Legal Insurrection Version 1.0 was the old Blogger template.
Version 2.0 was the custom designed WordPress template initiated in June 2011.
This Version 2.1 is a redesign of the home page to accomplish the following:
1. Featured Posts. Adding the ability to keep featured posts on the home page just below the banner was the primary motivation for the redesign. Given our prolific content, about 8-10 new posts a day, content moves down and off the homepage quickly. If you are away for a day or two, some of our most important and popular posts already have moved off the home page.
2. Speed. We received a lot of complaints about the speed of the homepage, and our testing confirmed that we were slow. Much of that problem was caused by our tendency to embed videos on the home page in full posts, requiring video content to be loaded even when you didn’t play the video. To achieve speed without losing content, we have lowered from 5 to 2 the number of “full” homepage posts (plus one “sticky” post when needed), while increasing the number of “snippet” posts. [Update – initial tests indicate our load time cut in half!]
3. Visibility. By reducing the number of full posts we not only increase speed, we increase the visibility of content by shortening the page. Our study of reader habits showed that people just don’t scroll down a long page.
4. Pictures Are Good. We’ve also moved to a more image-based presentation both for posts themselves and the “snippets” on the home page.
5. Sidebar. There are some minor sidebar changes, including better identification of contributors and the role various people play here.
6. Sight Unseen. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes recoding needed, more than you can imagine, but you will not see that.
While we tested the new design, there are some things that only could be done once live. So in the next day or two you may see some tweaking, but nothing major. If you encounter a problem, please post in the comments here, or email me.
Thanks to Tarin Keith at Sound Strategies for the redesign and Andy LoCascio and his programmers for the implementation.
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Comments
Congrats on the changes. Looking forward to the updates.
Unlike Obamacare, ready to go the first time…congratulations!
Hit the tip jar….
Good Zing!
Good Zing!
Touche!
Even the content is hot today. Just caught the pick-up of a previous post on Hot Air.
Like.
The new makeover is the bee’s knees!
Great new look! The abbreviated posts are much nicer to look at than the lengthy ones. One thing fer sher, Wm, we will click and read.
Website looks great.
Can I make one suggestion? Let me preface this with I am not a web designer. If I’m wrong someone please correct me. 🙂
Links should always open in a new tab or new window, this would reduce the number times users go back or open the home page. For example if I read (5) five stories I either go back to the home page by using the back feature in my browser or I reopen the home page by opening it again. By making all links open in a new tab the home page only has to request information and load once instead of (6) six. You could have the home page automatically refresh at a predetermined length of time so that the home page is always showing the information.
Thanks!
I agree with the suggestion as to image size, we’re going to work on that.
Will this awesomely cool new look be applied to CI too? The “Associate Clinical Professor” over there is still waiting for a promotion.
The site looks great! And I completely agree: having links open in new tabs or windows helps. I do this with my own websites, precisely because with the back button, sometimes it takes a long time to reload the previous page.
The new layout is more userfriendly and eye-appealing.
Looks great – maybe would like to get a slightly longer blurb for the lower stories. On my home computer, I read everything, but if I’m checking in from my Tablet or my Android where I’m dependent on an iffy wireless link – I’m a bit more selective of what I click through to read.
Also – it’s probably just a glitch**…. the Blogs I Read hasn’t updated in a couple of hours.
**Hopefully that’s not an Obamacare scale glitch that will run about half a billion dollars!
LOOKING GOOD!!!
I’ve been around since (almost) the beginning, and each time the site is better. Improving on GREAT is tough to do, but you do it every time……very impressive!
This is is great!! A suggestion about the redesign: reduce the size of the images under the menu bar and try to keep the images the same size. I like the new streamlined look a lot. Keep up the fantastic work!
All Right!
Woooooo, I like it! But I still miss the original yellow pages of the first version : )
Congratulations on the update! I like the much abbreviated presentation of recent posts. Load time is much, much faster plus scroll time is reduced dramatically. What I really like is that you kept what was good and familiar but just improved the usability and appearance.
I like it!!
Lovely new site design. The new design, though, has not improved my reading speed at all, so it looks as if I’ll continue to linger and loiter here just as long as I ever have.
Looks good. Very nice. Thanks William…
Humm…. new neighborhood. Lawns nicely maintained, no broken down cars up on blocks in the driveway, no old couches on the front porch.
Nice place.
Very nice, but still no free doughnuts. *sigh*
RSS feed is not showing photos. Not a big deal and maybe not a bad thing.
