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PaladinGuy

macrumors 68000
Sep 22, 2014
1,687
1,093
Well I listened to the Verge podcast last night. Basically they are responding to the criticism by saying people who have said they don’t like it are toxic, don’t like change and are amplified by social media.

If that’s the case, they better be careful. Doesn’t help with your readers to insult them for constructive feedback…
 
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Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,973
4,541
New Zealand
Yikes. I don't use the site but I just took a look at it and I agree that it's hideous. It doesn't respect my dark mode settings (that is, it's white text on a black background even though my browser is in light mode), dark blue on black is hard to read, and I also noticed that scrolling down the page then pressing the Home key results in text going off the top of the page.

A couple of people have mentioned Reader view. Back in the old days the whole idea behind HTML was that it specified "this is text, this is a heading", etc. and it was up to your browser and settings to make it pretty. Now sites are at the mercy of designers by default, with Reader acting as a (flawed) way to get things back to how they were meant to be. It seems that every technology gets "corrupted" once marketing departments get their mitts on them :(
 

TSE

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
4,024
3,529
St. Paul, Minnesota
I used to go to The Verge daily. I can't make heads of tails of the new site, I don't know where anything is, nothing makes sense. Deleted.

Agreed. The interaction design is about the only thing they got right. Everything else - info architecture, typeface design, color is miserable. I've only tried to use it honestly once or twice since the redesign and still hate it.
 

Septercius

macrumors regular
Oct 5, 2017
134
277
UK
Well I listened to the Verge podcast last night. Basically they are responding to the criticism by saying people who have said they don’t like it are toxic, don’t like change and are amplified by social media.

Wow, what a lazy, simplistic reaction. Did they call their readers "haters" as well?

I don't get why companies/sites get so defensive when faced with criticism like that. They seem unable to accept that what they've done is wrong, so blame the customers/readers/whoever.

As for the design:

1. I don't like "dark mode" on sites, and I don't use it on my computer either, so I'm disinclined to like it.
2. The typography is horrid.
3. It's way too narrow.
4. The navigation that you can show by clicking on the "+" looks like something you might see in a DOS application from the 1990s. The choice of colours is dreadful. It's jarring and clashes horribly with the black background.
5. It's not easy to use. Too much clicking around is needed.

It reminds me of Logitech's iOS Harmony app. That looked similar, and it was/is loathsome.

The "Welcome to the new Verge page is laughable":

All of those things were designed and developed with great care by Vox Media’s spectacular in-house design team

"Great care". Really? If they'd taken "care", it wouldn't look anything like this terrible mess. "Spectacular". If you mean "spectacularly incompetent", then yes.

Our goal in redesigning The Verge was actually to redesign the relationship we have with you, our beloved audience.

Presumably by "redesign" they mean "destroy" and "alienate".

I could go on, but I'm losing the will to live. What makes sites/companies come up with such tripe? They're hardly the only ones - AgileBits (who have ruined 1Password) are the same. It's twee, cringeworthy and embarrassing.

Why not just admit you screwed up? You'd get a whole lot more respect that way than doubling down and pretending it's not a dumpster fire. Even Apple admits to mistakes, occasionally.
 
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Bodhitree

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2021
2,068
2,200
Netherlands
Well I listened to the Verge podcast last night. Basically they are responding to the criticism by saying people who have said they don’t like it are toxic, don’t like change and are amplified by social media.

In the end, lower reader numbers will force a change. Personally I won’t be visiting the Verge again until they change it — I find the new design so unreadable that I’ve dropped them from my daily shortlist of tech sites I visit.
 

uczcret

macrumors regular
Apr 3, 2021
241
336
England
Count me in on those that visited the website daily and have now pretty much abandoned it. I might click on an article I find interesting on my FB feed but that's pretty much it.

The homepage is just the most confusing design I've ever seen...like two Twitter feeds stuck next to each other. Original articles are mixed with tweets, links to external websites, nothing seems to be organised in any patternI can identify or make sense of.

The worst part imo (and it's all pretty terrible) is the new comments section. The fact that it's a separate window, the feature vs all comments tabs, that FONT COLOUR...it's borderline offensive.

I appreciated the fact that they were willing to take a risk with a design that's unlike anything we've seen before but this is not it at all.
 

theautopilot

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2010
709
39
In the end, lower reader numbers will force a change. Personally I won’t be visiting the Verge again until they change it — I find the new design so unreadable that I’ve dropped them from my daily shortlist of tech sites I visit.

Same. My visits have gone from daily to never. Still read some content through Apple News, but as well as the confusing and headache inducing website, I’m not overly keen on some of their more recently hired writers.
 
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nlr

macrumors 6502
May 27, 2010
457
1
London
I hate it so much that I am looking for an alternative.

