Housekeeping: visual changes based on reader feedback

Sunday has become coding day, and today’s task was to make changes to the layout of The Inquisitr based on reader feedback. Some changes were made earlier in the week, with the remainder finished today. We hope they make for a more appealing experience.

Bye bye black background

I’ve long preached that the only way to go with online text is black on white, and there’s a range of studies that I’m too lazy to find and link to that say that it’s the ultimate reading combination as well. When we started The Inquisitr black was offered for the first post on the front page + the category page, it looked nice, so I never changed it. Reader feedback was that it was difficult to read, so its gone.

Standardization

Another variation, between the different first post, the single post page, and categories, were differences in layout, for example author details, links to make a comment and post category. As of now each page is standardized along the following lines:

Above post title: category and author name (the later being a frequently requested addition)
Below post: link to comments + add this button (except for single post).

Sharing

I’ve trialled a number of different addthis/ sharethis style buttons, but in hiding the option to Digg or add the site to other services, a number of people have told me that it should be made easier. For multi-post pages the addthis button remains, but for single posts a Digg this, Reddit This, Mixx and Stumbleupon button are now available in the sidebar for ease of use, in addition to the addthis button.

Full titles front page

Another often asked request was for full titles on the front page. It’s done, so hitting the front page gives you the full experience of recent headlines.

Improved Categories

Along with standardizing the look and feel of posts across various pages, the categories pages have had a visual upgrade in line with the standard look, offering a more pleasing reading experience. If you don’t like the magazine style on the front page of The Inquisitr and prefer your content delivered blog style, visit one of the three content categories via the sidebar and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

There are still some Internet Explorer issues with the site, particularly the right hand side Support box, but touch wood these will be fixed soon…presuming other things don’t break in Internet Explorer in the mean time. The new look though is tested across FF3, Camino, Flock, Safari and Opera…all fine browsers and more standards compliant than anything Microsoft will ever create.