So, how do you like the new home page design?
There were several reasons behind it. First off, the new shaded boxes make it clear where one lesson ends and the next one begins. Secondly, we’ve got the links to the podcast directories to encourage people to use the subscription. (This kind of subscription will save you a lot of time and effort, in case you don’t know.)
The new design also gives us the chance to get your feedback on other issues in a quick and simple way.
So, what do you think?
Ken Carroll
The separation between the lessons is great, thanks, I always thought the end of one was the beginning of the next, and sometimes downloaded the wrong mp3 as a result. It’s quite clear now.
The page is a bit wider, because the right hand column is wider, so I have to scroll sideways a bit more than usual, but I can manage.
I love the new front page, but can’t you extend the same ‘theme’ to every other page on the website, at least the ones that display lesson archives?
马赛儿 - Glad you like it!
We’ll certainly bring the rest of the site up to date with these changes. We’re just taking the changes step by step. We also want to get the community’s feedback before changing the entire site.
Ken
The mods are nice and now I have a place for two comments I wanted to make. The survey is good marketing, I saw Jenny and knew that was new!
I download at 9:00 am Taiwan time the CPod lesson to my notebook PC into i-Tunes. I listen at least twice during work. When I get back to my apartment, I download the CPod lesson to my Mac again into i-Tunes and listen. Then Saturday morning I transfer the CPod lessons to my i-Pod and listen whenever. So which circle am I supposed to check?
2nd comment- There is still black space on the bar. Maybe you already have stuff planned to go in there. But if there is room having the calendar there would be great. Its nice to know when an Intermediate lesson is coming because that is going to take more time.
Mike in Jubie
Yes, I like it, more than previous design.
There is a gap below the “blog comments” you should fill it out with some new stuff.
Very nice. Color combo and layout is outstanding. Packed with info — yet spartan and uncluttered. That’s a hard balance.
I might be tempted to create a small icon for each lesson level and place them near the lesson title, so that one can tell at a glance what it is without scanning the text at the bottom. But that’s icing on an already delicious cake. Most people get their pods from feeds anyway and probably don’t do the sort of “eyeballing” I’m imagining.
Maybe a box with “links” to a SMALL selection of online websites and resources. If you do, DON’T get carried away. Just the cream of the cream. If you’re afraid of offending people by not linking to their site, create a sub-page with those to keep the top level pristine.
I like the “Keep it simple” approach. There are still some of us dinosaurs out here who went to school before there were ball point pens. I just upgraded my internet connection from dial-up to high speed. It was like changing from radio to television. I still don’t know what RSS is all about. Nevertheless I love CPOD!!! It keeps getting better and better
What I said about the width of the page was completely wrong, it’s the same width as before.
In the old design, on the right there were two columns not one. I was only seeing one of these two right hand columns before, so I thought the page was narrower than it is now.
Icons for the levels? Yes, please!
Looks good. Maybe the area below the Blog discussion could be a summary of forum topics, although at the moment topics with chinese characters won’t display properly though.
Nice job with the site improvements! It’s definitely more user friendly and the polling is a great idea - a quick and easy way to gather feedback from your users. One suggestion would be to specify the difficulty level near the top of the lesson rather than at the bottom where it gets easily lost among the other tags. Also, not sure why there is a black bar underneath the tabbed links near the top. Is there a reason for the separation from the main nav? Other than that everything looks nice!
I couldn’t help it. I clicked on the Jenny button. Looks much nicer. The site that is.
Yeah, I was kind of surprised to see Jenny’s picture now on the front page. Actually surprised there aren’t more comments about that. *grin*
BTW, I’m new here, and around advanced level after living in Tianjin for 3 1/2 years, but ChinesePod is a horse of another color, and something that makes Chinese learning even more fun… even the newbie lessons are fun to listen to, as just hearing Ken learn things from Jenny is quite interesting. So I want to say, truthfully as I have been through a lot of Chinese learning material, that this place 很棒！
Great changes to the home page too.
-Rich 孟以明
Oh, I did forget to add want make me smile when I saw the home page. There it says “Learn why ChinesePod is the most effective route towards mastering the Chinese language.”… and then there’s…. a picture of Jenny!
Yes, if there’s a spot on the front page a list of the latest forum articles would be real handy! But right now its future is a bit uncertain, since Bazza’s threatening to leave if there’s still no word by Friday on the 30-second tech fix he’s been begging for for weeks. HINT
I didn’t say leave, just resign as admin and become a regular user. I got an email on the situation this morning and I think they understand what needs to be done now, with any luck it will be sorted tomorrow.
HURRRAH! The Forum’s encoding is fixed! A big thanx to Eileen and Team-CPOD! Now we can start using it in earnest.
WOO HOO
Got to see if it works. Thanks CPod HQ
Mike in Jubei