Staff —

An update on the state of the Ars redesign

We're going to go back to the drawing board to fix problems and add features.

An update on the state of the Ars redesign

Yesterday we launched an ambitious new redesign aimed at improving the site's functionality and performance while putting in place the building blocks for new expansion plans, including secure browsing and more customized layout options.

We have now temporarily reverted back to the old site while we attempt to address a handful of challenges, including a show-stopping code issue that prevented us from even fully activating the site. The problem we've encountered did not show up on our staging site, our local mirrors, or even in the low-load test production environment. But once the full weight of the audience showed up, we instantly discovered a handful of problems that we now know are not solvable without some extensive downtime.

Because of these issues, we now have an opportunity to revisit the design and take into account all of the comments readers provided over the last 24 hours. Many of the issues mentioned were problems that we normally could have addressed by now, but the aforementioned problem was preventing that.

We'd also like to specifically address three key complaints from the feedback we've received that we will be taking into account before bringing back the new design.

The dark theme — Longtime readers know that the original Ars color scheme was white text on a black background with orange and green accents. We brought back the green accent as a tribute to our roots, but we didn't finish the dark background theme in time for launch. Clearly the people have spoken, the passion for it is strong, and it will return with the new design's resurrection as an optional theme.

Homepage list view — Though our new story grid was designed to keep our traditional reverse-chronological story order, there are people who prefer to read their stories in a list format. We hear you loud and clear, and we'll create an option to view our front page in a more streamlined list of stories.

Site width — We researched our readers' screen resolutions before deciding to try a wider layout than in the past. What we've heard is that while you are technically capable of handling the wider site, you prefer to not have to make your browser window so wide to accommodate the site. We will take this into account while we fix things so that it's no longer a requirement.

We heard lots of feedback, we've logged a lot of bugs, and we know we weren't able to deliver the experience you deserve on Ars. We thank everyone for their feedback. Having such a concerned and interested audience is truly a blessing.

Channel Ars Technica