Welcome visitors new and old to the newly redesigned TV Squad. We like it quite a bit, and we're hoping you do, too. We've got some great new features around here, with more to come in the coming months. It's about time I give you a look around to what's changed, what's coming and why things are as they are.
Come on in!
First of all, I want to thank those of you who've already provided insightful feedback on the new design. And I'd like to extend even more thanks to those of you who've decided to give things time to settle in before making a final judgment on the new look. We're still working out some quirks here and there and are listening to what you have to say, and I'm sure you'll be glad you stick around.
The first thing you've no doubt noticed is the new logo. We decided long ago that the old shadow-men logo didn't really convey our style and wasn't really all that recognizable. Plus it was boring and stodgy for a site like this.
The new logo is simple but fun. It reflects what we're about, which is of course TV. Plus there's a little retro thrown in there with the font for good measure.
Next let's look at the top navigation bar ...
One common complaint from readers (and bloggers) regarding the old site was how obscure the links were for reporting post problems and contacting the editors in general. Now they're up there at the top of the page, easily accessible to all. We've also included an FAQ page that we'll be updating more soon with common questions about the site in general, including some of the information from this post.
Next we have the featured stories section. We can now put some of our more popular posts into this section so they don't move off the front page too quickly, allowing you a place to quickly glance at as soon as you arrive.
Next up, the category organization ...
The categories on the old site were much too difficult for newcomers to see, and much too long to scroll down to get to where you wanted to go. We also had way too many of them, several of which I'm betting nobody bothered to visit. Now we've got everything organized in a more meaningful way and in a spot you can find easily.
We realize there are some small glitches with this feature, such as the trailing comma, the over-the-video issue and the clickability of the top-level menu items, and those are being worked on.
Over to the right you'll see things have changed quite a bit as well. We're giving PVR Wire some much deserved love, for example, so you can see the latest headlines involving PVR and TV technology with a quick glance.
Down a bit more we have the Featured Video panel. This is where we can put up any video we're featuring, which isn't necessarily always going to be Brigitte's TV Squad Daily. So again, a quick visit to the site and you have one spot to look to see what video's buzzing that day without having to hunt around for it.
Under that you'll see a new TV Listings widget. Just enter in your zipcode information and reception provider, and you'll always have a list of what's on primetime TV that night on the top five networks.
The last new thing we've got on the right side is the "tag cloud". This is just something a little extra thrown in that gives you an idea of the trend of TV news and our posts have followed recently. Click on any of those and find all posts we've tagged with those words.
We've also made some improvements with comments, with more to come. For example, if a post author posts a comment, which is many times a followup to what they already said, those comments stick out a bit more with a orange-ish background:
Lastly, a feature that's been asked for by many has finally made an appearance. You can now more easily get to the last page of comments on a post (or one of several other pages of a post) by navigating to the bottom of the first page of comments:
We've got a few other things that have already started to make an appearance content-wise, including rating episodes on a 1-7 scale (you'll see our little TV Squad logo with a 1-7 number at the end of almost all episode reviews from last night on -- we'll explain that rating scale on this page soon) and the new TV Squad Lists. We've got some other great features coming up as well, like 'Standout Episodes' where we discuss incredible episodes from TV past, and a reemergence of TV Squad Polls.
If you're already a fan of the new design, then that's wonderful and we're glad you like it. If you're not a fan and have stuck around to at least have read this far, thank you for doing so. I'm hoping you'll continue to visit and not make a knee-jerk decision based on our site's appearance. We'll continue to provide the same great content you've come to expect out of TV Squad, and hopefully -- if you're not warmed up to the redesign now -- you'll find it's much more intuitive and fun than our previous incarnation.
Please feel free to dish out your comments, suggestions praise and disapproval in the comments below. While we can't reply to every one of you, I'll make sure some sort of future round-up comment or post will be made later addressing what you've got to say.
The Upfronts: FOX
Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview
The Upfronts: CBS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-11-2007 @ 4:52PM
Elf said...
Do you remember the scene in Steve Martin's "LA Story" when Marilu Henner's character was explaining how she dressed for the day. She'd get all ready, then force herself to remove one thing before she walked out the door. I think the new TV Squad layout could benefit from this advice. What you've done is just too much. Everything looks too busy. Sometimes clean and simple is better.
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4-11-2007 @ 4:55PM
Where did my stars go? said...
I like the new design and love the ability to get to the last page of comments easily. There are some of us that actually like to read all the comments, not just our own!
I am guessing the star awards are completly gone? I miss the proverbial pat-on-the-head when I made a writer smile.
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4-11-2007 @ 4:55PM
Rob said...
Why a 1-7 rating scale? Seems a bit cumbersome. I'd prefer 1-10. Much more recognizable.
