Looks terrific! Congratulations! I know it takes awhile to get used to change, but the site looks great, and you've positioned your brand for continued growth.

Good job, everyone! I'm really excited to see what this new layout has to offer.

While the "main page" may be where you go first, not all our content will reach it

That's a HUUUGE pain in the *bleep*. I don't want to treasure hunt for content. I want to mindlessly scroll down on the same, single page. Not an intuitive setup at all.

I am so glad this rearrangemetn happened..i used to be so disappointed to see so many wonderful green posts ignored!! way to go guys

It looks FANTASTIC! Perfect for this day and age -- clean and easy to read. Congrats!

Wow, this is so exciting!! I can't wait to really dive in. And as someone who works on the technical side of an ecommerce brand, I fully empathize with a huge change like this one. Kudos!!

RIP, Ohdeedoh! Kudos to you on the next "season of life" for Apartment Therapy. I'll be clicking in!

The only thing I just cannot stand is the Times New Roman font on the Post titles and on the Categories on the left side of the page. Maybe it's just me, but Times New Roman is just god awful. It's like the Comic Sans of the serif world. Definitely not design-y. Please tell me it's just my slow computer not recognizing a super cool font that you're actually using?

LOVE the changes. They were very much needed.

This is really exicting, nice changes!

Looks great, except for the Times New Romanesque font in the left sidebar. What are design snobs for, right? :) Very happy to see you finally added a Seattle category -- I'll contribute a lot more now!

I would LOVE the main to be everything! So annoying that I've looked at maybe 4 of the different channels and get the same content on each. I will be visiting a lot less frequently.

Well done! I love this new look and find it much easier to navigate.

I like the re design...very clean, uncluttered...but is it possible to search on tours by location like before? Like anything, it will take some getting used to...

Do you guys have an app yet?

Love the redesign! It looks great.

This new design is very exciting! I loved it!
If you guys ever need design news from Brazil, I would love to contribute.
I'm a freelance writer for Vogue Kids Brazil, Pais&Filhos and Babiekins.
My blog is:
http://mamaesabetudo.blogspot.com

Great job!

Wow, you guys have no privacy what so ever...

Can you pls explain re thekitchn? Is it now a totally different site? I dont see a tab for it.
Not wild re your new font, but some of the changes are very nice.

I kind of agree with DEFAULTNAME, I personally would rather have everything in one place than have to jump around between 7 different categories to see everything. I can't see myself coming here as often with the new format, which is a shame, because I used to really enjoy this blog.

While some of the new niche groups make sense, it's hard to know where the old is supposed to become the new. Which of the tabs is Re-nest? Is it DIY? That doesn't make complete sense. I know that they aren't supposed to be a 1 for 1 transfer, otherwise you wouldn't have killed the brands (which I think was a bad idea).

I just hope that the daily finds won't make it on the main page anymore. Even if I lived in one of the cities (which I don't), I still wouldn't want to see all the stuff from the other cities. That was my daily "skip all this junk that doesn't apply to me."

Also, watch out for too much overlap between the categories. I don't want to see a bunch of stuff on the main page, then see a lot of the same in the Style section, then again in DIY, Homekeeping, Family, Tech, etc. Choose the most appropriate category and leave it at that or your readers will choose to read one sub-section and ignore the rest.

Anyway, I'm not sure if you made the best decision, but I'm here for the ride and I'm not going to rant about hating it or anything. Change is hard to get used to.

Exciting change. Still feeling my way around.

@Ginnielizz + @Lemondrop - I thought the same thing. So weird for a normally better fonted (I don't know the proper lingo) site+then I thought - 'maybe it's my comp.' I pulled it up on my iPhone+it's not Times New Roman. I don't know why. It looks way better on my phone...

Anyone else notice that?

So there won't be an "everything" option after all? That's literally frustrating.

I think you guys are great and wish you continued success. Thanks for so many fun reads.

I'm not having a lot of success finding anything about food... anyone else?

Okay I have to admit I am one of those who are an oddity in that I LOVE Times New Roman and always have (blame it on an art teacher but hey I still love it!) Just started checking out the "new" site so we shall see how it goes...

Take care and keep up the good work!

a simple addition i was hoping for was a "reply to" function to the comments section!

to clarify, a reply to function that pertains to specific comments

You really need some better fonts.

Still no mobile version?! Major bummer.

Great job! I'm sure the kinks will be ironed out in time. I'm hoping that next us a mobile version?!

Yeah, major dislike on this overhaul. How ugly -- strange, coming from a design site!

Well, I won't be reading any more, unfortunately. I had/have Ohdeedoh and Kitchn in my blog reader because I only want to hear about food and baby/child stuff. I'd be fine going to the main site if there was still a single tab sending me to the formerly-Ohdeedoh posts, but I really don't have time to hop around searching for the stuff I want. Sorry you worked so hard, but I think this was a BIG mistake.

