Thanks for your patience this weekend as we had a brief “content freeze,” and welcome to the redesigned OMAAT site! In the 13 years I’ve been writing this blog, this is only the second-ever real redesign. It has been in development for a long time, and I hope our readers like it.
Yes, there’s a completely new look, but much more importantly, the new site should be significantly more functional than the old one, most importantly for readers, but also for us on the back end.
Over the coming days I’ll be writing more about individual elements of the new site (including our new OMAAT status tiers!), but for now just wanted to cover a few highlights as you navigate the new site.
The site has a new structure
As you may notice, the structure of the site is a bit different. If you go to the OMAAT homepage, you’ll see that it no longer simply displays the most recent posts (though the five most recent posts will always be visible in the upper right of the page), but rather it’s intended to be a better resource page.
Why? Well, we’re trying to make the site more approachable — both to regular readers, and especially to new readers. They might get a story link from a friend, or find an article through Google that they like, but then be confused when they find out the next post is about a fake African airline, and the post after that is about a 64 year old cargo plane flying over my home (okay, actually, I guess that kind of sums up what OMAAAT is).
On top of that, we wanted to make it easier to find reviews, guides, and other resources. There are tens of thousands of posts on OMAAT, and I continue to write ~50 posts a week, which I know can make it difficult for people who don’t check in every day. We’ve grouped content into key sections (News, Reviews, Deals, Guides, Insights/Adventures) so that you can find what you’re looking for more easily.
But worry not, of course we care most about our longtime readers:
You can simply bookmark onemiletatatime.com/blog, and you’ll see posts displayed in the same general format (and in the same chronological order) as before!
This is a great option if you’re a frequent reader (or just prefer not to change things up that already work well for you), as it’s more or less the same as the old site, just with different colors, and the option to filter by the type of post you’re most interested in.
Nothing is changing with our newsletter or social media, so be sure you subscribe there so you can get information the same way you always have
The site has a redesigned commenting feature
The biggest change I wanted to highlight is our new OMAAT community/commenting system. This is something we’re really proud of, and I think frequent commenters (and those who enjoy friendly dialogue) will be happy to see. It’s important to me that people have the ability to communicate with one another on the blog, but I also recognize the internet can be a toxic place.
Our hope is that we’ve developed a commenting system that encourages helpful and friendly discussions. A few things to note:
- Those who reserved their spot for the new OMAAT community (which will be used for commenting) should be receiving an email sometime today asking them to reset their passwords and activate their accounts — thanks in advance for your patience here, as WordPress is sending these emails out in its own sweet time
- If you missed the chance to pre-register, you can now create your user account; everyone can set up a profile picture and there will be more features here in time
- Our new comments functionality is now live, and I hope you guys love it; we now have threaded comments, you can “thumbs up” helpful comments, you can report comments that violate our commenting guidelines, and more
- Every commenter will be assigned a status tier (not based on how much I like you, but rather based on a super secret formula that is intended to determine your engagement and helpfulness) 😉
- Different status tiers will come with different commenting perks, and we’ll work on doing more cool stuff with that in the future; we’ll start to display status tiers in the coming days, so stay tuned, and welcome to all newly minted OMAAT Diamond members
The bottom of each post will show a few of the most helpful comments (as chosen by you!), and then you’ll notice a full panel will open to display the rest of the comments. We’ve replaced the standard “blog sidebar” with this comment area, and our hope is that this gives more prominence to the conversations between readers, and encourages more people to participate.
Bottom line
The new OMAAT website is finally live. As you can see, this is a major overhaul, both in terms of design and functionality. I know change can be tough, so please be patient with us — we’ll still be making some tweaks, there will be changes over the coming days, and I’m sure there will still be some kinks to work out.
However, we’re excited and proud of the new site, and in particular of the new commenting feature, which I think will elevate things around here. As always, thanks for reading!
Thanks Ben Sir Love the idea of threads. that's great to quickly see what's new! Your Blog always motivates me. Thanks for the update - wishing you continued success.
Great!
Format is not good !
After a couple of weeks, some additional feedback/questions particularly about the comments section:
- Is there a way to get an email or notification when someone responds to one of our comments?
- Can we see who found a comment we wrote helpful?
- Can we tag people (and get notified when we get tagged)?
- Are you planning on reopening the "Ask Lucky" section?
Thanks :) !
New format is too confusing, I have to presume it has all to do with $ income, shame as OMAAT was a interesting site now no different from a lot of others
I don’t see why there was a need to change
@Eskimo
Very good thoughtful response that I totally agree with.
cheers
I think that this is indicative of problems with the new site. I can't even find the comment that Eskimo made. It was on the main screen so I replied to it and now discovered several "million" replies I had to check. Never did find the original suggestions.
I assume that you sold this to someone that is taking the soul and wit and great deals out of it. Congratulations....
I love the new colours. Reminds of the Miami Dolphins, a favorite of mine.
Ok you will work out the nobs in time. We all need to be a bit more patient, an attribute we should have gained during these last 14 months.
Roll on Ben. (tip of the hat to the Bama fans).
Great job, Ben. Since your big revamp, my emails stopped coming. I've tried several times to re-activate - it says I've done it, but nothing happens. Am I teh only one?
Yikes!
Sorry to pile onto the negative replies, but the new look is a hideous cross between easyJet and TPG.
As a long time reader and sometimes commenter, I suspect the majority of dissent is amongst us 'oldies'. Hopefully the re-vamp does what you intend, and drives business and revenue to your site. Not happy, but not abandoning you. Just don't become TPG!
PS
Why don't I get a daily email recap...
Yikes!
Sorry to pile onto the negative replies, but the new look is a hideous cross between easyJet and TPG.
As a long time reader and sometimes commenter, I suspect the majority of dissent is amongst us 'oldies'. Hopefully the re-vamp does what you intend, and drives business and revenue to your site. Not happy, but not abandoning you. Just don't become TPG!
PS
Why don't I get a daily email recap any longer? It stopped when the update happened, and I'm still not receiving anything despite apparently signing up again.
Well, you appeared to have fallen at the first fence!
After receiving posts daily, sometimes twice, I haven't heard anything from you since you announced your major upgrade.
Is that because I dared to say I wasn't a fan of it?
What a piece of crap… nothing works. I’ve been trying to find a specific review for 20 minutes and it just doesn’t work. Don’t you test anything. Sorry, but life is too short r to put up with non-functional websites.
How do I access the old "category" view, for example if I want to filter the Reviews pages by things pertaining to a particular airline? This was easy before but I can't find it anywhere now, there doesn't even appear to be a link to tags/categories from individual posts any more.
I am following your blog for few years now. Your reviews are fun and interesting. But people are creatures of habits. Personally I do prefer old site to new one. User experience on new site is terrible. It is not intuitive. Colors scheme could be better. They are a bit dull. Unimaginative. But nevertheless we will need to adapt to new look. Hope the quality of news will stay on same level as it was on old page.
I genuinely hate this new website. Lucky please stop it. I do go back to the link which works like the old one except its full of ridiculous colours that all clash with each other. Your usp was your content. You are making it harder to read your content.
Looks great! I really like it, I think that just with some time that the community will jump onboard with it and get used to the (very cool!) changes, and of course the treatment of time will help iron out any bugs and small issues!
As a reader for 5ish years, it is so exciting for OMAAT and you Ben, so congratulations!
The new format doesn't work for me for so many reasons - reading your site is no longer enjoyable; it's a duty that I do for an old friend, hoping that if I keep visiting, he will get better.
I used to read your blog several times a day. Now, I check in just to make sure I didn't miss anything interesting, but I no longer browse the articles. The "view the old format...
The new format doesn't work for me for so many reasons - reading your site is no longer enjoyable; it's a duty that I do for an old friend, hoping that if I keep visiting, he will get better.
I used to read your blog several times a day. Now, I check in just to make sure I didn't miss anything interesting, but I no longer browse the articles. The "view the old format link" doesn't work on my phone or laptop. Please rescue your blog.
The multiple clicks to read the comments are annoying. "Keep it simple".
I feel like I've been downgraded to the cargo hold.
This is like when Coke changed its formula in 1985. OK, Ben, you've got our attention, and you might have seen a spike in readership while people moaned about the bad choices here. Now, please undo this mess. (Shakes head in disbelief and walks away.)
Am I the only one having trouble with the blog page? All I want to do is see a chronological list of posts so I can start reading where I left off. The “load more” button doesn’t work, and I can no longer jump from one post to the next or previous post. The redesign has completely broken my two most common methods for reading the blog. Fail. :(
Big fan of your content but not this web design. So much change at once and to me this is a form of devalue for me (a no heads up devalue).
Everything is too stretched out and each post looks too much like PowerPoint slides.
I think the pervious format was much better to read and enjoy. (When I first saw your previous version I loved it).
I know not much could...
Big fan of your content but not this web design. So much change at once and to me this is a form of devalue for me (a no heads up devalue).
Everything is too stretched out and each post looks too much like PowerPoint slides.
I think the pervious format was much better to read and enjoy. (When I first saw your previous version I loved it).
I know not much could be changed at this point and I will try to get used to it but definitely the number of visits are being reduced since change.
Hope the value of the content outweighs the new design.
Been away from a week, and thought I was on the wrong website today.
Sad to say this looks like a hot mess. Hard to navigate and visually unappealing.
You really had a nice and clean site before.
Not a big fan of the redesign... the useful content is hidden away to much
Hi,
In the new redesign I somehow was unsubscribed from the daily newsletter and had to re-subscribe for some reason.
Feedback for the new design is negative. Much more advertising pop-ups and cluttered interface and display.
As a long time reader, I can't say I'm overly excited by the new design, however there is one thing that I would love to be fixed if possible.
Right now when you go to the blog page, on a standard apple 13in mac laptop, you need to scroll down before you can see if there is a new post or not. Previously, you could go to the site and instantly see if there...
As a long time reader, I can't say I'm overly excited by the new design, however there is one thing that I would love to be fixed if possible.
Right now when you go to the blog page, on a standard apple 13in mac laptop, you need to scroll down before you can see if there is a new post or not. Previously, you could go to the site and instantly see if there was anything new.
Now it requires you to scroll down because of the advertising at the top, as well as the article for the new OMAAT as well as the large divider that has the "All OMAAT Articles" and filters. Can you condense that down so we dont have to scroll everytime? Makes a big difference to the UX
I've spent a couple of days navigating the new site layout and I have to say my UX confirms my first impression that it was terrible. It literally strains the eyes to read your content in this format. The ad placement is obtrusive and the overall layout looks amateurish.
