The new "very white" site will take some getting used to, but I think it has great overall potential. One thing I am unhappy with is "hiding" the "Other News" section. I loved the fact that I could quickly scan all different genres of news, including Travel, Entertainment, Legal, etc. Now I've lost that "at-a-glance" perspective, and I have to click through to view these topics. Also, I want to echo another comment on the blog – where is the Education section?

Certainly more visually appealing – easier on the eyes – easier to read. BUT – flashier looking with less news. You're driving me back to Google, Reuters, AlJazeera, The Beeb, etc.

News, News, News.

Content, Content, Content.

Remember, Remember, Remember... why you're here.

After reading some of the other users input, I just wanted to list a few things that, if you guys are looking into it, should immediatly be wiped off the board:

1) No popups. Ever.

2) Those tooltip mouseover effects that help "link" you to commonly searched terms and phrases (such as found at http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/javascript/article.php/3680326).

3) Fly in ads, zoom ads, flashy ads, anything that is going to tick off the user. I understand you need ads and such, but try to select plain ones that won't get annoying while I'm trying to read the news.

4) User logins to access some news. News is news, never stop someone from reading it because they didn't take the "quick and easy" sign up procedure. Don't even lock up video content.

Some things I would like to see added:

1) Text customization. So many people worry about the size of text, color of text, etc. Why not allow options that save your text settings (size, color, face, etc) based on your cookies? That way whenever someone comes back, they automatically are viewing the news how they want to.

2) Allow news customization. On the main page there is always the big picture and a small text description on a hot topic. Let me say what's hot based on catagories. Maybe I don't care about certain types of news and care more about others.

3) Comcast's Fan is a neat gizmo. Maybe something like that but broken down into categories for easy navigation would be cool.

That's about it. Hope this helps.

please use burgandy colors it will make it look much more alive!

How about less flash, more news for once?

I honestly could care less about how pretty it is as long as it give me orderly, ready access to news, which is why I prefer this site to others who shall not be named. But the new beta seems to cut out a lot of stories in favor of pretty pictures and design.

Not sure I like it. Resembles MSNBC's website too much. I'm an internet news junkie and CNN is the first one I go to everytime. It's my morning paper and I like what you're doing with it now. I totally disagree with it being easier on the eyes but as long as you keep providing accurate up to date news as well as developing story flashes I'm sure I'll continue to be a satisfied reader.

Agreed on not having popups, but Firefox aces those, so it's not such a big deal for me.

I disagree with Lee & others in terms of the amount of stories, and here's why: it was a pain to have to scroll down and hunt amongst another two-column set for the regular headlines. I'm on a 30" monitor so space is not an issue for me, but I'd much rather have a few more located at the top of the page in a nice cluster.

Perhaps you could offer an option, like iGoogle, where we can determine how many stories we want loaded up-front?

I like the small thumbs for the Popular News as well. I like having a list that I can quickly grab and open several tabs for at once.

I appreciate the white space & the 3-column organization of the elements (that's the graphic designer in me). I especially like the fact that you have shoved all of the hi-speed media to the right.

OK, back to work. Thanks for putting up this blog.

-JOA

I like it except for the red line at the top. It separates the page too much, looks like frames.

I like it.

Your old site was starting to remind me of Yahoo 1.0, which it changed into more of a 2.0 application later this year. So i am glad that the comment are open on the bloglines, otherwise it is not really a blog, now is it?

It would do you guys right to check out some more web 2.0 applications, i have been posting a few things about that lately on the http://ThunkDifferent.com site, but sites like GigOM, scoble, and TWiT programming are really worth your while. Anyhoo, i have got to get back to my new Jaiku account, fun stuff. Welcome to the www2 CNN & nice work Lori, I look forward to reading all the comments and posts on the new blog section of cnn.com

-Americo
http://www.20weblogs.com

I hate it. Very visually unappealing. Too white for my tastes; I think it could use some color balance. I don't think there's anything wrong with the current page. I don't like the category buttons being moved to the top, and I hate that it doesn't feature the other news are with the top headlines for several categories.

It wasn't broken ... why fix it?

