back to article OMFG, what have you done?

As you see, we've made a few changes to the Reg look and feel this week, and we expect numbers of you to go off on one (or indeed two or three). So before you do, we feel the need to assure you that it's all still there. No really, it is - it just looks a little different. So where is it? Current stories remain the core of the …

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  1. Grant
    Pirate

    Ugggh

    Pretty much all good as far as look goes, but why in gods name would anybody go fixed width in a world which is increasingly going wide screen? My lappy has a 1680 wide screen and now the reg no longer uses it. Seriously, until I took a second look, I though TheReg had opened up in a thumbnail or print-ready view as I all I saw was the reg front pages occupying a smaller part of a grey screen.

    Even my 1440 wide desktop screen it has become far less readable.

    Is this just sacrificing usability for looks? Or to make the webdesigner's job easier?

  2. Adrian Esdaile

    Does it come in any other colours?

    I don't know; change like this usually makes me nervous, a bit like when you stroll into your local pub to find a glossy black tile floor, disco-ball and all the drinks now cost $15. Like 'hey, this was MY place too, and you changed it without asking me'.

    It feels wrong, like I'm not welcome here anymore as I am an old Web 0.9b fossil who doesn't even have a fancy .sig file let alone a Face-Mash whatsimmyblogoid.

    And what exactly was wrong with the icons, or did you cave in to a cease-and-desist from Steve Jobbies?

    It might take a while for me to love you again, Reg, especiialy as this new font is a little bit unreadable on my stock IE7. It's even worse on Firefox, maybe something to do with the way some certain CAD apps screw with your fonts, though, so that might not be all your fault.

    The deciding factor will be whether or not the new format is EEE-701 friendly... beware if it isn't!

  3. tardigrade
    Linux

    Fixed width sucks the sweat from a dead mans balls.

    The icons are shite, the font gives me a migraine. A redesign by a government focus group wasn't it? Yes I thought so. 2012 logo, OGC and now El Reg.

    Apart from that, suppose I'll get used to it.

    Tux icon because Tux hates you now.

  4. Steven Knox

    Two Problems

    1. Fixed Width? Really? No-one on your staff knows CSS well enough to make this (admittedly nice looking -- if you have your browser sized to EXACTLY the correct width) work in most any browser width? Really? It's quite easy to do. You may want to spend a few minutes at http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

    2. One of the things I liked about the Register was that it was completely unrelated to "How to Draw Cute Anime Characters in 5 Minutes". Now look at the new comment "icons". Are you really that desperate to court the 7-year-old demographic?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Eek!

    Argh!

    As stated above: icons, fixed width, lousy font size. And no, I can't change that as I'm looking at this through "ye olde work place" setup and it won't resize and they've blocked off my options to change it. This is bad for my/others' eyesight - something that website designers really, really need to be aware of.

    Take the reghardware site (someone take it, please!) It needed a reformat more than the main site and the Related stories column is unreadable due to the font being too small.

    Please, get the fonts sorted out.

  6. Mick Sheppard
    Thumb Down

    Just like MacNN

    I used to go to MacNN for Apple news. They changed the layout to something more modern, something more flashy, it hid the news. I stopped going. Guess I'll have to find somewhere else for general news now too.

  7. Dave K

    Not bad, but fixed width = terrible!

    Well! From a design point of view, it's alright. Fixed width wise, it's awful! I run at 1920x1280 and The Reg has gone from being a nice big site to this little bar down the middle. More than half of my screen is now just grey bars.

    To make it worse, the content in that bar now only goes about 2/3 of the way across it. So! Design is good, but the fixed width stuff and the tiny size of the fixed width content is a massive step back. It's like looking at a website from the late 90s.

    Get it fixed so that people with half decent screens can actually use them!

  8. Action Bastard
    Thumb Down

    Great

    More scrolling. Just what we needed. Thanks.

  9. Jacek
    Jobs Horns

    Good bye!

    The Register WAS the site with difference, with old-fashioned style. Now thats gone. Now you look like one of this gadget-review sites. And icons? Yours grand-douther draw this?

  10. Euan Johnstone
    Paris Hilton

    @Steve Sherlock

    Um so why don't you make your browser window a little less wide - does it need to be full screen. Plus a shorter line length is easier to read. No need to fill the screen just cos there's space there

    And seriously Register - bring back the other Paris icon. This one is lame!

  11. Professor Quatermass
    Jobs Halo

    You did this for the iPhone, right?

    The site looks a quadrillion-times better on my iPhone here at the London Rocket Group. Onwards and upwards!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Fixed Width?

    Columnar text is a pattern that is hundreds of years old for a reason.

    I delete links to sites that force my eyeballs to do a hundred-meter sprint from left to right for every page.

  13. Watashi

    Ch-ch-ch-changes

    Change frightens and confuses me. Make it go back!

    Seriously, I like it... except for the fact that half of my web browser window is currently displaying empty space.

    Looking forward to v2.1.

  14. Someone

    All fine, apart from…

    Yes, it’s another commentator who thinks the person who designed the new icons should be taken out and shot. If you can’t afford a proper graphics designer, open it up to the readers? I’m not suggesting I could do any better. I couldn’t. But, I’m damn sure there must be one who can. Usual sort of prize of an El Reg T-shirt and the undying gratitude of the staff… at least until the end of the week?

    (Given that the comment icons have changed, does that make the ‘IT Angle?’ and ‘I’ll Get My Coat’ T-shirts out-of-date tat or nostalgic classics?)

  15. Linbox
    Stop

    Reg 2.0

    It's ok. We will get used to it. The fuss will settle down. We will soon come to agree that "Reg Classic" aka Reg1.0 looked a bit shitty. Eventually, we will accept the new icons.

    We will all moan like fuck when Reg 3.0 comes out.

    Welcome to the world of IT.

  16. TallPaul

    And another thing

    (more for the information of your developers than for publication)

    The "TOP STORIES", "MOST READ", "MOST COMMENTED" tabs are broken on both Firefox 3.0.1 and Opera 9.52 on this Kubuntu laptop - the "COMMENTED" wraps onto a second line. On Konqueror it's worse or better depending on your point of view as both "MOST" and "COMMENTED" wrap onto line 2.

  17. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Coat

    Works for me

    First of all:

    "but as long as I can still post utter toss in the comments sections and quality of the scribblers who send the articles in is still good, then I couldn't give a rats ass if the whole site was run through Upside Downterweb, It'll still be in my bookmarks."

    Can't disagree with that, except that it's probably not quite as rude as if I'd written it.

    @all the knobheads complaining about fixed-widths: go and read up about what 400 character-wide columns do to readability.

    @font size fetishists: twiddle your browser and plan to buy reading glasses within the next five years and wrist support a lot sooner.

    @numpty complaining about adds: real vultures use content blockers and have done ever since they existed.

    @the Reg: In general a great improvement but please do CSS properly and add a print css and presumably one for mobiles. Site does render fine for me on Presto 9.6 and on my G900 but the background grey is too dark and the icons are mainly cock except for the coat one. Looks like an updated form of 1970's naive style and let's face it the 70's was the decade that style forgot. As for you symbols: either photorealism or iconographic but never, ever both. Smells like an opportunity for a competition. The Economist recently reinvented itself to good effect (except for mobiles).

    Mine's the one with the nearly completed manuscript "How I made the internet" and would you order me a taxi and a couple of coke whores? Ta,

  18. Not That Andrew

    WTF!!!

    Want the fuck are you guys thinking? First you add comments and now this half-arsed blog layout. NEWS FLASH! The Register is a news site NOT a blog! Stop trying to look like a blog.

  19. blackworx

    One more vote

    Fixed width

    Comment icons

    Both are shit, really shit. Please fix.

    Other than that - as long as the article quality to which I have become accustomed remains, I couldn't give two hoots what else you. I do appreciate the effort though and am actually quite glad to see the back of the headline hopscotch that had been going on on the front page over the last few months.

    But seriously - yet another vote for: you reallyreallyREALLY need to ditch fixed width and bring back the old comment icons. The new ones just look cheap. Way too many wishy washy pastel shades! No offence to whoever created them, but don't give up the day job.

  20. Shell
    Thumb Up

    @ Double Dekkers

    Like the BBC news site, or most other news sites?

    Users always hate change, but sometimes it's just something you have to do. I can't decide if I like the design yet. It seems a little more readable on an iPhone screen (flame away, I don't care), but there is heck of a lot of wasted space on the right column in any browser. But then, same goes for most news sites. You can never please everyone: personally I don't use browsers full screen (trust me, even the wonderful Reg full-screen on a 30" Apple Cinema Display would be totally overwhelming), so I'm quite happy for fixed width sites. Fixed with allows for a wider range of design choices that doesn't destroy the layout soon as a user resized the browser.

  21. Chris G
    Stop

    I'm confused

    Don't like change, too old for it! But worse still, this afternoon I tried to comment on the LSE and was told I had to make a comment before I could post it, I had! I had also previewed it, which worked but the post comment would not recognise my comment and it wasn't that bad.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    More stylish, less readable

    My first thoughts:

    I can see the reason for the overhaul, but the fixed width is just stupid. At home I use a widescreen and I have two large grey bars. Add to this the fact that the text takes up only about 60% of the actual white screen and it's bloody annoying already. I don't want to be staring at large white and grey bars. Or are you going to have adverts all the way down the page, no matter how long the page is??? So we the loyal readers get screwed either way: 1. We have to do extra scrolling for no good reason, or 2. number 1 plus we get more bloody adverts.

