Welcome to the New Neatorama!

By Alex in Neatorama Exclusives on Feb 3, 2010 at 5:19 am

Hooray! I'm sure you've noticed by now that Neatorama has a new look (all you RSS readers, come take a look) and a couple of new features.

First of all, I'd like to thank Nathan Mazur of Scared of Bees who did the new art for the blog. Nathan, as you may know, also designed some of the neatest T-shirts we carry on the Neatorama Shop. I think that his quirky and fun style certainly compliments what the blog is all about (be sure to scroll all the way down!)

The blog has two new major features:

- Lite/Mobile version by Mobify. This is a full version of the blog that is optimized for viewing on your phone (though you can certainly use your regular browser). This "lite" version has no ads and fewer bells and whistles.

- Best of Neatorama, a compilation of featured Bathroom Reader and mental_floss articles, as well as Neatorama Exclusives. I think the tiled images present a good way to scan quickly through the many full-length articles we've published before. We've only covered 2009 and 2010 articles so far ... we'll roll out more later.

Besides the blog, the Upcoming Queue and the Neatorama Shop also have new skins, so be sure to check 'em out (technically, this has been a triple re-design, which may explain why it took so long!).

Undoubtedly there are bugs (I apologize ahead of time). If you noticed that something is awry, please let us know in the comment section. We'll continue to roll out the redesign over the next couple of days. We'll also announce the winner of the T-shirts as promised in our previous post on redesign suggestions soon.

As a final note, I'd like to mention that one big aspect of this redesign is to use the blog to introduce indie artists to millions of new fans. I hope that we can institute a regular rotation of artists (the first being Nathan) through website designs, and regular as well as featured blog posts, in order to give them a significant exposure on the web.

So. Do you like it/hate it? What do you think?

[poll=16]

Update 2/3/10 – added poll. I should also add that in our almost-5-year history as a blog we’ve had 7 layout/design changes (some announced, most not – they’ve been incremental and so subtle that most people didn’t even notice) before this radical one ;)


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Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

  1. SenorMysterioso
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 5:26 am

    Loving the illustrations Nathan

  2. Lildael
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 5:33 am

    Love love love all the charming little creatures and other pieces of art!

  3. Badjuk
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 5:34 am

    This turtle remind me Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld”.

  4. Edward
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 6:11 am

    The mobile version is a thing of beauty.

  5. Traclo
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 6:23 am

    Love it! Makes the place feel much more welcoming, and with all the little pictures like something is just waiting to be discovered.

  6. shadowfirebird
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 6:32 am

    “The name you provided belongs to a registered user. Please login to comment.”

  7. Miss Cellania
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 7:18 am

    The best thing is, the text is MUCH easier to read! And I love the colors and art.

  8. Daz
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 7:26 am

    Beautiful! Love it!
    The characters are fantastic.
    Love the troll in the comment box

  9. D Bozko
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 7:39 am

    So cool it’s hot!

  10. NM15
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 7:48 am

    Uhhmmm from my perspective the revamped Neato looks like one of those ladies with excelent legs (I would say feet but everyone would be grossed out) but a small or overdecorated head.

    Why?

    So much excelent and funny wtf-ish characters on the bottom (the place where some may never scroll to) and on the header a HUGE horizontal ad with several links to adsense and a then a small Neatorama sign.

    The art is so clever and finely made that is a shame it is so concealed. I’m all for the slim header but the ad is distracting.

    But relax, I’ll get used to it and by the looks of it there is a concensus about the good design so ignore my nitpicking!

    P.S. Gotta love the gnarly cross eyed troll! ;)

  11. houndogg
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 8:07 am

    LOVE the update!!! really cool…

  12. OddNumber
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 8:18 am

    Nice update to the page. The new art work is pretty sweet. It would still be pretty cool if there is a way to improve the login process by allowing you to return to the post you were reading as opposed to just the top of the page.

    I’m looking forward to seeing what you have in mind for the regular rotation of artists. Cool idea!

  13. Claudia2
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 8:19 am

    Very good job. I’ve lost my head for the monster on this box. Is he single?

  14. Wesley
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 8:20 am

    Ok, now this is a redesign which is not a major overhaul and it still feels like the old one. Great job and thanks for including all of our comments in the process ;-)

  15. katieb
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 8:26 am

    Sooo adorable! What a nice surprise this morning. Nathan’s illustrations are capital-C Cute.
    Excellent job – so pleased to see a Mobile version lookin’ so slick!