It has lost its punch – frankly, looks a little peaked as if it's not feeling well. Makes you check your contrast settings. I don't think the text looks as strong, and the Menu Bar on top gets lost without its background color.

No no no no, CNN don't do this to me. I possess hate in my heart for the new design already.

I don't like it. The new beta is tired and is lacking the news quicklinks which is why cnn is the first site i go to everytime i sit down at my computer. don't make me have to find another new site.

Nice site upgrade. Flipping through a series of pictures has the fade in-out delay which can be annoying. Pictures shoud be switched instantly. Also it is very irritating when you guys run interesting stories that are video ONLY and not print. I can't view the video where I work and would like to at least read about the stories. Please change that policy.
Thanks

From a web design standpoint, the new design looks great. It's simple, easy on the eyes, and really looks professional.

It's much better than MSNBC's cluttered site, and much better than FOX News and ABC News as well.

The white and red line work well together at the top, as do the navigation. It's not overwhelming like with the current site. I am wondering, however, where breaking news will appear.

I wouldn't really change a whole lot. I would like to see a personalized page option and maybe somehow redo the "Popular News" area on the front page. The thumbnails are unnecessary, as those stories should be no more important than the "Latest News" area.

The only thing I really wish would change is the SI.com and CNN Money pages – they're no where near as nice as the CNN.com beta and TIME. Overall a great job with this beta; I'm excited to see what the final product will look like, as its a much needed improvement over the current site, which was cluttered and not appealing.

hate it...kepp the old look

I would have to agree with the first post (from "Jen"). I don't like the "sections" being esssentially "hidden" (and where DID the education section go ?).

I also would have to agree with the "if it's not broken, don't fix it "sentiment.

Bottom line I don't think I'm gaining anything with the new format but have lost the instant visibility on the "sections".

Looks just like New York Times website. but, that's not a bad thing.

I like where your going. Much easier to follow than the current page. And if people complain about not enough content, tell them to click.

What Brian and Jen said. Visually, it looks like an older version of the site. Like something from the late 90's. Not sold on this at all.

I also think it too white. What I would REALLY like to see is that you get rid of all the infernal pop-ups that come with your site. You can do anything else, but get rid of those IRRITATING, ANNOYING, IRRELEVANT Pop Ups

I don't like it. I think it is a step back in time. I like the look, color and informational layout of the existing site. The new look is too pastel, too blah.... Don't change a good thing.

My only issue with the new design is that the sub-section headlines (U.S., World, Entertainment, Politics, Tech, etc.) no longer appear at once, but in a More Stories widget that slowly advances over time.

Beyond the top headlines, my other main way of using CNN is by scrolling down into those subject areas, to see what's going on in areas that interest me. Right now that's a scroll and a quick glance - but in this design I have to scroll and then either sit there and watch them slowly fade in and out, or click through multiple pages. The end result is, for news beyond what's breaking, CNN ends up having far fewer links (and opportunities for me to read stories) than it used to. Which can't be a goal of the design!

I also think there needs to be a stronger differentiator between video and text links than the camera at the end of the headline. And that CNN needs to do a better job of offering BOTH a text and video option for stories. I can't tell you how many times lately I've had to do a Google news search for a story I saw on CNN, because I didn't want to watch the video but I was interested in the story! I realize CNN's parent is a TV news network, but there are many portions of my day when I simply don't have the time to watch a video story, but want a quick read.

I would like to be able to control the font size through my browser. In Internet Explorer, when I choose "View > Text Size" nothing happens. Remember the older generations – they need to increase thier font sizes to read online! I also agree with the other bloggers – please keep the "other news" available, not hidden and please offer text versions of the video news links. I prefer the layout of the beta subpages, but I still think the beta homepage needs more thought. Thanks!

Overall i'm very impressed with the new design. It's clean, fresh and long overdue. well done. if only more sites could follow this example.

Under the "More Stories" section... you need to include more categories (those missing from the current CNN site as well as others) and more than two bullets under each...

Your new site is very hip, simple, user, and visually appealing! Great work!

JUST NEED TO MAKE THE VIDEO FULLSCREEN!!!

THANKS LOVE YA CNN!!!

Hi,

Why did you remove the 3 sections from the "More stories"?

