As most will notice, the blog has had a bit of a makeover this morning.
There were three reasons. First one or two bugs had crept into the old design.
Second, this version is considerably more mobile friendly and that is very important now.
Third, a wiki is being planned and whikst it's not available as yet this redesign was part of the process of developing it.
Since this is a change not everyone will like it. If there are comments and suggestions, or even tweaks you think might work, please let me know.
My thanks to Andy Moyle for working with me on this. I appreciate his patience, and skills.
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For the first time I can read clearly on laptop browser (Chrome) without fiddling with the margins. Sometimes its the small things that give us pleasure in life! Thankyou.
Success!
Thanks. Much easier to read!
That was a goal
And it is, undoubtedly easier to read
As a man with trifocals I appreciate that too
I am loosing my sight, Ihearing gone already) and so far the new design is very clear and readable. Much appreciated. Well done.
I thought it may be too big
Clearly not
Much better. So many times enticed to read more by tweet but gave up on blog due to difficult to read on mobile format. Well done.
Thanks
The blog have never been outstanding design-wise, but the content most certainly is. I don’t mind what the blog looks like as long as you are happy to keep writing brilliant content for us humble people to read, then I am happy.
Anything that improves readability on mobile device is a bonus. Well done.
The blog is done on a budget because it’s never had funding as such
Tax Research could have survived with a perfunctory web site so I do the best with design on a limited budget – and Andy has worked hard within that constraint
If it now reads better that’s what it is really all about
Agreed – it wasn’t bad before but now much more readable. Also much easier to add comments from my iPad. Before I had to stretch the box to be able to read the letters. Big improvement
Thanks
Good
I think the old one was more stylish but then again I never read anything other than text messages on a mobile phone and it seems that I am clearly outvoted, so, never mind me then.
Its a wee bit weird* on a desktop – but those of us antediluvians who are still using them (ironically i do so in order to make readability better than on a tablet!) – must accept that apparently since 2013/2014 we have become the minority.
*weird = it seems like huge typeface -16 or 18 point even though it isn’t, the view buttons have gone – to be replaced by words “Visited 325 times, 325 visits today”. What I cant remember is if there were any share buttons that have now gone missing (although they may still be functional and visible on mobile).
Overall I’m with Rene – as long as the content remains excellent, the appearance is secondary. Thank you for investing your time (and money) in thinking about the users accessibility.
Can you tell me what browser you are using
All I tested have the share buttons and view buttons
I have the same issue with text size and the share buttons. Tested on Firefox and Safari on the mac.
I have tested on both and both look better than Chrome and both show the buttons…
Not sure how to deal with that…
Not least because the settings used for those have not changed from the old design
Firefox. Whilst I am not bothered that the buttons have gone, the functionality of them has gone too, so others with firefox on desktop who may have used them to share in the past would find they can’t – if they have the same problem.
I think it is a techy question for your IT guy.
Sorry – but we have tried firefox and it works just fine for us on Mac and PC so I can’t really help
Apologies…
No complaints from me – content of course is king but it helps if you’re comfortable reading it.
If you’re using Firefox, you can easily alter the text size by using either:-
From the toolbar, click on – View, Zoom, Zoom in, or Zoom out
or
“ctrl -” to zoom out or “ctrl +” to zoom in – easy!
Hope that helps someone.
True for almost all browsers
And they do remember by web site
I’m short sighted so reading small text is comfortable but I could not read your blog text on my mobile phone easily, it was very small txt. Nice update for my Android phone but text a little big on my Mac laptop, I’ll get use to it. It’s the content that counts!
I’ll see if anything can be done about that…
I slightly agree
Utterly ghastly.
On a computer screen it’s like being made to sit in the very front row of a wide-screen cinema and watching a bad action movie while someone shouts the dialogue in your ear.
You don’t have to use a browser to full screen width
I never do….
Much better Richard. Only one quibble, your Tax Research UK logo is now pixellated. You need a higher resolution image to replace it.
On desktop, Chrome browser.
You’re right
On the to do list
Using a Windows 10 PC and Opera on a desktop HD wide-screen the image is perfect, thanks.
Thanks
I had not tested opera
Actually, it’s always been a good browser
Hurray – links now open in a new tab!
My only suggested improvement would be for the blog title to be in bold.
That one may happen
Excellent. I read the blog on my phone, so this is a big improvement.
Good!
Well, the size of the text characters has certainly improved – but then, like Christine Bergin, my eyesight’s deteriorating.
But the blog itself seems as clear as ever.
Thanks
I know some are not so keen on that
But I’m voting with those of a certain age
I have a number of pages open at the same time emails etc and with the changes to font cant use this site on my desktop computer. Its okay on the computers linked to tvs in the living rooms. I will change my reading habits, not using this site when I am in the office. I find with many media now some sights are set up for views on phones.
Belatedly … my thanks to you and Mr Moyle. For geriatrics like me, larger type is always welcome. “The medium is the message” – well, maybe not exactly but it contributes. It is surprising how many websites are still difficult to read and navigate.
Preferred the old one as was more compact, easier to read.
This one spreads across the screen.
I’m using a desktop with Windows 8.1 and Opera browser.
I have to say that isxwhat it was intended to do
That suits most devices better
And remember a browser need not fill your whole screen
I never use mine that way
many sites need to be open across the screen I am pleased that you dont have the hassle of that, which is good. But when you have different things going on then its always easier to have the one set up needed.
i cant use this site and my work emails at the same time.
Of course you can
Just put it in a separate window
Richard,
The new design is much easier to read on mobile platforms, well done.
Now, get to work on the actual content (still dreadfully uninformed).
Georges
Where did you reappear from?
I’m here, I’m there, I’m the eggman
One additional technical issue I’ve noticed on chrome for android. If the blog entry title is longer than a couple of lines the text for “Responses to [blog title]” clashes with the first comment and needs bit of space inserting.
Looking at it
Is it intentional that once the topic is closed, presumably after a given number of days when the Leave a Reply box disappears, then the comments made on that topic also disappear?
When I go back to older topics, none of them have any comments which is a shame as you lose the discussion they generated.
That will be corrected
Thanks for telling me
One issue with the new “Visited X times, Y visits today” is that it only counts views from yesterday onwards, so earlier blogs say “Visited 1 times, 1 visit today”, despite in some cases having thousands of shares and tweets. If possible, maybe you could update the site to include the actual page visits, if not then perhaps remove this feature from earlier blogs, or at least alter it to “Since 1st August 2017: visited X times, Y visits today”.
Another issue: all of the comments on old articles have disappeared. The comments and your discussion in the comments section are an important feature of your site so would it be possible to put the comments back on older articles?
I am not convinced by this counter
It may go