Does anyone have any recommendations? TheVerge has been my favourite for tech news for the last 5 years :(
 

Justafrogg

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2011
23
2
I keep going back to TheVerge website to see if they've come to their senses. They seem to be sticking with it regardless of all the negative feedback. Nilay Patel has acknowledged that the new website is receiving lots of negative reviews but yet they won't budge.

I've also found that The Vergecast Podcast has become harder to listen to. The intro music is simply annoying.
 

whoever82

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2022
2
1
The Verge Redesign: How to radically reduce your viewership and revitalize the competition 101

Joining the chorus of "I absolutely hate it and they should be ashamed for eternity, roughly speaking". Gave it many chances but there is no way I am getting used to this ADHD inducing visual disaster. I am almost hallucinating after 1 minute of reading. It's like a rave party with weird fonts falling from the ceiling. I have been enjoying a bonus perk too. Cannot login to the new comments section. Some kind of bug I guess.

I have not removed the bookmark yet in anticipation of changes. Meanwhile Ars, gsmarena, 9to5, xda-developers etc. Obviously there are alternatives but not many quality ones and the Verge was a great all arounder. Clean and distinctive design, potent article variety, lively comments section.
 
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fanboy-ish

macrumors 6502
Apr 1, 2022
275
289
I used to visit The Verge and stopped due to the redesign, it hurt my head and found it unreadable, I found it difficult to find articles or to understand where I should click, what was an article, what was a story, what was a tweet, and they're way too biased and opinionated for a tech website, but they did some good reporting once in a while, I've always found their reviews way too superficial and unobjective, they were too based on their reviewers' personal experiences and usage, they tout themselves as a professional publication but their reviews looked like yet another YouTube review, except they didn't act like the world revolves around video editing or gaming, ArsTechnica and Notebookcheck reviews are much, much better.

According to these two websites (link #1 and link #2) they've been steadily losing visitors since they launched their redesign, I don't know if those figures are reliable or if the loss of visits is due to redesign entirely, or it's a just a mix of bad design and too much bias, but if I'd ask myself a couple of questions if my website was losing so many views over 2 months.
 

Orka

macrumors regular
Dec 24, 2012
178
23
Moscow, Russia
How to turn dark mode off? I couldn't find settings or there is no ligher version? I'm talking about front page which is all dark. It looks good on OLED screens, but when I view it on my old MacBook Air my eyes hurt.
 
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MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
Has anyone given up on these "anti-apple pro amazon" websites?
I finally stopped reading Macworld and complained to them via twitter
how I was tired I was of their negative reviews on apple products.
Seems to me that J Bezos or Amazon is buying out these apple content websites.

oh the Verge look horrible and unpleasant to the eye
but graphic design and style does not have parameters or guidelines anymore.
 
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vitamanic

macrumors member
Jul 25, 2020
46
23
I feel like this could have been an early concept of mine before I learned restraint and accessibility in design.

Wouldn't be surprised if the person heading this is fresh out of school. Looks cool in a portfolio, performs horribly in practice.
 
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MacGizmo

macrumors 68040
Apr 27, 2003
3,198
2,501
Arizona
Has anyone given up on these "anti-apple pro amazon" websites?
I finally stopped reading Macworld and complained to them via twitter
how I was tired I was of their negative reviews on apple products...
I fail to see how a few negative reviews on Macworld makes them "Pro Amazon." And quite frankly, many of Apple's products deserve a negative review, and I wouldn't visit a site that only posted positive reviews of everything—because I would know they were clearly smooching the booty of the products/companies they were reviewing.
 
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MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
I fail to see how a few negative reviews on Macworld makes them "Pro Amazon." And quite frankly, many of Apple's products deserve a negative review, and I wouldn't visit a site that only posted positive reviews of everything—because I would know they were clearly smooching the booty of the products/companies they were reviewing.
the righting on the wall was how extensively pro Amazon and anti apple they reported this year.
so I complained and left since i smelled a Jeff Bozo Rat in the room running the website.

case closed for me!
 

Bodhitree

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2021
2,068
2,200
Netherlands
I keep going back to TheVerge website to see if they've come to their senses. They seem to be sticking with it regardless of all the negative feedback. Nilay Patel has acknowledged that the new website is receiving lots of negative reviews but yet they won't budge.

It was probably designed by committee, and everyone with some pull in the organisation has a favorite feature which they would like to keep. Unfortunately, that method of design yields chimaera’s…
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,371
4,493
Sunny, Southern California
Well I listened to the Verge podcast last night. Basically they are responding to the criticism by saying people who have said they don’t like it are toxic, don’t like change and are amplified by social media.

Where is the face palm emoji for these clowns when you need it. Yes that it is. We disagree with your crap design so now we are toxic. Good lord. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
 
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