Detroit News Labs

More feedback ....

Here's more of what you are telling us, and answers to some of your questions and requests:

* I find your new site design loads much slower than the previous design.

We have heard from several readers who say the site is slower; we are looking at ways to optimize the site and decrease the load time, and we hope you see a difference in the next week or two.

* I used to start my day by reading the News on line. I do not like the new on-line format at all. It used to be easy to go to the different sections, simply by checking the column at the left. Now, you have to hunt to find what you want. For example, the columnists page. You used to get all of the columnists on one page, and it would be indicated if there was a new column by any of them. Now, you must check each columnists individually---which takes forever. Please go back to your old format.

Our navigation has been pared down but you should be able to find what you need either in the top horizontal navigation (mouse over and/or click on the tabs and subsections) or go the the site index at the bottom of any page. We do have a page for all of our columnists that is updated regularly. You can find it at Opinion/Columnists or go directly to the columnists index.

* I wrote twice praising the new look in your paper, but don't know where to put the captcha, and I think that is the most stupid thing on the websites.

We realize the captcha code (that's a box with letters in it, and we require people commenting in this blog to replicate those letters) is an extra step that may seem annoying. But it allows us to run the blogs more efficiently, as it blocks spammers. We hope readers prefer a blog comments area without spam as much as we do.

* Am I missing it or do you not publish the sports standings for the NHL, NFL, NBA & MLB?

You can find scoreboards and links to all the stats and standings on our Sports Scoreboards page. You can click to that page out of the top navigation on any page, under Sports, or down in the Site Index. For more standings info, go to the Sports home page and look at the right side of the page under all the individual scoreboards. You’ll see a box that says “other scoreboards”. Click on the league and you’re there.

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: citizen [Member]

I was pleasantly surprised by the new design. It is pleasing to the eye and easier to navigate. Thanks! I will use this site more often now. Normally I went to other sources for my news.

Permalink 10/22/07 @ 19:25

Comment from: sevdano [Member]

Why is "change" so important? I'm a Detroit native who relocated out west and have kept up with hometown news first through the "Freep", but gave up on them with their bewildering reformat and now the News has their self titled "vibrant" change. How many hours of staff meetings did it take to decide on that description? It looks and acts like 50,000 other web sites. The more needless features you add the more difficult (and slower) it is to navigate. And what's up with this ridiculous "captcha"? This is my last visit. I don't care about Detroit any more. You've destroyed the last link I've had with my roots. "Vibrant" and "captcha" this...

Permalink 10/23/07 @ 02:27

Comment from: winfordb@comcast.net [Member]

Different look same old content some of it repeated 2 or 3 times at different locations. Lots of Horror stories and negative news reporting. I tried finding private auto sales in the ad section by locals and end up on cars dot com. Paint an elephant blue, green or white it is still an elephant. You have given us a facelift but it is still UGLY inside!!

Permalink 10/23/07 @ 05:36

Comment from: tpodelnyk [Member]

I like the overall new format, however everytime a new page is selected, it first appears centered on the screen, then jumps to the left side of the screen and then jumps back to the center. This process takes 5 seconds or so to complete. Therefore, everytime I select something new, I have to wait for the jumping to finish before I can read anything. It is extremely annoying.

Permalink 10/23/07 @ 10:10

Comment from: murali [Member]

The new look of the News is great. I would change the color combo to match either UM or MSU colors rather than that of OSU colors. Let's go Green/White or Maize/Blue.

Thanks for listening.

Permalink 10/23/07 @ 11:18

Comment from: gumshoe009 [Member]

You get a solid grade of "A" for design and eye appeal but you barely get a "C-" for navigation and ease of finding articles. The old design was far better at quickly finding the most important articles. I also feel the old design for listing latest headlines utilizing tabs that separated local, state, national and sports news was far more logical than the current design. Design change solely for the sake of change is a mistake repeated throughout our society. I believe that the old design served us well. Some minor graphics tweaks for greater visual eye appeal would have been a smarter approach. As the old saying goes... don't fix it if it ain't broken! I will also chime in with similar gripes that the site is far slower now than the former site.

Permalink 10/23/07 @ 16:24

Comment from: migirl [Member]

Sorry, I liked the old layout better. :-(

Permalink 10/23/07 @ 19:58

Comment from: dmikulec [Member]

I don't like the new layout. It's too confusing with three columns vying for attention. It's not clear which one holds the main story. The new layout also requires a full screen window; i.e., the columns will not resize to fit the window. The old layout was easier to read and easier to navigate.

Permalink 10/30/07 @ 11:12