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Our new design and user experience is the result of a team effort and comes even after we have been receiving fast-rising readership levels and usage

Our new design and user experience is the result of a team effort and comes even after we have been receiving fast-rising readership levels and usage

As you can see, interest.co.nz has a new look today.

It is the result of the work of a broad team, both here on our staff and some talented partners.

Firstly thanks goes to Jenée Tibshraeny and Gareth Vaughan for motivating the change. Over the years we had progressed other redesigns using up time and cost only to pullback. Jenee and Gareth's motivation were key to getting this version over the line.

We started this project with intensive analysis of how you, our readers, navigate and use the site.

This time we partnered with a talented team at the Little Giant design group. Ollie, Juliette and Jess were a pleasure to work with and we loved how they understood the client brief. Their DNA is all through this new version.

But the real hero here is our own talented web designer, Faiz Dholkawala, who has converted Little Giant's design into practical code, infusing his own extensive knowledge of the site's operation into an even better user experience. Supporting him has been the wise counsel of Berend de Boer. The trouble-free deployment is a compliment to them both.

Our goal has been to simplify and streamline user interaction with our content, while retaining the access to the very extensive data and resources that we have.

And we have made the Comment flow clearer.

Of course, this is an on-line only publication so it will always be a work-in-progress. We have other sections planned, and there are many other improvements in the pipeline.

Let us know what you think, especially if you find a loose end, or if you think there are other features or improvements we can adopt.

Unchanged however is our focus on the news and data about the New Zealand economy and the forces that move it. And we are trying to do that without conflicts and compromise, eschewing the slippery slope of 'sponsored content' and advertorial. It is not an easy path.

And that is what makes your support so important. We are very fortunate to have the direct financial support of hundreds of readers via the Press Patron platform. This updated design is directly linked to this support and for that we are hugely thankful. If you like what we do and haven't already done so, we ask you to join them by showing your support by clicking the red button below.

We have been attracting a rising readership even with the previous design and UX. And reader access by desktop/mobile/tablet has been stable for two years now at 55%/35%/10%. We love your support.

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

22 Comments

Looks great! As i commented on another article, what seems to be missing is a “new comments” flag for articles in the news page. I regularly check back on this site not to read the articles again but to read any new comments since my last visit, even if I’m not actively participating in the conversation. It’s difficult to filter through the comments looking at the time stamps to find new replies.

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Agreed. I often spend atleast the same amount of time reading the comments as the actual article. Stuff used to have a "reply alert" if someone replies to your comment which would be welcome addition in my view as well.

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When I first signed up to this site, there was a red "new" next to the time stamp of every new comment in an article. It disappeared for some reason. It would be nice if even that function were to return.

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Yep agreed. I also like the old side bar where the latest comments could be tracked. Kept a person engaged through the day. That said, site is now very impressive... well done guys. A beacon in the world of independent journalism.

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I would love a personal sidebar where I see anyone who has commented on my comments to pop up. So i can easily keep the dialog flowing. But other than that the new site is great!

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Well done, keep up the awesome work : )

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I too liked the old sidebar. Kept us up on comments and responses if there was a conversation going back and forth.

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Looks good, maybe display the heading at the top (i.e. interest.co.nz) as a vector image (i.e. SVG) so that it looks sharp on the high pixel density screens that mobiles and tablets tend to have.

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I really like it, nice work.

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Nice change. It would also be great if the email newsletters were mobile-friendly (responsive?) - the writing is just so small on a phone!

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its a disaster in IE.... the articles are set to the right under the add banners. Nice testing guys.

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What version of IE ? (We don't support old technology versions of IE.)
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Internet Exploder? Most things are a disaster in IE. Even Microsoft has moved on from IE.

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Huge improvement on my IPad. Had to use desktop before because tablet was so bad at loading and scrolling. Will start looking at site again now I can read from the couch

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Great work, team. This is far, far better on mobile now.

Do agree with others on the comment sidebar, though. This was an excellent feature. It was great seeing the most recent comments AND the editor's choice comments.

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The search option is gone?

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Interesting change. It is visually cleaner in general.

As to better imparting information, it is a step backwards. Not sure I want a higher percentage screenspace for the sometimes uncorrellated picture associated with the story (reference the current large rugby scrum pic about the latest ANZ home loan rate, just WTF does that add to the information of the article or desire to read the article?). I would rather more information available when scanning the page and less pretty pictures... but then I appreciate knowledge far more than aesthetics. The prior comment about viewing comments is also apropos.

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Working on Windows 10 laptop, I prefer the earlier format and font. Just finding this to wide and yes to the sidebar back please.

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History missing, Search items missing, sidebar latest updates missing, finding latest comments, new comments missing, Most frequent comments missing, Most viewed missing, ease of tracking missing, finding old items missing....am I missing something?...Yes.

Comments and their feedback and subject matter. Flicking through pages may pay the Bills...but not the Interest I used to "Like"...simply, easily and yes...quite frequently. People will not find this comment easily.....either....unless they click on this Subject Matter.

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Okay, major step backwards here. The site is now highly bloody annoying (WTF is up with all the pictures???!!!) and where is the 'recent comments' sidebar? Basically a major turnoff to visiting, and since you launched it I find I'm spending less time here.

Oh, and re all the annoying adverts everywhere....you can tell your advertisers that unless I go looking for a specific company/service I take note of adverts as a form of junkmail to stay away from.....adverts don't work with me and they turn me off visiting websites.

I used to come here for the information (articles) and points of view (comments).....now, you're just another media company with an annoying format.

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Does not render correctly on IE 11, so cannot read this website at work anymore.

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David,

FYI, the chart here is no longer available. The chart was useful for historical reference.

https://www.interest.co.nz/charts/real-estate/mortgagee-listings

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