We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
New Look MSE.com
Options
MSE_Martin
Posts: 8,272 Money Saving Expert
Next week, I hope we’ll convert the site into the new look MoneySavingExpert.com. We’ve been working on the design quite a long time; and the whole team at MoneySaving Towers, especially the techies have put many hundreds of hours in.
The aim is to keep the feel of the current site, but make it look more up to date, and improve navigation, search (and the site’s ranking by search engines), and ease of use. For your interest in earlier versions we went for a very slick look - but it ended up feeling commercial and not like MoneySavingExpert should; so retaining a wee bit of clutter is quite deliberate
To take a view and play with the new look site - just go to
This is a working model of the new site apart from the forums. We still have a few tweaks to make on the list. However this is nearly how it will appear when it goes live - though its on a test server so it may be slow.
What will the forum look like
The back mechanics of how the forum works and the main site works is the same.
Also the articles are exactly the same, both in look and in content and HTML. The articles come from a database system; so improving their efficiency and look is a seperate job and one of the next things we'll be tackling.
We'll also be looking at improving the search, and continuing to tweak and optimise the performance of the forum (though some big changes there last week seem to have helped).
All feedback is welcome; though unlike previous times I’ve put the new design out for feedback, I’ve much less room for change now. There comes a time to bite the bullet and go for it and now is that time – primarily because the new look site, works better than the current site.
Yet once its up and running it’ll of course continue to be tweaked and improved.
Martin
The aim is to keep the feel of the current site, but make it look more up to date, and improve navigation, search (and the site’s ranking by search engines), and ease of use. For your interest in earlier versions we went for a very slick look - but it ended up feeling commercial and not like MoneySavingExpert should; so retaining a wee bit of clutter is quite deliberate
UPDATE FRIDAY 25 May Take a peek
To take a view and play with the new look site - just go to
This is a working model of the new site apart from the forums. We still have a few tweaks to make on the list. However this is nearly how it will appear when it goes live - though its on a test server so it may be slow.
What will the forum look like
We're still working on the forum, but the image below (click it to enlarge) will give you a rough idea of what it will look like.
The forum will be stretchy right across the screen unlike the main site. Also we are planning to change the colour of the forum bit slightly (probably a light green rather than the salmon). The right hand bar is nearly finished except some font changes (e.g. in the ones not to miss they will be Bold Text: unbold text rather than all bolded)
New Look Forum Image
(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)
What hasn't changed
The back mechanics of how the forum works and the main site works is the same.
Also the articles are exactly the same, both in look and in content and HTML. The articles come from a database system; so improving their efficiency and look is a seperate job and one of the next things we'll be tackling.
We'll also be looking at improving the search, and continuing to tweak and optimise the performance of the forum (though some big changes there last week seem to have helped).
What feedback am I looking for?
All feedback is welcome; though unlike previous times I’ve put the new design out for feedback, I’ve much less room for change now. There comes a time to bite the bullet and go for it and now is that time – primarily because the new look site, works better than the current site.
Yet once its up and running it’ll of course continue to be tweaked and improved.
Martin
Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.
Debt-Free Wannabee Official Nerd Club: (Honorary) Members number 000
0
Comments
-
First to say Good work! - Looks great!0
-
Seconded - it looks awesome. Well done tecchy guys
I :heart2: Boots 0 -
yeah nice one, alot more professional!
good work0 -
It is so much better looking well done to all involved
Mel0 -
:t
:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t0 -
i've always thought the site looked a bit too busy and is quite hard to navigate. it's a lot better now, but i'll be honest i'm not keen on the fonts, especially in the banner. the text with a gradiant, white outline and drop shadow has been done too many times before0
-
I very much like the idea of having links to the relevant chat board on the section and article pages, can I suggest that these land in FAQ's or other relevant sticky for that section.
That way if the user wants to ask a question then at least they understand how to phrase it, particularly useful for DFW and SOA's etc.
Looking very good.
Well done Martin, Webmaster and all techies.:T :j
edit: will we have to clear cashe and reset bookmarks after the switch over?I have a cunning plan!
Proud to be dealing with my debts.0 -
Looks good to me - but my main problem has been the frequent slow loading times. Any hope of improving that.0
-
Les it depends on whether you mean the forum or the main site. The main site has no slowness and should always be zippy. We do experience slowness
a. On the checkers (because the same server is used for sending the weekly email and the checkers, yet this is changing so should improve)
b. The Forums. Simply due to the mass of people using it all accessing one database. We continue to tweak it and are working with the software authors to improve it; some big changes were made five days ago and it seems to have helped.
MartinMartin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.Debt-Free Wannabee Official Nerd Club: (Honorary) Members number 0000 -
Hope I don't keep getting lost :rolleyes:0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
- 599K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177K Life & Family
- 257.4K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards