Big Picture Redesign, part I
The long awaited redesign rolls out this week. I wanted to walk you though the changes we made in the site — why I did this, the added functionality, and how its going to look.
First, some history. TBP has gone through a few site designs, from basic, to a bit more complex. Via the Wayback Machine, we can see these:
click for bigger screen shot
August 2003
Two years later, that design had bored me to tears, and I worked with Moxie to come up with this design:
May 2005
18 months later, we went a little more colorful:
December 2006
I’ve reached the point where its too colorful, two busy, too overwhelming. Simpler is better, and tomorrow, I’ll show you some of the design ideas we kicked around.
The new site is much cleaner and lighter than the current one — 2 columns, very unbusy sidebars. Except for a light flash intro, its very simple and clean.
And, it loads much, much faster than this current design.
A few structural changes: I went with a tabbed format — there are 6 of them, with the first tab
the main part of the blog, focusing on economic and market issues. The
other tabs allow me to segregate other material from different authors,
books, videos, etc. Those of you who don’t want to see the videos, music, or non market related stuff won’t have to look at ‘em.
The biggest changes are the functional improvements: "Email this" page allows a simple email forwarding. The print function was the single most requested upgrade. We did a kick ass job — see this post, Analysts Forecasts Remain Too High — Then look at this: Graphic Print_blog.PNG — pretty slick !
I am pretty jazzed — the new features and the entire design is way cool.
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October 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Since I’m first I think I’ll say, after complimenting Barry on the progress he’s making on the blog, that although my eyesight is good, I suspect some older and, possibly, wiser commenters are missing out on regailing us with their views, due to the code word required being difficult to read.
I won’t propose a solution since I know it’s part of the difficulty with a site like this to filter who can place comments.
Also earlier I stated that it would be awesome to have follow up comments emailed to you so you can engage in more intense debate.
Somehow I signed up for this at Naked Capitalism, its pretty cool. My gmail account somehow aggregates the replies so my mail box doesn’t appear filled up with a single thread.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I like it BR! Nice web designer.
Happy Birthday too!
Your blog rocks, I love it. Thanks for allowing me a place to talk about markets.
Irie vibes,
I-Man
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Barry, FYI: when you last asked for feedback/ideas/cautionary tales, I asked that you not bog it down like TSC did in their redesign last Spring because it was so slow I couldn’t use it any more. I’ve found out since then that the problem is Flash. Once I started using Firefox with an optional flash-don’t-load feature, TSC and a few other flash-overkill sites are merely slow, not unusable.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
When do you launch the new site?
Looking forward to it!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Been looking forward to it
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Don’t forget the Reader’s Recipe Corner. Here’s my favorite for Skewered Lame Duck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpGgGpojJ04
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
buena fortuna, homeslice. May nothing but bunnies and sunshine greet you as you roll out the new blogarythms.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
If you could, please take it easy on the Flash. Most mobile phone browsers have trouble with it, whether iPhone or Windows. MS just signed an agreement with Adobe to to allow MS to create a mobile Flash viewer, but haven’t seen it appear yet.
I also look forward to the cleaner layout when looking at the site on my phone. My Verizion connection is pretty fast and I was zipping through the mobile versions of Bloomberg and CNBC and even the full Bloomberg site, but your pages are very slow to load. The browser was showing each page to be 400-500k in size.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 pm
BR, can’t wait. keep up the good work.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Can’t wait to see the new digs, Barry!
As much time as you’ve put into the changes, I ‘spect they’ll be great!
Personally, I think this incarnation is fine, and loads quickly. If v.X is faster and more fun, I don’t know how I’ll contain myself!
Woot Woo!
–mf
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Flash Intro?! Please no, that’s so 2004 – besides it’s bad for your SEO don’t you know?
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:36 pm
BR,
two things: what kind of ‘pute has problems with page loads? 1a. to Mike’s point re: ‘thin clients/mobile apps’, do you envision a ‘text only’ doppelganger of TBP?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/doppelganger (it is ‘the Season, btw)
and 2.) though even I know it may be a bit early, TBP should consider blocking access to IE-browsers..it would force those with half a clue, toward being more clued-in…
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
BR, I don’t have any complaints about the current format. Will look forward to seeing the new though.
As long as you’re going tabular though, why not a link to: http://www.viralvideochart.com/
Then we ‘Netizens’ can keep up on important achievements like “Chimp Rides Segway”.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Cartoon:
Shut Up You Fools Your Mortgage Isn’t Important – The Bank is Important!
http://www.viralgrapevine.com/images/ShutUpYouFoolsYourMortgageIsntImportantT_EE67/image_thumb.png
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Good luck with the redesign Barry! Simpler IS better when it comes to the web.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 pm
BR, three suggestions:
- Check how it looks and works with text size increased. Now the left-hand column bleeds across the center column but no problem functionally.
- Check how it works with Firefox plus NoScript blocking Flash. I jump around sites a lot and find that pages load much quicker with Flash disabled (cable modem), security is probably better too.
