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* What do you think of the Chicago Tribune’s website redesign? Click here to see the new site if you haven’t yet been there.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:18 pm
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Better question for a few weeks from now as we get used to it. I, for one, liked the previous design and navigated it pretty easily. Still getting used to this one.
Comment by A guy... Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:22 pm
Hard to comment when four times within two minutes the page is covered by pop up ads that don’t appear to have a way to close them.
Comment by Bluefish Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:23 pm
The ads drive me nuts, takes too long to load, you end up clicking on ads or stuff you don’t want because the pages are so clunky.
Plus, it’s new and I don’t like change.
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:26 pm
Pop-awful.
Comment by Bored Chairman Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:28 pm
Much worse than the previous design. A few weeks or so before this change they changed to Death Notices to a continuous scroll which is really annoying. (Hey, I’m Irish. That’s the biggest part of the paper for me.) You have to click on the pop-up ads several times to make them go away. It’s also interesting that you now have to subscribe to read the editorials. You would think they would want the editorial page out there for everyone to access.But maybe with the quality of the editorials they want to limit their exposure.
Comment by West Side the Best Side Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:35 pm
it is good that the design fits better if you surf on a phone.
otherwise, too filled with stuff, hard to navigate, they have made the tv listings almost impossible to find and if I can’t find where sports events are covered…not always in the sports portion of the papers….it’s maddening.
more behind the pay wall now and I’m sick of signing in to my paper subscriber account and don’t want to leave the account open as I keep clicking on stories.
pop up ads have become suffocating even with the old design but this one is worse.
have to compare with the LATimes redesign which came out first, but think that one is better. are they still in the same publishing company?
Comment by Amalia Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:35 pm
The ads and auto load ruin every article you click on and Zorn’s new blog is a mess (we had to hack into comments at first). How well the website works depends on your browser (make sure it’s updated). Chrome has the best compatibility so far. One easy way to get rid of the ads is to download Adblock Plus, it’s free. Also, it’s not smart phone friendly for a lot of people.
Comment by Wensicia Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:35 pm
Honestly I think it’s terrible. Too many pop up ads and difficult to navigate. I avoid it now.
Comment by Stones Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:35 pm
I am finding it hard to navigate with the pop up ads interfering at times. Read one article say in “opinion” and you seem to have to circle around back to read another. Maybe I need a while to get used to it, but the older site was easier to navigate and search.
Comment by Louis G Atsaves Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:37 pm
The old design was easier to find the story you wanted. The new design is only good if you want to waste a lot of time scrolling past things you could care less about.
Comment by William j Kelly Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:38 pm
I find it so annoying and difficult to navigate that I have stopped using it,
Comment by Tatler Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:38 pm
same with me tattler.. I used to use that their website all the time, now I just steer clear. I can’t even get it to load on my phone. sad really
Comment by yo Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:41 pm
Hate it. Like others, the pop up ads are very annoying. Breaking news used to be easier to see than it is now.
Comment by Because I say so... Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:42 pm
Eh, a bit better, I suppose, but I, personally, REALLY don’t like how one has to scroll SO far down just to find and get a look at Other “News” Articles, let alone for Politics, Sports, and Editorials….
Sometimes just listing Titles of Articles, etc. in print is better and faster, and permits the READer to choose what she/he wants, than having no choice but to look over photos/brief descriptions about what the EDitors deem the Major Stories…!
Comment by Just The Way It Is One Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:43 pm
For someone from netherlands who already subscribes to a local daily, there is little in the new format which is unlocked for non-subcribers. I understand their need to guard their content, but you’d think they would leave their editorial section unlocked, especially during the election season. My blood pressure is curiously improved, though. Correlation or causation?
Comment by Jeanne Dough Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:48 pm
Horrible, absolutely horrible. If you want to see why it’s the way it is, look at latimes.com too.
I’ll now read like 10-15% of what I used to read there. Rick doesn’t like me recommending Adblock Plus to folks, but maybe in a Trib context I can get this past him!
Comment by The Historian Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:52 pm
Sorry for the k instead of h typo!
Comment by The Historian Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:55 pm
I agree with Jeanne Dough that it feels like the majority of the content is behind the paywall. If they’re going to lock up that much content, they need to change the amount of articles one can look at per month. The way it is now, I can use up all 5 freebies on the first day of the month just by clicking through to articles from Twitter (there’s no indication in their tweets that an article is behind the paywall).
Comment by Jabes Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:57 pm
Loyolarific! I can get past the ad on my phone. West side we need a new & cheaper “irish times”. Rich’s death notices as an excellent example.
