In a five part series on CurryBet.net, Martin Belam reviews the Daily Mail's website redesign. Here are some highlights.

Layout

The new Mail website has some unwieldy designs, Belam says. First, a "skyscraper advert" lining the left side of the page results in a squeezed format that is hard to read. More noticeably, the home page is a colossal 6,369 pixels long - 10 pages of scrolling.

Finally, Belam is bewildered by the 140 links jamming the Mail's homepage. He believes that the Mail may have gotten overzealous with its coverage, leaving "designers with little choice but to include everything, to the detriment of the overall user experience."

RSS Feeds

The Mail has created RSS feeds for individual celebrities - an innovation, Belam says, that demonstrates "a real understanding of the strengths of the RSS format."

Navigation

Belam is a fan of the Mail's new interactive section, Coffee Break, which offers browsers games, crossword puzzles, and cartoons.

Message Boards

Belam likes the message board's "very graphical" front-page. He has mixed feelings, however, about the Mail's decision to display individual threads with the most recent post first. He says the ordering is "a very brave design decision" but warns that it can be "a very jarring experience the first time."

Hovering Preview

This feature, which displays the preview of a story when a mouse is rolled over it, was removed after the initial launch. Belam says it "caused more usability problems than it solved."




Source: CurryBet.net through IFRA