I used to frequent your site daily for updates but I don't think I'll be coming back that much anymore if things remain this way. One...
I've spent a couple of days navigating the new site layout and I have to say my UX confirms my first impression that it was terrible. It literally strains the eyes to read your content in this format. The ad placement is obtrusive and the overall layout looks amateurish.
I used to frequent your site daily for updates but I don't think I'll be coming back that much anymore if things remain this way. One lost visitor might not be significant to you but please pay attention to the numerous other comments expressing similar feedback.
This new website is terrible. I have been following you for ever and even use your award booking service before. The search function is useless as it shows a bunch of comments and questions instead of reviews.
Oh no. What happened? This just seems like a visual and navigation disaster.
Trying to act like Facebook and using an algorithm” to censor comments that don’t fit your message?
I had to take a few days to absorb the new layout and see if my kneejerk impressions changed at all, or if I had any unique feedback to add.
Nope, time to just pile on and express my deep disdain for the comments sidebar. THIS comments section in particular shows why it's so unapproachable. Comment threads and upvoting are great, but they need to be at the bottom of the articles or I have...
I had to take a few days to absorb the new layout and see if my kneejerk impressions changed at all, or if I had any unique feedback to add.
Nope, time to just pile on and express my deep disdain for the comments sidebar. THIS comments section in particular shows why it's so unapproachable. Comment threads and upvoting are great, but they need to be at the bottom of the articles or I have little appetite to engage.
Also why not add downvote as well? There are plenty of low-value comments that don't merit a Report but do merit getting dragged.
The font has GOT to go. The lowercase i, oh my stars.
I'm sad about the overall colors/themes. i really liked the sleek dark mode on the old site.
As other have mentioned, no comment timestamps is asinine as well.
Ben and Tiffany, I so appreciate your content, admire your growing empire, and want to do all I can to support your cause and stay engaged here. But the new layout makes me want to strictly read on Feedly and not click through to the posts (kudos on the seamless RSS transition btw).
I have been reading OMAT daily since discovering the blog nearly a decade back and have to say I think the redesign is a disaster. Visually unkempt where old design was sleek, it’s now impossible to quickly scan for new content to either click immediately or bookmark for later in the day.
From first to worst.
Sorry this change truly was a bad move. Site is hard to navigate, its colors not appealing. Simply a mess.
I wish you guys the best and if this helps accomplish your goals then great!
However I'm not sure how it helps to feature old articles on the front page, like the 2-year old piece about the best first class cabins (half of which are defunct).
Or why Ben is going to keep writing ~50 pieces per week when they're now so hard to find.
It's your site, and I respect that you want to grow and broaden it. But I hope you'll keep refining.
Now extra uncool that there's a new CSP offer out today, and the featured article on OMAAT is 10 weeks old and refers to an inferior (and no longer available) offer.
Oh no. Oh why?? At first I thought I landed on a scam page, before realizing OMAAT's new (horible) design. I don't get the new structure at all, sorry :( Much prefer the feed-style. I was a big fan...
Oh, this is so bad. I feel awful for saying it because I love your site but...where to begin. Massive photos in the trip reviews that fill up almost the whole page? Impossible to navigate through the site. Comments only appear on a side bar so painful to review. Massive pop up banner along the bottom every time I move to a new page. Even the old style format is only marginally better - easier to navigate but page design is still terrible. So sorry.
@ David -- I hear you, I appreciate the feedback, and I appreciate you reading. I promise (positive) changes are coming, please just be patient.
Agree with many others - layout is not intuitive & appearance too light & too busy
Sorry Lucky - the new site is like eating United's in-flight meal after a pleasant experience on AA on the way over and a few lovely weeks of luxury hotels in Hawaii.
Sorry to say you guys destroyed the fun from your website by changing to new format .
I know it’s always hard to accept new changes , but this new design sucks so much energy out of your eyes , it makes us not visit the site .
I am one of your silent follower and admirer of your blog , but this new design may keep me away .
So please change to old format for your users better experience
The headline typeface is too wide to be practical. I get it - looks like the Tampa airport 1970 signage which is cool. But for article headlines and especially subheads it's hard to ready. A better typeface for just a few words at a time, like on a sign.
Sorry mate, the new look isn't working for me either.
The biggest issue? The lowercase 'I' looks like a 'L' and is quite frustrating.
I find this new format difficult to navigate and doubt if I'll visit very often. Did you think you were improving OMAAT, Lucky? Think again.
This is awful and confusing
I have to agree that the body font is difficult to read, at least on my screen. "i" rendering as "l" would be the most notable issue. (I also don't like that it doesn't seem to have a true italic - just done oblique.)
Sorry Lucky, you've gone from something classy and clean, to a scattered mess with odd color choices.
I'm 26 years old and I have no idea what's going on with this website. If I didn't care to read one of your articles then I just skipped over it. Now I have no idea where any of the articles are. And what's up with the "i"s? It hurts my eyes.
I love your content but wow this is painful.
@Lucky -I have to agree with most people about the new site. It is incredible hard to read and navigate. Not appealing at all. You are my favorite blogger and this is a change in the wrong direction (just my humble opinion). Please go back to the old design if you can.
HORRIBLE! layout and structure. What's what, what's where, too busy with no cohesion, too much visual cc pumping. Dude, total miss.
The new look is not a hit with me.
The comments section is unintuitive and makes it really hard to actually read the comments for those with larger screens who browse in fully screen mode.
The color scheme and layout is too busy. There are too many different colors / schemas being used and makes it difficult to identify the actual content.
The content itself seems more difficult to locate - perhaps because...
The new look is not a hit with me.
The comments section is unintuitive and makes it really hard to actually read the comments for those with larger screens who browse in fully screen mode.
The color scheme and layout is too busy. There are too many different colors / schemas being used and makes it difficult to identify the actual content.
The content itself seems more difficult to locate - perhaps because of the color and schema issues.
Ads seem much more intrusive than the previous scheme. There are now pop up banner ads at the bottom of every screen along with horizontal and vertical ads interspersed throughout the articles. It adds to the color and layout issues.
I'm a big fan of change. But this change isn't good.
The white text over a large, light colored image is a bit of a debacle. 3/4ths of the headlines I've seen are unreadable.
This new website is so hard to navigate and is a total disappointment. I really enjoyed reading news on the old site, and now its so hard to navigate around that I don't even feel like coming back.
Comment bar on my 37", curved, widescreen is really bad. Only shows on 4.5" of screen. I too like reading a lot of the comments, but prefer to in chronological order (it's like a trashy novel at times). Rather than having to scroll all the way to the bottom, is it "easy enough" to have an option to invert? Change is difficult, but often necessary.
Some more feedback:
1) When the comments sidebar opens, the top line reads "most recent comments are displayed first". Yet what I am seeing is the oldest comments first. For reference, when I go to look at comments right now, I use the icon that follows you down the page.
2) Is there a way we can get a tickbox, or perhaps a setting in our profiles that would get rid of the "most helpful" and just display the comments from newest to oldest at the bottom of a post?
Replying to own comment as unable to edit.
In reference to 1) from yesterday. This morning when I had a look at comments, I noticed the top line says "oldest comments displayed first". The kicker? It is now displaying the latest comments first (i.e. exact opposite of yesterday's behavior)
Couple comments:
1) Is there a way to maximize the "Conversations" window to full page? It only shows a small piece on the right of my screen,
2) Using Safari on a Mac it says the page is using a lot or resources from my computer (apparently it is very heavy and uses lots of memory). Not sure if that can be fixed
Sorry, I don’t like the comments to be open in a side window. Prefer the old model where it was positioned below y each article.
Uggh. Agree with most people here. New site is like ADD on steriods. I can't figure out where the new posts are. The pop up ads are severely annoying. I used to check daily to see what was happening. But, jeez I can't imagine what the new chaos would look like from my phone.
Another downvote - the new color scheme is a bit much and I don't understand why content from 2020 appears at the top of the page. Furthermore, there are just too many categories of articles. Finally, did you test the new icon? When on the page you can make out it's the tail of a plane but in small format for bookmarks it just looks like random orange lines! I never thought there was anything wrong with the old logo...
boy, it feels like all my workmates have different haircuts at the same time. kinda weird, but good weird? it's looking really nice. sure we'll grow into it
Just hope the status tiers come with free breakfast and free lounge access.
This format is unreadable. Also, can only see 3 of 267 comments. While some comments in the past were annoying, I always enjoyed reading all of them. Now that isn't even an option. Unclear why there was this big of a change. I have been reading your blog for years, but this format makes no sense.
@T Franklin - if you look on the left-hand side of each post, there is a little text bubble with the number of total comments for the post. Click that, and it will open all the comments in a slde-out bar to the right.
I wanted to give it a few days before giving my two cents, but as someone who has refreshed the OMAAT feed several times a day for years, there are definitely some things that I worry might make me less likely to engage (that is, comment and reply) or even read the blog as time goes on. A few of the biggest concerns, mostly highlighted by others:
• Comments appears only on right side panel of...
I wanted to give it a few days before giving my two cents, but as someone who has refreshed the OMAAT feed several times a day for years, there are definitely some things that I worry might make me less likely to engage (that is, comment and reply) or even read the blog as time goes on. A few of the biggest concerns, mostly highlighted by others:
• Comments appears only on right side panel of screen (from desktop). Makes them much harder to read as your eyes are jumping from line to line much more often, and left side of the screen is not scrollable or in any way functional in tandem.
I get the desire to have comments sorted so the “most helpful” or “most liked” ones go first, but is it impossible to add a user-defined sort function so if we want to see “newest first,” we could select that?
• Missing time stamps will make it impossible to tell when deals die, which is critical during flash sales or mistake fares.
• Colors, and especially fonts, make it much less readable. I think the fonts and colors read fine in properly formatted body text (though still not as well as before), but when people fail to capitalize the first word of sentences or mis-punctuate, as often happens in comments, it can be really painful on the eyes.
Agree with others who feel this is the first step toward “selling out” like TPG. I really hope that isn’t the case; I’d hate to see you chase money over content, though I get the appeal of going for the masses. I appreciate you leaving the “blog” page for us loyalists, but like the old AA search function, I have to wonder how long that will exist tucked away in a “if you know, you know” place before it silently gets killed, too. It’s always painful to see a brand you love decide to go after a different target audience (Burberry a few years back, Eleven Madison Park today). But I guess that’s just the direction you’re heading, and I can’t blame you if you think that’s what is best for the OMAAT team.