I'm sorry but I do not like this =/

I Love it! I will miss visiting re-nest but the content was starting to become redundant with the overlap from AT. Great move on simplifying things to re-focus on the visual components.

QUIET HOUSES

So excited to see Portland in the locations line-up! Maybe it was there all along and I just never saw it? In that case, love the re-structure because I found it easily.

Agree on the Times New Roman thumbs down, but really like all the other changes. Find the menu on the left sidebar easy to navigate.

Overall the changes look good, although will take some getting used to. I like the idea of categories for when I am looking for something specific, but am disappointed that the main page won't include everything (or almost everything). Sometimes I don't know what will interest me and want to look at everything that is available, it would be great if that could somehow be an option. I took a browse through some of the categories and most of it seemed to be on the main page, so I'm not sure how to locate the actual new information that is there.

As someone who primarily read Ohdeedoh, I'm a bit disappointed; it was one of my favorite reads. Guess I'll see how the new design goes...
:)

Add me to the masses wanting an "everything" list. There is so much overlap across the categories that its a huge pain going to each to search for one or two new posts.

Thumbs up on new year and new look. It will take getting used to but when the posts are good, its worth it.

Just one question: Will I get all the posts in Google reader? It says not all the posts will end up in the main page so I can only guess that means I won't get all the posts in google reader. If we are not getting all the posts, which sections will be updated separately?

I like the change because it was getting to cluttered, visually. Thumbs up! Please make a BB app.

I think the channels on AT and The Kitchn are much more intuitive than a bunch of overlapping sites, well done. I also like the focus on bigger and better photos, that's what inspiration is all about!

However, there just HAS to be an "everything" option for the different channels, or they cannot have overlapping content. Otherwise, readers are going to get frustrated looking for new content that they want to read.

Easily fixable, and otherwise, I love it!

Congrats! I am a big fan! You all do a wonderful job!

I like the new design as a whole and know it will probably be refined over time.

I see no reasons though why you haven't preserved a way for visitors to see every post in one place. If we have to hunt and peck in the hopes of finding something we might be interested in, you are going to lose interest and attention of some people.

It's easier to skip right by things in one consolidated stream that hold no interest for me than it is to visit multiple channels on the off chance one of them might have a post I want to read that your algorithm gurus haven't yet decided to push to the main page. A site should make it easier for us to consume more content, not harder.

I was just wondering when you were going to re-haul and GET RID of the annoying thumbnail navigation. I am sick of scrolling up and down to click and see image.

Work on this, plz!

I don't understand the new overlap. For example, the story about recovering an old sofa appears on main, style, and diy at least. It seems like content should only appear on one of the subcategories - otherwise you have to search through each to discern what/if any content is new.

Loved Ohdeedoh but can't seem to be able to click onto archived posts...doh!

The redesign is AWFUL. I'm speaking from purely a web design point. I understand what you were trying to accomplish-- placing emphasis on the visuals (photography) but the design downplays everything to the point where the page looks unfinished and lifeless.

The design is okay, but the functionality, especially for those of us who use rss readers to access AT content, leaves quite a bit to be desired.

@Garrett22... Not only does that sofa post appear on more than one channel, I keep seeing it pop up on top of the main page before disappearing and popping up again. Many other posts are doing that for me as well. It's disorienting.

Congrats on your new look AT! Loooove the white space with room to breath. Great work ;)

I'm actually very disappointed; I got more out of the Kitchn, Unpluggd and and Re-Nest than most of the main AT site.

I'm hoping the site drastically improved from what it is currently looking like.

Also, I'm with GINNIELIZZ - lose the TNR; what is this, Geocities in 1997?

I go to the main category to see everything. This is counterintuitive.

Sooo... essentially I still have to click around to get to the various sites/content areas, you just made it harder for me to get to theKitchn?
The benefits of the redesign have yet to make themselves apparent to me.
Also, there's a really odd combo of fonts going on... at least how it is on my screen. Hoping that's temporary or a just a technical issue.
I mean, I love your stuff so I'm still going to read it, I just have an annoyed look on my face now.

I just- what? While AT was my go to, I still read TK every day and RN, OD, and UP every two days. Why isn't all the content for AT together? It just makes no sense. Rather than further chopping it I've always wanted to be able to view everything from all the channels of all the sites. The new design just feels so cold and cataloged. It's not inviting. Sad

wait, you're all about DESIGN and FOOD but no mention of the Kitchn. I can't get to it from here, I take it, anymore. I love the big photos and white space, flummoxed by TimesNewRoman as most others. Not sure how I'll feel about having to hunt and peck for content, we'll see. But thanks for many years of inspiration!

Congrats on the re-vamp! Looks fantastic and a good idea to consolidate brands. I look forward to exploring more of the new site!

