New Techcrunch design: a few learnings and reflections

Passion. People talk about TechCrunch with passion. And the new design of our web2.0 bible is creating a lot of passionate thoughts. And i was not surprised to see my previous post spotted as one of the hotest topic on the blogosphere in TechMeme (previously Memeorandum)

What do we learn from the feedback? Here are some learnings and personnal reflections.

 Most people:

• apparently prefer the old version (about 72%).
• think the green is too strong.
• complain it is not web2.0 enough
• and that it does not look like a blog enough
• it is too commercial-driven

Those are my personnal thoughts although i was not really involved in the creative path to this new version

• TechCrunch identity is more about its content than its design. No one will question that. And this is not going to change
• By experience design changes always create some bad reaction. people loose their reference and have to get used to a new design. let s give it some time.
• The design is precisely content-driven by enabling easier reading, more importance for text, bigger pictures, and less secondary elements that were occupying disproportionate space (about, left side bar, comments feeds,…)
• About the colour. It might be a strong green and it could be that Mike decide to review a little. But it is definitely not awful and actually quite clean.
• Previous design was hot for sure. But Rachel’s new design is also clean and i believe she respected the directions given by Mike.
• A design can always be fine tuned. I am sure that with a few little changes Mike and Rachel could achieve a better result, although that one is good enough for me. For me it is maybe a bit too much ad-driven although presence of ads is totally legitimate.
• Not enough “web2.0”. I am not sure actually what that means. And to be honest i am not sure TechCrunch will be all his life “tracking web2.0”. By the way did you notice the signature “tracking web2.0” disappeared.

compare before and after

More Generally TechCrunch is just moving to the next stage:

• It has become more than a blog and is now some kind of respected tech-media. I believe the new design had to reflect that
• It still is a blog: if the design makes you through up, get RSS feed. What really matters after all is the content right?
• It has to be commercial driven: TechCrunch network his gathering about 1 million unique visitors each month. It is taking also a lot of energy to produce. It makes sense that Michael Arrington tries to make some money out of it. Don’t want the ads? again take the feed.

I personnally like it although i believe a bit of fine tuning would be made TechCrunch look even better. But WOW, i would never have expected that it would become such a hot topic (by the way my audience totally went up). I look forward to see what Michael Arrington will say about all that…

Read more on TechCrunch design at the following blogs

• CrunchNotes (Mike s blog)
• Rachel (the designer)
• Business logs (a full design review)
• Michael Parekh  (he likes it)
• Somewhat Frank (TechCrunch contributor)
• Nik Cubrilovic (TechCrunch contributor)
• TechBeat – Business Week
• ValleyWag
• Darren Rose (Pro-blogger)
• Simran (he likes it)
• TechnoSailor (likes it too)
• Technorati has more

 

tags technorati : techcrunch design

Comments

[Frank Gruber]

You are right Ouriel, there are a lot of passionate TechCrunch readers! However, I think Mike should be able to make TechCrunch green and clean if he wants to. The content is going to remain unchanged and solid. The John Deere shade of green would not have been my first choice (I like prefer a little lighter shade) but I think it is approachable and unique.

[Simran]

Thanks for the link, Ouriel. I noticed you just posted on TechCrunch. I didn't know you were a TechCrunch writer. Congratulations on that!

I prefer the new version and don't think anything but the CSS image swapping on the nav-bar is too strong or contrasting.

I agree with most of what you're saying here. Good post!