  17. Gauldar
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 9:27 am

    I like that you kept what made the site easy to use, but I love the illustrations. The troll rocks!

  18. b°b
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 9:51 am

    Nope, don’t like it, I agree with NM15. The bottom should’ve been the header and vice versa. The header is way too empty (with adblock) and without adblock way too advertisementyish. But hey, it’s free, it’s all about the posts, so I really shouldn’t complain.

  19. jenni_purrr
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 10:05 am

    I absolutely love it and I don’t as a rule like redesigns. This one rocks and Nathan’s artwork is very cool. I also like what I’m assuming is a nod to Terry Pratchett at the bottom. It’s colorful, and the flavor of the old blog still remains. 5 Stars folks.

    Jo-Ann

  20. Jenny
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 10:19 am

    Love the characters and cartoons, but I too use adblock and the top is pretty empty.

    It reminds me of something the mean guys in high school called certain girls.

    “Butterface”

    Everything is sexy… but her face

    This website is a butterface. Sooo awesome on the bottom, not so much up top.

  21. eni
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 10:48 am

    I agree with the header/footer switch thing. I had no idea that there was anything interesting on the footer til I read the comments. “Where is all this indie art he’s talking about?” I’d like it better if the header weren’t so dark. It looks kind of uninviting compared to the old one, but that’s just me.

    Other than that, though, it looks really nice. Very streamlined, but not too different from the old version. Good job!

  22. Miranda
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 11:19 am

    THANK YOU for a mobile version! That makes life a LOT easier, surprisingly.

  23. Johnny Cat
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 11:24 am

    “It’s turtles all the way down!”

  24. Miss Cellania
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 am

    I particularly like the “do not feed the trolls” sign in the comment box.

  25. Alex
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Thanks for the kind words everyone!

    shadowfirebird – “The name you provided belongs to a registered user. Please login to comment.” This is a security measure to prevent other people from impersonating a registered user of the blog. You can still comment under another name.

    Miss Cellania – Thanks! I think it’s easier to read, too. Funny thing is that we left the font size and spacing alone, and changed the way link is presented from underline to bold. We kept the width of the content the same.

    NM15 (and others) – We considered that, and decided to keep the header minimal because of two main reasons:

    First, it’s a cleaner look for our daily reader. The turtle is awesome, but I don’t know if you’d necessarily want to see it every single time you visit the blog.

    And second, we have to preserve the space for ads. Yes, I know that many of you hate ads, but that’s how we pay for the servers.

    Plus, this way it’s a little treat for those of you who stick around till the end!

    For a long time, Neatorama had muted colors because we wanted the content (namely, the photos of the posts) to take center stage. This redesign is unusual in that we departed from that and put in color (actually that was Nathan’s idea – he had carte blanche in the redesign process)

    OddNumber – I have a long list of improvements to roll out. Streamlining the login is one of them :)

    Wesley – It’s actually quite a major overhaul. We completely changed the way layout is coded (we drank the Kool-Aid and went with tableless CSS positioning). We kept the proportion the same on purpose (to make it more of a seamless transition)

    More in a bit!

  26. gwdMaine
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Looks great and really like the mobile addition. Thanks!

  27. c0ldfish
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    no complaints yet

  28. Noah
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    I like it alot! Boing Boing changed their image not too long ago and it was way too dramatic and just not-good. This change is nice and subtle yet very stylistic. I looooooove the new logo too.

  29. marcintosh
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    I love the new look! I agree with what others have said about the artwork at the bottom. It’s just too good to be buried where most people won’t see it. If I had one wish for what to add it would be a fancy icon for the home screen on my iPhone.

  30. OddNumber
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    Miss Cellania – The “don’t feed the trolls” sign went over my head on my first visit. Awesome!!

    Alex – Thanks for taking our comments seriously!

  31. Johnny Cat
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    I got ants at my desk. I need to borrow Nathan’s anteater from the UQ page, & bring back later.

    k thx bai.

  32. superneatofan
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    I have to agree with Noah…I really don’t like the new Boing Boing site changes. I really like that you didn’t really change the way info is presented, just the design, styles and colors. Everything really pops and the fonts/colors/artwork are really fun. It would be nice to see more up top.

