Several weeks ago, I wanted to write a post about news sites. And at that time I wanted to give the lowest rating to Techcrunch. That was because Techcrunch had the worst design when competing against GigaOM, VentureBeat and even Mashable.
Let’s analyze the new design and see what is good and what is not so good.

Features:
First thing that all the user will notice is that the look of the site is more solid. The site has now visual effects that look good together. The style is not far from the previous, just that the visual side had a much important priority.
At the top side of the layout, the toolbar with links and search form is no longer available. That is good because in this situations, the lack of that element is good for consistency. Instead the toolbar was replaced by a similar section regarding the content placed above the logo and below the main banner.

The new structure is more magazine like, and it shows multiple news in smaller space. I see it as an advantage but also as a drawback. For example it is good that the user can see a lot of information, but this information is now 2 clicks away. Instead of having the entire news available, now the user has to click in order to read it. I really liked the old style where the click was only need if you wanted to add or read comments.

Another great improvement was that the content was separated from the advertising. Now there is a dedicated column separated from the news. Also, in this new design, the latest article is displayed in a bigger space. Regarding the article, now the user can navigate easier through a previous-next system and read it clear. The new font size was increased to 13px from 11px for a good readability.

Conclusion:
Overall, the new design is far more appropriate than the previous. It has many typography and user interface features. The clean approach is also for the user benefit. Also the new design will be applied to all other properties in order for the user to have the same perception over the websites. Congratulations and good work. Kudos for the designers.

User Interface Rating:
User Experience Rating:
Design Rating:
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Graphic Rating:

Minutes ago, Michael Arrington made a clear announcement that he wants an affordable light tablet pc in $200 range. This is not a new request, and I’m sure many web surfers will adopt the idea. The concept is somehow in the dreams area, because I don’t know if you can find tablet pc technology at $200.

Michael suggested that the tablet will be just for browsing. So in this case the costs for production will be reduced. Also the possibility to use online office suites will be good. Anyway, Graphic Rating is supporting this initiative and we look forward to see the upcoming prototypes.

Go TC

All active internet users know about Techcrunch. But for those of you who are not aware, Techcrunch is the best start-ups and hot IT news website. It has a growing addictive community. I don’t have specific data, but I could say that techcrunchers are the most loyal users around the web.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article on my other blog Gongea.com, about The Importance of User Experience. In that post I made an example regarding bad placement of important features, and my example was Techcrunch.com. I will reproduce the exact paragraph:

For example, when you have many articles (pay attention Techcrunch) – a key factor is the posibility to access every article with less effort. So – the first thing to do is to place a search feature on the interface. Keep in mind also the user behavior: what are the most used application with a search feature? Where is the search placed? These are simple questions, but with the right answers they will give you better understanding of your user interface and they will provide you a solid base for your user experience. Gongea.com

At that time Techrunch had the search box component placed in the middle of the page, on the sidebar. So in order to search for an article, first you had to search for the search box. I hope I’m not too confusing. Anyway, that issue was resolved with the introduction of a new toolbar. This toolbar is placed in the top side of the website having 2 components: search box and a dropdown that contains Techcrunch Network sites. It is good to see that this site that is focused on bringing fresh new information, is also taking care of the user interface issues.

It was a long road for this search box to be accessible, but now it is in the right place. Some users will say that this was a minor issue, but it was quite a big drawback due to the fact that Techcrunch is dealing with information and data that many users want to access quickly.
Good job Techcrunch.

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