FF:SA TheForce.net new look

just wondering if anyone else has had a look at theforce.net new look website?

I'm finding it difficult to navigate, and think they should have stuck to the old format, which was straightforward and easy to use.

maybe it's just me, being stuck in my ways and not wanting to go out of my comfort zone.....

 

I dont think it is That bad. . .but yeah, THE BOARDS WHERE DOWN !! I nearly went insane. . .well not actually. . . i just do to somthing else.

 

I think the design is quite 'professional' looking but a few things bug me..

1-too many images. Each button or link is an individual image. Long loading times for us poor modem people.

2-use of tables for the layout. I used to use tables for all my web work and to be fair I teach it to my students because you can accomplish good layout with a minimum of ease. But using tables (a) increases load times and (b) philosphically for us web geeks, using stylesheets to accomplish design is much better.

3-as you guys have pointed out it's hard to navigate. I looked up their new website users guide last week and it does make more sense now (use the drop down menu up top). I just feel that it's too cluttered and for an information based site, I find it a little overwhelming.

I based some of my layout ideas for the SAFF site from the old TFN site. And for what it's worth, I think they could have tweaked and modernised the site without going quite so over the top. Perhaps even used the basis of the old site for this one.

I did want to look at their forums to see what people are saying about it, but I reckon it'll be a bit of ***tfight in there at the moment

 

In Comms there has a been rather widespread criticism of the new design

 

I absoutely hate it.... the old design was just fine.

 

Which forums are they commenting on it in - I'm keen to know now

 

They're absolutely caning it in the forums. Not good. Someone brought up something about the tables - look at the html source and there is over *40* tables on the main page.

*shudder*

 

The best way to read the news updates is via an rss reader or visiting the site at http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/ , which gives you a list of headlines. Still looks a bit cluttered but is much easier to read than the normal main page.

 

The new site is a bit cluttered but it looks much more modern. i think it's pretty good once you get used to navigating.