PS - Speaking of the old AA award search tool - is there a way that the “blog” page could have a little “Vintage Format View” where clicking a button would make it the old way? Kinda how Microsoft Vista let you format your screen like XP for a few years when the initial reception to the new interface was so awful? Because I think a lot of your loyal readers would love that, and it might be an easier “fix” than going after each of these things individually…
Absolute trainwreck this site. Looks like you hired a guy on Fiverr to design this. You seriously need a good UX designer. Old site was not great but miles (pun intended) better than this. And the logo is not good at all either.
So no one likes change. Overall I think it looks better. I know some people have commented on the font, but I really like it. People will get used to it.
I do agree that I would like the comments timestamped but I have to say I love the new comments sidebar and the ability to reply to a comment. Imagine how entertaining the political posts will be.
Being picky, I don't love...
So no one likes change. Overall I think it looks better. I know some people have commented on the font, but I really like it. People will get used to it.
I do agree that I would like the comments timestamped but I have to say I love the new comments sidebar and the ability to reply to a comment. Imagine how entertaining the political posts will be.
Being picky, I don't love the colour palette. Too many colours.
As for the front page design - for regular users I imagine will be annoying as most prefer to go the blog page. If I was a new person coming in, I would think it was more of a CC/points review site - not a trip review site. Perhaps this is where you want to head as you earn more revenue (which is completely understandable).
FYI you are always going to find people annoyed with change!
Looks good. It's going to take time to get used to it. I think you don't need the featured post section in "Blog". When people reload the page, they'll have scroll down to see if any new posts were added. So far so good!
Sorry to say but really don’t like the new version. Navigation is very clunky, the colours are brash, the visuals are harsh and the comments section is hard to access now that you’ve got to click through to another place to see an article’s comments.
I’ll keep reading the site and am sure you put a huge amount of work into it. But for me, the old version was a much more comfortable user experience.
Very nice. It's a bit busy. Maybe a little consolidation on the home page?
Agree with many others - this new design is not great. It's one thing to have to make me bookmark a different page as my main page (although I still struggle to understand why)--I can get over that. But the design itself is not very visually pleasing. The old blog was, for lack of a better word, pretty iconic as far as blogs go.
I imagine this is going to stick though, probably too...
Agree with many others - this new design is not great. It's one thing to have to make me bookmark a different page as my main page (although I still struggle to understand why)--I can get over that. But the design itself is not very visually pleasing. The old blog was, for lack of a better word, pretty iconic as far as blogs go.
I imagine this is going to stick though, probably too much was invested in the change and swallowing your pride and recognizing a mistake is tough to do. Hope I'm wrong though.
I like what you have done here. Not only the re-design, but keeping the old format using the /blog option - that's very useful. Other travel/CC blogs have done redesigns and everyone complains about the new format, but here we have both options. Looking forward to continued exccllent content, Lucky.
It will take some getting used to, but as a 'technocrat' I am always in favor of change, especially when recent technological advances can be incoporated...
I noticed a few items with what appears to be erroneous "updated" dates. For example, there was the "best First Class" that was supposedly updated 5/28/21, yet it still lists Etihad A380 (which is no longer). I'm assuming it's some sort of "auto update" date due to the migration to the new platform.
Hey Lucky & the team. Long time reader, first time commenter. Congrats on the rebranding - the new brand looks great; but as a WP developer, I highly suggest you rework your UX; it's now a poor returning visitor experience and I suspect your metrics are going to suffer. The most impactful thing you can do right now is reintroduce snippets/excerpts back into the blog listings, and make said blog posts more clear above the...
Hey Lucky & the team. Long time reader, first time commenter. Congrats on the rebranding - the new brand looks great; but as a WP developer, I highly suggest you rework your UX; it's now a poor returning visitor experience and I suspect your metrics are going to suffer. The most impactful thing you can do right now is reintroduce snippets/excerpts back into the blog listings, and make said blog posts more clear above the fold - I didn't know that there was a right hand post list until this post pointed it out! You've got a compelling redesign, but you've got some critical issues. BTW - if you didn't do A/B testing this time around, this stuff would have been picked up by a good test. Good luck!
It's going to take some time to get used to it...
There's a reason why google has never changed its search bar. Simplicity has real value. You have gone commercial. Ads in between your article and in between comments here. Credit card sales upfront and in your face. You gotta do what you gotta do, but this turnover is cluttered and messy. Best of luck!
The "conversations" part became extremely "user unfriendly" and umstaendlich, you can only see 3 comments before having to open a window that shows it in a very small and uncomfortable way, not the way to go if you want more comments that drive more traffic!!
Holy cow this is terrible.
Definitely need to get a proper UX person/team on this. Some of the fonts are nice, but color combinations, locations of items, it's shocking to the eyes. Way too much flash. Reads like a TPG copy/paste page now.
Yikes.
Need to fix your font. Lowercase i looks like lowercase l. Incredibly difficult to read.
Bravo! Love the new look. Ignore the naysayers. Change is always good.
No account activation email. I tried password reset and nothing happens. I tried registering and it says either my password or email is in use.
I still have not received an email to activate my comment account.
I like the font and it makes sense to move to a layout that is more helpful to new readers/SEO than just the same people who read every day. I also like top comments appearing rather than trawling through the junk all the nutcases post here every day.
What I really don't like about the new design is the color scheme. Yikes. It looks really dated already - like something from the 90s. So many...
I like the font and it makes sense to move to a layout that is more helpful to new readers/SEO than just the same people who read every day. I also like top comments appearing rather than trawling through the junk all the nutcases post here every day.
What I really don't like about the new design is the color scheme. Yikes. It looks really dated already - like something from the 90s. So many clashing colors make a busy layout even more cluttered. The yellow text on the dark blue background really hurts the eyes.
I would look at having more white backgrounds rather than shaded/dark blocked backgrounds - I think it would make the pages much more modern, fresh, uncluttered and easy to read.
I just want to say that I really appreciate all the feedback, both positive and negative.
Please be patient, I promise some tweaks are coming (I'm keeping a list of what I'd like to still see changed), because I certainly share some of the thoughts that readers have. I realize this is a radical change and we're not going to get it totally right immediately. We decided to just rip the band aid off...
I just want to say that I really appreciate all the feedback, both positive and negative.
Please be patient, I promise some tweaks are coming (I'm keeping a list of what I'd like to still see changed), because I certainly share some of the thoughts that readers have. I realize this is a radical change and we're not going to get it totally right immediately. We decided to just rip the band aid off and do everything at once, but that doesn't mean it's perfect.
The new site represents a much needed technology update, but I totally agree there are still some UI changes that need to be made.
Hate to say it but I really, really dislike the new design.
Just a quick follow-up:
The more I use the site, the more I really do not care for it. The Question & Answer section is a pain - if you go past the first two or three pages, there is no easy way to get back to the top. To comment on a post, you use same method as regular comments, though it appears reading some older posts that the new comment section doesnt respect...
Just a quick follow-up:
The more I use the site, the more I really do not care for it. The Question & Answer section is a pain - if you go past the first two or three pages, there is no easy way to get back to the top. To comment on a post, you use same method as regular comments, though it appears reading some older posts that the new comment section doesnt respect quotes or take html into consideration. The old forum, from a user perspective, was much easier to use.
The comment "slide out" is just annoying for me personally. I prefer the old-style comments and would rather scroll down the page than deal with the "slide out".
Small complaints - checkboxes (e.g. "remember me") change their color when clicked, instead of showing a V sign.
Hard to tell if they're checked or not.
Hi guys, on Sat-Sun I made at least 2 new comments to “Americans can now travel to Italy,...” that seem to have been lost. They were a response to a direct question from another reader, which has also disappeared. Any chance to resurrect these comments? Thanks, Chris
I seriously don't like the sound of any of it. Tier status on a blog via a super secret formula? What?
And as usual, like others who have tried to be super clever, just loading this information page virtually ground my faithful (but I admit ageing) laptop to a halt.
And I can now choose:
News, Reviews, Deals, Guides, Insights/Adventures. DEALS???
I think my remaining time with you Ben is very short. Sorry
After navigating the new site for a bit, I must say that I prefer the old one. While the new one is fresh and modern, the old one is easier to navigate. I dont care for the comments being hidden. Yes, you can get to them, and the intent may be to not hide them, but they are in effect hidden and it takes an extra step to read them all. I dont want to...
After navigating the new site for a bit, I must say that I prefer the old one. While the new one is fresh and modern, the old one is easier to navigate. I dont care for the comments being hidden. Yes, you can get to them, and the intent may be to not hide them, but they are in effect hidden and it takes an extra step to read them all. I dont want to read the "most helpful" comments, I'd like to read the comments. I dont particularly care for comment systems that promote one comment over another (even if it is the readership that does it.) Something to get used to, I suppose.
I'm also rarely going to go to the top-level OMAAT site (I usually just search on OMAAT and go that way) - but with the new design, I feel like I am being hit over the head with credit cards. I understand that may not be the intent, but that is what it feels like.
I suppose my mitigation strategy will be to bookmark the blog section so that I dont have to deal with the top level. Just means a change in the way I access the site.
So, in summary, not a fan of the new look. But thats just me.
Ok, I have to correct myself. It's still possible via "Blog".
Still, it's less clear. It's like a copy of TPG now.
I have to say that I don't like that at all. The site is much less clear and I can't just scroll through all the posts I haven't read so far.
I don't separate deals, news, and whatever else - I just want to scroll through everything and decide on my own what's interesting to me.
No I can't do that anymore.
Without any exaggeration: I hate this.
I don't get all the negative comments.
On mobile, the site is 100x better in terms of navigation a layout.
It's better on desktop too.
Yes, the orange and blues are a bit in your face, but that's about it.
Everything else seems like an improvement to me.
Thanks Ben and Tiffany. Apart from the strange new website Color scheme which branding wise has nothing related to what you have used before, I think the redesign is nice. More modern and easier to find resources for sure.
If I may though. Your site is not exactly known for breaking airline related news first. In my humble opinion, I feel the travel blogs should be placed higher up instead because that is what your site or more known for.
The biggest issue I'm seeing is that I can't view comments in chronological order. I get that you want to promote "helpful" comments, but I'm often entertained reading the back and forth in the comment section. Without being able to categorize comments as easily as disqus does, this really is a downgrade in my opinion. Hopefully it can get better.
The new website looks nice but the comments are harder to read.
Putting them in a sidebar limits the amount of horizontal space for comments. I also agree with Allen on the loss of seeing the comment time.