This is the part I hate the most (important ones first):
1. I have to click to read some of the sections under "More Stories". In the current site I can simply glance and cover all the topics.
2. I miss the summary that comes with the video in the current site.

Things I like (important ones first):
1. The flash video player

Suggestions:
1. How about allowing rearranging the "boxes". One might like the Podcast more than the Popular stories and would like it higher up.
2. Like others have mentioned, the white is too white. Could tone down the "brightness". Make it gray or something.

Thanks,
Saravana

Agree with Carla & Eric...awful!!!
Please don't homogenize with the rest of the news sites.
CNN.com is my first choice. Please keep it that way.

Very big step backwards. As another poster said - news, news, news, content, content, content... that's what you're here for, and the reason I visit the site. I personally prefer a plain and well-organized front page with high density of information that I can visit for 5 seconds and know what's going on in a variety of areas. I'll click through to the story if I am interested. Now there are extra steps to see what was on one page before. Goodbye CNN.com if this is where you're going.

Other comments are to eliminate distracting ads and most importantly those occasional ads that completely swamp my computer's CPU (Cisco had some of them a while back).

I also agree with another poster who said they wondered if their contrast needed adjusting; the text is harder to read even though it is larger.

Something that REALLY annoys me with the old site is that on the International Edition at least, the ad bar on the top of the page loads a couple seconds after the rest of the page, causing the page content to drop by about an inch or so. I'm almost always about to click on a link when the page content gets pushed down, and I end up on the wrong link.

Not sure if the new version is slated to keep working like this, if so, can you please fix it? I understand that the ads might take a bit longer to load then the rest of the page or something, but can't that space be reserved in advance?

Thanks! - Mikey

I like where this is going. Well done. It was a bit of a shock at first, but it's growing on me. Now when I go back to the current design, it feels really busy.

But since you're asking, here's a few things worth looking at on the Homepage:

1. The blue link color still seems a bit too washed-out to me. I know it's a fine line here since, the darker the blue gets, the more busy the page will get. I'm guessing you already tweaked this once, but maybe a touch darker might help readability.

2. The "Quick Vote" box in the right column takes up a ton of real estate. I'd rather see another row of video clip thumbnails and have that Quick Vote box be condensed.

3. If there's going to be a search box on the top and the bottom of the page, it would be nice for the bottom search to have the same options as the top one. Simply adding the "Web | CNN News | CNN Videos" options to the bottom search would do the trick here.

I like the red bar on the top...I'm assuming it expands when there's Breaking News?

Overall I think the new structure has a clean look to it...

though I'm not sure if I mean clean as in well organized or clean as in heavily bleached...

I personally find the site to be a bit too washed out and I honestly have trouble reading the lighter grays and lighter blues of the headlines. I think older people will have a great deal of difficulty reading a website like this with this type of washed out colors...

Even though the text of the articles are still black and readable if this change was made today with this color scheme I would likely choose another source for my news on the net.

PLEASE Change the color scheme!!!

the headlines need to be a darker blue, not much darker, but dark enough that they don't fade into the background.... same on the footer... the slightly darker blue link colors on the lighter blue background make it all VERY difficult to read.

Also get rid of the gray text for things like the comment policy and whatnot... if you are bothering to put the text on the page its obviously important... trying to make it fade from being noticed by making the text color lighter draws my eyes to it even more and the washed out feel to it is visually unappealing.

All that said I think my complaints lie solely in the color scheme. I like the new organization of the site and think it is a VAST improvement over the existing site structure.

-Max

The hard-edged red line juxtaposed against the rounded pieces below is visually jarring but not the end of the world.

Not having the top stories listed in each topic right on the front page – that is nearing the end of the world – please do NOT change that. I come here for the broad, easy access to many different types of content.

I like having the video segregated, so I can avoid it. I use the web for news because I can read it (much faster than watching) and because I can go as deep or shallow as I like on a given topic.

