Hi everyone,

The Demand Media team are proud to present the new homepage which will be launched today. The new homepage will be live by end of day so please be patient as it will go live as soon as we have all teams sign off and the technical side is complete. The crew was heavily involved in the design and functionality of the homepage plus a mock up of the homepage was provided to the community with certain user recommendations implemented in the new design.

Listed below are some changes and functionality that you should be aware of:

- The top left module is the “top of last 24 hours” photos and updated every hour (same as before)
- The “photographer’s choice” and “top rated photos” are now in module form and function the same as before
- We added an “editor’s choice” module which will allow editors to highlight any photos that they find particularly good (this will tend to be rare or historic photos)
- The top navigation was changed to flow better and cut out any duplication so please look through it thoroughly and we welcome any recommendations
- Brand New – We added a featured photographer module to highlight the many talented photographers on the site. One of our future projects is to upgrade the user (photographer’s) profiles and this is one way to start highlighting the talent and bring more exposure to the photogs.

You will see that certain text elements were eliminated. This was decided upon to clean up the overall look of the homepage and eliminate anything that was not being used. Our goal was to highlight the best parts of the site, increase the screen size (which was outdated) to create more room for a.net content, and clean up any textual clutter that was distracting from the highlighted parts of the site.

We strove to keep as much as the Airliners.net look and feel as possible but still upgrade the functionality and aesthetics of the homepage. We look forward to any positive feedback and will do a second launch within the week) to change any necessary elements if needed. Please hold all questions until the site is launched so no duplicate questions are asked. We really look forward to bringing this to the community and hope we can make this a success for everyone, and nothing is set in stone, we want all upgrades to be a group effort and your constructive feedback is welcome.

The crew and I will be available to answer any questions. I will be unavailable during the actual launch as I'll be focused on testing but I'll be back on the forums within a few hours.

Thank you,

Monique

Will there be an option to use the former homepage?

I guess there are significant bugs popping up? Can we get an announcement please?

Yes, very curious/anxious to see this new home page. Any ideas anyone on why the delay?

Quoting Graphic (Reply 2): I guess there are significant bugs popping up? Can we get an announcement please?

The first sentence of the thread starter

Quoting Flyheligirl (Thread starter): The new homepage will be live by end of day so please be patient as it will go live as soon as we have all teams sign off and the technical side is complete

Overall I like it, but my one complaint is that having forum topics centered instead of alligned to the left hand side of the forum display makes it harder to read.

Quoting Bok269 (Reply 5): Overall I like it, but my one complaint is that having forum topics centered instead of alligned to the left hand side of the forum display makes it harder to read.

You see it? I don't...

Hmm. I saw it for a bit, then it disappeared. I guess that it's being tested, which is a good thing.   It still lacks a visual hierarchy does not flow at all. I think that there is something to be said for simple pages, like the Best Page in the Universe. Still, glad to see that the bugs are being worked out.

Yeah - Keeps popping in and out

Managed to grab this screenshot - The site is brand new as you know so probably not the full thing etc

Quoting Jamesbaldwyn (Reply 8): Managed to grab this screenshot

I really hope that isn't the final version. If it is, I just might become ill.   

Quoting Jamesbaldwyn (Reply 8):

I'd give that 1/5 (the one comes from effort). It doesn't appear they took any of the useful criticism into account when they went with that. I'd hoped they would. Now I know better.  

The colors clash and the logo is smaller than the search bar. At least the bar at the very top looks nice. It's not any better than the current bar though. Looks like A.net pulled a DL, change the livery for no reason and no significant improvement.

Quoting Jamesbaldwyn (Reply 8):

In my opinion, the new outside royal blue doesn't flow well with the forum's blue...

I don't mind the top of the page though...

It's wonderful. It shows so much more on the same home page. GREAT!!!

well looks like i can actually post now. these contrasting blues are terrible. I don't care about the front page so much since I don't use it but the forums almost hurt to look at.