This new design is rather awful. It would've been better to do a series of incremental developments. Even on the blog view, I can't read the headlines of the most recent articles in less than a second as I used to. That's the only functionality I care about, and I can't do it very easily anymore. Honestly, I probably won't visit this site as much anymore, especially since I'm less inclined to travel due to sky-high prices right now. I wish you well.
Is the only way to see all the comments in the far right like its about a 1/3 of the screen and just on the right. Or am I doing something wrong? Its frustrating not seeing all the comments on the entire screen just like the article I am reading is on the entire screen.. It took me 12 minutes to figure out how to find the comments and scroll up and down b/c scrolling...
Is the only way to see all the comments in the far right like its about a 1/3 of the screen and just on the right. Or am I doing something wrong? Its frustrating not seeing all the comments on the entire screen just like the article I am reading is on the entire screen.. It took me 12 minutes to figure out how to find the comments and scroll up and down b/c scrolling up only had the arrow not the side bar to move fast.
I also agree something about the colors/pixels is giving me a headache. Read the old blog daily for 3 years and never had a headache.
Think LALF & GSTP are now my top 2 sites, until I can figure this out with out the headache. Going to take some Advil now.
p/s lower case freaking I's & L's please..
Why does this remind me of Marriott Bonvoy
lol
Also World of Hyatt
Was legit just writing that when I saw this.. Much more Hyatt than Marriot.
The /blog page is my new shortcut. I appreciate the targeting of new readers, but I am comfortable with the content. Go find the new readers. I'll head to /blog and continue to enjoy.
I honestly loved this new website
It is beautiful
Definitely the best blog out there
Congrats on the redesign.
However, still some stuff to iron out imho. Even the fact that you cannot sort comments however you like (newest / oldest / most helpful) is a missed opportunity I believe.
Having to squint and read the comments in a tiny sidebar is just comical, what is the point?
I am now reading the comments using 20% of my screen while the entire left side sits idle and half greyed out with the original post.
Also, comments load partially and you end up doing tons of clicks to reads someone's full message (say anything more than 5 lines). Maybe some changes in the comment settings can...
Having to squint and read the comments in a tiny sidebar is just comical, what is the point?
I am now reading the comments using 20% of my screen while the entire left side sits idle and half greyed out with the original post.
Also, comments load partially and you end up doing tons of clicks to reads someone's full message (say anything more than 5 lines). Maybe some changes in the comment settings can smooth the process, since reader engagement and interaction is a real strength of OMAAT.
The most noticable change, outside of the colours and layout? Ads....ads everywhere. Of course, tons of ads for credit cards, but also banner ads, box ads, everything. Is the actual goal of the change to better monetize the website and the traffic you receive?
The reason why I like the old blog is that I can see the articles in chronological order, so I can choose which ones to read. Now my eyeballs are going left-right-up-down in no particular order. Very confusing, like the TPG website. But you're better than TPG.
I'll try this new website for a couple of weeks. If my eyeballs are coming out of their sockets, I'll stop reading. Sorry Ben.
He gave an option to access the website as it previously was.
honestly the new design is nice, i like the colors and all. two things id love to see change:
1) i dont like that all comments are hidden and only a couple are shown. in that case i like the old design in the comments section more. and please show the time along w the date!
2) dark mode please!
@ Schar -- As far as comments go, you can click the comments icon in the byline, or the one that follows you along the left rail as you scroll, or the number of comments at the bottom of the post, and it will open all the comments for you.
Thanks Tiffany
Your the best
CAN YOU BRING BACK THE WEEKLY VIDEOS FROM 2020
Those happy hours were incredible
Use a different or larger or darker font. This new one is too hard to read! Had no problems with the old format. Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but this new version kinda sucks.
Yuck! I have to say this change did not work for me. Looks like I will spend less time here from now on. A very unwelcome change
Serif is much easier to read than a Sans Serif thats why most newspapers and books use a Serif Font.
Progression towards a better product is always a good thing. Always hard at first and i am not in love with it yet, but i'm sure i wont even remember the previous format in a few weeks.
I swtiched to OMAAT after TPG removed their comments section. I don't think I will be visiting OMAAT that much anymore if the comment section doesn't get improved, this way this new section is displayed is not that great. The site overall feels modern and clean but it's a pain to find the recent articles on the home page unless you specifically choose the news tab. Seems like the front page is mainly to advertise...
I swtiched to OMAAT after TPG removed their comments section. I don't think I will be visiting OMAAT that much anymore if the comment section doesn't get improved, this way this new section is displayed is not that great. The site overall feels modern and clean but it's a pain to find the recent articles on the home page unless you specifically choose the news tab. Seems like the front page is mainly to advertise credit card and hotel offers which I can't really blame you for if that's the real money maker rather than the blog/news articles.
@ Speedbird -- You might want to try using onemileatatime.com/blog as your "default" homepage. That will have all the articles the way you're used to, and should hopefully be less of a pain.
Here we go, people forgetting that is your site and thus you are free to do as you choose! Some people would bitch if hung with a new rope!
Congrats!
Oh no.. this is looking bad such a disaster!!!
so I now have to click on the 'join the conversation' link then scroll down a side bar to read let alone make comment.
Why restrict the available screen size to read comments to a 1/3 of the entire screen?
Not even sure if this allows adaptive screen readers to see let alone vocalise the comments now. So you're discriminating against the partially sighted.
Not a good idea.
@ ChrisC -- It works very well with adaptive screen readers, based on our testing. And on mobile (where most people read), the comments expand to the full width of the screen.
However, if someone is having a specific issue, we hope that they will let us know! We ran a bunch of accessibility checks, and this version performs vastly better in all areas than the old site, but we know that is something that we (and most websites) can always be better at.
I've just tried it on my ipad and guess what - comments are restricted to a strip on the right hand 1/3rd or so of the screen - just like on my laptop - when you click on the 'join conversation' button!
Why make the comments so much harder to read???
Not sure what I am missing but I only see three responses. I read blogs to see everyone's feedback.
@ Tim Dunn -- You can click the comments icon in the byline, or the one that follows you along the left rail as you scroll, or the number of comments at the bottom of the post, and it will open all the comments for you.
Oh gosh! I very much enjoyed the blog as it was. But I’m going to try to be open minded and trust that you know what you’re doing. Maybe I’ll come to love the new format! I really don’t understand how the tiers of commenters will work. Am I going to feel like I’m being rated by an Uber driver?
@ Kate -- Hah, no! Ben will have a post with more details in the coming days (we want to give everyone a chance to login and such first). But it's not going to be "ratings" based at all.
How is this improved? The first article on the top of my page is why Hyatt Globalist is my favorite hotel program from December of 2020. Where is the NEW content? Wow - This is the worst.
@ Kevin -- You can see the latest posts in the upper right box on the homepage, or *all* the posts in chronological order (like always) by going to onemileatatime.com/blog.
It was so easy to find content on the old format. Hate the new format. Hate to say it - but I might not come back to this blog really often because I really struggle to see what the new content is....It is a disaster - right intentions wrong result
I would appreciate the "L" and "I" in lower case using different characters. words like "elite" make me think there is a spelling mistake. - I am using firefox browser.
@ MurrayF -- Agree that would be super annoying! They are separate characters though, I'm not sure why they wouldn't be showing that way for you. Mind sending a screenshot of what you're seeing to [email protected] and we'll see what we can do?
A quick debug tells me that the problem is the font size that is not optimized on certain size on some devices.
As in this case, increase or decrease the font size should replicate or fix this problem.
I can second to that. This font is confusing.
(lowercase) i'll = I'LL (uppercase)
(uppercase) OOO = 000 (number)
You're right about O and zero. They do look the same.
Must be your device, as I'm not seeing that. The i's look like i's and the l's look like l's and can't be confused with I"s.
Love the new site Ben
I've been holding off on commenting until I've had a chance to navigate around the site 5 or 6 times today, but still came to the new conclusion. Like James, I can't help but feel this re-design is a disaster, especially compared to how visually appealing and easy to navigate the last version was. In all honesty, I think you'd be best flipping back to the old one and starting a re-design from scratch (sorry...
I've been holding off on commenting until I've had a chance to navigate around the site 5 or 6 times today, but still came to the new conclusion. Like James, I can't help but feel this re-design is a disaster, especially compared to how visually appealing and easy to navigate the last version was. In all honesty, I think you'd be best flipping back to the old one and starting a re-design from scratch (sorry Tiffany, this mess has your fingerprints all over it). Here's why:
You have such a beautiful catalogue of photos, yet the new design prioritizes an uncoordinated rainbow of rectangles and icons that distract from the content - what really sets you apart from TPG, VFTW, LLF, etc.
I really really don't mind more ads, as I know this helps to fund the content I love reading, but their placement on top of colourful shapes makes it even worse.
You said that making the site more approachable to new readers was the goal, but that still isn't the case. "Guides" is just a filtered version of the blog, not a new way to navigate programs or destinations or airlines.
Can honestly say, today was the first day I read TPG in 5 years & it reminded me of your old site. I hope things get switched back.
I’m confused about life. Can we go back to the old OMAAT ?
At first glance, having trouble making out the difference between content and a bunch of ads along with CC’s being pushed.
We all realize this is the way you make money but the old site it seemed was working perfectly fine.
Congrats!
Ben, what happens if I accidentally deleted this morning’s email?
@ Michael -- Going to send out another one shortly, standby. But you can also go to the upper right and try to "Login" and then click "Forgot password".
Please pay a UX/UI guy 100$ to get a new layout. This looks like a VIBGYOR omit on your face.
Love the content & the structure - but this design (especially color palette) is terrible
I'm sure you could've done a better job?
This is not user friendly at all. This feels clunky compared to the old version. Harder to navigate IMO.
Gonna be honest, not a big fan of any of this. The cosmetic change is jarring after years of looking at the same black bars but I'm sure I'll adjust to that. But the main issue here is the site has become too messy, instead of the old format where the main page is just the most recent articles, I don't even know what the main page is now, it seems to be everything and...
Gonna be honest, not a big fan of any of this. The cosmetic change is jarring after years of looking at the same black bars but I'm sure I'll adjust to that. But the main issue here is the site has become too messy, instead of the old format where the main page is just the most recent articles, I don't even know what the main page is now, it seems to be everything and nothing at the same time, it's incredibly confusing. Also not a fan of the fact that basically only 3 comments are shown now instead of every single comment being easily accessible.
@ Andy2003 -- I hear you. Do you mind trying the onemileatatime.com/blog page for a few days and seeing if that helps you with finding the most recent articles? The main page has a handful of them, but I think you'll be happier with the layout at /blog.
