALL without my eyes glazing over.