5 ms·

TechCrunch Has Redesigned, Again

34 points by ssclafani 13y ago

rfnslyr 13y ago
I miss the days where you visited a website and all you got was a 960px wide centered site with a banner and a clearly distinguishable menu. Maybe if you were lucky you had a sidebar, and if you were really lucky it wasn't designed terribly. This new design resembles that era to a degree for me. Might actually start using it now. Dead simple navigation is what I look for every time and this redesign nails that. I love that as well as the "recent fundings" and footer. Stories ALL the way down, with a huge ass number for pages gets me excited and has me potentially spending a lot of time on TC in the future. It took me about 5 seconds to know exactly how to use the new site, and that's amazing. Really gives it that "go to" feel that websites strive for. edit: looks beautiful on my Nexus 7 as well.
diziet 13y ago
I love the logo re-design the most. Finally!
kwamenum86 13y ago
Actually an improvement
slowdown 13y ago
They don't need to re-shape the way their website looks, just the way they handle journalism. These guys are one of the few to bastardize journalism in the tech space. We want to read about News - about reporting what happens, exactly right? Not about what somebody else thinks of the news. And that's exactly what Techcrunch does - Steal the news from communities like Hackernews, Reddit, etc. and add their own bias, repackage and sell it with ads. Viola, money! Because AOL.
- cleverjake 13y ago
  Neither here nor there. No reason to use a story about a redesign as a soapbox for your complaints, no matter how accurate they may be.
  - mayneack 13y ago
    Under the correct assumption that there was some effort to increase readership by this move, commenting that the design was not their biggest problem seems relevant enough for an internet comment.
jonathanjaeger 13y ago
I know first impressions are not always the best, but I find it much harder to read the titles quickly. Take a look at Mashable, for example -- scrolling through that is a mess. I had no problem with the old TechCrunch design and now I feel there are so many competing things happening at the same time. AllThingsD article titles are right there and the contrast in color and clean design makes it easier to scroll.
- cheald 13y ago
  FWIW, the Mashable design was constructed with a focus on visual content over serial order of headlines; for those of us that are used to an RSS reader, it's less optimal, but it was intentional after coming to a better understanding of our core audience. It's worked out quite well for us.
  - jonathanjaeger 13y ago
    Thanks for the clarification, cheald! Of course you did user testing and know your audience way better than I do, haha, but the design just irks me for my way of consuming Mashable content. So my opinion is as always my own subjective taste (selfishly). But I do still consume some of the content :)
    - cheald 13y ago
      I totally understand - I wasn't nuts about it, either, since I really do tend to like serial textual information, rather than more undirected visual information. It's grown on me, though (looking at it for hours on end will do that!), and it's been hard to argue with the analytics!
untog 13y ago
Makes those recycled press releases really shine.
kylelibra 13y ago
Personally I think TechCrunch's content is the issue, not the design. Although this design is much improved, I'd also like to see them make some editorial changes. Step in the right direction regardless.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Or just fold the whole operation. It's not like the industry would collapse in their absence, and may just improve.
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  Responsiveness (especially on news sites) is a HUGE win for those reading on tablets/phones. The content doesn't matter if it's completely unreadable.
abdophoto 13y ago
Looks great.
camus2 13y ago
I prefer the old version. i have a 13 inch screen. All i see is a big header and little content. I think the new design has a whitespace problem and lacks of personality. It feels like it was designed by developpers , not by designers. As for the content,i prefer ArsTechnica, I like long articles about specific subjects instead of news about "dirsuptive app X".
chrisjtow 13y ago
TechCrunch is a hype machine. The writers tend to be bandwagoners. Creating awards for best start-ups misses the point of a start-up, to become a great company, not a media darling. I look at TechCrunch the way I look at Deadspin, Gawker, or any tabloid website. Not for content, simply for splash.
adventured 13y ago
I notice they're placing the thumbnails to the right of the headline. Most arguments I've seen strongly advocate for placing thumbnails to the left of the headline or just above the headline, because the eye will be quickly drawn to the image and you want it to flow top to down or left to right, into the headline, as a natural habit for western languages (jumping right to left in the process of viewing / reading, is unnatural, that is).
rhizome 13y ago
I found a positively amateur Javascript/HTML problem that tells me maybe they have a porn-site problem where no competent programmer wants anything to do with them, much less take their money in exchange for work. Or they've been pranked. My apologies to the porn site industry for the aspersion.
thrillgore 13y ago
Classic TechCrunch: Aesthetically pleasing, terrible content.

