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Fresh look for website gives News the edge



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Published Date: 13 December 2007
THE Evening News website will be unveiling a completely new look tomorrow, with many significant improvements.
The changes, which follow several months of preparation and planning, include the ability to incorporate more multimedia and reader interactivity.

There will also be improved navigation links and search capabilities, allowing users to find what they're looking for quickly and easily.

The user commenting function has also been improved with additional security measures in place to reduce abuse of the system.

As a result of the switch to the new platform, the commenting facility will unfortunately not be available on the site today, but will return tomorrow.

Please let us know what you think of the site and its new look by posting your comments online.



The full article contains 130 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 13 December 2007 1:00 PM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

iRoy,

edinburgh 13/12/2007 23:25:27
1st to post? Well lets see if links work because mutiple lined comments obviously dont. http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Fresh-look-for-website-gives.3589973.jp
2

Kitti Kat,

Newtown Square 13/12/2007 23:33:57
the new format is awful. bring back the old one and soon.
3

Vile,

13/12/2007 23:35:41
This took "several months of preparation and planning"? Looks more like an afternoon's work by a couple of drunk toddlers.
4

Boy Wonder,

13/12/2007 23:36:45
Really do not like this layout! It's garish and looks too much like the sites of many other newspaper comment sections! I wonder who the new look is supposed to benefit ... because like this, it's a real put-off! Is that what the Johnson Press wants? To stop our comments? Because it might just stop mine!
5

sonny,

Bangkok 13/12/2007 23:39:22
Much more modern and streamlined. After 3 years of looking at the old this is refreshingly bright.
6

Paula,

13/12/2007 23:43:08
They have just managed to create a website that looks like every other single newspaper website. What happened to wanting to be unique? The previous colours were a lot less glaring than all this white.
7

Douglas,

Bathgate 13/12/2007 23:44:11
sonny, are you sure it's not your head you've banged. Boy Wonder!! A friendly face as 'twere. :o) This seems like change for the sake of it.
8

Douglas,

Bathgate 13/12/2007 23:45:35
sonny, are you sure it's not your head you've banged. Boy Wonder!! A friendly face as 'twere. :o) This seems like change for the sake of it.
9

Vile,

13/12/2007 23:48:08
Sonny, you think this dog of a site is streamlined? What sort of internet do you have in Bangkok?
10

Douglas,

Bathgate 13/12/2007 23:51:20
I'll have a double
11

Douglas,

Bathgate 13/12/2007 23:55:22
I'll have a double
12

Kipling,

13/12/2007 23:59:00
Instead of saying your comments will be policed by an editorial committee, you get threatened with a journalist contacting you "for further information". Perhaps the response might be to tell him to page along to get the information he needs. You can't see all the responses at one go. I was depressed when I saw the beta version & thought it might be another christmas joke.
13

Kipling,

14/12/2007 00:01:01
It's not quite Friday the 13th, but as near as damn on the cusp.
14

Kipling,

14/12/2007 00:08:51
It's not quite Friday the 13th, but as near as damn on the cusp.
15

Kipling,

14/12/2007 00:09:33
Eh? I just refreshed the page. Obviously doesn't get rid of the comment in the comment line.
16

Vandala,

14/12/2007 00:29:16
Certainly an improvement, but still a little pedestrian for my taste. The use of photography remains disappointingly unimaginative.
17

Mary Tocracy,

the posh houses 14/12/2007 00:56:56
This new dub dub dub is shocking. Sack the person responsible. I would love to have some Evening News journalist contact me. I'd give them a piece of my mind, lets face it they cannot spell, thay have no proper grasp of grammar and they display an appaling lack of sense. Morevover where are all my letters going as I type them. I wondered if there was something amiss with my set at this end. Perhaps it is the 'improvements' made by the Johnson Pres people. Bring it on schoolboys, we fought a war that you might print your drivel. Merry Christmas.
18