  33. Christophe
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    Good job!!! :)

    but… All that matters is what’s inside :)

  34. Alex
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    b°b – “it’s all about the post”. Exactly! We were afraid that a huge header would distract from the reason you visit the blog in the first place: its content.

    Johnny Cat – If you mouseover (is that a verb?) over the turtle, you’ll see the quote. :)

    Noah – That’s one reason I was hesitant about a redesign. We decide to keep the functionality largely intact and drastically change the aesthetics.

    marcintosh – I have no idea how to make a fancy icon for the iphone, but I’ll put it in the “to-do someday” list :)

    OddNumber – We always take Neatoramanauts’ comments seriously though sometimes there isn’t enough hours in the day to respond to each one :)

    —

    Some minor things you may or may not notice:

    1. The post author’s comment now stands out. I think the gray box makes it easy to tell that the comment is made by the author.

    2. No more comments on the front page – this is a tough decision for us because I really, really like seeing everything on the front page. We did it to save on servers and to speed up page load time. Maybe we’ll bring it back up again once we upgrade our servers.

    3. A new category of History.

    4. Still no mention of iPad on the blog ;)

  35. John Farrier
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 2:21 pm

    I like the new category of History. It helps a lot. Keeping the Neatorama functional for mobile use is a good idea — that’s the future, not 11-inch screens on desktops.

  36. Fran
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 2:49 pm

    Love the new characters and color; Really like the turtle! Very nice.

    On a negative note: I really miss the calendar. I was on a business trip (and sans computer) all last week and would love to catch up on what I missed by clicking on the calendar for the days I couldn’t access the site. But alas, I’m not going to scroll thru all this week’s posts trying to backtrack to what I missed. Oh, well…

  37. Jack C.
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    MORE COWBELLS!!!

  38. pyrit
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    Looks good to me. The new logo reminds me of vaudeville; which you know, is a bunch of separate, unrelated acts.
    Come on along! Come on along! Neatorama’s ragtime band!
    Oh ma honey, oh ma honey…

  39. Alex
    Feb 3rd, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    Fran – Sorry about that. Not a lot of people used (or were even aware of ) the Calendar box, so we eliminated that to simplify the design.

  40. narwhal
    Feb 4th, 2010 at 1:47 am

    Wow I love it! Especially the turtle because I didn’t notice it until I scrolled all the way down to comment, lol.
    I guess you’re gonna have to make another example question for the TokyoFlash treasure hunt, eh? (Unless you change the ‘O’ sign heheh)

  41. Alex
    Feb 4th, 2010 at 2:27 am

    Narwhal – Boy, you’re right! I’ve completely forgotten about that …

  42. Toby B
    Feb 4th, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    Love the new look! The sea turtle is sweet! Keep up the good work Alex.

  43. grace
    Feb 5th, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    i like it! You’ve retained enough of what once was, but cleaned it up so nicely. Very nice!

  44. ted
    Feb 6th, 2010 at 10:02 am

    I like it. The bottom is cool, but overkill. I didn’t see it for the longest time. The only problem I have is that I thought the world’s not on the back of a sea turtle, but on the back of a land turtle. You’re challenging my world view.

  45. Cowboyshoe
    Feb 7th, 2010 at 2:41 am

    Well done redesign. Kudos!

    One teensy recommendation…this is something I see on many many blogs but I figured a blog as fantastically sophisticated, handsome and intelligent as Neatorama might be just the one to set the standard and help rid the world of one of my pet peeves: The ‘Next Page’ link takes you to previous articles, while the ‘Previous Page’ link takes you to articles that (chronologically) came next! Makes me see red!

    Is ‘Previous Articles’ and ‘Newer Articles’ too much to ask for? Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh (choke) (sob) (thud)

    As you might expect, I have too much time on my hands.

  46. Scooter
    Feb 8th, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    I miss the next and previous buttons… everything else looks great.

  47. Alex
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 1:21 am

    Cowboyshoe – I completely understand. It’s one of the idiosyncrasies that became the norm in the blogosphere.

    Scooter – I’ve been meaning to add back the next/previous buttons. Here they are. Thanks for reminding me!

  48. Alex
    Feb 24th, 2010 at 4:25 am

    Forgot this one:

    @ted – it’s a space turtle!


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