Lastly, feel free to ditch those inane polls. There seem to be only two variants:

Which do you prefer, beige or taupe? [ ] yes [ ] no

What would you do if you saw a parent about to publicly behead their child for refusing to finish their vegetables? [ ] yes [ ] no

Arrgggggg!

too white...and have to click limk to see topical headlines...they should be on the page or a scroll down menu at top

I like the new design. It seems cleaner, but I too had trouble finding the additional sections in the more news area. Maybe because I had to scroll to get to it and I was used to the different sections being prominent. I also like the popular stories area, I don't remember seeing that on the old site if it was there. I think if you flipped the popular stories and the more news section it would be great, as I will glance at the new stories before I look at what's popular.

I don't mind paging through more news area, but i didn't immediately make the connection to the us,world,entertainment, etc. area of the old site. Perhaps a different title for that area would help.

Finally, I would love to see a links section for each story that groups relevant links that a person might want to jump to into a consistant area of the page.

Bring back the Sections quick links to stories in these different Sections. And speaking of Sections, what happened to the Eductation Section?

Please stay away from the flashy advertisements and popups!

What happened to the Science/Space section in the new design?

The current site is great and easy to navigate. Changing it is a big mistake. Remember New Coke?

Why in the world would anyone think the new look is any better than the old one? I find the new look drab and boring. Just another worthless change that we have to now get used to. Seems to me like somebody could have spent their time more wisely on something more important than the look of a website.

One thing you omitted that I used regularly was the expanding view of videos with the little blurb about the content. I could scan thru these quickly and skip the ones I didn't want to see by reading the verbage. Now I am forced to extrapolate from a title what it is and scroll across to find something interesting.

I'm missing both the Law and Education sections....

And I also second the user's comment that said that you should be able to read all the stories, rather than only providing video for some of them. I, too, can't view video at work...

Overall, though, I'd give it a B. But that still makes you my top news site!

My first reaction is it is blah and boring and as others have said it has too much white If the designers need work go do some charity websites. The site is so bad I am now looking at the other news organizations.

I actually the think the all white is a little too dry, the soft grays used to highlight some blocks really added nice contrast for the different sections. It's not band, but I certainly its a tad blander than the current site, and just a shade of contrast is really all it needs.

Every time CNN changes their site they take a step down, this new format make information harder to get to and looks washed out. The first CNN site was the best, easy hyper links to everything. Yahoo changed their format so many times it lost the edge against competitors. Google just came in and user Yahoo's original formula (fast loading pages that get you the information you want fast).
CNN has videos for every story it seems. People don't want videos they want fast loading text stories. They should know this if they were doing their research. More and more I am using Google news. Sorry CNN, you have not stayed true to your original formula and you will lose readers as a result.

The overall look is great. However, when reading articles, you really need to take advantage of widescreen monitors. Let the text span the width of the monitor. Don't hardcode some fixed width. The side bars are OK for the main page, but once the user clicks on an article link, have the text span the screen. As an example what I prefer see the Wall Street Journal website. If you use the widescreens correctly, the user has to do less scrolling while reading the article.

As a web developer I adhere to the good old standard "KISS"... Keep it Simple Stupid. In todays day and age where Web 2.0 is on everyones mind it is refreshing to see a layout like this. Novices think Web 2.0 is all those jazzy moving widgets. Experts understand it's about asyncronous communiction and the ability to give users a real-time like experience.

I'd say you are on the right track here... very simple and easy to read. Please do not buy into all the flashy widgets that some users want. Remember, people read newspapers when they were on paper... with no color and nothing moved... let's stick to it.

Good work guys, BRAVO!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

PLEASE

PLEAASE

PLEASE

PLEASE

Keep the sub-topic headlines... your site should deliver us MORE news, not less, by taking away the sub-headlines you encourage us to go elsewhere to get our news fill.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep the sub-topic menus and add more stories under them, other than that, the refreshment of your site is a good idea.

The 'Local News' section of the website has some major flaws. The only local news that shows up for my zip code is items from the classifieds. I know there is better local news than that. If the feature is not going to give the top local stories, you might as well use the space for something else.

Not for sure if it's implemented yet.........make the front page auto refresh. It seemed like the old site will refresh every 10 min or something like that.

To reiterate what others are saying here–bring back the easy to scan headlines. It's much harder to find news on the page and sports and entertainment are really not available.

I'm new to CNN.com – was always a Foxnews.com person. Have to tell you, layout aside, I'm liking your content. Fox is an obvious one -sided site; you guys are giving me news that critiques, compliments, criticizes and most of all, reports all sides........thank you.

