Nip / Tuck

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All the mad coding skills don’t impress some folks. Watch this!

For the longest time we have been preparing a makeover for this site. We have years (yes, years) worth of emails, documents, diagrams, ideas about a face lift. We hoped the site only needed a few diet pills, a little exercise, a moderate amount of makeup and some decent coordinated colors to improve her. Of course, none of that worked. We finally decided it was time to put her under a professional’s knife. Please don’t accuse us of being shallow. We are allowed to indulge in fantasy. This is needed for all websites of a certain age. We are not trying to compete with any hot new Web 2.0 genre sites. We don’t want her to just look pretty. We want her to work better. We wanted perfect. We heard from quite a few young, creative and brilliant designers during our search. We finally settled on Avani as the one .

As amazing as her imagination is, the quality that most impressed me about Avani was her courage. She was not afraid of this project. I did my duty and warned her that plenty before her had tried to tame this beast and failed. Avani did not flinch. She calmly examined the patient and then asked – “Tell me what you don’t like about her. ” And that’s how it started , over seven months ago. Discussions, sketches, mockups and of course, airbrushing. Months of cuts and carving, agonizing over little details. And finally, here were are. Voilà! Isn’t she fabulous?We had a pre-launch party where the Mutineers gathered at the bunker to celebrate and toast the months of hard work Avani and I put in. (Although, Abhi’s toast was rather short to my suprprise. I guess he doesn’t like being called a slave driver all that much. Hmmm…) Our SM Intern coaxed the always busy Avani into a short interview. Thanks SM Intern, for letting me use a copy of your transcript. I’m sorry about Abhi not letting the interns write any articles on the Blog until they graduate. Anyway, about Avani’s interview:

SM Intern: How did you get suckered into this project?
Avani: I was kidnapped from my home, locked up in a dark room chained to a laptop that only runs Photoshop.

SM Intern: What are some of the goals you wanted to achieve with this design?
Avani: Beyond the aesthetic side of things (aka “making it pretty”), I wanted to make it easier to find, comment and post things.

SM Intern: How is this different from real design work that you do and actually get paid for?
Avani: Chaitan wouldn’t let me use Flash.

SM Intern: Seriously, how badly did we need this upgrade?
Avani: Very badly.

SM Intern: Why would our readership care about design anyway? Our lurkers are much more interested in the drama between Sepia fans and trolls on a daily basis.
Avani: Of course drama is more interesting. I know some people may not initially like the redesign. That’s cool, just give it a few days and see if you change your mind after you get used to it. Change is hard, but it can be good.

And that’s enough of that. You know, Avani can get a bit talkative sometimes. And she was totally kidding about the being kidnapped part. I’ve spent years in the bunker chained to a laptop and I’m fine. She’s still new. She’ll get used to it. And then what do you know, the SM Intern wanted to interview me. It may seem tacky to write about my own interview, but hey, who else is going to do it? The Bloggers are all too busy covering “important” stuff. Anyway, here goes … (sorry about copy-pasting this transcript verbatim. It may need a few corrections, but I hate typing, unless it’s programming code, of course)

SM Intern: What do you want me to ask you?
Me: Look at the cheat sheet I gave you dummy.

SM Intern: What are some of the goals you wanted to achieve with this design?
Me: I wanted to create a very friendly user interface that synergizes the use of web 2.0 technologies with … wait, that’s not … ok, stop asking me about design stuff. I don’t care what that girl in the next cell does with Photoshop and all that mumbo jumbo. Frankly, she spends way too much time screaming for fresh air than do actual work. And that’s not the cheat sheet I gave you.

SM Intern: Oh, sorry. What are some of the new features that the readers are going to be excited about?
Me: (very serious tone) The new design is not just about coming up with something flashy. We wanted to weigh the various components of the site and bring some of the most important parts right into the front page.

  • The news column gives a quick overview of the top ‘viewed’ news in the past 24 hours.
  • Everything seems bigger: Actually not everything is big. Some of the fonts are the same. Other tiny fonts have been increased for relative emphasis.
  • What happened to the News tab?: The voting system has been removed and instead the news section now records the number of clicks/views by the readers. Additionally the news section has been moved to the front page. Anyone interested in viewing the news section exclusively can click any of the sub-menu links for the section (e.g., New, Top in 24 Hr, 7 days, etc.), and a dedicated page will show all the news items. We hope this new ranking system better captures the most relevant news based completely on user-generated content and readership.
  • The Twitter bar on the home page keeps you updated of the latest in the Twitter dimension. The RSS feed, Facebook group page, Google links are right up top.
  • In addition to being able to emailing blog post articles, you can now also share blog posts on Facebook. Use the link following each post.

