What's that message at the top of the forums? We're upgrading


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I love the new design very modern and easy to navigate, the old design was getting old,  I'm also sure it will improve over the coming weeks/months as the site developers work on it and keep tweaking things around, just relax people.

Don't like it at all.

Same. The design is very template base. Would think they would get a UX designer to layout the design. There is a reason you don't let a coder do the design.

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the mobile version is nice, but i have my windows phone IE set to desktop view as preferred and it still goes to mobile view. i hate when sites don't adhere to this. if i want mobile sites, ill switch to mobile as my preference. and where is the option for full web page view on mobile?

 

also, search magnifying glass on main page flickers and garbles. IE11.

Well, time for some (hopefully) constructive criticism. While I like the new look I fear Neowin has lost a bit of it's personality. Too many sites look like the same set of Metro tiles nowadays, and without a striking font or a few unique design elements it might get hard to recognize the site at a glance. Maybe something different than just "Open Sans" would already help.

 

The main issue I have is the lack of content visibility on desktops without scrolling. The fold is a well-known design concept. Although I don't believe you should pay too much attention to the idea behind it (this is an excellent read on the topic), I do feel that Neowin right now needs at least some of it.

 

ELEBddC.png

 

Right now, if you visit the site without Adblock/subscriber, you need a large monitor to see any of the 'real' content at a glance. Any common PC resolution below 1920x1080 suffers from it, which includes the nowadays very common 1600x900, 1366x768, 1280x800, ... Even if I emulate these viewport sizes and don't take into account window chrome (address bar and tabs) and the start bar, you still only see the featured items and ads. While the featured items may look nice if you're really used to them, I think they're getting just a little too much attention right now.

 

A bigger problem is that, at those window sizes (especially if you're not logged in), everything looks like an ad if you don't scroll. It's all so flashy with big images and big fonts, which happens to be exactly how an ad looks. I took a screenshot on my 1920x1200 tablet to demonstrate what I mean:

 

LmgTckSh.png

 

When I look at that I just wonder, where's the content? Lost between ads and headers. I'd really make those featured items much, much smaller. For a good example of a similar layout you could take a look at Tweakers.net. Another good start would be making the list view the default view, it's what we're used to from Neowin and, to be honest, is easier to read.

 

Any thoughts on what I said? I'm interested in hearing what the thinking behind these decisions was (especially the big featured tiles).

Before I could see all the relevant info for what news I wanted to read or not very quickly. Now I have to scroll through a huge page with giant images.. I hope thats a bug.

Looking at it more, the poll to the right, the navigation bar at top.. everything is HUGE now.

Urgh.. It's horrible! Turn the old one back on!

 

Damn that's gonna be hard to hide at work... :(

Use the Darkside theme!

Before I could see all the relevant info for what news I wanted to read or not very quickly. Now I have to scroll through a huge page with giant images.. I hope thats a bug.

Looking at it more, the poll to the right, the navigation bar at top.. everything is HUGE now.

It's not a bug...

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gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled = false (default)

gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.use_gdi_table_loading = true (default)

Weird I thought FF used DW by default.

 

Let use the less concrete term "Hardware Acceleration"

Do you have HWA enabled?

 

WFM CyberFox Intel / AVX 31.0.1

NV 660

W8.1 x64

NEOWIN NEW THEME : REVIEW (August 2014)
After using a little while and experimenting here and there, here is my short review and bug report :
 

What i really like:

+ Responsive, no need to build neowin apps. open in mobile is much cleaner, faster, and feels native like an apps
+ Flat Design, following the trend
+ Darkmode and Automode (really liked it!)
+ Big boxed featured post, and i really like the hover animation
+ Top menu bar autohide while scrolling down, and showing again while scrolling up (like a google apps)
+ Open Sans font
+ More post are shown
+ Ability to change theme, no more load
+ Rounded avatar!
+ embedded Gif support in comment section! (best feature)
+ Pop-up author profile!
 
What i think can be improved:
- The font is just feels too big
- The featured post only show 4 post
- So many things that have been changed and disappear,
- no more forum sub menu hover (like showing spy, mini spy, latest forum post etc. Neowin is all about forum)
- Not showing a HOT! text in the hot post, just showing red colored comment count. For first timer, HOT! post is eye catching.
- For default theme, feels to many white, and by seeing for far away, doesn't look like a Neowin. the relaxed blue is gone.
- So many button, link, text, feels hidden because of the color and fade animation. Example : i didn't notice a like/quote button showing up when hovering a comment in post, and so many things feel hidden. maybe because of the font is too thin, and the color, and fade animation. no animation feels snappier and i can notice a change instantly. just look  "Want to make Windows 8 feel faster? Shut-off these animations" post, killing off animation feels snappier and faster.
 
BUG REPORT #1:
I don't know if this is a bug or its intended to be like this, but i can't click submenu in News header menu. For example, in the old theme, i'm always click the 'software' button to see all post about software, or 'editorial' button to see editorial only post. But now, its just hovering and show only latest post.
 
BUG REPORT #2:
This is really a bug. when clicking the picture/image in post, its open up a new tab rather than a pop-up gallery. But after i close the tab, previous tab finally showing the popup gallery slideshow.
 
BUG REPORT #3:
The post image is pixelated, looks like its the size/resolution doesn'y support the new theme yet.
 
BUG REPORT #4:
In the search result, in the Darskide theme, the font color in header menu (showing news, forum, or comment) is false, unreadable. The page color too in the bottom.
 
BUG REPORT #5:
In about us page, the there is link colored text, and the read color is unreadable/uncomfortable to read.
 
BUG REPORT #6:
Review header image looks gorgeous in white theme, but not in darkside. Maybe you can change it by using some tag code or css, not using an image. Just a newbie opinion.
 
FEATURE REQUEST #1:
- New post notification
- New theme in forum (of course)
 
This is just my opinion, feel free to comment and critic!  Feel free to add my point, add a bug report, or any opinion would be great!

Use the Darkside theme!

 

Is that meant to make it all look better again? Because it doesn't.. It's the same hideous monstrosity, just dark.

 

Can't we have an option for the old theme, please?  That way everyone's happy.//

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I, for one, think the font size is just right. Not too big, and finally, not too small anymore. I can read the text without squinting, or increasing the zoom.

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the mobile version is nice, but i have my windows phone IE set to desktop view as preferred and it still goes to mobile view. i hate when sites don't adhere to this. if i want mobile sites, ill switch to mobile as my preference. and where is the option for full web page view on mobile?

 

also, search magnifying glass on main page flickers and garbles. IE11.

That because Neowin and many other websites don't look at your UAS to check what design you should get, but to the amount of available pixels through media queries in CSS.

i feel like its look like TechSpot or winbeta, isn't it?

 
Other Tech Site Comparison :
Winbeta.org

315g3yf.jpg

 
WPCentral

21dg2a8.jpg

 
TechSpot

t5qf6s.jpg

 
TechCrunch

308a6vo.jpg

 
TechnoBuffalo

nozrds.jpg

 
Engadget

2vtshvl.jpg

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Weird I thought FF used DW by default.

 

Let use the less concrete term "Hardware Acceleration"

Do you have HWA enabled?

 

WFM CyberFox Intel / AVX 31.0.1

NV 660

W8.1 x64

 

yes its enabled

 

edit: found the problem, had gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode set to 2 instead of the default -1

 

had set that 2 to fix the old firefox 14 HWA problem and never remember more about it

 

thanks for the help

Edited by Mayhem
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