Reminder of a cliche: content is still king on a blog. I'd like to see less of rehashed posts and more of original ideas and extensions of an idea. In 2012, I DO NOT want to see one more post about whether we should allow guests to wear shoes inside the house, or, what is the best lunch to take to class. And less of those top 10 type of posts which often are not at all the top 10, but just an aggregate of a random bunch of sites a blogger bookmarked earlier.

I was first going to comment that you'd lost a reader, but it looks like I can just subscribe to the family channel so I'm here for now!

i like it, especially the effra-light font! K-I-S-S !!!

An industrial design professor from grad school taught me something which has stuck with me for over 20 years: a serif font is for text body, like an article. The serifs make it easier for the human eye to skip from letter to letter and word to word. It is NOT good for titles though, which require a sans serif font for impact.

The long-vaunted redesign is a disappointment when it comes to the first thing which hits you in the face: the fonts. Times New Roman has no business being used on post titles, and the font you have switched to elsewhere is really annoying too. Over-designed to be design-y.

I also find it really annoying that while some posts won't be posted on the main site, everything won't be, so you will still have to check on the individual "channels", thus encountering a lot of redundancy.

Not a fan so far...

I personally don't see what people mean when saying they will need to shift through for content. The Main page is a pick of the best things from each catagory - only want the Ohdeedoh stuff? Just click on family and it's all there. Also I think the Renest is under 'life at home' and then 'green living' and although it's a shame that they intergrated it so much I did notice that just about every before and after from AT or ODD managed to sneek in so there was a lot of overlap. Anyway no doubt we will all get used to the new layout and in 6 months time when they show us a picture of the old site it will be dismissed as cluttered and repetitive!

@FCRESENC
Aggh, great point! With such an active user community, it surprises me they didn't add features like a Reply button.

@MSCHATELAINE
Your professor is absolutely right, but rules of art and design are meant to be broken -- as long as you have a good reason to break them, of course. Using a mix of serif and sans fonts is actually a great way to make a sophisticated design, but it requires some forethought.

I'm not offended by the use of Times as so many others seem to be, but there's a lack of consistency here. I'd get behind it if all headings were serif (article titles, sub-headings within the article, headings on the page footer), but right now it's a grab bag.

This reminds me of when Netflix tried to unveil Qwikster.

I am ready to give the new design a go....(esp. now that the scavenger posts are placed in another arena) but you really need to use a sober photographer... the above image makes me feel like I am the one not sober!

LOVE the new, clean look.

Navigation is a NIGHTMARE.

Already weary of seem the same *old* posts on every channel.
Makes popping in throughout the day to catch any NEW posts
impossible (or at least, too time consuming to be worth it)

Keep trying.

As a long time reader, it is interesting to see this newest evolution. I admit, I wasn't keen on breaking off the mini-sites, because as a reader it was too much to check and keep up with. I think this will be more like the old days, with the welcome addition of channels to filter content even more. The font hurts my eyes though.

I wish you could "like" comments.

I like you guys and I'm sorry that I don't have anything good to say about this redesign. It is going to prove to be a big mistake. I guarantee it.

You have killed all the personality that AT and it's associated blogs had in what appears to be a (misguided) attempt to mash everything together and categorize it. Why do you think everything needs to fit into these conventional boxes/categories? People liked your old way of grouping things, clearly because you had loads of readers, yes?

AT has gone from being the fun, crazy downtown where everyone loved to go even though parking was a nightmare to the suburbs where all the stores have boring names, everything looks the same (on all the channels) but where it's easier for developers to build.

All the new headings are terrible. "Renovating" (that's something that is a big headache that people want to do so they can have something better but really can't wait to be finished), "DIY" (something you do yourself but is still work and not necessarily creative, could be fixing a leaky faucet), "Homekeeping" (boring household chores), "Style" (what is this on a design website? isn't everything style?), "Shopping" (I can see Marketplace is still there for now but probably on it's way out, right? Shopping is a simple activity that anyone can do on their own vs a marketplace which is a place a community gathers to sell their wares and shop.) "Family" (In place of OHDEEDO?!! What are you thinking!!!?)

What do you think would happen to Dwell magazine's subscription levels if they tried to rebrand themselves as House or Home? That's a no-brainer and you guys should realize you are killing your own brand just as clearly as they would be.

You had by far and away the best set of blogs on the web for affordable home styling. Lacybones describes the new site as "cold and cataloged (sic)" and I agree 100%. That's a perfect description. It's one thing to have a page that is an index for people to find items in various categories more easily or search for basic words like "Room -> Entryway" but that's no way to set up main pages or to capture the imagination of a generation.

P.S. dwell's website has nothing on the old AT, OD, UP, RN, the Kitchen. I hope you guys switch back and rework your redesign asap before you lose too many readers.

Maybe it's first-day hiccups, but in my Google Reader, only half the posts have images coming through. To manage my time, I would only click on the beautiful or interesting images, instead of clicking on your site to read every single post. If images no longer appear, it seems I'm going to have to find new Shelter Porn. I hope that isn't the case.

