Welcome to MotoringFile 3.0

Sections: Site News Nov 22nd, 2006 57 Comments

Welcome to the new MotoringFile.com. This new version of the site comes a little over one year since our big move to the WordPress platform and is well over a year in the planning. In fact MF 3.0 represents the biggest visual changes to the site since the summer of 2004.

With the average size screen increasing over the last few years, we felt it was time to finally move to a wider (1024px based) layout. This has allowed us to a add a third column which in turn features more of our reviews and classic content higher on the page. It also helps keep the page length down a bit.

Another big change we’ve made is the way users access each section. You can now view the category listing by clicking the “Browse by Category” link on the top left within the black navigation bar. When clicked, the category menu slides down to reveal all categories. Our hope is that this will offer users a more compelling way to tap into the four years of archives the site offers.

As always, a big thanks goes out to Matt Gifford who makes MotoringFile happen when it comes to the hardcore coding side. And of course another big thank you to DB for combing the site for bugs (or features as I call them) and cracking the coding whip on anything not up to snuff.

So please, kick the tires a bit and let us know what you think.

Written By: Gabe

Rocketboy

Congrats on all the years of Motoring Fun… I’m just afraid that I’ll get a neck cramp by looking slightly to the left so often….
Dominique

I’ve always liked the simple layout, the colors, etc etc of motoringfile, but it just feels like the right of the page has become awfully cluttered. And if people didn’t look hard enough for content before, I honestly doubt that they are going to muddle through all the links.

I still love the site, still love the content, and just about everything else… but that’s my two cents. :)
http://www.motoringfile.com/ Gabe

And if people didnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t look hard enough for content before, I honestly doubt that they are going to muddle through all the links.

I’m at a loss there. Nothing has changed, the content is still the same size, located in the same place and the titles are still big, bold and black. Countless hours of user research shows that the vast majority of users don’t have trouble with understanding where the daily content is in a three column weblog style layout like the one here. If you look at the leading weblog news sites out there, they almost all have a variation of this layout.

And it may be worth mentioning, since launching the updated site, not only are our daily visits up on the home page (compared to this time last year) but I’ve seen more hits to a broader range of pages within the site. Exactly what we had wanted.

Congrats on all the years of Motoring FunÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â¦ IÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢m just afraid that IÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ll get a neck cramp by looking slightly to the left so oftenÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â¦.

Thanks but just to clarify, the main content area has always been on the left.
http://MF BobS

I use Safari at home and the site works great. However, at work Safari is a four letter word that also begins with s. Anyway, at work I use IE6 SP2 on XP Pro and the very cool Browse by Category crashes IE. When any MF page loads there is a syntax error at line 2 char 1 but the page works okay until the slider is activated. Then IE crashes. Just today I rolled over an item in the Browse by Category table in the window footer and it turned the bottom visible part of the window bkgnd black. Scrolling up out of the black area restores the bkgnd to white.
http://www.matthewgifford.com/ Matt G.

The problem where the Browse by Category link crashes IE should be fixed.

For web developers: There is a known bug in the slide effect in Scriptaculous 1.6.5. As you might have guessed, it causes IE to crash. I fixed the problem on this site by switching to version 1.6.
http://blog.infe.ws DWF

Hey guys, now that you’re on WP, any chance you’ll install Alex King’s WP-Mobile plugin? I’ve poked Gabe about this before not realizing you weren’t on WordPress.

This would allow folks to read MF from our phones (he says, lightly plugging his own site that would love to have MF added to available news feeds…)

Thoughts?
http://mini2.co.za Timmee

Heh, 56 comments so far. When I used to do web ui design I used to hate getting feedback from colleagues and users. You simply cannot satisfy everyone. If I had one happy user I was thrilled. In fact, if the person paying the bill was cool with it, I was happy that my job was done. Oh, who pays for this again? :P

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