As far as comments go, you can click the comments icon in the byline, or the one that follows you along the left rail as you scroll,...
@ Andy2003 -- I hear you. Do you mind trying the onemileatatime.com/blog page for a few days and seeing if that helps you with finding the most recent articles? The main page has a handful of them, but I think you'll be happier with the layout at /blog.
As far as comments go, you can click the comments icon in the byline, or the one that follows you along the left rail as you scroll, or the number of comments at the bottom of the post, and it will open all the comments for you.
Is anyone seeing pixelation on the graphics for the blog posts? I don't remember the picture quality being that bad on the old site format.
Lucky, i really love Omaat and read it religiously, but I'm sorry this new design really hurts my eyes i miss the old one.
I've read almost every single post here for over a decade, but everything's got to end eventually. This is just too overwhelming. I hope it works out for you, really.
I like the look. Lot cleaner and “crisp” - if that makes sense. Obviously it’s weird navigating but with time it won’t be as weird.
Going to be honest, this design just doesn't look good. Colors are all over the place. Less images to grab a readers eyes to articles. My eyes are drawn to just random areas instead of headlines.
Very curious what your traffic stats will say but I'd imagine you'll see less pages/visit, and a higher bounce. Which should indicate to you that you may need to revert.
I echo Eskimo's comments on small iterative design changes not a major overhaul at your readership.
I don't mean to sound rude (as I can imagine this took a lot of time to build and develop) nut this is down right awful. It feels like a complete slap in the face to your most loyal readers and unfortunately appears to be taking the same path TPG took...
Ah, but you are rude.
Should be wing and tail logo. Sorry.
Us old folks (Pan Am Lifetime Clipper Club member in 1976) usually resent change, but I'll get used to it as most of us eventually will. Good luck with the redesigned site! BTW I like your stylized airplane wind and tail logo.
I liked the simplicity of the previous design, the new one seems too busy.
I too think that this is a disaster, unfortunately. This is -- nay, was -- my favourite website and the only one I always visited several times per day.
This design is bad. The font is difficult to read, the color scheme isn't ideal (especially with graphics), the comments are hidden except for a few chosen or promoted by unknown moderators, and I could go on.
@ FNT-Delta-Diamond -- You can click the comments icon in the byline, or the one that follows you along the left rail as you scroll, and it will open all the comments for you. They aren't at all meant to be hidden.
We also aren't promoting comments, readers are. It might not be a layout that sticks, but we wanted to try and recognize the comments that other readers are finding the most helpful, and...
@ FNT-Delta-Diamond -- You can click the comments icon in the byline, or the one that follows you along the left rail as you scroll, and it will open all the comments for you. They aren't at all meant to be hidden.
We also aren't promoting comments, readers are. It might not be a layout that sticks, but we wanted to try and recognize the comments that other readers are finding the most helpful, and give those the spotlight at the bottom of the post, versus just whatever the last one was.
After spending a little more time with it, it's still overwhelming.
The test is whether I can see the key content I want to after clicking to the site. Can I see whether there is something new and interesting without scrolling and then clicking throught. Perhaps all I need is the grey box with the "jump to the latest" if I want something specific. That will mean I ignore 80% of the landing page.
The...
After spending a little more time with it, it's still overwhelming.
The test is whether I can see the key content I want to after clicking to the site. Can I see whether there is something new and interesting without scrolling and then clicking throught. Perhaps all I need is the grey box with the "jump to the latest" if I want something specific. That will mean I ignore 80% of the landing page.
The big problem for me with the old site was the lack of maintenance on best offers (in between your periodic roundups). If you keep that up to date, then it will be more effective.
@ beachfan -- onemileatatime.com/blog is intended precisely for readers who like to peruse the site like you do! I might recommend bookmarking that, and going there when you want to browse the site versus the homepage.
The design is fresh, but I agree with focusing more on the UX/UI aspect of the website. It feels very rushed, I already noticed a ton of usability violations that could have been resolved easily by having user tests beforehand.
As much as I do want to like the new design, I believe there is a lot of room for improvement. As a UX designer myself, I wouldn't mind helping out with one of my favourite blogs :)
Two items of possible improvement for the new design:
"Join the conversation" sidebar I understand why sites hide comments other then the top comments. But when I press the "Join the conversation" button all comment just load not just a few. This is helpful as it let's an user Ctrl + F to search comments.
Dark Mode: Adding a dark mode option would be helpful. Does not need to be on by default as it...
Two items of possible improvement for the new design:
"Join the conversation" sidebar I understand why sites hide comments other then the top comments. But when I press the "Join the conversation" button all comment just load not just a few. This is helpful as it let's an user Ctrl + F to search comments.
Dark Mode: Adding a dark mode option would be helpful. Does not need to be on by default as it is possible for a site to detect if a user is running in dark mode.
Overall nice redesign. I plan to mostly use the blog mode, myself. But might send friends and family to the homepage.
@ Brian G. -- That's a good point on comment loading, thank you. We have it limited to keep the load times quick, but we might be able to fiddle a bit more.
On most posts I don't think it will be an issue, but of course this one will have 200+ here shortly.
It’s approaching 200 comments
Wow you called it
Hi Ben
I suggest you also add a "book travel" tab this could link to Fords hotel booking business as well as your points management and flight booking service. I see that 10x travel a few months ago highlighted their hotel booking links (hyatt privee etc). I Would definatley go to Ford first when I can finally travel again and having a direct link through is easier.
Don't like the experience. Miss the old version.
My advice is you need a new UX UI consultant. For a blog of your size, doing a complete 360 change is not a good idea. Consider small changes over few months one component at a time.
While I welcome the change, most people can't handle changes very well, especially if you go a full 360.
Now I believe the main reason behind these changes are SEO which is a valid reason. However, I do...
My advice is you need a new UX UI consultant. For a blog of your size, doing a complete 360 change is not a good idea. Consider small changes over few months one component at a time.
While I welcome the change, most people can't handle changes very well, especially if you go a full 360.
Now I believe the main reason behind these changes are SEO which is a valid reason. However, I do like to remind you have you consider how you position yourself to your readers.
You can be a content warehouse, like TPG.
Or you can use your experience with trends like you were as the content. Don't forget the value of most your contents decay. The pre-Covid reviews will almost never reflect post-Covid experience ever.
**Full disclosure : I hate recycled content that changes few sentences but slap in a new date. I believe in historical value of content (today people ignore this but trust me in 20 years when 95% of the internet becomes recycled, people will value this)
If you're afraid your readers gets confused between a fake airline or an old cargo plane, it's not just your design, it's how you (didn't) utilize (enough) keywords or tags. A fix that doesn't require a 360 change.
Wow, upset about the change much?
If you read beyond my first paragraph, you will see I'm not upset at all. I actually welcome this change.
For a site with this many visitor and a limited team size, I actually think they did a very good job. Definitely wise to stir things up. I certainly don't see any 'devaluation'.
There is no "perfect design" that will make everyone happy. But when you look at the world beyond the first paragraph, you...
If you read beyond my first paragraph, you will see I'm not upset at all. I actually welcome this change.
For a site with this many visitor and a limited team size, I actually think they did a very good job. Definitely wise to stir things up. I certainly don't see any 'devaluation'.
There is no "perfect design" that will make everyone happy. But when you look at the world beyond the first paragraph, you will notice iOS or Gmail or Windows never looked much different than last year. But over 10 years, look how much your Gmail or iPhone has. I'm also sure that on the back end, the numbers and stats will tell the team if their design was good or bad.
Your one line comment spree doesn't make you look like you care more about this community. Did you even notice Winston, Freya, or Poppy??
**Full disclosure : I love to feed the trolls.
Been reading and commenting here for years, but yeah, I'm a troll...
Ben: Is there some dedicated place where we can report issues, glitches, concerns, and suggestions so they won't be embedded in the general conversation for s a specific blog. If not please create something .
Thanks
@ GBAOC -- We've been having some adventures with overly aggressive caching from our hosting company today, but hopefully most of those glitches have been resolved now.
This is a good post for sharing feedback and general thoughts, and once things have stabilized a bit more we'll look at the best way to funnel through other concerns.
Thank you for asking :)
For those that want to see all new articles, sign up for a free feedly account and subscribe to the blog (it uses RSS). Then you can read new articles without even visiting the site.
I love the new blog! It follows news style site design standards and is much more approachable for people new to the hobby. Remember that people hate change and they will get used to it.
I personally preferred the old homepage since it was simple to look at and read. But I suppose change takes time to get used to.
Congrats on the redesigned site.
@ MichaelT -- Hopefully the new page at onemileatatime.com/blog still meets that need for you! We tried to make that as much like the old site as possible in terms of how the posts are loaded and displayed (and with less clutter since the sidebar is gone), but if there are other things we can adjust there that would make it easier for you we're happy to see what can be done.
So 1st impressions are positive, site looks good it seems well organized from page to page and this new comments section is probably the best improvement with threaded comments being soooooo much easier to follow. I, like other long time readers, will be almost always be engaging with your website through the /blog page as I read nearly every post on nearly daily basis.
However two points of constructive criticism elsewhere on the site;
So 1st impressions are positive, site looks good it seems well organized from page to page and this new comments section is probably the best improvement with threaded comments being soooooo much easier to follow. I, like other long time readers, will be almost always be engaging with your website through the /blog page as I read nearly every post on nearly daily basis.
However two points of constructive criticism elsewhere on the site;
1) on the home page there need to be better topical definition of each section, I found it hard to follow your intended organizing of content on the page.
2) time stamps on the comments not just date as other commenters have stated.
Congrats on getting this project done!
After writing a comment, additional thoughts:
- I would like to see the comments in chronological order under the article as before
- I would like to be able to comment more than once without deleting my cookies / browser history
Why would you have to delete your cookies to comment more than once? Seems to be some setting in your side, as I'm not having that issue.
@ Stuart -- I believe TLS is correct, and that this is likely an issue on your side. We have been addressing some overly-aggressive caching from our hosting company today, but that *shouldn't* be preventing you from commenting as many times on a post as always.
And you can see all the comments by clicking on the comment icon at the top of the page, in the left sidebar, or clicking on the number of comments at the bottom of the post.
Every change gets some getting used to but first impression of the new OMAAT - I like the new look. I don't check the site every day so I like to scroll through the list of latest articles until I see the ones I've read already so I expect I'll use the "blog" site mostly.
My first instinct whenever I see a redesign is to hate change, although I always end up fine with it! I assume others feel the same as well. I hope this goes well, a lot of work clearly went into this!