Ok, a second comment. The more I navigate here, the more i hate this change. I am trying to be open-minded, but sorry, it is hideous. The font is so cold and obnoxious, hard on the eyes. The sections were so much better before, and WHY cant the kitchn have a tab?

Now that we are all griping, I would like to see a tab for the hideous salvage stuff and for the mid-century hideous crud. Both were taking over your site and ruining it. Maybe make one tab for these two groups of posts, and just put the site back the way it was, and add your shopping tab that you want for marketing.

You probably all will want a stiff-drink after our gripes, but sorry, the site was so much better before and only needed a few tweaks.

Not loving the changes. Visiting the "main" page was my primary method of interaction with the site's content. You've now made it a much bigger pain the *ss for me to see the stuff I want, and the end result will simply be that I won't see the other content being produced. Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me.

Big photos, big white space and ugly font do not equal good design. Still Do Not Like, sorry.....

Oh yes, thank you EDIN it is "hard on the eyes"

an "all listings" would be great. I to enjoy scrolling down the post. That said, scavenger roundup needs its own tab.

Been reading since 2006! Will take some getting use to but I'm sure I'll adjust. :)

Hi,

I too am sorry to see these changes in AT. I understand having to get rid of the superfluous blogs, but the new design is not that user-friendly--- I'd rather not have to hunt down things in the categories on the left that were easy to find before. I also think there is too much white space now and do not care for the post titles. I really liked the quirkiness of the old AT, it had more charm...

Times New Roman is like fingernails scratching down a chalkboard on my eyes! Ugh! Blights an otherwise fantastic fresh look. Please please please take the ugly TNR away.

Hmm, I truly want an update to be more user friendly and intuitive than the previous version - not more difficult. I am not feeling it thus far.

Your site is the only one I visit every single day and count on as the perfect blend. Have to agree with many others that this feels more complicated and I am sure that was not your goal.

Biggest criticism relates to my wanting All content to come via the Main Tab at the time of it's original posting and then be available to any sub-tab or channel later. I only want to watch one feed!!!

AT Folks - would you please post some kind of 'guide' to this new site layout and describe the differences between the channels on the left side and how they differ or are the same as the Tabs on the top. I have read thru the comments and don't think I am the only one a bit mystified.

Thank-you.

Love the new clean site. Oooh, I will miss Ohdeedoh very much!!! I have two girls under two (20 mo. & 3.5 mo.) and I'm always looking on Ohdeedoh for ideas and advice. I was just about to start looking at "my party" ideas for my little girl's second birthday. :(

I see that you have a lot of the Ohdeedoh postings on Family now. Thanks!!

What's the point of folding things into "main" if all the content still isn't going to reach it? Since this is all about me, I'd prefer all the content made it to the front page, and if you only want kitchn-esque content then you can go to a place that narrows down. Oh well. I like how it looks, I suppose, and I won't the miss the roundups for "oh, check out this cool thing on the sub-site!" Or maybe, you can click ticky boxes to opt into categories and still all see them on the same page?

hmmmmmm... Initial thoughts.
I like the white space. I'm not entirely sure why 'Food' isn't an option off of the main page...

This is absolutely horrendous.

The graphic design and typesetting aren't that bad, but you have literally just made this site more difficult to use. Did someone tell you that it would generate more page loads? Because it's not going to when people get frustrated and stop coming.

Jumping the gun a bit here, but I'd love more iPhone integration as the first thing I do each morning, while still in bed, is read through all the new and exciting posts.

MANDALA123 has it in a nutshell>>> Biggest criticism relates to my wanting All content to come via the Main Tab at the time of it's original posting and then be available to any sub-tab or channel later.

Was excited to see the update because I thought THIS is what I would find. (Was hoping scavenger & roundups would have their own channel too.)

AT, it's WONDERful you're doing a lil housekeeping but really (sorry) you need to do a 180 & move FORWARD. This is worse than bhg if such a thing is even possible. I've visited all the sites for yearsss - and loved them all - but the *frustration factor* here is just too much.

I have to admit that I liked the old design better, but I am sure I will adjust. This is my most favourite site ever. Happy New Year to everyone at AT and thanks for making my day brighter every single day!

The Times New Roman is soooooo boring. Must have been a "design by committee" decision, eh? C'mon, AT, you can do better than that--you're a design blog!

@AKAY --

Yes, I am well aware that design rules can be broken successfully, but TNR is hardly the way to do it; it just doesn't work here. I can think of other fonts which would have worked better.

But I also find the comment font annoying to read; what is it, Verdana? If so, I really hate it, and the homage it pays to IKEA.

Good looking new format, but PLEASE do not post newer things below older posts. I don't have time to be hunting all over your site to see new content. Very bad idea that will make me not waste time here. Also, when I go to the next page, please quit posting the article that was at the bottom of the previous page at the top of the next page. Did you think we missed it? We didn't!
Thanks for all your good work tho, and for trying to make it better.