Mary Tocracy,

the posh houses 14/12/2007 01:08:16
Maybe I was harsh there. But there again, the wee box makes it hard to check what one has said, also, there are far, far too many adverts on this new EEN effort. I mean, what intersest does an old biddy like me have in Viagra, adventure holidays in Bangkok, sex aids, dating by text, online gambling of all things as well as strange religious cults? I don't know who carried out the research, but they got the demographic terribly wrong. I think taht the new 'improved' (that is a laugh) website looks exactly like the Edinburgh town council website, maybe the same wee lassie made it as part of her meejia studies course. Who knows, but it is trying my patience.
19

Crimp,

Edinburgh 14/12/2007 06:22:09
I liked the old version better. It was clearly derived from the newspaper, and that gave me an affinity for it. The new version is just like many other regional press newspapers around the world. It doesn't inspire me to trust that you won't squeeze out EEN content in favour of generic Johnston Press content.

I also don't like text framed in white; it's less easy on the eye.

I've been a paid subscriber for a couple of years now. I'll see how the site develops until my subscription is due for renewal, but renewal seems less compelling now than it had been.
20

...Groundhog,

14/12/2007 08:51:50
They broke my RSS feeds!

The reason the site looks like every other newspaper is because the same company makes them all, see the Our sister newspapers link at the bottom: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/ArticleIndex/listsites.aspx
21

Jakey Rowling,

14/12/2007 08:59:49
not impressed so far.
22

LUVMACITY,

EDINBURGH 14/12/2007 09:52:34
*Please enter your comment*
23

LUVMACITY,

EDINBURGH 14/12/2007 09:53:55
Sorry but hate the white background. I don't think I will be hanging around much longer.
24

Vile,

14/12/2007 10:11:44
#16, Vandala, are you in the employ of Johnston Press? In what way is this joke an improvement over the old site?
25

Young Gordon,

Edinburgh 14/12/2007 11:12:31
Is it just me, or is there not much changing except extra adverts as is the norm these days, a slower website, and general lack of identity to the Evening News now.

Don't like the splitting of comments pages either, but if you must do this, can you please put the latest comments first, under the storyline, otherwise we all have to click to the last page and its far too slow to see if anything new.

Also hate the bold blue writing against the white, I know you want to emphasise your stories but come on gies a break, however the standard font in blue seems not too bad.

Otherwise poor show, and i aint just being favouratist to the old layout!
26

It's heading straight for us!,

Edinburgh 14/12/2007 14:16:19
Right - where do I start?
Probably the most telling thing is that the link to the survey on what you think of the new site is broken!

From a usability perspective the new site is shocking, navigation is not clear and far from intuitive, the layout poor with some very awkward design elements (see the way the masthead is shoehorned into the top area with a pointless space & curved line above it).

Half the 'above the fold' space is taken up with poorly laid out navigation and wasted space before the story actually starts.

The whole site feels like a site circa 2001 not 2007.

Id say this was designed by programmers and would be amazed if any designers were near it. if they were its an embarrassment.

As a web designer and project manager with around 12 years experience working with some of the largest blue chip companies in the UK I would give this effort 2 out of 10 (well at least it loads!)
27

Charles Linskaill,

Edinburgh 14/12/2007 19:51:53
It reminds me of the early day mobile phones!, not text friendly!
Further more I cant sign in from my mobile phone now, it just keeps throwing me back to sign in!
I did use this facility a lot throughout the day
'Alas' you may not see me much now! unless the Scotsman get the phone facility back again!
Marks= 3 out of 10.
28

rs,

away to get Shades 14/12/2007 22:13:11
find the site very bland
the old site had some colour and character
The white makes everything blend in, very hard to find things

like my intitials someones made a right XX of it !!!
29

rs,

away t 14/12/2007 22:15:38
find the site very bland
the old site had some colour and character
The white makes everything blend in, very hard to find things

even the comments page, you think theres only 1 page, then you realise theres 1,2 3 or more.....on the old site you could scroll down and read the comments and the counter comments....now its hard to read comments about the comments

like my initials someones made a right RS of it !!!
30

ChrisW,

Edinburgh 15/12/2007 12:56:11
I can only agree with the majority of other posters here. Your new site seems to me to be anything but an improvement. Sure, the old one had a few problems but compared with this it was nigh on perfect.
Was this perhaps designed by some web site design "expert" whose skills are artistic rather than more prosaically practical.
Go back to the previous one!
31