I like the new look for sure, but agree with some of the other commenters. I'd love to be able to see the time on comments as I've found that's often most useful for me. Of course it's difficult to change, but looking forward to exploring some more.
Honestly a UX downgrade imo. I much prefer the simpler, lightweight legacy design. Incremental improvements generally beat complete overhauls for users, especially for websites previously functioning well.
So far, I totally love the new design and functionality. Thanks for all the thoughtfulness and work that went into it.
I'm sorry Lucky, but this is a disaster. It's the opposite of approachable.
Agreed however he has to make the change to be more like TPG. The loyal everyday every post readers are not the ones who pay the bills, they need more affiliate links and to be more sharable across google, fb, etc hence the change.
Yay for the new design
The new design is a bit unexpected, tbh! Not what I would have guessed.
It’s growing on me :)
All the best Ben and the OMAAT team !!
It will certainly take some time to get used to the new look and feel, but so far I like what I see...except the font. The lower-case 'i" is driving me nuts ;-)
Congrats, Ben.
Right now the News and Blog are both taking to the same place or showing the same things. Will they eventually be different or is there just two ways to get to the same thing?
@ LovetoFly -- Good question. "Blog" shows everything, in all categories, whereas "News" only shows news -- you won't find Deals, Guides, Reviews, etc. there.
They look similar today just because Ben has mostly done news content the past few days (and has purposely had far less content than normal).
Congrats on the new site! Just getting used to the new layout and stuff, it looks like a nice upgrade.
Hi Ben
The new format seems very filled up and clumsy, a lot of things are not visible in the first go. I like the old one much more
Was definitely confused when I was directed to this site. Thought it was spam at first. It's a big change all at once. Positive or negative it was a lot.
Congrats on the launch of the new site Ben! While I'm sure many will complain about the changes, we'll all eventually get used to it like everything else. Being able to reply directly to a comment has been long overdue so I think we all appreciate that feature.
For those complaining about ads. I use uBlock, which is a Chrome add on and it blocks pretty much all ads on webpages including Youtube. Works really well for OMAAT.
The minimal contrast between the color of the page background and the color of the text creates significant eye strain for me.
Also the comments' font looks tiny on my laptop.
Hopefully there will be a way to sort comments chronologically. I also hope we won't have to hit "Load More" ad nauseum.
Like others have said, would really like time stamps (and not just date stamps), and also different ways to “Sort By”.
As far as the layout goes, will probably need some time to get used to, but appreciate the ability to use the old format via the blog link.
Hi Lucky,
I really LOVE your content but the new design is really awful. Too busy, looks old, veery difficult to get grasp of what is happening in 5 seconds like the old design. Why go the TPG route with categories when that is clearly not what the community wants?! Can we have a switchover feature to old design please? I am afraid the visuals will keep me from reading and I’ll miss out on...
Hi Lucky,
I really LOVE your content but the new design is really awful. Too busy, looks old, veery difficult to get grasp of what is happening in 5 seconds like the old design. Why go the TPG route with categories when that is clearly not what the community wants?! Can we have a switchover feature to old design please? I am afraid the visuals will keep me from reading and I’ll miss out on cool content :(((( Now one of the worst layout of blogs out there (sorry!!!!!) imho.
@ Flo -- You might want to try bookmarking onemileatatime.com/blog as your "default" place to check out new content. That is the essentially the old style, with all the posts in chronological order, so you can't miss anything.
The blog posts themselves should have many fewer visual distractions than the old site (lower ad density, no sidebar, etc.). But let us know how you're feeling once a couple days of fresh content have been added.
@Tiffany - I asked this of Ben in a reply to one of his posts, but I'll ask you as well: why cant the "blog" just be the top level, instead of having to bookmark it?
Is there a way to sort comments from newest to oldest? I like seeing the ability to reply to a post but I also find it helpful to read sequential posts.
12 character password? Isn’t that overboard?
Where did Value of Points and Miles page go? The old link is broken and I can't find it in any of the sections.
@ azjet77 -- Oof, that is an excellent question. It is, obviously, not supposed to be missing. I see a few other "beginner guide" type posts that seem to be taking a quick vacation, so we'll get that sorted in the next 24 hours.
People came to this blog for the great content you put out, Ben + team. Change is always hard, and will take time to get used to, but I can absolutely see the purpose of the redesign. As someone who visits the blog 3-4 times a day, I’ll be used to it in no time. And perhaps I’ll comment more to make sure I get diamond status. ;)
+1 to timestamps if possible. Otherwise, great work & I’m excited to see what’s to come!
Love the new logo!
Hi Ben,
I really like the redesign. I’ve been one of those following for a long time and regularly, so will probably use the “old version” of the new site. However, it is really nice that people can access portions of the site that interest them more efficiently, filter etc. Well done!
Complete own goal. Site looks like it was built by a 5 year old. Awful.
Wow, upset much? That's not constructive criticism, but what would one expect from a five year old...
Copy and paste your replies? Chill, fanboy!
Didn't copy/paste crap. All I see is a bunch of negative cry babies here.
Wow - way too busy and too many ads. Sort of looks like pointsguy site - which I do not follow. Guess I will be going back to Gary's site - viewfromthewing. Flyertalk is best for discussion. The previous site was clean looking and easy to follow. Oh well.
And you needed to share this why? Doubt forget to close the door behind you when you leave.
Yay! Thanks Ben!
Congratulations to Ben and the team! The new layout looks very nice!
Love the new logo!
Wow. My impressions: new design is very noisy and scattered, nearly overwhelming. Honestly, just the other day, I was thinking that your design (the previous one) was one of the cleanest, best-organized blogs that I had seen. My initial impression is that the new design seems scattered and disorganized, and I find the colors and visual look jarring. Maybe it will grow on me, but...definitely not a fan at this point. This is a pretty...
Wow. My impressions: new design is very noisy and scattered, nearly overwhelming. Honestly, just the other day, I was thinking that your design (the previous one) was one of the cleanest, best-organized blogs that I had seen. My initial impression is that the new design seems scattered and disorganized, and I find the colors and visual look jarring. Maybe it will grow on me, but...definitely not a fan at this point. This is a pretty radical overhaul. Good luck with it.
Basically the same as the above.
I'm sure the color palette will do with time, after all we did get used to the new United livery!
Hi Lucky could we have a chronological order of the older trip reports you took like what you had on the old site, I always use that as reference and inspirations but with that gone in the new layout it's quite frustrating to not be able to see that. Thanks
@ JW -- Yep, that is there! If you go to https://onemileatatime.com/trip-report-index/, everything is listed in chronological order. I hope to be able to group them more neatly by year versus having a continuous list, but in the meantime they should all be there, going back to 2008.
I love this redesign. It's super slick! Congratulations!
I love this blog and I read it every day. But with all respect, the new design is awful. The colors, font and layout is just so unintuitive and hard to navigate through. I understand the need for a change but the graphics are a huge step back, it looks like from 1994. I'd believe this is the previous version. The now 'old' design felt so much fresher and contemporary
Congrats Ben and team on the redesign. Really hope the comments in particular are able to grow with the new functionality. I am sure you have some very well traveled readers with excellent knowledge waiting to be tapped.
Different strokes for different folks, and while I’m sure a lot of work went into this, I have to be honest and say I far preferred the old layout.
This is definitely going to take some time getting used to, but change is change. I agree with others than the homepage looks a whole lot like TPG, but I guess that must be Wordpress layouts. I know I'll never use the home page, and will bookmark the /blog subpage (but to your point, I'm a daily reader so that's the use that works best for me).
Other than that, I really like the color...
This is definitely going to take some time getting used to, but change is change. I agree with others than the homepage looks a whole lot like TPG, but I guess that must be Wordpress layouts. I know I'll never use the home page, and will bookmark the /blog subpage (but to your point, I'm a daily reader so that's the use that works best for me).
Other than that, I really like the color scheme and the new logos! The comments section will also definitely make it easier to manage, and threaded comments will be great. Any way you could have the time stamp displayed too?
Great job to the OMAAT teams! These things are never simple :) .
There doesn't seem to be any obvious way to delete your account. I had an email thanking me for "pre-registering", when I have had no interaction with your site in the last 3 years or more. When I clicked the link in the email there was no way of indicating I was no longer interested and didn't want you to keep my personal data. If you're going to continue to have readers in Europe, you may want to brush up on European data protection law ?
@ Newb -- Apologies for any inconvenience!
The only people who received that email are those who either had an existing account on the Ask Lucky forums, or proactively asked to be pre-registered by entering their email address and preferred username into a form on One Mile at a Time (and if you are accessing the site from Europe, you would have had to review and agree to GDPR and consent terms prior to...
@ Newb -- Apologies for any inconvenience!
The only people who received that email are those who either had an existing account on the Ask Lucky forums, or proactively asked to be pre-registered by entering their email address and preferred username into a form on One Mile at a Time (and if you are accessing the site from Europe, you would have had to review and agree to GDPR and consent terms prior to doing either).
If you no longer want to activate your account, you can email the address that was included in the email you received, and we'll take care of it.
As a loyal reader, I have to say the new site looks awful and the layout makes no sense. My engagement will inevitably fall. Perhaps the new site is better for the occasional reader but those who check in daily will be disappointed.
Looks great!
Will OMAAT status also have last minute devaluations? ;)
It looks like my username is DDJK now rather than DENDAVE, too. Odd.
But overall, like the new site. Yes, as others have pointed out there is room for improvement, but a refresh was needed. Hopefully some of the smaller quirks, readability issues (like i's appearing like l's) are worked out over time.
@ DDJK -- Did you have a second account (or any account) on Ask Lucky by chance? That's probably what happened. But, if you email the address in the email you received, we can likely fix that for you.
Congratulations on the new site. The mobile version is certainly preferable to the older version on first glance.
The page scrolls well on mobile and the font is legible on my device. Good luck with the new site. Hopefully the new commenting system will eliminate the trolls.
I agree with many of the posts that it looks awful; while I may grow used to the new look, the functionality is only marginally better (and arguably worse). IMO your credibility is now sorely lacking when it comes to criticizing an airline (or hotel) website - like your recent (admittedly small) nit about Aegean's website not being clear. Ahem... Pot, meet kettle.
I like the look of this new format, it'll just take me some time to get used to it.
Well done. Looks good. I'm sure it took a crapload of work and discussion before the end result.
I LOVE THE NEW WEBSITE! Its so much clearer, the font is better, and overall its less clustered then the last.
Wow, just plain awful. Perhaps it will grow on me, but the functionality seems worse to this frequent reader. Maybe it will grow on me.... but IMO you will be sorely lacking in credibility the next time you criticize and airline or hotel website's functionality.
