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Welcome to TV Tonight 4.0

Welcome to the new-look TV Tonight. What's new under the hood?

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TVT 2015

It’s the 2015 television year and TV Tonight has had a makeover (who’s been a busy bee over Hiatus, then?).

You will be pleased to know most of the navigation remains intact, to fit with the site’s busy turnover of content, and without reinventing the wheel.

The site is now fully Responsive, designed to fit the device you are using: this will be particularly helpful for reading the ratings on your phone, which has long been a challenge.

I’m pleased to announce that the site will now load much faster than in the past. And yes, the logo has also been refreshed but retains its brand identity.

Let’s go through some of the changes so you can enjoy maximum benefit:

Home Page

  • New Video section: this category will gather together stories with clips, whether trailers, promos, overseas shows etc. As this is a new section it will build over time.
  • Thumbnails now have opacity when you scroll over them and a video icon where they include a clip in the story.
  • New look drop-down menus: always a quick way to find recent stories on current shows.
  • Reviews scroller: includes star ratings on the front of the story.
  • Gone: Late List has been rested after several years of experimentation. Ice TV Guide.

Category Pages:

News, Programming, Pay TV, Reviews, Ratings, Video.

  • On the desktop version when you click on one of these pages you have the option of two layouts: either Grid or List via an icon at the top of the section. Play around and see which you prefer (List is the default).

“More diversity playing with sub-headings and quotes.”

Single Posts:

  • You will begin to see more larger photos being utilised as well as more diversity playing with sub-headings and quotes, especially for longer articles.
  • The biggest change here pertains to Comments, outlined below.

Comments:

  • When you are logged in as a site user you now have the ability to leave a response for a specific comment. You also have the option of receiving an email if someone responds to the topic. And yes, you can now edit a comment after it has been submitted to fix those pesky typos.
  • Please note Comments are still moderated before publication. Please try to make your point in a single initial post of 900 characters. A reminder that Comments Policy rules are enforced with respectful but robust debate, links remain a no-no and you must have a working email registered.

Calendar:

  • I plan to resume the Calendar grid soon after the relaunch.

Advertising:

  • TV Tonight remains a free site with Advertising. Occasionally you will see additional short-term campaigns or even the odd Sponsored Post (these are declared). This is always about striking the right balance, and a site of this size cannot run without a mixed model to pay the bills. Remember that ads will vary according to your browser, location and cookies etc.

Smartphone devices:

  • Now Responsive to your device. A Menu sits at the top of the display followed by Top Stories, News, Pay TV, Programming, Daily Pick, Ratings, Poll and Reviews.
  • You may also like to update the new logo icon to your home screen for shortcut purposes.
  • If you want to quickly get to Ratings on your phone, navigate via the Menu.

“Clean, fast and contemporary.”

This refresh is intended to make the site clean, fast, and contemporary without rewriting the navigation. But there are always a few teething problems with any refresh so please bear with me while I endeavour to sort these.

TV Tonight is now in its 8th year and there’s more content than ever for us to get through together.

Enjoy the ride!

cheers, David

ps. my thanks to DMC Web for the site development!

91 Responses

  4. I normally hate change with websites as it often leads to a mountain of glitches. However this seems ok so far, More evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I am a nightmare with tiypos, so that is good!!!

  6. Looks great, although looks a bit wonky in landscape on an iPhone 6, like a squashed version of the desktop view with things like ads breaking out of their confines, all good in portrait.

    Perhaps it should use the same layout in landscape as portrait.

    Other than that it really is a great new look.

  11. Looking great.. Just wondering.. Would it be ok to have a time stamp on comments (with the current date stamp)? With the oldest comment up the top and the newest down the bottom (so we ready the comments in the order that they get approved)? Keep up the great work 🙂

  12. Great to see the new 4.0. You’ve come a long way, David. The comment rework (to allow replies to specific comments, etc) will be interesting indeed. Now if only the character counter for comments worked…

  13. Look at you, being all fancy and new. I like it! There have been a lot of other sites across the net who changed into a much worse design, concentrating too much on tablet users, and forgetting the desktop users. You haven’t done this here, it’s a good balance for all. Excellent work.

  14. Looks great, nice and clean. I’m glad you kept the purple (altho’ lightened).

    Only niggle I have is that comments are not displaying the time any more.

  16. Although I don’t like change much, but since I’m on here everyday, I know id get used to the new look quite quickly.

    Luckily, the new look does look good 🙂

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