So what was changed from the first draft?

Here it is....IMHO the old one is MUCH better.

Quoting APFPilot1985 (Reply 15): well looks like i can actually post now. these contrasting blues are terrible. I don't care about the front page so much since I don't use it but the forums almost hurt to look at.

Oh the green was to DIE for  

Please. PLEASE do not use that as the homepage. That was awful. If you MUST change the page, give us the option of using this page. Its simple. Easy to navigate. I have no idea what was the intent of that page. It had no flow, but I did ahve 6 color choices!

IMHO, it's way too busy. There's too much clutter. I hope this is just a first draft....

Ok so the new menu gives you the ability to select your background color. Yuk, yuk and more yuk.

+1, I REALLY do not like the new homepage, way to cluttered and the colors are horrible. Please tell me this a cruel joke...

Quoting Bok269 (Reply 5): my one complaint is that having forum topics centered instead of alligned to the left hand side of the forum display makes it harder to read.

I agree. I don't like the way the text in each thread is centrally aligned either

that red screams Emergency red... i don't like it. The blue should be more subtle as much as I praise change, I think it should be left alone. But for future references, keep the forums button where it is.

Leo

Please change the forum content back to left-justified -- this current "centered" thing just doesn't work ... it is totally unintuitive to read, our eyes simply aren't conditioned to jump to the middle of a line, and then look for the beginning -- our eyes naturally go to the left of the page to look for the beginning of the line.

Quoting RCoulter (Reply 21): +1, I REALLY do not like the new homepage, way to cluttered and the colors are horrible. Please tell me this a cruel joke...

The homepage I could become learn to live with but the forums. I'm sorry but GCSE IT ?

Why change something if it's not broken? Please bring back the OLD homepage!

I hadn't seen the color choices before...OMG! Totally hideous.

Quoting Radarbeam (Reply 26): Why change something if it's not broken? Please bring back the OLD homepage!

I agree 100% The old home page was , in my opinion, much better and easier to navigate. Also why does the text get underline whenever my curser is in the middle of the page?

Erm, overall it doesn't seem too bad.

My only reservation is this:



The posts seem to be too cluttered as the username, post info and signature flow into each other. Another thing, what's it with all the text being underlined?

To be honest the only way I think the forums would work with the new design is if they were in vBulletin style, the forums just don't "flow" for me with the new graphics.

Also, I tried to edit my post but I couldn't even though I just posted...

So what's happening now? We had up down up down up down and now back to the old?

The new home page seems to take longer to load than the old one did. So +1 from me for for not liking it.

I completely agree that the background color choices are ghastly - but I guess I could get used to the default blue over time.

I really struggle to read the posts by people when it's all been centred! Overall, a fresh design but lacks the "classic" feel that the previous one had. Perhaps it'll take time to get used to and a few adjustments here and there will make it better!
Also....a lot brighter because there seem to be sooo many white spaces on the homepage! Prefer a more blended theme with blues instead of these white spaces!
All in all....it's okkkk eh!!

ari

Ok we're back to the old version ...phewwww this was just like a bad nightmare.         

It would have been nice of demand media to introduce the new homepage as a open beta to the users instead and letting the people voice their opinions on such and such designs ....kinda like the old administration use to do.   

IMHO, the best course if action is to keep the current webpage the way it is, it's functional and we're all used to it. Plus it's part of the a.net trademark, it's been the same layout pretty much ever since a.net has been on the web   

Please get rid of the center alignment for the post titles and the actual posts themselves! Makes it very hard to read and is distracting!

It's very "modern" in that it has that cluttered MySpace look. I don't find it awful, but the previous look was much clearer.

I Dont Like it!!! Bring the old one back!!!

I don't see any centre alignment...

I'm not liking the colors... I agree with whoever said the blues are contrasting each other. It did kind of hurt my eyes. Maybe something closer to the old color?