Looks good!
The best part is having a true comment feature where we can upvote or reply as a thread. Thank you for this! I like the redesign. Congrats Ben and I look forward to our post-Covid travel news & reviews!
The design looks alright for the most part. The biggest issue by far is the font choice and how impossible it is to differentiate between I and L. Second issue would be the gigantic white space on either side of the central content. It's a disappointing trend in web design to use the center 1/3rd of the screen and discard the rest but perhaps a slight shift to the wider side especially with the comment...
The design looks alright for the most part. The biggest issue by far is the font choice and how impossible it is to differentiate between I and L. Second issue would be the gigantic white space on either side of the central content. It's a disappointing trend in web design to use the center 1/3rd of the screen and discard the rest but perhaps a slight shift to the wider side especially with the comment button and share link now staying at the top all the way down the page would go a long way to improving readability and reducing the amount of scrolling needed.
How do you up/down vote a comment? For example, I agree that knowing the time, as well as the date, a comment was made to be very helpful.
I don't think there's an upvote/downvote feature, just a helpful button. I think...
Gets a 6/10 for me, design is modern but also somewhat dated in parts and the font choices and heirarchy in some areas make certain pages a real challenge to navigate and read through.
As a web designer / developer by trade I understand the need for concise feedback rather than just a "I hate it" so with that said I've put my comments over a few screenshots of the site so you can see exactly what needs fixing (imo):
https://imgur.com/a/lPqz6Up
Wholesome.
It is a bit weird right now. I agree with those saying it is a lot like TPG's website. It will take some time to get used to.
I do like the pins at the top for blogs, reviews (further separated into categories), and guides. That's sleeker than the old style and easy to access.
I also agree showing times on comments would be nice.
Overall, definitely, a bit less of a...
It is a bit weird right now. I agree with those saying it is a lot like TPG's website. It will take some time to get used to.
I do like the pins at the top for blogs, reviews (further separated into categories), and guides. That's sleeker than the old style and easy to access.
I also agree showing times on comments would be nice.
Overall, definitely, a bit less of a personal blog feel and more of a TPG feel, but as long as the content and trip reviews are the same as usual (well, pre-Covid), it's not a huge deal to me.
Looking good. Keep up the good work!
Looks good. I pre-registered and got my email a couple of hours ago.
Congrats on the redesign, I certainly appreciate the effort it takes to successfully get an overhaul like this completed. I'll probably keep to the blog, but look forward to seeing how you integrate other aspects of the site. Good luck!
Great! Let's see how the new comment syystem improves the discussion
I really like the threaded option, it's the thing I missed most about the old site. Congrats on the redesign!
Ben, when using the “Add to Home Screen” function on iPhone, it saves it as a simulated web app and blocks all page navigation which is frustrating. Can you have your developer remove this?
@ ymx (or anyone else who was having this issue) -- Do you have any more details you can share? We can't replicate this as a problem.
As a response to some of the negativity, keep in mind that change is imperative in any business, otherwise it stagnates and reaches a limit on growth. Yes, even successful business models must be updated and changed in order to engage consumers and keep up with the competition. To my mind, the old format was starting to look a bit dated. And as for the adverts, Ben must receive income to continue bringing us great...
As a response to some of the negativity, keep in mind that change is imperative in any business, otherwise it stagnates and reaches a limit on growth. Yes, even successful business models must be updated and changed in order to engage consumers and keep up with the competition. To my mind, the old format was starting to look a bit dated. And as for the adverts, Ben must receive income to continue bringing us great content, as it is his full-time job. We can't expect him to put full attention on the blog and receive no benefit. Overall, I say that it's about time that something changed. Good luck with the latest iteration of onemileatatime!
I’ve never seen a blog that had 1 ad for every 5 comments. There’s a fine line between making a buck and deterring engagement with the comments. Right now, i think he is on the deterrence side of the line.
Your comment intrigues me since I'm not seeing any ads in the conversation panel. But then I'm using an ad blocker. OTOH you may be referring to a different set of comments???
A followup to my first experience with comments. I clicked Post and was taken back to the main page. I would expect to have been left in the Conversation panel at the point of my comment>
I'm trying again to see if that was the actual behavior.
@ GBOAC -- No, that is not intended behavior, and your experience is likely being disrupted by the conflicting scripts your browser is running on the site.
I don't see any in my PC Chrome, but I have an ad blocker. On my mobile device, though, I am getting an ad between every 5 comments.
@ greg99 -- That's helpful feedback. The overall ad density is much lower on the new site than the current one, and we know it will take some tweaking to get things in the right places and at the right rate. Expect a lot of adjustments there in the next few weeks.
As much as I liked the old style of the layout, I am quite pleased with the new design as it looks rather pleasant to the eye and the layout on the mobile (cell) phone looks rather well suited to the screen.
I am looking forward to seeing what an OMAAT Platinum status card looks like too.
My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
(not a fan)
Also, I can no longer comment using my first name which is actually a single letter.... it requires two!
I noticed that too. A little annoying. But in grand scheme of things, no big deal.
I think it looks great!
I LOVE it ! great job. So much easier to post a comment too. This former F/A and Corp Travel Manager appreciates your work.
I do get the need for monetization, but the mobile ads are pretty obtrusive in the comments. 1 ad for every 5 comments is a lot. It’s enough to make me block them all.
Certainly not what I expected. I do appreciate the layout, but I think will take me time to appreciate the new colours.
Congrats on the new site Ben and team! Redesigns are always a ton of effort. Like all change it will take a little time to get used to. IMHO the biggest area for improvement is images on the homepage and listing pages should be displayed at a higher resolution for those of us using retina/high-dpi screens. All of them look pretty fuzzy/blurry. A timestamp (in addition to dates) would be nice for comments as well.
The new site should eventually draw more views as per plan, so an article on the site analytics before and after change would be really interesting. After might need to be a long time to properly get a good understanding of the changes.
Wow! This is certainly is a design refresh. I love the new comments system I think a regular comments system where people have the same name is a great idea and I am excited to hear about these status tiers (I think I might need to do a few status runs) also the report feature is good - see TPG there are healthy ways to comment. In terms of the actual site I think it...
Wow! This is certainly is a design refresh. I love the new comments system I think a regular comments system where people have the same name is a great idea and I am excited to hear about these status tiers (I think I might need to do a few status runs) also the report feature is good - see TPG there are healthy ways to comment. In terms of the actual site I think it does feel a touch more corporate but I think it also feels that way because its unfamiliar and over time it will get better. I do think the lack of specific timestamp is a negative but the reply feature and helpful vote is good, and the blog page is definitely the main page I will be interacting with. Overall well done Ben this is wholly a good thing and I think the website was due for a refresh.
I love hitting report buttons. OMAAT status............
CONGRATS!!
. . . what took you so long? :-)
Of course, starting with a LOOK at the "amazing" and outstanding favorite Reosrt for the "Boys".
EDITION Bodrum, but i need to 100% agree with you, THIS place is by far the BEST hotel in all over Turkey i've ever stayed too.
. . . starting with the Breakfast and the hunky staff there, the Greek lady taking care of the...
CONGRATS!!
. . . what took you so long? :-)
Of course, starting with a LOOK at the "amazing" and outstanding favorite Reosrt for the "Boys".
EDITION Bodrum, but i need to 100% agree with you, THIS place is by far the BEST hotel in all over Turkey i've ever stayed too.
. . . starting with the Breakfast and the hunky staff there, the Greek lady taking care of the Beach and her staff and the DJ with really good music!
I went there after Ben wrote about it, and I NEED TO SAY . . . E V E R Y word he wrote, i felt there too!
THANKS for that!
All the best with the new webpage setup now!
Wondering where on Crete you guys stay?
Trying to move there soon, give me a hint.
Yasou from Bavaria
Nice look. Well done.
It seems that post categories have been removed. If true, that’s a shame.
Agreed!
They have not! In fact there are WAYYY more categories, and they are *nested*. You'll see them in the breadcrumbs of single posts, and we'll add more related-category functionality soon (as you can see from the comments, this is already an overwhelming amount of new for many).
Not a fan of it at all
As far as I can tell, there is no longer an ability to see precisely when a comment was made. It lists only the date but not the time. Often there are discussions that are time-sensitive (e.g., a limited-time fare sale), and it would be helpful to know precisely when a person is saying, for example, that a deal is still alive or already dead, or when a particular new trick/method works, whether that information...
As far as I can tell, there is no longer an ability to see precisely when a comment was made. It lists only the date but not the time. Often there are discussions that are time-sensitive (e.g., a limited-time fare sale), and it would be helpful to know precisely when a person is saying, for example, that a deal is still alive or already dead, or when a particular new trick/method works, whether that information is still fresh or already stale. If the posting is a day or two old, lacking a time stamp, you don't know if the most recent comments with today's date may be just a few minutes old or perhaps nearly a full day old and perhaps already out of date.
Agreed. In addition, time stamps help you figure out where you might have left off in the thread if you are going back to continue reading later. Overall looks pretty nice, though I haven't had a lot of time to poke around. I do like the idea of ranking to help determine who might have actually good information and who is trolling or otherwise inaccurate.
I love the intro post, and that you kept the blog view around as an option. I don't envy all the complaining you're going to hear. People hate change, but they'll get used to it.
Good luck w/ the new site!
Will there not be any timestamps on comments, just dates?
Also, I see a "load more" button, but after I press it, more entries load, but then the "load more" button no longer appears. Am I missing something? I can't always engage every day, so I like the idea of being able to go back for days/weeks and look at the postings.
@ TravelinWilly -- Timestamps will likely be back in time for breakfast, if not shortly thereafter.
I *think* you're not seeing the "load more" button a second time because there is nothing further to load at the time. Refreshing might be what you need to do instead. But we'll keep testing it...quite a few bugs today from caching adventures.
I’m logged in, but clicking on “My profile” says “Profile not found”, and the first of my old comments I checked has completely disappeared. It wasn’t a very interesting comment so maybe you just deleted it to save tedium. But it felt as if I had been disappeared...
@ The nice Paul -- Oh no! Was it on a deal post? Ben often deletes those comments when he refreshes a deal (to keep the same URL intact without having old info in the comments). If not, let me know, as that is obviously not the intended experience.
(also the profile bit is "coming soon", you didn't do anything wrong there)
I much preferred the previous layout.
Here is some (constructive) criticism:
In the review section, it doesn't seem like someone can narrow their search for reviews like they could before. For example, if someone wanted to check out just the previous reviews for hotels in Tokyo to get an idea of what to expect there, or focus on the business class of one particular airline, etc.