114 thoughts on “Nip / Tuck”

  2. BTW why does it take so much time to save a comment on this site? In case you guys dont have time to fix it, please use the services of that freelancing website.

  4. Wait, what happened to that awesome design that you guys were using earlier? I loved the Devanagiri font.

    (why yes, it is still April 1st in TX, why do you ask?)

  7. OK thank GOD it was an April fool’s joke. The devanagri font cliche and the pokemon monkey seemed too ridiculous to be true, but I didn’t want to be the Negative Nancy yesterday and I kept my silence. This layout is great. Job well done. 🙂

  8. I miss the pokémonkey 🙁

    I see you’ve eliminated the “quote” button as well. That’s probably for the best though.

    The only actual complaint I have is that clicking the banner image on top doesn’t redirect me to the main page. The “Main” link is kind of hidden. Now only having one real complaint from me is actually a huge compliment because I am a nitpicky bastard. Good job on the redesign.

  9. WAIT! Two complaints!

    Names in comments are no longer bolded, underlined, colorized, or otherwise set apart from the rest of the header. It’s not a big deal, but kind of a deal.

  10. hyperlinked text not underlined or bold so difficult to make out the difference/spot it from the rest of the text.

  11. I’ll have to be the wet blanket, I guess. I kind of liked the old setup better.

    You can’t get all hot and bothered over my subjective preferences though, can you?

  12. line spacing in the comments is large. the spacing of the blog post lines is fine though.

  13. I see you’ve eliminated the “quote” button as well. That’s probably for the best though.

    Thanks to all for staying up late and providing instant feedback. Even if some of you are not on the east coast. I am still in the process of enabling certain functional elements. Kindly bear with me during the transition.

  15. Looks a lot like Ultrabrown, doesn’t it?

    Ultrabrown is a decent blog, but it sure as hell didn’t pioneer the three-column format, nor does it look like this site. Why bother with the “nice update” after such a line, anyway?

  16. I am still in the process of enabling certain functional elements. Kindly bear with me during the transition.

    Thank you so much for all that you do. Your dedication and effort are appreciated by more people than you’ll ever know; it’s not like those of us who benefit from your work go out of our way to recognize you adequately or remember that it’s because of you. Frankly, I don’t know what I’d do without you. 🙂 Also, we don’t pay you, in fact, we might be committing a major crime with the whole shackling-you-to-the-computer thing, so it’s not like we can or should crack some entitled whip on your poor, bent-from-feverish-coding back. 😉

  18. Still don’t understand the purpose of the long comments column. Put a counter on it to see how many people actually use it.

  19. Thank you so much for all that you do

    Yes, thank you Chaitan and Avani. Love the new design.

  20. It looks clean and modern, but needs a bit more custom touches. The design doesn’t say Sepia Mutiny to me. You could take out the title and not know the purpose of the blog.

  21. Great job on the redesign and new features! BUT… I miss the rotating headers 🙁 They were a fun creative method to inject some cheeky humor (in some cases) that didn’t require a lot of words, but still were profound.

  22. You could take out the title and not know the purpose of the blog.

    Where are the saffron springs? Where’s the henna? Outrageous.

  24. Oh what a relief !!! And an elegant beauty at the end of it. Congratulations – I raise to thee my glass 🙂

    So what if I still love the old one better and I am a sucker for no-change when it comes to being comfortable in an old shell, what if I kind of wished that the post headers were bolder to ease in seeing, I’ll live with this & slowly fall in love once again….

    Change is always difficult but research shows that given time the new look will soon feel as comforting as the old

    I hope so..My best wishes 🙂

  25. I would have liked something jazzy and desi-looking, like paislies and such. and what happened to the “SEPIA MUTINY” banner at the top with the changing backround pics?? i liked that =[.

    but yayyy for PuRpLe and easy navigation =] !!

  26. I like! The only major detraction I think is the comments and news columns being both on the same side. I feel like the blog itself should be in the middle since that’s what I’m normally trying to focus on, and it’s distracting having it relegated to the left half side of the page.

  27. Very clean version of the site.

    My only comment is that the ‘bolded’ text which appears as purple, doesn’t look separated enough from the background. There should be more of a pronounced difference to the eye.

  28. You guys know that I love everything you do on this site. I think it’s gonna take me a while to get used to this. I seriously was in love with the simplicity of the old design. I think I have problems identifying colors though, are the fonts purple now? I know what you’re giving us is free so my complaint is muted. Still, though! There’s so much on the page now!

  29. I just found out something about myself–I don’t like change. Nothing wrong with this site but I like the old one better–maybe like suede, it is the banner that I miss.

  30. Hmm….

    Lemme see…I like the new colo(u)r scheme but, I think the space on the main page is not used correctly. I think that the posts should have more real estate than currently given.