Why do posts that I've read earlier keep appearing at the top with newer posts, that I haven't seen yet, below them? Kitchn aside, this doesn't seem cooked yet. TWO YEARS was spent on this? VERY hard to take seriously.

Additionally, the 30% (or so) of white space on the right side looks like a vacuum no one really considered, so they left it white and vacuous. I like AT but it's often an obstacle between me and the content I might find interesting now. AT can't turn back and absolutely can't/shouldn't leave it as is. Just keep going. Slow and steady wins the race (unless you irritate/lose enough readers before). Best of luck with this. Really.

Judging from the tilted/blurry photo, it looks like AT's space is a borrowed computer lab in a middle school. Is the lunchroom more interesting? The hypocrisy looks bad. Really bad for a shelter blog. Why not have a contest?

I agree with some of the other comments. I want one feed where I can see all the new stuff. I don't have the time to be jumping around to 60+ subcategories to see if I missed something. That's just frustrating. If you want to really personalize and go into the future, we should be able to make our own main feeds. We could select all subcategories or exclude some that we don't care about (kids stuff, for example).

I am a big fan of AT. It is the first thing I see everyday even before I check my facebook. I constantly check for new posts throughout the day. I agree that every blog needs a revamp after sometime. But, this change makes it more difficult to navigate. I echo many others here. The main page should have everything & those who want to filter the specifics can use the tabs. Lots of overlap. Older posts appearing on top of newer ones ! Completely unacceptable ! Hope this is only a minor tech hitch.

DISLIKE........

Eh, not in love with the re-desin, but I'll live.

But I am a bit confused... how do I RSS this site? I used to have RSS links to ReNest, OhDeeOh... do I just do the main apartmentherapy site now?

It looks great, but the fact that the main page isn't every post is a HUGE pain. I don't want to have to click through every tab in order to make sure I haven't missed something that may interest me. I always read AT daily, and all I want is to be able to scroll though all the posts in one shot. Redesigns should make websites easier to use, not harder and more time-consuming.

Also, you still have Tech and Family tabs which take care of the former Unplgged and OhDeeDoh content, but there's no "green" tab, something I will sorely miss.

I love that you'll be adding new cities!!! Looks great. I love the changes..

Congrats on the new design! New is good and in my short overview thus far, it looks good to me. My one long- outstanding gripe, however, has not been addressed (and it didn't used to be this way) - and I say this as a fellow website designer. When you enter a house tour, it should open a new window/tab. You know... target="_blank" ? (and I usually HATE when new windows open, but...) because when you have finished looking at the 20 some odd lovely photos of a tour, you cannot get back to where you were within AT. Especially if you were on page, say 4, of AT. In fact, I usually weigh whether or not I want to view a tour vs. whether or not I'm ready to leave AT, because at the end of the tour I WILL leave AT, or not view the tour.

Sorry to rant, but it seems the place - constructive criticism and all. I really do like the new design, though, and know full well what effort goes into such an undertaking. Just please bring back the house tours as separate windows!

Hmm. I think the new look is pretty good! The organisation is logical and definitely a good idea, but there is a bit much overlap at the moment it seems. I'm sure that can be fixed though!

I'm loving the new changes so far! Well done and keep up the good work, AT!

Also...any plans in the works to include cities Dallas/Fort Worth and/or Oklahoma City?

Not working for me. Too long to load the different pages. Does not work to take a quick peek at website in between other tasks.
Too much change at once.

Ok, I'll give it a go too...

I like the new look.

Like others, I don't like the navigation. I never found it hard to daily check-in at Re-nest, the Kitchn, Ohdeedoh and AT, while skipping Unplugged. I never had to worry about seeing the same posts at each site.

NOW, I went to several of the channels and saw multiple posts repeating between two or more channels. How am I supposed to scroll through to find all new content without taking more time than before?

Geez. People do not like change. Lookin' good to me, folks.

First, let me congratulate and thank you for all the time, effort and money that was put into the redesign. It has a few glitches but the old site was becoming too fragmented and awkward so perhaps this will work out better in the end. Having said that, I was disappointed that there were no more city categories until I accidentally stumbled upon them in the "Local" section. Perhaps you mean "Locale," which would make more sense. As for the font debate, it's true that TNR was designed to be a book font, not a headline font, but it doesn't look too bad although perhaps a little too lightweight for the job. Bumping it up to something like Garamond might satisfy just about everybody—except of course those who hate serif fonts as a matter of principle. :)

I was prepared to hate the redo, judging from most of the comments above.... But I REALLY LIKE IT! What I look for most at AT are what you now categorize as DIY and Homekeeping. If I want to spend an hour or so envying other people's fabulous taste and resourcefulness, then I'll click on Tours. If I want to look at fads that I can't afford anyway, I'll click on Style. Thanks for the reorganization!