Edit posts?
Very, very nice. LI just keeps getting better. I agree with ConradCA – would be nice to be able to edit posts. Does WordPress offer that option?
Authors: Now if Thomas Sowell would add a few posts and a Hispanic, an Asian and throw in a Swede( for my sake) and I think you’ve got it.
Great new format! Thanks most for great content and commenters.
My only wish is that when I go off to another site for even a few minutes, I have to log in again, even if I don’t delete files and cookies.
And, as always, wishing for an edit button to correct spelling, clarify and add a thought.
Is that a new problem? or preexisting?
Are pre-existing problems covered now?
I have the same situation as Uncle Samuel re: multiple log-ins required daily.
But that’s no biggie … happy to do it to get the great content + comments as of old and fabulous new look! The photos really add — Buzzfeed watch your back!
I logged in a day or so ago, and I’m still logged in. Sometimes I get un-logged. Dunno why. Fortunately, something remembers my password, so it’s not that big a deal. However, when logging in, I’m directed to my profile page, which I really don’t want.
Anyhow, I really like the faster page loading. Useta pull my hair out waiting for the page to load.
As I have noted above I really like the new look and it is much faster. I do have an observation to share though. If you click ‘Cartoons’ on the banner it provides a page where cartoons are not visible under each post (just the usage and credits note) and you have to open each post individually to see the cartoon. This is the case for all the cartoons back to Aug 5. (This may have something to do with whether the cartoon was loaded above the note or below the note.) In any event, I think it would be better to see the cartoon archive in the same format as the non-featured posts on the home page if possible.
Understood. It’s kind of complicated as to why, but I’ve alerted the programmers and we’ll figure something out.
Hey, I’m back in the contributor list! 🙂 (Actually, my absence was a technology-induced hiatus while we waited for v2.1 of the site to go live.)
New Law of Self Defense stuff coming soon!
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Geeez, it seems seamless!
Now I suppose that you’ll be declared a national security threat to the little puppet emperor etc.
Dat’s wot yuse gitz wen youz git it rhat..
But, can I sign up for Obamacare here..?
A small thing, but the bottom half of the thumbs up / thumbs down graphic icons are cut off on my screen. (Using Chrome browser, all else appears great).
Aware of that problem, seems okay in Firefox, better in Chrome, worst in IE.
If I like my current LI, can I keep it?
Just kidding. I like the new look LI, so far.
Looking great! I love the new features and tweaks. Any chance of making a mobile friendly version? Or is there one already and I’m just displaying my ignorance…
I like it. I’ve got only one wish. Headnotes. To make snippets that are a bit more of a post summary. Many of the posts have somewhat cryptic headlines and opening sentences before they get to the point. That has made LI a great read scrolling, but doesn’t seem as satisfying with the snippets. (It also would further your SEO goals.)
Otherwise, I echo congratulations on the nice layout, and success of your code!
Actually, looking at it again, in the alternative, unless it’s a Branco cartoon or perhaps your trademark bumnper stickers, the pictures don’t necessarily add to the snippet content. More words would be better.
This site is now looking very strange things both on my iPhone and iPad. The 4 pictures at the top of the front page are lined up 3 vertically with the 4th next to the last one. That’s OK, sort of. But the little pictures of the authors are in various sizes, with Mandy Nagy’s picture half covering the Prof, and David Gerstman’s picture being huge, at least 3 times the size of the others. Then Fuzzy Slippers nad Laurel Conrad’s pictures are very small.
The rest of the sidebar is screwed up too, with the yellow highlighted headers appearing in the middle of the links underneath them and blocking them. I’ll try and send you a screenshot.
screenshot 1
screenshot 2
screenshot 3
screenshot 4
screenshot 5
I do like the way the site looks on my regular PC, especially the featured photo next to the short-snippet blog posts. Very snazzy all round!
I’m with anneinpt. On the front page, everything is looking very mixed up. I’m in Chrome. The photos that I think are supposed to be small and on the right (sorry I can’t tell for sure) are HUGE. And there are graphics all over the page in places they don’t belong. The Obamacare graph is covering copy in a completely unrelated story.
I’ve always been a fan of having the full post right there on the front page. But I have to say this looks pretty good and works pretty well.
Yay! First the iPad version was fixed and just now the iPhone version. Well done Prof. J. and all the computer designers and programmers. What a relief! Now I don’t have to worry about withdrawal symptoms while I’m away from home. 🙂