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.
Chev:Or what if I click through, read it and dislike it? There’s no way to negate my click-vote, is there….
Good point if those no: of views have to have any deeper statistical significance.
I am still trying to make up my mind about whether this new site design is anti-Hindu or anti-Muslim. It surely has to be one of those…
Developing for standards compliant browsers instead of some relic that hangs around solely because people are too lazy to do better?
MADNESS!!
my world is falling apart!!! whats happening?!
yoga fire sez
NO.!! THIS ! IS!! MADNESS!one!11!!!
I have seen this, and am working on fixing this.
You didn’t read the whole post? 🙁 I mentioned how to do that …
it’s pretty experiemental. it’s going to take some getting used to.
suggestions:
put the word brown in quotes.
do consider adding in buttons that used to be around posting comments that allow you easily to bold, quote others, link, etc.
and PLEASE get rid of that registration requirement for posting news.
layout fails in IE 6. News tab moves down to after all the blog posts.
Hey I am using Safari and thought you were just continuing with you April Fool design, there seemed no change at all and yet all this discussion on the brand new format. Until I switched to Firefox just now and saw a beautiful new outline which is clean and which I like. Why does the old “April Fool” form of the page still show up on Safari? It hurts my eyes to read 🙁
There is no way to negate a click. Are you guys asking us or telling us if that’s a good or bad thing? good or bad than the previous voting system?
You may need to delete your temporary files or refresh the page.
I don’t get it. I still see the 4/1 version, and I’m on Internet Explorer.
Unfortunately, the new ranking system does not allow that.
Do they not show up at all, or are they broken and appear out of place? Can you email me a screenshot to chaitan [at] sepiamutiny.com?
loooooove it! 🙂
@my previous comment Re:
do consider adding in buttons that used to be around posting comments that allow you easily to bold, quote others, link, etc.
These buttons show up on netscape, but don’t exist on chrome.
thank goodness it was an april fools joke
some suggestions to the website now:
everything is too purple… where’s the brown? don’t get me wrong, i love purple, but this is SEPIA mutiny, there should be some brown… and maroony brown, brown-brown!
make it so that the commentor’s name/ screenname is bolded so that it’s easier to see
the top of the page where it has the sepia mutiny and the pen is too boring, can’t you add some patterns or something? but not something overbearing…
where’s the desi ness? before there were banners, now all that’s there is the name!
I’m on Firefox and I still see the 4/1 version as well. Did it test so well you decided to keep it on?… or is this a technical issue?
look for the symbol that looks like a noodle in the shape of a reverse S. You will find it in the tool bar. it may be hidden but if you scroll you should see it. make sure it is in red outline. It should NOT be green. good luck.
As a regular reader now for 4 years (after stumbling upon you guys almost by accident–hurray for accidents like that), I am going to add to the chorus that says, I miss the banners. They are clever, diverse, kitsch, tongue-in-cheek, playfully postcolonial, and just plain pretty. I get needing to update the look. All for that. But if you could incorporate the banner somehow, you’d have my undying loyalty.
I miss the banners, too. I felt that they gave a South Asian flavor to the site that is missing now. Other than that, I like the redesign.
It would then look exactly like the UB layout, wouldn’t it? SM needs something else that is “clever, diverse, …” Got any ideas?
I’ve been using Firefox for awhile now and have missed all the noodle related functionality. Assuming that I’m not being dense and there really is this reverse noodle technology, it is hidden from me. I’ve cleared my cache and reloaded the page. Still see the old version. Seems like I’m stuck in a ground hog’s day version of 4/1 SM page functionality or the team that put the prank together really didn’t consider how this was going to affect browsers.
re: #60, Chaitan, I’m actually saying there’s no way to determine if a click is a ‘for’ vote or just a general click out of curiosity. And that’s a bad thing, because a vote is an act of wilful choice and a statement supporting the inclusion of the news item onto this blog, but a click-through is just sometimes just curiosity-driven and automatic…doesn’t always mean something.
And i still don’t understand what all of that has to do with sexist presumptions of how a female needs to look good, whether it’s a female person or a “female” website.
I do miss the banners as well. And it looked more personal with the previous design. This one is very neat and organized, but a bit dry. As someone previously mentioned, besides the title of the blog, nothing about it hints its nature. I do love the Sepia Mutiny with the pen/dagger through it! Don’t get me wrong, you did a great job and I’m sure it was a ton of work, but I just miss the brown-ness of the previous version. Felt a bit more like home.
Second spitfire @ # 75. Great job, but miss the banners and “brown-ness”. Perhaps it was warm and familiar and this needs getting used to.
i think the feel is very jumanji.