We still can't jump to comments in an article.
@ Aaron -- Very helpful, thank you. The search bar at the top of the page is attached to a MUCH more robust search system now, so if you wanted to look just for your Tokyo reviews example, that's what I'd recommend. The other filtering is possible, but with the number of reviews now the predictive loading was getting really unreliable. We'll keep working on it though.
For comments, we added more jump points from...
@ Aaron -- Very helpful, thank you. The search bar at the top of the page is attached to a MUCH more robust search system now, so if you wanted to look just for your Tokyo reviews example, that's what I'd recommend. The other filtering is possible, but with the number of reviews now the predictive loading was getting really unreliable. We'll keep working on it though.
For comments, we added more jump points from within the post, as I appreciate that was a pain point. The intention is to add them from the landing pages/overview cards as well, but that is a bit out still.
It’s going to take time for me to get used to this new site
I think putting the trip report index under reviews would make more sense than putting it under insights...
I'm sorry but everything about your new layout sucks. The typography - especially the typeface chosen for body copy!; the layout; navigation; the colour, the overlays. It is crowded, dated and hard to read. This needs a complete rethink.
OMG. WAY too busy, I can't tell what's a post and what is fluff. Even worse on a laptop screen vs. mobile.
Sorry, but I hate it.
Congratulations! Looking slick but much bulkier on the screen and the usability has deteriorated (example someone gave about finding 'Blog' - the main reason people come here, pop up for conversations showing submit box above the comments, etc.)
Redesigns are good but please give consideration to functionality / user experience. Someone who did this really well is Headforpoints - new site slick but functionality and experience far better than before.
Will take a few days to see how I feel about the redesign. One thing that I can’t say I’m a fan of: the ads sprinkled throughout the comments section. Haven’t seen that one before…
I really like it. I have a suggestion though...I think you should include some kind of shadow on the white text that is displayed over the images at the top of the front page...otherwise, when the image is white or almost white, the text is just impossible to read.
I don't have any trouble reading about the hase Sapphire Reserve with a 0,000 point bonus currently being advertised on the front page.
Sorry mate but I hate the changes; it's extremely disorienting
Going to take me some time to transition but first impressions are I like it, my only little gripe is the google adverts within the comments page, other than that I am sure new users will find it easy to interact with.
Lots of good adblockers that can be used. I use one and it makes looking at this site (and the older version as well) so much easier and better.
What ad blockers do you recommend? Driving me insane too (and on other pages)!
Ghostery has been wonderful!! I used the free version for a few years and it is just perfect, never felt the need to try the paid one.
*have used*
I have not seen any ads in the COnvo panel. I've been using Ghostery as well and now I realize the blue-grey bars I see in the convo panel are the signs that Ghostery has done its job well:-)
Thanks for the update - wishing you continued success
Hmm, I have logged in but this isn’t the username I preregistered with.
I had the same issue but my display name is the one i requested. Maybe the difference is a security feature.
Surprised to receive the new invitation and hope this brings great success
The extended headline typeface is very “Star Alliance”! All you need is a bit more use of black. Nice to have a change!
This font is called Sharp Grotesk. It’s also used by Entertainment Weekly in multiple styles.
It will take me a bit to get the hang of the updates site.
Looking for years of more great content :-)
CHEERS,
SullyofDoha
Very nice and slick redesign.
Looks nice Ben, but will take some getting used too. Did you leave Boarding Area?
@ Thomas199023 -- Thanks, promise it takes some getting used to for me too, if it makes you feel any better. ;) Nope, haven't left BoardingArea, but might take a second for posts to sync properly again to the BoardingArea homepage.
Like all new things it feels a bit strange — and it’s particularly weird how Ben’s above reply, as the most popular comment right now, appears first in the comments. But because it’s a reply it doesn’t make much sense to appear on its own — which adds to the feeling of stumbling around in something new that you don’t really understand.
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Can't wait to get my One Mile at a Time Platinum Status, Can I get a status match whilst I'm at it?
Still no “open post” infinite scroll? It’s 2021. This is a bummer.
Personally I hate it, it's often very annoying when you just want to scroll to the bottom of the page.
Congratulations, you've been Bonvoyed!
The changes make sense and allows OMAAT to cater to a new audience as a Wikipedia of Miles.
Being averse to change I'll be visiting /blog
maybe awful is not very helpful criticism. it looks too corporate and like TPG: much less personal and engaging
I thought of TPG's site as well when I first saw the redesign.
Totally agree and that site is only marginally useful.
The new functionality is pretty awful. I think "awful" is fairly helpful criticism.
it looks awful, lucky :(
Long time reader and first time poster. Loving the redesign, fresh and chic.
I’m a bit disoriented with the new format but I’m sure I’ll be able to navigate it in a few days. Congrats on the change. Hope it’ll bring you more success.
Looks modern and sleek, and the site certainly appears bigger now, with more accessible content. On the other hand, it is a bit less personal. The old site was clearly your own personal blog, Ben, the new one is more like a corporate website.
@ Claus -- While I can appreciate that this perhaps looks more "corporate," I promise nothing is changing with the content. We're just trying to make the blog more accessible to more people, and bookmarking the "blog" page should deliver a very similar experience. :)
Thanks for pointing to the blog page, that's great to quickly see what's new!
Out of curiosity - why cant the "blog" page be the top level page? This isnt the first time in these comments I've heard of people doing that or suggesting it?
@ RTBones -- The logic is that we have thousands and thousands of posts that are potentially great resources, but they can be hard to find with the previous layout of only featuring the most recent posts first, and no real organizational structure to otherwise find them. This new layout is intended to give people the best of both worlds, allowing consistent readers to just access the most recent posts, while not making the blog...
@ RTBones -- The logic is that we have thousands and thousands of posts that are potentially great resources, but they can be hard to find with the previous layout of only featuring the most recent posts first, and no real organizational structure to otherwise find them. This new layout is intended to give people the best of both worlds, allowing consistent readers to just access the most recent posts, while not making the blog totally confusing or overwhelming to newbies.
That being said, I agree the current version isn't perfect, and we're already working on some edits on that. The goal is to have more blog posts appear on the front page of the blog, without having to go to the "/blog" URL.
To you and others, please just be patient with us, and by all means keep the feedback coming. I know change is hard and it's rarely popular, and we didn't get this exactly right. Over the coming hours, days, and weeks, you'll see some improvements on the current version.
Exact time stamps on comments? It's coming shortly. The ability to sort comments based on your preferences? Also coming shortly, hopefully. The spacing issues with the headings for mobile? That should be fixed shortly too.
@Ben - thank you for the explanation. At least for my part, I do understand you are tweaking and that those tweaks will take time to manifest themselves. I promise - I will be patient. :) But as a member of your readership that has enjoyed your site, I feel a modest obligation to let you know I'm just not liking the changes I am seeing.
I'm not (currently) seeing any benefit from it as...
@Ben - thank you for the explanation. At least for my part, I do understand you are tweaking and that those tweaks will take time to manifest themselves. I promise - I will be patient. :) But as a member of your readership that has enjoyed your site, I feel a modest obligation to let you know I'm just not liking the changes I am seeing.
I'm not (currently) seeing any benefit from it as a relatively regular reader. You've taken things I liked - the more "personal" feel of the website, the simple commenting system and forum with an edit function, the concentration on content - and have replaced it with a site that feels far more coporate, promotes one comment over another, make you look the same as your ïndustry colleagues, and instead of separating you from the "pack" of travel blogs, it firmly plants you in the middle of it.
Just my take.
Ben “ Thanks for your empathy. explaining today the latest with your blog difficulties. it certainly was frustrating in the last week . FYI nice picture of your Mother on the AA flt through LHR /ATH Hoping she gets through this . Have you ever done a review on the
Hotel Brenner in Baden Baden. It’s truly old world Class . Love coming back here. your Calb Schnitzel home made spatzle the best ,...
Ben “ Thanks for your empathy. explaining today the latest with your blog difficulties. it certainly was frustrating in the last week . FYI nice picture of your Mother on the AA flt through LHR /ATH Hoping she gets through this . Have you ever done a review on the
Hotel Brenner in Baden Baden. It’s truly old world Class . Love coming back here. your Calb Schnitzel home made spatzle the best , We here in the US lack quality veal . Knowing you love the AA pretzel OB me too .The B& B in Germany are nothing to sneer at . The B& B. Hotel M Markt in the old town across from the Church is truly a find . handsome indeed they know me well They are warm and family owned . Will always return to it. .
Love your Country your roads are pristine . This is the reason your Auto ban roads are the best less car problem .wonderful driving through Germany . To be honest we haft to accept change your old blog was so personal and distinct. No one could touch. It. Unique Can we still resort to this with an option, Warmly Peter . Thanks
One more for you sir - I would have edited my previous reply, but there doesnt appear to be any way to edit our comments. That would be helpful to have.
I also should ask - how is it you believe the blog is more accessible with the new layout? Or are you referring to back-end changes that make your site more visible to search engines? As others have said, the new look is very...
One more for you sir - I would have edited my previous reply, but there doesnt appear to be any way to edit our comments. That would be helpful to have.
I also should ask - how is it you believe the blog is more accessible with the new layout? Or are you referring to back-end changes that make your site more visible to search engines? As others have said, the new look is very very similar to TPG now, which - if the comments here are any indication - isnt necessarily a good thing.
Finally - your content may not be changing, but the "corporate" look to the new site is off-putting. Instead of being the website of an aviation and travel enthusiast (err - thats you), it comes across as just another travel company.
Well, it will take some time getting used to. A bit too much CC pimping than usual, but hey, do what you have to if you want to get those coins...
Looks slick. Love the idea of threads.
Maybe I'm missing something, but it appears that the only way to reach https://onemileatatime.com/blog/ is the small "Blog"-Button in the upper right corner?
I'd prefer to have a button for all latest posts below "Jump to the latest" as well instead of having to filter between those five categories.
tbh, so far I don't like the new design at all. All those colors make it look more like a billboard than a travel blog. But...
Maybe I'm missing something, but it appears that the only way to reach https://onemileatatime.com/blog/ is the small "Blog"-Button in the upper right corner?
I'd prefer to have a button for all latest posts below "Jump to the latest" as well instead of having to filter between those five categories.
tbh, so far I don't like the new design at all. All those colors make it look more like a billboard than a travel blog. But maybe I can arrange with that old "blog"-view.
I'd like to see the list of categories (by reward program or airline) back so I can easily access a list of posts relating to a rewards program.