Comment by nothing to see here Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 2:57 pm
A couple first day headlines were daffy & incorrect, as well as misleading. Concentrate on the ’show’ & fugeddabout ‘content’ & ‘editing’.
Great that they chose miniscule sized ’story’ font in lite gray - superb on a small screen!
Comment by sal-says Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:05 pm
Absolutely horrible! Many articles are not open for comments, and those that are have very few. Also, there just doesn’t seem to be that much reporting, or maybe I just can’t find it, since it is very hard to navigate, and after some frustration, I just close it. It used to be my favorite source–now, not so much.
Comment by Gone, but not forgotten Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:08 pm
Absolutely terrible. Laggy and disorganized. It’s a news site, not a video game.
Comment by Ken_in_Aurora Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:08 pm
Loathe it, and it’s especially bad on my iPhone. The ads are noxiously obtrusive, the table of contents is hard to use, you can’t get much of a feel for stories from the headlines, doesn’t scroll well by touch. I used to look at it a couple of times a day, now I ignore it because it’s unwieldy. Grrr
Comment by Archiesmom Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:11 pm
Way too much “headroom” on the front page. Too much unnecessary scrolling is required to see just the first story.
Not nearly enough headlines on the main page. Slider bar on left side is very difficult to use because the scroller button is the same dark color as the bar.
And when I click the “Politics” item on the left side, I get four choices: Politics, Breaking, Elections, National.
Huh?
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:13 pm
The. Worst. Ever.
Slow, hard to read with grey/white background, relentless pop-up ads, hard to get to content beyond the first screen and overall FUBAR.
I’m still able to access the old site on my tablet, Thank God.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:16 pm
What A Guy said - I think they should get some time to work out the kinks. And I’ll give them points for making the comments less visible (you think *I’m* a tedious troll?) But it’s useless on my dated Android and the mandatory videos/pop-up ads are very annoying - warning Tribune: I have a Sun-Times bookmark and I’m not afraid to use it!
Comment by lake county democrat Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:18 pm
Why does the expression “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” come to mind?
Comment by Concerned Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:25 pm
Just tried to access the Trib site, and my browser said “it’s not responding.”
Comment by Bring back the Chicago Today Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:39 pm
I can’t stand it, and it’s even worse on mobile. It’s like some crazed teenage intern gave them advice about how to optimize the site for advertising and social media.
Others have mentioned the ads and navigation, which are horrible, but my pet peeve is the preview of another story in the middle of reading an article. I keep feeling like the article just ended when I get to the headline and byline for another one. It took me a while to realize that the article I was reading continued below.
Also, do I really need multiple social media sharelines for each article? Seriously??
Comment by Don't Worry, Be Happy Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 3:54 pm
So awful I have stopped going to it.
Comment by Way Northsider Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 4:04 pm
Waste of electrons. I hate it.
Comment by very old soil Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 4:05 pm
with respect, its terrible
Comment by door gunner Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 4:36 pm
As bad as the rest of it is, what I find most amazing is what RM starts off with in his 3:13 comment. When I go to the main page on my desktop, I am not shown a single full headline. Instead there’s the Tribune masthead, followed by an ad bigger than the masthead, then a smaller ad, then a video after a video ad, with an ad larger than the video screen to the right of it. Finally, at the very bottom of the page, 2 partial headlines. I realize that they need to make money, but this is not a recipe for getting me to visit the site. Rather, it has just annoyed me every time I’ve gone there.
Also, if I wanted to watch video, I’d be watching TV news. I used to prefer visiting newspaper websites to read more in-depth stories, much more quickly than they can be presented via video. Evidently, the papers feel it’s more important to connect with the people who would rather “view” their news. Seems like a losing proposition to me, given the ready availability of better video coverage elsewhere. But what do I know — evidently, I’m a dinosaur. In short, it’s awful.
As a new commenter, I apologize for this comment being neither smart, nor funny.
Comment by Jakash Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 4:56 pm
Horrible. Hard to navigate. Doesn’t look as sleek. The menu on the side constantly pops up when you’re not even trying to click on it
Comment by K3 Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 5:59 pm
With no respect - it’s absolutely awful. Wonder if they did any user experience testing and how much they paid for that monstrosity.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Friday, Aug 8, 14 @ 9:16 pm
Horrible on chrome mobile browser. Slightly less horrible on a desktop. Reminds me of the time my other favorite news source switched to a “better” format….
Comment by siriusly Sunday, Aug 10, 14 @ 10:11 am