Forgot to say that I also would like to see everything on the main page rather than having stuff pop up repeatedly in the various categories.

Can I request AT Classic for my own use? I don't like this at all.

*The Times New Roman is expected and not design-forward.
*The body type is horsey.
*The general rule of thumb is: sans serif for display type, serif for body copy. So why did you do the opposite?
*Don't like scrolling down so far to read the comments in the huge type size.
*The ads are really distracting and compete with the large photos.
*And most of all, you seem to have skirted over the issue that comes up almost every day: is this really for small-space (i.e., apartment) dwellers or is it just house porn for everyone at every level? I think answering this question would have been more important than making such superficial changes.

Sorry...I loved the old site even though it wasn't perfect. Maybe we will all get used to this one.

Tumblr-ish and cute.

Is my ohdeedoh RSS feed just going to dry up now or what? How do I RSS the stuff I'm specifically interested in (e.g., the kid stuff)? There's too much site-wide for me to keep up with all of it.

MAIN should encompass everything. The other titles should break that down into interest/categories. Now if you view MAIN then see repetitive posts along with having to play sleuth to find what's interesting. A huge miss here.
Agree. The font selection is way off. Explore new fonts that will be in keeping with your relevant brand. The clean look is a plus. Conceptually- back to the drawing board.

Lots of great changes.

In addition to photo editing skills, etc, mentioned in your note, I would also suggest improved editorial skills. Bloggers often don't research the topic about which they post and make mistakes that are lazy, rather than more forgivable typos and the like.

Further, to the point made by another reader, an "everything" button would be nice. When I land, I want to be able chose: give me everything, rather than make me hunt for it. If I want to drill down, the re-org is great.

It looks fantastic, and I love being able to go to one website and read it all! I'm also thrilled that you guys will be expanding your coverage to include Europe (start with Holland! Please?). And big kudos that you've managed to incorporate all these major changes with minimal down-time. Yesterdag things were a bit slow and there were a few times when the site would not load, but I thought your servers were just overheating from too much traffic and didn't give it much thought until the new layout popped up. Well done!

Congratulations for the good job! I love the changes so far. Looking forward to the Europe coverage :)

Here's yet another vote for an "everything" button, or to have all content post on the main channel. I am most definitely not going to go poking through all of the channels (which have a lot of overlap) in the hopes of finding content that didn't make it to the main page.

Glad thekitchn is still it's own thing!

Oh and I disagree with many of the readers above that the navigation is not intuitive. I find it makes much more sense now, and don't see a problem with a bit of overlap where one post fits more than one category. This is to be expected. A post about keeping pets in small apartments would obviously fall under Small Spaces and Pets at Home.

A change in structure/layout always takes a bit of getting used to. I'm still struggling with Office 2010 because I was so used to the way things worked in 2007. That doesn't mean the change is not better, and with the amount of time many of us spend on this website I doubt it will take long before everything feels perfectly normal again ;)

I *really* hate this. I read this site every day and scroll down post by post ensuring that I don't miss anything. For some reason, on the main page older posts are mixed in with newer ones and it doesnt seem to be in order? I really dont have the time or patience to go invidually through categories so that I see everything. Horrible idea, its way simpler to put EVERYTHING under the main, and posts can be skipped, rather than having to go search out topics. I guess I have just popped my negative comment cherry. Im so disappointed with this.

Please, please reconsider not having everything under Main. I want to check one page (maybe clicking back two or three times), not multiple pages with repeated content. It makes it a pain to check.

And no, not everyone reads everything on the site. I have absolutely no reason to check Ohdeedoh or Unpluggd and only read ReNest rarely.

Not to mention, old AT rarely crashed my browser. New AT has done it twice - today and yesterday - and that's before I've checked the different channels today.

It looks amazing ~ clean and refreshing, not cluttered. Great job!!

Good job you guys! Loving everything already. Cheers to the whole AT team!

Looks great! Keep me posted when you guys come up with an iphone app!

I'm just fine with the new design, and I appreciate the team at Apartment Therapy. So far I haven't experienced any problems or confusion while navigating around, and the design seems cleaner to me. All that said, no web site design is perfect right out of the gate. I oversee the websites for my work, and I can assure you, you've done a marvelous job. : )

Looks fantastic! Great job AT Team! I'm looking forward to exploring and navigating the new layout.

I have to agree with some of the others, if it's not on the front page, I'll probably never see it as I just don't usually have the time to really dig through a website when I'm browsing. I scroll up and down and then move on to the next site unless a particular article really catches my eye. That said though, the site itself looks really great!

Ugly, cheap looking, really a bummer

Yea!!!!

I am as pleased as punch with the new site. I was thinking it was overdue for some time, you must have been reading my mind. Cannot wait to renew my relationship with AT.

ThankS

love the new look, and love that ohdeeoh is now incorporated in apartment therapy! i never looked at ohdeeoh because i don't have kiddos myself, but i enjoy seeing a kiddo article here and there now :D

Love the new look - it's fresh and uncluttered.

wicked confusing where everything is.

