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Welcome to the new-look Head for Points

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OK, we’re back after a couple of hours of downtime.

Things look a little different as you can tell ……

After eight years of using a layout which was, to be honest, already dated when we started using it in 2012, we have pulled the site into the 21st century.

I know that our core readers didn’t really care how we looked but the old theme was starting to take its toll.  HfP should hit 20 million page views this year (we are around the 450th biggest UK website) with a further 9 million articles read via email.  However, the old look was starting to impact our ability to attract new readers and secure large advertising contracts.  We hope you like what we’ve done.

I don’t want to say any more at this point because my prime consideration today is making sure that everything is working as expected.

If you see a technical issue – a broken link, a formatting issue, something which simply looks wrong on your device – then please tell us. Do NOT comment in this thread.  There is a separate ‘noise free’ thread for technical issues which is here.  Post your problem and we’ll get onto it.

If it’s a formatting issue, please say what device you are using.  We expect some issues with some mobile devices.

If you simply want to say that you like or hate the new look, then feel free to say that in this thread!  If you have any requests for new features we could add in the medium term, please also put your ideas in this thread.  The other one is exclusively for short-term problems requiring a quick fix.

You will see some minor differences around the site in terms of menus and layout.  However, there are no fundamental changes and all of the old content remains.  There are no changes to the usual ‘three articles, all posted by 6am’ scheduling.

Tomorrow I will run an article explaining exactly what has changed in terms of site functionality.

In a couple of days I’ll write a longer piece on what we’ve done, why we did it, who did it and what we learnt whilst doing it.  Given that we started approaching design agencies back in November, it has been a long process.

Thank you for your continued support, especially in the current climate.  Our revenue may be down but our page views have been consistently higher than the same period in 2019 which keeps us motivated.

Rob

PS.  If you made a comment on the ‘old’ site this morning then you might find it has disappeared.  Apologies.  Please feel free to post it again.

Comments (207)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Jane says:

    Sorry but I can barely read anything on these pages without getting a headache after half a minute. The menus are 2002. The layout is 1996 Commodore Amiga DTP. A quick look at the RapidWeaver site shows what can be done very easily. It was far more user friendly before. I appreciate the effort but I think it’s only worthy of teacher inflated B.

  • Christian Kramer says:

    All looks very familar to the #1 travel, points and miles website.

    • Rob says:

      We were quite taken by the funky credit card boxes, but everyone is doing them these days 🙂

    • Rhys says:

      Don’t worry, we won’t be disabling our comments anytime soon 😉

  • Paul74 says:

    Looks good at first glance, well done Rob and Co.

  • Sunguy says:

    Updates always have to happen – and yours is definitely not the worst I have seen.

    Personally, I did prefer the old design – but in your business change has to happen and I get that.

    I quite liked the smaller text using the web browser and the compartmentalised comments….the first one, I could just reduce the text size in my browser(annoying), the second needs a design change from you….

    I get the fact you need the real estate for adverts….fact of life – but thats what was good about the old version – enough space to read it….just *PROMISE* us all you will never resort to using splash over X out adverts ***EVER*** please!

    Not a bad job – certainly better than Lloyds->TSB platform move 😉

    • Rob says:

      There are FEWER ads than the old site!

      • jil says:

        it does look like ad is now more obvious and taking over larger space

        • Rob says:

          No, all the same size ads too!

          But this is fine. If more people click them because they are now more visible, despite being the same size (and fewer) than before, then we won’t be any worse off and readers benefit from less clutter.

      • Sunguy says:

        Rob, right now there are fewer ads…but I assume that will change over time….all this extra real estate needs something on it 🙂

        Its nice there are fewer for the moment though!

  • Tom says:

    I like that the logo & headings turn blue if you hover over them: reassuring to know your view is working properly.

    Think white text on dark background for the banner bar would make a nicer (& more modern) distinction from the rest of the page though – it is very bright atm!

  • Graham says:

    Looking great.

  • Gringo says:

    Viewing on a desktop, 2 comments to make

    1) you used to be able to click a link at the top of an article to skip straight to the comments, that link is now unfortunately gone
    2) when reading through comments, clicking “next/previous page” at the end of that page’s comments used to take you to the start of the next page’s comments. Now it frustratingly takes you halfway down the page instead

  • mr_jetlag says:

    +1 on the next/previous buttons (although for mobile they were switched around between the top and bottom of comments so let’s not bring that back)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.