Yes, because I don’t need the two hours of my life I got back from NOT having to moderate that section continuously. Registration cuts down on spam, trolling etc. That’s why I love it. There are only so many hours in the day, I’d rather spend mine writing vs. deleting bad things. 🙁
::
Everyone else–
Look, change is always difficult and we’re still working out certain kinks. I’m touched that so many of you are so attached to the old design– and I don’t blame you, I loved it, too– but there were issues with it and we needed to update our site. Please have patience while we go through this process. Volunteer-led change doesn’t happen overnight, not when it’s a part-time labor of love. We’re reading everything and we do care about your suggestions, but while making them, try and remember that Chaitan and Avani have day jobs and don’t get paid for their work on SM, so if you align your expectations accordingly, you’ll probably be less disappointed or frustrated.
As for the news tab, we never (AFAIK) blogged the “most voted on” stories automatically. We each blogged whatever story we wanted to, if we could add something to it. Sometimes the two coincided. Don’t worry about your views negating or canceling or doing whatever. Click through, read a story, register that you did, etc. At least for me, it’s probably not going to have any effect on whether or not I blog something. 🙂
As for the comments about how it is sexist/misogynistic to compare a blog to a woman needing a makeover in order to function successfully, I see your point and agree with your concerns. The only thing I want to inject in this discussion is that Chaitan is a sweet person and that he was probably trying to be humorous, not offensive. I don’t say that to invalidate your reactions, just to present what I think may have happened.
Thank you for caring so much about Sepia Mutiny. It’s corny to type that, but I mean it. You’re so passionate about this re-design, it makes me realize that we’ve created something which some of you really love. 🙂 We love you, too!
Thanks for your kind words ANNA. Thanks to everyone for your feedback, debugging comments and gentle suggestions. I may not be responding to each, but I am reading all and working on fixing as much and as quickly as possible.
I apologize to anyone that took my post seriously. It was NOT meant to be misogynistic or sexist in any way. I meant it to be ridiculous and somewhat funny. Even those who know me in real life were surprised by my post. Guess it goes to show I’m an admin and not really a writer. Sorry!
For those that miss the banners: get over it. I did and I made many of them. Besides, haven’t any of you been clever enough to figure it out yet?!? If we left that much empty space at the top it has to be for a reason! We ALWAYS have a plan. 😉
actually the screen space occupying the most clicked news item may have to periodically cleared or refreshed. this is because i suspect that a couple of news items will continue to hog the limelight (since it is on the screen) and that will create a cascading effect of clicks. it will be very tough for any “new” news item to beat this runaway effect. this is especially true now since with the new design everyone are going to click the news item on the screen just to explore the new design.
They show up about half-way down the page. I have to scroll down to see them. Thanks.
actually i take back my earlier comment since i guess it is “top in 24 hrs” so it may get automatically updated every day but i still have a theory that the first few which make it to the screen earlier on in the day may get a heads up in the race for click rankings because everyone are going to first click on those before going to the other news section.
We are already working this. The most recent story posted will be the one at the top as the default.
I just fixed this. Will you please clear your cache / delete your temporarily files / refresh the page and tell me if you still see this problem? Oh and thanks for being my ie6 tester. 🙂
The new color scheme is very easy on the eyes. congrats.
oh it’s there. click on Help and search for ‘covert pagination’.
nah.. just pulling your noodly appendage linus. i dont know shit about the web. i’m serving out my last year in kingston and have been out of it for a while. before this i used to be an accountant so they let me use the computer to do the books. hope you’re enjoying spring. my tulips are coming out about now. will see you all soon in toronto. haha.
I think the new site looks really clean. I like the tint of purple that seems to come off or is it that my screen is messed up?
Maybe have a little “purple rain” playing in the background?
If Jerry Falwell were alive today, you would be seeing a letter from him about the purple hue 🙂
Nice easy on the eye design. The only thing I don’t understand, which someone already mentioned, is the purpose of the comment column.
PERFECTO.
She is easy on the eyes, fresh and not at all overwhelming. If you married her off, not even the SAAS would complain.
Change is difficult. Purple is too pretty. Bring back the brown.
Good job with the new layout.
Awesome update. Looks really good.
The last one had me worried. I checked to see if it was an issue with my browser.
For those that miss the old banners you can still view them here. I suggest printing them out and hiding them under your mattress so your mom doesn’t discover your strange perversion.
Chaitan @ 79 said:
What are you apologizing for? I loved it. It was funny and I was wondering why you don’t write more often.
Great new site. Does line spacing have to be so wide in the comments? It’s hard to tell it apart from double space.
I also noticed that you guys got rid of the brown, for a more fair design.
Was there any fair and lovely involved in the new design?
It still shows up half-way down the page, oh well. I cleared my temp files, cookies, and history. Looks great apart from that, though.
Really nice site. In the about.php page, the different in page links don’t work 🙁
I especially like the new logo – the pen making a single dash for the I.
There used to be some sort of login for this site. is it gone now?
may be someone said this already. but i don’t like the news tab; i don’t read that part, makes the page sluggish too. otherwise, it looks good.