- Being pretty new here, I don’t know if comments continue to be active on older posts or whether the activity always migrates to the most current couple of posts or so. (I suspect the latter.) Since I get a lot out of the comments, I’d like to be able to know what posts are seeing comment activity. For all I know now, there could be a terrific comment thread happening on a post you put up a month ago and I have no practical way of finding out about that.
Kudos for making the effort to improve what’s already a great site.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
BR, three suggestions:
- Check how it looks and works with text size increased. Now the left-hand column bleeds across the center column; ugly but functions fine.
- Check how it works with Firefox plus NoScript blocking Flash. I jump around sites a lot and find that pages load much quicker with Flash disabled (cable modem), security is probably better too.
- Being pretty new here, I don’t know if comments continue to be active on older posts or whether the activity always migrates to the most current couple of posts or so. (I suspect the latter.) Since I get a lot out of the comments, I’d like to be able to know what posts are seeing comment activity. For all I know now, there could be a terrific comment thread happening on a post you put up a month ago and I have no practical way of finding out about that.
Kudos for making the effort to improve what’s already a great site.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Please get rid of any idea of a flash intro that is one of the biggest annoyances in design. This isn’t 1999.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
When are you going to get your own domain name?
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 pm
flash? noooooooooooooo….
i like the current color scheme. very unlike most money blogs, which i think is a good thing.
most impotantly, will there be an undated photo of your dog?
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 am
er, undated? UPdated photo of your dog, I mean…
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 am
jon w:
I thought the site redesign included getting his own domain name. I guess we’ll see.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 am
jon w:
I thought the site redesign included getting his own domain name. I guess we’ll see.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:47 am
I get TBP via RSS feeds in Google Reader in FF 3.0.3.
Unlike most other feeds, when I click on the title to go to the actual blog entry, it opens in a NEW WINDOW, instead of a NEW TAB (so I have to remember to do a right-click “open in new tab”).
This is a small annoyance but would appreciate it if you could fix this up.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
I LOVE THE REDESIGN!
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 am
The first iteration was best, the second OK.
Now as for the soon-to-debut version, you mention “except for a light flash intro,” which, of course, means “active” code.
Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of internet security on a computer being used for banking and brokerage will not trust informational sites to run active code and will have internal security settings adjusted accordingly.
If they do not take those precautions, at some point in time they will experience problems that they do not want to encounter, with malware and the like.
Skip the fancy animations and protect your “fans’” security.
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
The Graphic Print_blog.PNG link is not acting right for me. Last night & this morning, it loads for a split second and then condenses into print to small to read.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:42 am
BR – Suggestion – Please be lean on the flash (or none) , add search capability for comments , agree on text size options . – Thank-
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:03 am
No techno me – all I can report is that the TBP mainpage opens OK, but my MacBook effectively rendered useless when I click on either of the first two tabs (Markets & Economy). The new page begins to populate, but my cursor flicks back and forth between the spinning rainbow circle, the active content “hand” and the arrow. I haven’t the time right now to see how long it would take to complete the page load. I’m on the office wireless broadband right now. At home with a copper dial-up ISP, I suspect it would never finish loading.
Can anyone clue me in as to what’s up with this?
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
It seems I was a comparative dove about Flash.
I don’t mind it on a laptop on desktop. I have Firefox set to block it by default and change it for sites that I trust. Two handy Firefox addons are Noscript and Adblock. Of course, this site is designated as trusted.
Noscript blocks scripts from pages that you haven’t designated as trusted.It is more for security purpose than anything, e.g. protecting against sites that might dispense malware without asking. In the process, it often blocks flash and ads.
Adblock will show all the blockable elements on a page and let you choose which to block of whatever type; was wonderful during the heyday of those really annoying mortgage ads contraining a loop of someone or something dancing.
If anyone wants to see Flash designers run amok, check out toyota.com on your mobile. It is useless because it is almost entirely Flash.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
So, THAT”S what the strange format is that Carl sent out! (won’t link here, since it appears that you aren’t ready to show it yet).
Now I’m glad that I didn’t bother you with any stupid WTF questions…
–Ken
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
BR–
This post reminds me that I have been a regular reader since 2003. I remember emailing you directly back in the day and getting a timely response! (you are likely too busy for that now)
Anyway, just an occasion to say how much I have benefited from the information and analysis I have found here. I am sure there are many other loyal 6-year readers who feel the same way.
Best,
Alex Norman
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Could you put the notice of your media appearance near the top of the page?
October 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Hi, a big impediment to even coming to this site for me is that it is so large, and takes so long to load. Most blogs have a day or a week’s worth of posts per page (depending on how often they update), yet this one seems to have every post going back to what must be 1987 on one page! I think a big improvement would be to split up the current 1-page for every post ever style to one page per day, and have a link to the next page at the bottom to let readers continue reading older posts. I am currently using opera for a browser, but this is also the case when i tried displaying this site using internet explorer. I just tried to load the main markets page, and opera is telling me it downloaded 7mb before it even started loading the images! Currently, I am reading the site through the rss feed, but I think it would be a great improvement to split up the site into more than one page, with older posts on back pages.