I have no energy to root around looking for stuff that was easy to find before.

meh.

as you continue to work out the bugs in the new design, could you please set it up so that when you click on a picture in an assortment of pictures that you are highlighting on the page, the whole page doesn't reload. that way, once you have viewed the series, you don't have to click back through 12 pages to get to the main page you started from.

it would also be great if you updated the housetours so that you can just use the arrow key on your keyboard to move through the slideshow, instead of having to click to a new page for each picture.

I guess I'll get used to the new format... And I'm all for change! I'm one of those that welcomes the FB format changes! This one, as one reader said, is lifeless and very sterile design-wise... I assume you'll work on that ...gradually? Right? Hmmmm...

Thank you for this post. I wish it had come at the start of the day yesterday, but there are a lot of wishes in these comments, aren't there? I think the decision to emphasize the visual/photos was a good one, I love that the ads are on the side and I like the table of contents at top left. I also like your squiggly logo more prominent.

However, if "Main is not everything", why call it "main"?

I am one of the many who wish "main" was everything new and a true one stop place to look at all content. It's disconcerting to get so much repetition as I go to the different "channels"- the site doesn't seem fresh then. I liked how I found new ideas at AT all in one place. It is also taking too much time to visit multiple channels.

I get that the AT brand is king now, so all the other names had to go away. But I miss the fun of the other names. I miss seeing "saving the world, one room at a time". I like all the white, I like your signature orange, but I miss seeing other colors that went with the other sites. AT's heart to me is fun, quirky, layered, interesting, imaginative - it has depth. Now things seem are more antiseptic. And I don't mean the white, that's not the issue.

While I agree with you on the visuals being a focus, AT is also about ideas. The presentation now seems more like a reference site, rather than an inspiration site. I'll keep checkin though - as long as content provides inspiration, that's what really matters to me.

I understand you guys want to create the impression that you get lots of click-views for your advertisers by making us click on every thumbnail photo rather than laying them all out on one page, but it's a really annoying format, and I rarely ever bother clicking to enlarge a photo, especially because I feel that the load time for this website is kind of slow.

Looks great!! Love that the ads have all been pushed to the side! They were taking over the main page before and now it looks clean and organized. As a site blogging about design aesthetics I think the change is a step up!

There are pros and cons. Like some said, I'm not seeing a simple way to get to The Kitchn- there definitely needs to be a prominent tab at the top. I don't love that ohdeeoh is mixed in with the main AT stuff, occasionally there's some great design in the nurseries, but if you don't have kids it's kind of annoying to skim past all this kiddie stuff.

I do like that there's now a place that leads you right to all the before & afters since that's often my fave feature. I haven't tried out the search yet, but I hope the results are improved.

It always take some adjustment to get used to changes to a fave site, sometimes it makes site viewing better and sometimes it drives people away.

You were on the verge of losing me because of all the Top Posts and Finds--plus I agree with @archdarling-- but I may be totally finished with you now. Maybe I'll be back if you haven't screwed up the Small Cool contest.

Please please please put everything on main. It's not my full-time job hunting down new content (although sitting on AT all day would be significantly better than my actual job but still). Not cool guys!

After 140 comments, it would be nice to get some feedback on the feedback! Maxwell?

I like what I see so far. I like that so many of the moaners and whiners will be taking themselves off into internet Bermuda triangle never to be heard from again (I hope).

Riffrafa, I would hope that the AT staff appreciates the "moaners" and "whiners." This isn't a blog some nice person is maintaining for free -- for them, it's a business, one that expands into AT books (which I buy), hosting sponsors and advertising, etc. If I were working for AT, I'd want to hear WHY people consider leaving rather than have them slink off silently. I wouldn't criticize somebody's personal design blog, but AT is a different animal.

OK, my 5 cents:

Really love the larger photos and the new larger font (but not so the TNR). It's more airy now. It's good to have Ohdeedoh, Unplugged and Re-nest worked into the main site but it's a pity to lose their names.

I understand that The Kitchn is separated but there really should be a tab for it on the top and on the bottom. A tab that leads to the main kitchn page and not to some random post in between (and vice versa when being on the kitchn site).

As others said before, the MAIN should be where all posts come in. Absolutely. (For this I even put up with the Scavenger although being completely useless, if you're in Germany)

And, as somebody else has said before, while you're at it, why not open house tours or any other categories in a new browser window? I never click on old house tours because I don't know how to get back properly to where I was.

But the best of all - your site has become really fast now! The slow page loading was a bit annoying. Compliments and thank you for this major improvement!!

Overall I like the new look, and I will continue to come back no matter what you do, but I gotta say...
I'd prefer to have all the content noted on the Main page and not have to dig around. Digging around requires that I already know what I'm interested in reading about, and often it works the other way around: A tagline looks intriguing and when I follow it I find something I never even thought about!

