In 2010 we went through the single largest redesign in AnandTech history. We modernized the site, finally moved to a tag based architecture and made a number of other tweaks. The web moves a lot quicker than it did even just 3 years ago, so last year we started working on another significant redesign. Today marks the debut of that design.

Going into the redesign we wanted to accomplish three major goals. First, we wanted to have a design that put our smartphone and tablet coverage on equal footing with our traditional PC roots. The redesign consolidates our coverage areas into four major categories: PC Components, Smartphones & Tablets, Desktops & Notebooks and finally Enterprise. The super categories are largely self explanatory and you can drill down into each one of them for more specific navigation.

It's important that our site design reflects our internal focuses. We are as committed as ever to our PC component coverage, but we also devote an equal amount of time to what we're doing in the new mobile space. From my perspective, whether it's a smartphone or a server, we're still talking about some form of computer - just in a different case.

Our second major goal with the redesign was to more prominently feature Pipeline, our short form content section. We launched Pipeline in late 2011 as a way of dealing with content that either didn't demand our full review treatment or that we didn't have time to dedicate deep analysis to. Since then Pipeline has become a very important part of the site, and we wanted to elevate its position on the front page as a result. Pipeline stories on the right are ordered from newest to oldest, with even older pipeline stories appearing under the 2x2 grid of featured articles.

Finally, we wanted a design that would be more accessible and speak to the broader nature of our audience. While you all know why you come to AnandTech, it's very important to our continued success and ability to remain independent that the site accurately reflects the diverse audience. Whether you're coming to us for motherboard reviews, analysis of the latest microprocessor architectures or to figure out which smartphone or tablet to buy, you're likely a person relied on by dozens of others for recommendations.  We remain an independent website, which comes with its own challenges when it comes to proving our worth to the agencies and marketing organizations that help keep us operational. Looking the part is just as important as having the content to back it up.

We made sure not to take away any features with the redesign. We still include our well used Print View on all articles, but now allow you to use it both for single page reading as well as for actual printing. The previous Print View didn't have all of the styling of our article pages since it was purely optimized for printing, now we have both modes.

Other features have been enhanced as well. The View All Comments button now actually lets you view all comments on a single page, rather than just showing you 50 comments per page. You can also now permalink to individual comments. I'm always humbled by just how awesome your comments are, now we can finally link directly to individual ones. 

We now support larger images inline (we will be adding site-wide retina/hi-DPI support soon!) and our graph style has been updated as well, which you'll start seeing us take advantage of with all new content going forward. The review body text is also larger and hopefully easier to read, which should help when we post some of our ultra long form content. 

The Podcast now has a permanent link at the top of the page as well - thanks to all you who have been asking for that.

The Twitter feed on the front page now includes tweets from a number of staff members including Brian, Ganesh, Jarred and myself. We've also made it easier to follow us on Twitter and Facebook with direct links in our header (hint: it helps us tremendously if you do). Our most recommended content on Facebook is also nicely streamed in to the right of the site as well.

There are more functional changes that we'll be introducing throughout the new year. We just had to get the redesign out of the way first so we could start building on it.

I hope you all enjoy the site redesign. I know big changes aren't always easy to get used to, and as always you have my commitment to fix/improve anything that truly needs it. I'd love to hear your feedback on the design in the comments below.

I'd like to close with a thanks to all of you for continuing to read and support the site. I've always said that AnandTech is your site and I do firmly believe that. We are here to serve you and you are what make this site possible. Thank you for reading, and thanks for making the past 16 years possible. If you are a relative newcomer, please be sure to check out our About page that helps explain the philosophies that drive us.

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  • Deo Domuique - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    Poor Chrome has stuck on GDI like we're still on XP. They really need to implement Directwrite font-rendering. This is the reason I stop using Chromium after 10 mins. I'm going back to my favourite Firefox which with its tweaked Directwrite has the best font-rendering.

    https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?i...

    On Firefox the fonts are much better.
  • EddieBoy - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    I have been visiting this site for years and always enjoy the informative articles.

    I really like the new design. It is clean and modern. You might consider the very light gray border but I think it is still good without it. I also like the focus on things other than PCs. I usually come here to read the reviews on PCs and components but will now probably read some of the other reviews as well since you made them easier to find through the links on the front page.

    I can tell that a lot of time went into this and appreciate all the work you do.

    Now, if someone could tell me how to change my User Name on the site (not in the forums), I would really appreciate it. I was told to email Anand, which I did, but got no response. Now I know why -- he's been busy with the redesign!
  • Pyrostemplar - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    Well, loooooong time lurker, register just to state: I'm sorry to say but it sucks. Appallingly bad in high definition wide screens.
  • cybernate - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    I'm fine with site overhauls so long as they work. But what I don't get is why they always have to mess with fonts? There might be a reason why old fonts have been used for so long. Maybe they work? Yes, this new one looks very "techy" and "modern", but is it readable? Not as much as it was before. Please please switch the font back. Or explain what useful purpose this change served.
  • Kill16by9TN - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    Well, it's gonna need a few days of reading to get used to the new design and changes in layout.
    But, unless I am just not finding it yet, I am missing the possibility, to still open up the latest "Pipeline Stories" in one single, long page, that I could scroll through, reading from top to bottom and not being interrupted by comments, if memory serves. Those could now be hidden/minimized by default and only become visible, when wanted for any particular story.
    How do others feel about this particular change to the Pipeline?
    Now it appears, that I have to open each report individually, which is a lot more clicking around and moving back and forth.
  • SparksIT - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    Just my two cents.

    While there is more info (articles on the screen) I think you went to far to the other end of the spectrum. While the older site, had a large portion of the introduction for each article, requiring scrolling to get to the older articles. This new site gives you a picture and not even the first sentence. While it make sense for the older articles, it would be nice to have at least the first paragraph. Would make the site a bit less cluttered.
  • sulu1977 - Sunday, March 10, 2013 - link

    Lesson 1: On a computer display you never, never, never, never, NEVER use a white background for text!
  • benbenkr - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link

    And... after all these years, the site still has not went responsive.
    I don't understand why.
  • Furunomoe - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link

    The main purpose I visit AnandTech is to read the awesome articles and reviews, and usually I use the print layout to do so. The new print layout is definitely much better than the previous. Now I don't have to read a very long paragraph stretched across my monitor and I can keep the styling now. Thank you very much!

    The color theme is quite good for my taste, it's modern-ish and I certainly loved that.

    Keep up the good work!
  • yannigr - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link

    The colors are totally wrong or I just haven't used to them. I feel like the new Anandtech is more like the AMD FX. After the first reviews everyone would prefer a 32nm Phenom II X6.

    Fortunately you putted tweets and facebook in a place I can ignore. Otherwise Adblock elements would had fixed that. Not all users like to have a facebook or tweeter in their face on every page on the internet they look at.

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