34 points by ssclafani 13y ago

I miss the days where you visited a website and all you got was a 960px wide centered site with a banner and a clearly distinguishable menu. Maybe if you were lucky you had a sidebar, and if you were really lucky it wasn't designed terribly. This new design resembles that era to a degree for me. Might actually start using it now. Dead simple navigation is what I look for every time and this redesign nails that. I love that as well as the "recent fundings" and footer. Stories ALL the way down, with a huge ass number for pages gets me excited and has me potentially spending a lot of time on TC in the future. It took me about 5 seconds to know exactly how to use the new site, and that's amazing. Really gives it that "go to" feel that websites strive for. edit: looks beautiful on my Nexus 7 as well.

diziet 13y ago

I love the logo re-design the most. Finally!

kwamenum86 13y ago

Actually an improvement

slowdown 13y ago

They don't need to re-shape the way their website looks, just the way they handle journalism. These guys are one of the few to bastardize journalism in the tech space. We want to read about News - about reporting what happens, exactly right? Not about what somebody else thinks of the news. And that's exactly what Techcrunch does - Steal the news from communities like Hackernews, Reddit, etc. and add their own bias, repackage and sell it with ads. Viola, money! Because AOL.

cleverjake 13y ago
Neither here nor there. No reason to use a story about a redesign as a soapbox for your complaints, no matter how accurate they may be.
- mayneack 13y ago
  Under the correct assumption that there was some effort to increase readership by this move, commenting that the design was not their biggest problem seems relevant enough for an internet comment.

jonathanjaeger 13y ago

I know first impressions are not always the best, but I find it much harder to read the titles quickly. Take a look at Mashable, for example -- scrolling through that is a mess. I had no problem with the old TechCrunch design and now I feel there are so many competing things happening at the same time. AllThingsD article titles are right there and the contrast in color and clean design makes it easier to scroll.

cheald 13y ago
FWIW, the Mashable design was constructed with a focus on visual content over serial order of headlines; for those of us that are used to an RSS reader, it's less optimal, but it was intentional after coming to a better understanding of our core audience. It's worked out quite well for us.
- jonathanjaeger 13y ago
  Thanks for the clarification, cheald! Of course you did user testing and know your audience way better than I do, haha, but the design just irks me for my way of consuming Mashable content. So my opinion is as always my own subjective taste (selfishly). But I do still consume some of the content :)
  - cheald 13y ago
    I totally understand - I wasn't nuts about it, either, since I really do tend to like serial textual information, rather than more undirected visual information. It's grown on me, though (looking at it for hours on end will do that!), and it's been hard to argue with the analytics!

untog 13y ago

Makes those recycled press releases really shine.

kylelibra 13y ago

Personally I think TechCrunch's content is the issue, not the design. Although this design is much improved, I'd also like to see them make some editorial changes. Step in the right direction regardless.

rhizome 13y ago
Or just fold the whole operation. It's not like the industry would collapse in their absence, and may just improve.
joelrunyon 13y ago
Responsiveness (especially on news sites) is a HUGE win for those reading on tablets/phones. The content doesn't matter if it's completely unreadable.

abdophoto 13y ago

Looks great.

camus2 13y ago

I prefer the old version. i have a 13 inch screen. All i see is a big header and little content. I think the new design has a whitespace problem and lacks of personality. It feels like it was designed by developpers , not by designers. As for the content,i prefer ArsTechnica, I like long articles about specific subjects instead of news about "dirsuptive app X".

chrisjtow 13y ago

TechCrunch is a hype machine. The writers tend to be bandwagoners. Creating awards for best start-ups misses the point of a start-up, to become a great company, not a media darling. I look at TechCrunch the way I look at Deadspin, Gawker, or any tabloid website. Not for content, simply for splash.

adventured 13y ago

I notice they're placing the thumbnails to the right of the headline. Most arguments I've seen strongly advocate for placing thumbnails to the left of the headline or just above the headline, because the eye will be quickly drawn to the image and you want it to flow top to down or left to right, into the headline, as a natural habit for western languages (jumping right to left in the process of viewing / reading, is unnatural, that is).

rhizome 13y ago

I found a positively amateur Javascript/HTML problem that tells me maybe they have a porn-site problem where no competent programmer wants anything to do with them, much less take their money in exchange for work. Or they've been pranked. My apologies to the porn site industry for the aspersion.

thrillgore 13y ago

Classic TechCrunch: Aesthetically pleasing, terrible content.