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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

  3. If you want my honest feedback David – I preferred the previous design where everything looked more in order and accessible. Everything now looks all over the place and articles are not as distinguishable. Ther previous design had more colour and was far more attractive than this dull word document design. Anyways its your site, you do whatever you want with it.

  5. David, I appreciate all the work you have put into this site, but I’m not keen on the grey font colour used in some places. I might finally have to ditch IE8 despite a pop-under blocker being absent on Mozilla. Not that you’d go down that street, David. BTW, how do I get an Aussie spell checker in the comments box?

    2. Firefox is ok but I strongly recommend checking out Chrome. You can add an Aus dictionary for in-browser spell-checking, plus you can install AdBlock (not Adblock Plus) which works really well (you can easily customise it to get rid off other unwanted clutter of your regular sites too).

  6. Thanks for the positive feedback guys. It’s been a lot of work over Summer to strike the right balance, so I am rapt change has been well received.

    – Comments font has already been upgraded, as a result of feedback.
    – TV Lounge is now operating.
    – 900 characters limiter is working in the sense that it does cut off at 900, but I would like it to count down as you write. To be honest there were a few things that were going to set back the launch and I was determined the start of ratings year was important. Will look into it.

    Working my way through other suggestions, so hang in there!

  8. I hate change, and wasn’t looking forward to it at all, but it’s actually better!

    Changes have been made which were always at the back of my mind, I was always wondering why doesn’t he do this or that, and you have actually done them.
    Congratulations David, I never liked the old format, this is much better…

  9. I really like the site refresh, especially the logo, and now having the ability to reply to a single comment, rather than post down the list where it becomes lost. I’d be keen to see a comment feature where we could “like” a contributors comment.

      1. The font at the top which is used for the date + By David Knox – which is also the same font that appears in the comments box when I click reply. Is some kind of narrow type font, which looks fantastic. I would love to start using it for my presentations (when I find a good font, I love to use it – I think this one will be a hit)

        And seriously, big thumbs up on the logo – whomever designed did a great job. I remember the site upgrade from the “blog” style to the previous one. This is not as drastic as that, but the refresh and new features are good.

  17. Congrats on your 8 years. Your site is still one of the most important sites for bringing the news to the people in this rapidly evolving industry and I couldn’t live without it. Thanks for all your hard work David!

  22. Okay, the lounge doesn’t appear to work for me – this may be a site glitch however no one else has mentioned this.
    I’ve tried it on both my Ipad & PC.

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