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4-11-2007 @ 4:56PM
bd said...
Oh how I hate tag clouds.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:03PM
DREW said...
I love the new design layout and improvements.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:05PM
vincent said...
i agree with elf...i liked it better when it was more simple and clean looking.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:15PM
Jill said...
I am going to have to agree with the first comment. I cannot even tell where the actual article is versus the ads. Wow. Simple is never a bad thing!
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4-11-2007 @ 5:21PM
Happy Steve said...
Oof, the column on the right is just WAY too busy. I'm sorry, but just about everything in there seems really unnecessary to me.
Well, here's my greasemonkey script to hide that column and expand the main content take up the space: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8444
Ah, much better.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:26PM
Sam G. said...
LIKE:
- New logo
- TVSquad blogger's comments highlighted
- Listings widget
HATE:
- Text font change
- PVR Wire (out of place)
- Tag clouds are useless and need to die
SUGGESTIONS:
- Give PVR Wire their own blog back
- Allow users to increase/decrease font size
- Kill the goddamn tag cloud
- Make RSS feed link more visible
- Allow users to reply to comments a la Gawker instead of having commenters strain to link their post to a previous one
- Use a background color other than white
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4-11-2007 @ 5:28PM
Mike said...
A scale of 1-7? Who came up with that one?
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4-11-2007 @ 5:40PM
Graham said...
Love, LOVE, LOVE the new site. Everything looks so much better. Great depature from the traditional design. Don't listen to those rude idiots up above. Some people wouldn't know a good thing if it hit 'em smack in the face.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:42PM
sindy said...
I really, really don't like it. When it first changed, I thought, here we go. Another AOL site. Like mentioned above, I can't tell the difference between and ad and an article, and the color of the font just blends in so there seems to be no distinction.
The site wasn't pretty before, but it was functional. This redesign is out of Corporate 101. Too bad, but I guess you are corporate now.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:45PM
Nick said...
I like the new logo, the blue header bar, and the catagory nav.
It's unfortunate that you're stuck with the weblogs inc / AOL stuff in the sidebars, because without them you would probably be able to consolidate everything else down to one sidebar. And that's really what you need to do. It's just too busy.
The tag cloud was a goofy fad that was and still is unnecessary. Ditto for the AOL TV listings (which don't even seem to be loading correctly for me). You'll need to cut more than that but those two things are by far the least useful.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:46PM
Jeffro said...
We are not all in the same time zone. Please let us select what prime time hour we view, just as we are able to select which provider we use. I would not like to view the 8pm time slot in my area.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:48PM
Happy Steve said...
On the positive side, I do like the Categories organization on the left. The previous layout with that humongous list of shows to scroll down was quite cumbersome.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:50PM
Jeffro said...
To add to my comment above, what is even the POINT to enter the zip code in the TV Guide Widget? It shows the same content as before. It does not customize anything at all! 8-)
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4-11-2007 @ 5:52PM
Akbar Fazil said...
Graham, I wouldn't call the comments rude. Keith asked for pros and cons of the site. People are allowed to share their opinions.
My feelings:
Pros:
-Love the new comment scrolling. I got to be good at typing in a url change to get to a deeper comment page but I welcome this addition. Wish it was easier to reply to specific comments but I will take what I can get.
-Show list: Although, I wish it was just alphabetical.
Cons:
-Too busy. Page has way to much going on now.
-Logo. I am all for a new logo but something just doesn't sit right with me on that one.
-PVR Wire. I agree on letting it have its own blog again. Guess I will have to rss that one instead of getting it on the page.
-Font: Seems to "soft" to me. But then I freely admit this is a personal taste thing and you can't please everyone.
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4-11-2007 @ 5:52PM
Nathan said...
I don't like this new design at all. As others have already mentioned, it's far too busy! You need to give the content some room to breathe.
More specifically, I think you should drop the "Featured Stories", it's useless in my opinion. Featured stories are good for newpaper websites with many sections to explore. This is a blog though, which I simply read back until I hit a post I've read before.
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4-11-2007 @ 6:00PM
Haggis said...
I for one think it's great. Sure, it's busy, but you guys have so much more to offer now than before. And everything has a slight adjustment period before it's perfect.
And to those that just say "This sucks, I hate it," try this neat little exercise:
1. Lighten up.
2. Instead of unnecessary negative comments, try something you might not know about: Constructive Criticism. Instead of "I HATE YOUR FACE", say "Your face is starting to look great, but I think if you try this instead, it'll look even better."
The Daily Haggis - http://www.dailyhaggis.com/
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4-11-2007 @ 6:08PM
Karen said...
Too busy, too busy! Makes me nervous.
Will patiently wait for things to settle in but right now I try to week out everything but the actual stories because the rest is too much like kids cartoon shows -- way to frantic!
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