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Pastimes : SI Beta Site Launch - 7/01/99 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caroline who wrote (1220)	8/3/1999 12:09:00 AM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Respond to of 2340

Thanks Caroline, Rtev said it better than I ever could have... you provided some excellent feedback I'm sure. I do know a few of your items were changed, then changed back, then changed again as per user requests, such as the menu bars (right or left, font, etc.). I have found myself clicking the "next" menu when I want to respond, so those are more what you are used to I feel. I believe the thing to do is put all the constructive requests together as an enhancement list in any case, whether they keep the old site or no. One day they will have to upgrade the old site anyway and this is good feedback.

To: Caroline who wrote (1220)	8/3/1999 1:42:00 AM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2340

All of the papers knew how to solve readability problems when they went online, because the issues of readability, white space and basic user interface are the same on paper as on screen. I agree that they were solved very well (after considerable problems along the way) by those and other newspapers. I also think that those problems better addressed by SI in the new version. The old version looks reminds me more of what some of those newspapers looked like years ago. The old SI is a dated and inadequate design, which doesn't come close to matching the design sophistication of any of those newspapers. The new SI, on the other hand, demonstrates the same kind of crisp design sense that is seen in most of those newspapers. Having said that, I'll add that I don't like the expanding column width in SI. I believe they should have followed the lead of all those newspapers and of most other commercial web sites by setting a defined 600 pixel width to the entire page. In the first week of the beta, I argued for that approach, but many others asked for expandable column widths. I find that one of the unfortunate aspects of this design, but also think it can be easily overcome by setting the browser window to 660 px. (although they really should cut out 20 to match what has become the standard 640 px width.). So, if you offer those examples to request a defined width, then I fully agree with the request (even though it seems too late in the process to make the change). If, on the other hand, you offer those newspaper sites as evidence that the old SI comes closer to meeting design conventions than the new SI, then I respectfully and whole-heartedly disagree. White space, column width, colors, and layout. These issues are addressed far, far better by the new SI than the old SI.