    The front page: The section and date/time stamp above the story detracts from the text you want to be reading, making it harder to read than before. (I mean your eyes do not fall on the correct text as easily as before).

    Icons - get real. Why do you think we want babyish icons? Computers have more power to make things look more realistic than ever and you think it's best to make your icons less realistic? What is the thinking there?

    If I feel different in a weeks time, I'll let you know. If I've not got absolutely sick of the scrolling before that! Idiots.

  23. John Lettice (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: You did this for the iPhone, right?

    It does? (Checks iPhone) Ah. That's totally accidental, actually, honest. We'll need to do a handheld platform tidy up shortly, once we figure out what's broken on what.

  24. Henry

    Flaws

    1) Used to work fine on my mobile phone (IE on Windows Mobile); now looks rubbish - after every group of 3 stories there's a huge amount of white space, to start with, and the horizontal alignment on the main page jumps about (some things appear left-aligned, some things right-aligned).

    2) Comments box: using Firefox 3.0.2 under Ubuntu I have to click on the left half of the "title" box - at the left half I get the normal text caret cursor, but when the cursor is over the right half it doesn't think it's a text box!

    3) Fixed width = epic fail. It's bad enough on my laptop at the moment, but I shudder to think how it'll look on my widescreen monitor tomorrow. The whole point of good web design is that your website should look good regardless of resolution/screen size, font size etc etc.

    4) The new comment icons are horrible. Where are Paris and Steve?

    I actually quite like the new appearance. I just wish you'd tested it a bit more before pushing it out.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Re: At the risk of sounding like a pedant...

    John,

    I accept your explanation, and duly de-escalate my paranoid delusions to regular midweek levels. I personally tend to use the O&S front page as a source of those quirky anecdotes that help me understand the British, and their furry cousins, the French - though I do reject the unflattering portrayal of Australians (clearly the result of prejudice, malice, and malcontent). You could arguably treat the whole shebang as one section and axe the other sub classifications all together (BOFH excepted, of course). Give it a Reg 2.0 name though..

    How about "Club Reg"? "RegTopia"?

  26. Sceptical Bastard

    TBL hates it / @ John

    Tim Berners-Lee was on BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme just now decrying the spread of anti-scientific rumour and 'bad science' on the internet. He added "Some sites are also turning to bad icons... a prime example is The Register website."

    Actually, I made that last bit up.

    @ John Lettice: Quote "...there's an argument for putting Odds & Sods back on the nav bar..." Nice to see you conceding valid points, El Reg. So if we can have Odds & Sods reinstated, can we have 'iquid width' and our old icons back please.

    PS Enjoy your holiday, Sarah, and come back soon.

  27. V

    iphone

    It looks "ok" on the iphone - but if you could specify a viewport width that excluded the thin grey stripes on either side, it would look better... I.e JUST the white, and possibly the 1 pixel width of vertical black.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    You did it on purpose

    Work just bought me a widescreen monitor. Gits!

  29. V

    Adsense

    This page: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/14/reg_redesign/

    currently show 4 separate ad blocks from Google. (I am in Japan.) I can't remember the current adsense rules, but I THINK it used to be 3 blocks to a page (?)

  30. Matt

    Screwed up on my PDA

    I like the new look, but any chance of getting it to vaguely work on a PDA? Every story is guess work to click the right one and it's all now in one column.

  31. Steven Foster
    Thumb Up

    Not bad.

    Overall I like it. But as others have said, fixed width isn't a good idea, and I preferred the old Icons.

  32. V

    share this article

    The "share this article" link appears AFTER the rest of the page renders. This means the "post a comment" link is suddenly displaced to the right. If you put the "share this article link" to the right of the "post a comment link" or found a way to pin the "post a comment" link to its correct position before the javascript executes to render "share this article", it would look less fussy and one's eye would not be drawn to the unnecessary movement...

    Is there any reason why the "share this article" LINK has to appear using javascript? If so, why not use jquery or something so that it can be placed there as soon as the DOM has settled down, rather than the whole page has loaded?

    Also - I think you could cheerfully increase the line width. It looks like a "spacious layout" executed in a "cramped way".

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OMFG

    It looks like someone has taken a css pill.

  34. Alex Sullivan
    Thumb Up

    I like it

    Some differentiation is good and helps navigation.

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  36. Daniel Turner
    Thumb Down

    Odd's & Sod's

    Bring it back!

    I can't find it :(

  37. Secretgeek

    Another 2 pence worth.

    Mostly I like it. Seems ok.