I like the new design.
The automatic change from one video to another is annoying. Stop It. Let me choose which one I want to see. On Demand was better.
I like the addition of local news. I start my day reading /watching CNN.com and sometimes do not to know what is going on in my area.
Will you still have live feeds as with Pipeline? I like to minimize it and have it play as I work on other things on my computer. Please don't change that.
Breaking News must be a part of it. CNN is my home page. I want to know what is going on in the world through out the day (top stories).
Yea, I even enjoy watching or reading gossip of the celebreties.
Election year coming up. I know I will stay tuned.

I personally don't like Yahoo search engine and yours sites are powered by Yahoo. I also don't think you are using your real estate of the screen to its full potential. I see a lot of white and gray areas that is unappealing to the eye. I like the old cnn, please keep it

Hey there, overall I really like the new look. Just one comment. Under the "More Stories" section, it's not very clear that the arrows and bullets under are to flip through them. Maybe just list all nine, or if not use a tabbed approach instead. Also they're fairly slow to switch from one to another.

As a publication designer, I find your new look very refreshing and far less frantic. Congratulations to the design team...(always remember, and never forget – less is more!) I look forward to having the new stuff as the real, every-day stuff.

David

I don't like it.

The whiteness is harsh and brutal on the eyes, especially for those of us with Irlen syndrome. The title/headline text size is ridiculously huge and contributes to an overall "totally out of proportion" feel to the site. The right column has tons of wasted space and looks clumsy. The advertisement section is enormous; fortunately users with Adblock (et al) can omit these garish, distracting ads, but the space for it is just too big. The Yahoo search bar is completely unnecessary altogether.

All these factors and more combine to make CNN look like the "Duplo" of news sites. Presently, the ugliest major news site is easily FoxNews (even after their redesign, which is worse than the original!), but it looks like CNN's designers are trying as hard as they can to capture that anti-distinction.

Decrease the text sizes. Use no more than three or four subtle midtone colors and use harsh colors, like white, sparingly. Stop creating such huge pads of whitespace around each section. Omit the Yahoo search bar entirely. Try to do something about decreasing the size and frequency of the ads; most of us aren't going to be viewing them anyway.

Some good examples of functional and visually appealing design for a news site is MSNBC.com, BBC.com, and Reuters.com. They all present information in an organized way, without resorting to gigantic text and "boxed-in modules".

If the present, proposed redesign goes into implementation without any modifications, I'd expect the normal readership of CNN.com to drop off dramatically. Personally, it gives me a headache and makes it impossible for me to hang around long enough to read more than a few screamingly vast headlines.

It would be interesting to know a little bit more about the re-design process.

You mentioned that the first part was User Discovery. Are you at the end of this stage?

Cheers,

Lawrence

A lot of you guys are rather spoiled!!!! What's so wrong with the white. Its nicer than green argyle!!!! Its the information that is important, and I for one am completely satisfied. Best - crissy

hey, welcome to cnn with more pop ups and script errors. its gonna crash my computer soon. does the term- leave well enough alone- ring a bell. please go back to the future. tks

Please clean up the News Wire. There are currently 7 copies of wires on the Glasgow Terminal attack that say essentiall the same thing. When a new dispatch comes in with more complete details please delete the previous one that has less detail..

I waste a lot of time reading the same thing over and over.

Otherwise it is a great improvement.

Thanks Roy Noyes

Can you bring back the "Science" button, that was always my favorite click after cnn.com.

Thanks.

Way too much white space. Not official enough. Lacks gravitas. Light News is like Light Jazz. Tweek it now please.

Great videos.

Some changes are always benefitial.

The entire new CNN site looks like it was designed for preschoolers; script/content error popups with every link; distracting colors; poor layout.

HYPE HYPE HYPE

Why do you have a "DON'T MISS" like previews of movies. These are real stories some about tragedy. If you had a tragedy and it was printed on CNN, would you want a DON'T MISS about your tragedy. Wake Up we do not need any more news VULTURES!!

I like the larger print the page is smooth other than that not much. Science is now a subset of Technology... WHY?

Bob
Baltimore, MD