Manchester Evening News relaunches its website
The MEN unveiled its website redesign today. First impression: it’s an improvement.
They’ve widened the page (maybe too wide – it doesn’t fully fit on a 1024 screen) to get more in, particularly on the front page. This means less scrolling is required, which is a generally good thing.
Other new features include Most Read and Most Commented charts and the ability to minimise these and things like the polls, which I’m sure many people don’t really care about. The MEN’s blogs section remains the same – for now.
Each article – like Sarah Hartley’s introduction – has further navigation options, including a link to a ‘Shipman’ section. As someone quickly pointed out in the initial feedback, surely this is ‘a bit out-of-date and poor taste’.
Others also complain about the need to register now before being able to comment. As suggested, even a two-minute registration process will put potential commenters off. How about an additional option to comment without having to fully register?
I also notice that the email address I registered on the old system can’t be found. Sarah says that users will be invited to sign up for the new site. Again, many users are going to ignore this and the site will lose registered users. Automatic migration?
Points like this aside, the redesign is a definite improvement and is a bit more inline with other news portals, such as the new Times design. If reaction is positive on the whole, I wonder how long before the Guardian itself follows suit.
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The mystery Mr X Shipman commenter was me. I’m not entirely sure how I’ve ended up as Mr X on this blog, but what the hey.
Anyway, there are a few movements on the Guardian website already — their new Travel section at http://travel.guardian.co.uk/ has a design I find far easier on the eye than the current main Guardian site. I’d really like to see more big pictures on news sites; a lot look like they were designed when dial-up was still prevalent, with tiny, blocky little JPEGs to illustrate the day’s top story.
By Mr X on 02.27.07 10:55 pm
Hi Chris
The new site has plenty of white space which is always a good sign, although like you I worry that some people will lose part of it due to their screen resolution.
Maybe a link offering advice on this could be featured.
But why red links and headlines?
They are so sharp on the eye, common internet practice usually has red as a visited link, just compare the news pages to the sports pages and I know which one I prefer to read.
All the best
Craig
By Craig McGinty on 02.28.07 10:05 am
as long as AceRiley is still posting on *every* story, thats the main thing really
By toast on 02.28.07 10:48 am
it is a little ‘bloggy’ and indistinct CMS to me… reminded me a bit of a joomla site
By toast on 02.28.07 10:50 am
X: Yup, the Guardian Travel site stands out for me too.
Craig: Good point about red links. Especially considering the football connotations it’s likely to have. I notice the sport section is in neutral green.
Toast: Some of the best sites are built with Joomla – it’s a great (free) CMS. In this town I’ve noticed RNCM have just relaunched using it.
By Mancubist on 02.28.07 11:05 am
It’s a vast improvement, most importantly it’s good to see all the pop-up ads (served by someone called subliminal advertising) have gone.
By Stephen Newton on 02.28.07 12:18 pm
Manchester Evening News relaunches website… looks great
[...] the Manchester Evening News has relaunched to well deserved rave reviews. It is a vast improvement on the former incarnation, feeling a lot fresher, more contemporary and [...]
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