Ronjock,

Edinburgh 16/12/2007 12:58:09
I'm not impressed. As someone had already said, it looks like it has been designed by an amatuer, but what do you expect, too many people nowadays dont try to do a good job at anything . Half done will do !!!
32

Ninian Reid,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 13:02:21
All three Scotsman publications online have glittered in a galaxy dominated by website giants such as BBC News , Guardian Unlimited and the New York Times - to cite just three worthy examples.The cliche that now leaps to mind is: "If it aint broke,why fix it"? But change may have been forced on the Royal Mile management through the "poaching" of key website personnel.I genuinely don't know; it's only a suspicion.Now,I have to say, the site looks and feels somewhat regional as opposed to national or indeed international...with absolutely no disrespect to, perhaps, a new and dedicated team who will doubtless strive to make it better. Indeed, we must give it time to find its cyber feet, and - in all sincerity - I wish it well and we, with egotisical, tell-the-world chips on our shoulder, must learn to embrace the many changes thrust upon us.It will,I'm sure, remain one of the leading portals in Scotland for news-hungry expats and local armchair zealots to immerse themselves in all things Caledonian , and all things international.
33

Euan McGrory,

Assistant Editor, Edinburgh Evening News 17/12/2007 14:24:09
Thanks for your feedback. I'm sorry your first impressions of the new site are not more positive, but would ask you all to please bear with us.
The site is still very much a work in progress and we are trying to respond to your feedback. We have changed the comments section, for instance, so that you can see all messages on one page, as you could with the old site.

34

Swilly Tisher,

Loch Maree 17/12/2007 15:26:34
Oh ,I like the personal touch and the "listening" mode of assistant editor Euan McGrory from the Diplomatic Desk.Now that really does augur well for the future, does it not ? Thanks.
35

Ninian Reid,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 15:43:47
They're listening , they're listening ! Now we, as informed (most of the time) contributors, must play our part by accentuating the positive and underlining any remaining shortcomings - real or imagined in a positive manner. Thanks to Euan McGrory and his team at the foot of historic Royal Mile and "next door" to a pulsating parliament that will change the face of Scotland within a generation.Ah, two point for the price of one...It can't be bad.
36

mig,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 17:38:07
This "new look" is an embarrassing step backwards. The old Scotsman websites had a simple and effective style. Quite classy almost.

This new version is something else. I wonder if the design remit went like this:
"Let's implement something that looks like tawdry p!sh, indistinguishable from all the dross that's out there. We want to run the Scotsman into the ground".
37

roadstohell,

18/12/2007 12:11:33
Mmmmhh nah, the new site is naff, I held off for a wee while to see if it grew on me, but nope. Sorry guys, twas a waste of time ,money & effort.
What is it with the "modern" world that we need to renew everything,reinvent ourselves etc, if it aint broke don't fix it !!!
38

NotSmoker,

Edinburgh 19/12/2007 07:48:02
terrible. just terrible.
39

Bruce Wayne,

Edinburgh 19/12/2007 18:10:38
Obviously some desnagging needed - should this not still be a Beta? Design is not an improvement. I think the adverts are more prominent - probably deliberate but not welcome.
40

Vole,

in a hole 27/12/2007 13:48:59
Thanks for responding Euan.

"We have changed the comments section, for instance, so that you can see all messages on one page, as you could with the old site" -- so why was it changed in the first place? Surely nobody thought it was going to be better like that?

"The site is still very much a work in progress" -- agreed, at best this is half-finished. But you already had a perfectly adequate site, please explain the real reasons for replacing it and no more lies and spin about 'improvements'.

 

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