There are about a dozen sites that I read every day. They’re not my 5-day per week reads. I check them out 365-days a year. Techcrunch is one of those sites.
The latest redesign is visually appropriate to the times. It’s the way that blogs declare that they’ve “grown up”, showing highlights in a prominent spot at the top, offering a clean responsive design that allows for easy viewing on all devices, and with a corporate edge to it. All of these should be expected from any blog that’s making good money, has great backing, or both.
However, it’s also the last type of redesign that I would have expected from Techcrunch. They have always had an attitude of “we are what we are, the critics be damned!” While I’m not accusing them of bending to feedback, it’s a little disappointing that this redesign fell away from the clear and simplistic way that I like to read the news, the way that blogs have used since the beginning, the way that makes the most sense to old-school readers like me: pure chronological order from top to bottom.
No highlights that are prominent (though popular stories should definitely be a section on a blog), n0 tiny snippets with small thumbnails, just pure blogging from top to bottom.
I rarely visit Mashable anymore because of the way they have their layout. Techcrunch isn’t as bad, but it’s definitely worse to me.
The majority of people will love the redesign because it is more modern. It is more responsive. It makes more sense. It just doesn’t make more sense to me.