Thank you Airliners.net/ Demand Media moderators/website designers/"crew" for putting Airliners.net back to the old version. I know the new page probably took a lot of time and effort to design, but the old version (for the time being the current version) in my opinion (and many others too) was/is better.

Quoting BAKJet (Reply 40): Thank you Airliners.net/ Demand Media moderators/website designers/"crew" for putting Airliners.net back to the old version. I know the new page probably took a lot of time and effort to design, but the old version (for the time being the current version) in my opinion (and many others too) was/is better.

It's not over 'till it's over. I've got a feeling DM just brought back the old homepage temporarily.

Quoting Radarbeam (Reply 40): It's not over 'till it's over. I've got a feeling DM just brought back the old homepage temporarily.

Dang! I was really hoping that the old was going to stay and that the new one would be scrapped.

Quoting WestWing (Reply 31): The new home page seems to take longer to load than the old one did. So +1 from me for for not liking it.

   I agree. After trying to get to the home page a couple time without any success, the connection timed out and all I got was a blank screen. It literally took me 20 min. to get to the home page, log-in, and post this.    In addition, most of the time when trying to get to the forums, I would get to the page, but it would say "no hits" But now we're back to the old.  

We apologise for the problems you are currently experiencing. The new format was beta tested successfully. To quote from a mail from DM -

We did all this (beta test) and everything went extremely smooth. The problem we are having is from stage A (staging) to stage B (live site)… things are breaking through this process so no matter how much we test in stage A, things are breaking after that. We are trying to figure out why this is happening now because we tested this for days with no problems.

Quoting KPWM (Reply 42): Quoting WestWing (Reply 31): The new home page seems to take longer to load than the old one did. So +1 from me for for not liking it. checkmark I agree. After trying to get to the home page a couple time without any success, the connection timed out and all I got was a blank screen. It literally took me 20 min. to get to the home page, log-in, and post this. bomb In addition, most of the time when trying to get to the forums, I would get to the page, but it would say "no hits" But now we're back to the old. Confused

Wouldn't you expect this? The site is being changed completely and the staff are making changes, testing etc - A site will always be slow for the first couple of hours/day.

Centering all of the text makes the site very hard to read.

DM must not have any graphic designers on staff, otherwise this would have been pointed out. As if it isn't immediately obvious.

Please return to left-justified text for forum posts and headlines.

Thanks.

Quoting Bok269 (Reply 5): Overall I like it, but my one complaint is that having forum topics centered instead of alligned to the left hand side of the forum display makes it harder to read.

Count me in for that group... Center-justified is hard to read....

Quoting Radarbeam (Reply 33): It would have been nice of demand media to introduce the new homepage as a open beta to the users instead and letting the people voice their opinions on such and such designs

They did... And we commented...

https://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/site_related/read.main/73455/

This was the first draft:

And this is now:

Save for my AdBlock doing its job and the blocking of FL350 videos on A.net, I see a grand total of ONE change: The menu bar moved from underneath the title bar to above it.

Apparently every other thought of ours fell on deaf ears. Shame. A.net's to lose.

This is what happens when you have designers who don't know about usability. Or indeed, engineers who don't know about design! It also feels to me like new management making changes because "that's what new management does".


In the real world as well as the virtual world, very few people truly appreciate or understand the value and power of open, empty space. The open space of the current/old design elegantly emphasizes the important parts of the respective page.

Cramming it all full of content is a giant step backward. Leave the design open and clear, for the same reason that Apple Stores don't present customers with piles and piles of boxes filling every table to the edges.

The old/current design is to an Apple Store (clear and clean) what the new design is to a dollar store (busy and cluttered).

Quoting BAKJet (Reply 41): Dang! I was really hoping that the old was going to stay and that the new one would be scrapped.

Somehow I doubt it.

Quoting Starlionblue (Reply 48): Dang! I was really hoping that the old was going to stay and that the new one would be scrapped. Somehow I doubt it

One can hope and dream, can't they?