  31. Just seeing if yesterday’s glitches are not there anymore (Post did not work in Opera)

  32. Exactly what color is this? Magenta? My grandma would be proud of you guys. Neat design though.

  35. Though I usually hate when sites I visit a lot change their presentation, this change is actually pretty nice. Its easier on the eyes and absolutely love the dagger through the Sepia and Mutiny. Now thats mutinous! Thanks to all the people who worked on making these changes 🙂 Oh, it also comes out better on the Iphone so now I can read more of SM while driving etc.

  36. Just seeing if yesterday’s glitches are not there anymore (Post did not work in Opera)

    Did you try using the facial gestures?

  38. Has anyone tested this site on multiple browsers? Take it from someone with 2 graduate degrees and 15 years in the web business, this site needs work. Lots of it.

    I use IE 6 (welcome to the corporate world!), and this sucks on IE 6.

    I recommend that you bring back the old site, fix and test this version, and re-release when ready.

  39. The “Comments” and “News” bars on the right do not show up for me? help please? I am running IE V6.0 sp2 on XP

  40. this sucks on IE 6.

    Everything sucks on IE 6.

    Like the text area. Don’t like the logo, design and font.

  41. Congratulations Avani and Chaitan on a job well done. Putting the news on the main page is a great idea. Ranking it by page views is even smarter, rather than depending on votes to ‘rank’ news. That said, FWIW, a few comments about what bothers me (in case you’d like feedback):

    1. The name of the commenter and the content of their post are not sufficiently distinct. Like:
    34 · zee on April 2, 2009 10:48 AM · Direct link

    seems to form a large block with:

    I like this one :). Appreciate your work!

    I want to see the names from a mile away, so I can already compose an ad hominem remark or flirtatious repartee in my head 🙂

    1. I miss the old banner — ’twas home.

  42. Mercury, 2 grad degrees (presumably in a computer related field) and 15 years in the web business and you’re still using IE?

  43. Great job. Like the looks of this better than the previous one but miss some distinctive items like the banner. the boldness/color of the hyperlinked text has to be increased slightly.

  44. Oh, it also comes out better on the Iphone so now I can read more of SM while driving etc.

    This should probably be addressed in the FAQ…

    Has anyone tested this site on multiple browsers? Take it from someone with 2 graduate degrees and 15 years in the web business, this site needs work. Lots of it. I use IE 6 (welcome to the corporate world!), and this sucks on IE 6.

    Given what a nightmare IE 6 is to design for, I would think someone with so much web experience would at least apologize for having to use IE 6 first before sticking it to someone for not designing for it, particularly in such a condescending tone. Honestly, how are you going to stand by a browser that needs script hacks to handle min and max width? Why can’t the “corporate world” upgrade to IE 7 anyway?

    I really dig the background and the simple layout. Well done with the full-height sidebars – I’ve been looking for a solution for this issue for a long time, and hadn’t realized that js can solve it.

    Does this mean I won’t be taking issue with the content as often? mwahahaha

  45. When I hover the mouse over the news link my browser earlier used to show the web site address of the link. this was very useful since i could filter/select the news that i want to read based on the particular site hosting the news besides the quality of the content in the summary. Can this feature be restored ? Or is it not possible because that of the new ranking system ?

  46. Thanks to everyone for their feedback. To those who loved the design, you made me smile. Glad some sharp eyes noticed the pen/dagger idea, Abhi and I went back on forth on that quite a bit. Please be patient, we are still in the process of working out some kinks and you will be seeing tweaks in the upcoming days and weeks. User feedback on bugs, fonts, etc is welcome.

  47. So like the old ‘news’ section, will Mutineers decide to write posts on the most popular news snippets?

    What if I’m intrigued by the news headline and want to read it but dont think Sepia Mutiny needs to be covering it, i.e. it doesnt have a relevant/interesting desi angle? Or what if I click through, read it and dislike it? There’s no way to negate my click-vote, is there….

  48. And what’s with the whole “We hoped the site only needed a few diet pills, a little exercise, a moderate amount of makeup and some decent coordinated colors to improve her. Of course, none of that worked.”….really bizarre personalization/sexualization of a website.

    And yes, you could only try to improve the appearance of a woman, that logic wouldn’t work if the site was a man, ‘coz REAL MEN dont need to look GOOD, do they, now….

  49. Question: How do I access the news-only page from the blog page ? I don’t see any link. I don’t mean the news-sidebar.

  50. And what’s with the whole “We hoped the site only needed a few diet pills, a little exercise, a moderate amount of makeup and some decent coordinated colors to improve her. Of course, none of that worked.”….really bizarre personalization/sexualization of a website.

    That coupled with the title – yucko.