    Except the 'rough round the edges' font, I've seen it elsewhere and it looks cheap and second rate. Also re the icons - meh..not impressed but not that bothered either.

  38. Hugo

    Where's the whalesong and josssticks?

    Where's the whalesong and josssticks for the new masthead and logo? I will be expecting to read it this Friday afternoon.

  39. Eponymous Cowherd
    Joke

    Quite nice.

    I like the most read and most commented feature.

    Hate the fixed width (only fills half my 1920 wide screen) and the new comment icons are just nasty.

  40. Dominik Stansby
    Boffin

    I agree about the font size..

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes but unless I zoom to 120% reading The Reg hurts so much!!

    My resolution is 1280x800 and I can only imagine that the font will be even smaller on my other computer!

    By the way, to those who said the site doesn't work right on Opera 9.52, try updating to 9.60

    Windows

    http://snapshot.opera.com/windows/o960s_10427m.exe

    Mac

    http://snapshot.opera.com/mac/o960s_5223.dmg

    Unix

    http://snapshot.opera.com/unix/snapshot-2426/

  41. chuBb.
    Thumb Down

    the new mast head is wonk

    bring back the old masthead this just looks like web design circa 98-99 when the world went ape for free copies of paintshop pro and and some shite tables based wysiwyg html editor, and the old comment icons were orders of magnitude better

    other wise seems ok.....

  42. Anonymous Cowherd

    It will be perfect when it's finished

    The site is great.

    Okay, so the layout is broken, the graphics are not available yet, and you are still waiting for the final style sheets, but I look forward to seeing it when it is finished.

    I liked the fact that you had icons quickly redrawn from memory by an eight-year-old after the old site broke down. It is a good way to save money and it prevents us from feeling guilty that Adblock still works perfectly.

    So much for articles about whale-song and joss-sticks, eh? Woooooeeeeooo...

  43. Paul Buxton
    Paris Hilton

    Icons

    I want the old icons back, I'm missing Paris already. Apart from that small thing though I like the changes.

  44. David Shepherd
    Stop

    hate it

    No, don't like it at all ... seems to have gone the same ways as the awful BBC news revamp from earlier this year. Anyway, at least the BBC episode caused me to find the stylist add-on for firefox so I could tweak that into a slighlty more acceptable (to me!) form and maybe I'll have to do the same for the reg ... alternatively, as they say on the BBC "there are other suppliers of tech news"

  45. Thomas

    "are pretty much where they've always been, arranged in three columns, in order of posting"

    I've always wondered about this — how come some stories seem to hang around longer than others, and continually jump back up towards the top? Is that all over now?

    Otherwise, looks good.

  46. Vincent
    Flame

    Like the new look...

    Not too keen on some of the icons though. Some are better than the old ones, but for the most part I don't like them.

  47. Rick
    Coat

    Width (like so many others)

    I agree, fixed width of 800 is *very* annoying, I use 1280x800 on my lappie - such a waste with the horrid grey bars - much harder to scroll, so much to read - "Give me freedom to reformat width! or give me death!!!!" (hmmm, should'nt have offered an alternative I guess) -getting me coat....

  48. breakfast Silver badge
    Alien

    Could have guessed you'd fall to the gradient side eventually.

    I suppose el Reg was the last bastion of pre-gradient-fill design and it was only to be expected that you would go for that sooner or later, but I think the gradient could be a little smoother and if you're really going for it, one would expect that at the very least a lickable vulture would be in order.

    The icons don't make sense and suck more than the old ones- I mean what is the one I'm using here even supposed to represent? A sad green upwards raindrop? The huge expanses of grey either side of the story are quite annoying but it may just be that they are too high contrast. Given that you're working with a more tech savvy readership you could potentially design for a slightly higher-resolution screen by default. If you're using good CSS people can work around it anyways if it's bothering them so I'd think to design for the majority. Certainly for me the text is tiny and the site as a whole is a small vertical strip in a sea of dark grey.

    Otherwise it's fine. This form I'm using now is much better.

  49. Matthew Ellen
    Paris Hilton

    Fixed width

    I was going to complain about the fixed width thing, but then someone said ctrl+ and I gave it a try and now everything is bigger and better.

    I had a great joke too, about how you were turning your site into a fashion model (pretty but too thin), and how this would make all us web devs bulimic.

    Comedy gold I tell you.

    Oh. It only stays zoomed until I go to a new page. Well, that's disappointing.

  50. Bryan Sylvester
    Paris Hilton

    Too many grey space at the sides of this website. Anyway....

    ...I can now remove theregister.co.uk from IE8b2 compatibility list. All I have to do now is to get used to the slimmed down design that does not look good on my 22" widescreen LCD.

    Can we get the older comment icons too?

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