The new look cbr.com

[Xavier]

The site had character before and was visually immediately identifiable. Not every site has to be a bland colourless wasteland. Aside from that i agree with you that it's a mess now. I liked the old school design because it was functional and stood out.

"Character" is the most subjective term when speaking of web design.

Bottomline, I don't like it either, but the intentions are noble. The site was a nightmare to visit on mobile and the forums still are. Now it isn't, but it isn't pretty either. Seems like we can't have nice things here.

As I said, they should get someone with talent in design.

[shamus]

[QUOTE=Albert Ching;2254134]The content of the new site is the exact same as the content of the old one.[/QUOTE
Where is it? Where are the columns the blogs and the interesting original articles? The design is awful but I think we could learn to live with it if the navigation made it easy to find the great content that used to be readily available.

[CVRman]

The design looks bad on the laptop/PC, better on mobile devices. The new logo s*cks, bring the old version, only logo! Please!

[Steve068]

Then why hasn't there been a new Axel-in-Charge for the past few weeks? Also why is "Tilting Windmills" now over at The Beat, with Brian Hibbs saying that:

Maybe columns like his were what they didn't want to do anymore. We'll see later if an interesting one like The Buy Pile shows up today, the first full day of the redesign...

[newy]

I don't like it.

- Text and images too big causing to have less news in one screen. Forced to scroll a lot (some may say it's a minor annoyance but for accessibility I think this is a really bad decision)
- Coloumns missing!
- (P)reviews columns are pretty much insignificant now and sorted by trending by default on the main page (not my thing, I prefer chronological order), you now need more clicks to get to the (p)reviews page (again accessibility) (filtering by publisher is a good thing, don't think the old layout had that option)
- White background, at least use some grey or as a nod to the old layout see how yellow works...
- Non-existant image slider in preview articles (see http://www.cbr.com/exclusive-miles-b...man-7-preview/)
- Annoying added news at the end of an article
- Separating main page and forum is a really bad decision (i.e. comments outsourced to Facebook, really?)
- Loading times are better
Yeah, I think that is all that I don't like about this new layout.

This list was created on 2016-08-25, 04:10 pm CEST. Details may or may not have changed afterwards.

Bolded text is pro new layout

[krisis]

The redesign is what it is - a race to the middle so CBR doesn't give up the precious mobile traffic its competitors attract. I've long since given up being upset about the move away from density in web design.

The disappointing aspect is that a site with a huge and deeply committed community has no idea how to appeal to them or profit from them and instead chases the specter of more page views and ad dollars. I saw the writing on the wall as soon as homepage articles went to multiple pages, which is only emphasized by a "real identity" FB comment system on those articles rather than deeper/improved forum integration.

No one wants to be in the community management game anymore, yet here is a community of thousands of committed daily users on the best comic forum on the internet who love columns and conversations. Even with assurances that the forums are going nowhere, we're all having a party on a 3rd party software system that creates little profit for CBR's owners while we watch them install a worry-free alternative on their articles. We're destined become vestigial pinky toes on the foot of supposed progress.

I wonder, how many ad dollars is each forums daily active user worth each day? And, how much would they like us to be worth? Most of us would probably pay that (and more) to use and engage with this site and for content like the columns that have been eliminated.

[WeirdSpace]

I think the new design is horrible. It looks like a messed up WordPress design. I understand the need to have a new design from time to time, but this is not a good redesign IMO.

[AndrewCrossett]

More and more sites are moving to Facebook commenting because a) it means the site admins no longer have to worry about maintaining it, and b) it eliminates anonymity and therefore (supposedly) cuts down on trollish behavior. My problem with it is that not everybody wants to have a Facebook account. Facebook is becoming like AT&T in the old days... you had the choice to either use it, or never talk to anyone on the telephone ever. Your choice now is rapidly becoming, either have Facebook, or never interact with anyone on the Web.

[Hermatt]

My concerns seem to be the same as others. The main page seems just bland and white, nothing really showing that this is a different site than anything else. And can't find the blog posts where is CSBG, Robot 6 and Spinoff? If you Google them the link just brings you back to the main page.
Only positive I can say is I like the new previews. Since I'm usually at work when I check the site the extra pop up window with the slides didn't always work for me.

[CVRman]

Wait wait...no more community? This is going to s*ck!

[Kirby Krackle]

Wait wait...no more community? This is going to s*ck!

They said that's not true, that the forum will remain. We'll see I guess.

[Monkeymanbob]

So, I go away for 2 days and on my return I boot up the old CBR page and the first think I think is that my browser isn't working properly!
Anyway I'm gonna guess that this has been asked and possibly been answered already but we're 9 pages in so I'm gonna ask anyway. Where have all the features gone? Comic Book Legends Revealed bought me to this site (Yes Brian I bought the book, no need for 3 ads for the thing on one page) and enjoyed the blogs as they gave the site a unique voice - but now, bleurgh, it's horrible.

The news all on one page was excellent, now the redesign has become more cumbersome - who thought up that idea? Why go backwards? Why is information hard to find. Put something on the front page to at least let us know what is going on.

But seriously no blogs/features, no read.

[Cthulhudrew]

The disappointing aspect is that a site with a huge and deeply committed community has no idea how to appeal to them or profit from them and instead chases the specter of more page views and ad dollars. I saw the writing on the wall as soon as homepage articles went to multiple pages, which is only emphasized by a "real identity" FB comment system on those articles rather than deeper/improved forum integration.

...

No one wants to be in the community management game anymore, yet here is a community of thousands of committed daily users on the best comic forum on the internet who love columns and conversations. Even with assurances that the forums are going nowhere, we're all having a party on a 3rd party software system that creates little profit for CBR's owners while we watch them install a worry-free alternative on their articles. We're destined become vestigial pinky toes on the foot of supposed progress.

(bolded for emphasis)

This is the big problem, and as others have noted, seems to be the standard response from the corporations that buy up a lot of these sites. I know that Wizards.com finally got rid of their community around this time last year, after having watched it steadily shrink due to several rather ill-advised changes/reorganizations they made over a decade ago. Would hate for these forums to go that way, too.

[johnnyrocket]

CBR, As a long time visitor, I'm trying to be open to change here but you realize you could have just optimized your existing site for mobile and leave the desktop experience as is, right? You've sacrificed an easy to peruse index layout that provided a lot of different things (and multiple banner advertising) to see or click on for what looks like a facebook feed for people who need big reading glasses.. Seriously, this looks like the web site version of those giant TV remotes for people with poor eye site.. I guess in lieu of ad space now, we're going to get pop ups blocking the articles?

I'm curious. Did you survey your own audience about browsing habits before pulling the trigger on this? If so I would have like to have contributed. Completely re-designing a site to cater primarily to smaller smart phones seems limiting. How many people are using their cel phones as the prime delivery for visiting this site? Personally, my cel phone is the last place I go to view or read lengthy interviews and articles in general. I pretty much have to be waiting in an airport with no access to a tablet to use my phone for reading articles and interviews on the web. It's desktop, laptop, tablet and then cel phone. My two cents. Good luck with all this..

[hufnagel0]

Impressively bland. Headline fonts so big, that you can't fit the full headline on the front page. A tab devoted to top ten lists.

I'm out.