If I have to go to all the different areas to see what's there, well... how is that different (to the reader) than having separate websites?

Not bad, but I can't find a main link for cooking or food! I see it now at the bottom, but I don't want to scroll all the way down to find it.

I suppose I can get used to now having to check three tabs- style, diy, and homekeeping- instead of just one main page, but the overlap is pretty disconcerting. I also don't mind folding in the tech and re-nest posts into everything else, even though I don't usually read those. However, I think it was a really bad idea to fold in the kid stuff into the other categories. People either have young kids or they don't. If they do, they can go to the family section. I don't have kids, don't intend to have kids, so personally find the inclusion of kid stuff into the other categories super annoying.

I do, however, like the cleaner look and new colors, and have no opinion on the fonts :)

I thought maybe I was just spewing my initial reaction yesterday, and maybe I needed to spend some more time with it before I could appreciate what you were trying to achieve with this redesign. But, no.

After spending some more time thinking about the changes, I've realized that knowing that I'm missing content because it's hidden under categories doesn't make me want to go click through the categories in search of it. Instead, it just annoys me and makes me not want to visit the site any longer. That's disappointing.

I have to wonder if you did any research into your user's motivations and mental models of both the site content and your brand while you worked through this redesign. Given the kind of feedback I'm seeing here, I'm trying to imagine what kind of research could have compelled you to go in this direction. Honestly, this feels more like a dilution than a strengthening of your brand.

OK, I'll take off my user experience and brand identity hats now. I need to go find a new site to fulfill my home design jones.

I must say, it`s the ONLY site upgrade, which I don`t hate from the first sight. The new look and feel are still resembling the old layout, which makes me feel comfortable with the changes. Congrats to the Apartment Therapy crew, you did the unthinkable - brought the new version of the site without screwing everything up. Most of the "big places" I visit couldn`t manage to do that. Keep up the good work!

Wow, there are some real serif-phobes out there! I love the changes, including the Times New Roman titles. As middle-aged woman, I also appreciate the larger fonts. The increased white space provides for a much cleaner and less cluttered look. Keep up the great work!

@marska - well said.

And I finally see it - the "saving the world . . ."

Maybe I'll get used to the rest - or I"ll finally "see" things.

But I will still be muttering about "main".

i tried your changes on; they just don't quite fit me. i don't have extra spare time to sift through even more dubiously organized tabs to find the content i want and avoid the content i don't. maybe i'll check into the kitchn in a few months to see if you've worked out some of the more glaring glitches but, for now at least, there are other sites that do it better.

I love the new clean look. While I loved the old AT, this one looks more professional. And yes, fashion sites do tend to have great looks. Also like the top posts collages on the bottom and hey I'm kind of a Times fan so I don't mind the font. I'll miss the other sites because they had really cool names...

Love the new look, but I too would love to have a page (maybe not the main page) where I can happily scroll all content. Even better to scroll chronologically (in the old version, things would get moved around daily which was annoying since I wasn't sure where I'd left off). I usually only have time to hit in quickly and leave - I'd hate to miss my fav posts since I don't have time to troll around (and I'd hate to miss posts that I don't know I'll like because they're in a channel I don't check). Thanks.

I'm trying not to be a grumbly gus about this most recent change - after all, I withstood the former re-names to "Ohdeedoh" and "Unplggd" etc., though I never stopped wondering where the e went in names like "The Kitchn". I checked AT nearly every day, and sometimes several times a day; and caught up on anything I'd missed on weekends. I'm just an average person who likes to boost my energy with a look at something pretty between tasks, though I'm old enough to wonder why we're calling things "channels" now.

And, as shiny and very very bright as your redesign is, well - it just doesn't fit on my (14") laptop screen. I poked around the site today, and well, many of the images are just so huge I can't look at them in their entirelty, let alone along with reading the post. They're not sized for across-the board visibility, I'm guessing - just what y'all are working on - and we're not all working on huge desktop screens. I'm scrolling and scrolling and scrolling... and clicking around. Oy, how I'm clicking around. As marska said it above - might as well have the separate sites, as I'm not sure I've seen everything there is to see any more, primarily because of how I now have to jump around to figure out if I've caught up on every category. And then, scroll and scroll and scroll.

Your re-design - it's very...um...designy. It's like how a designer makes a really really good-looking room, but without comfortable chairs and the windows don't face the best view. And it's been done while you were out, and while not an unpleasant surprise, it's not necessarily welcome. It's like a designer putting a really large photograph in a really small hallway. It's like a home that looks good in a magazine, and was a great concept - but the execution makes for a space that doesn't suit the family that lives there.

So, I'll ask: When you were doing this, did you consider usability and get any feedback from readers? I don't need fashion - I need style, and I think I just realized I don't even need this time-waster. It's the "bump-factor". I just disengaged because it's no longer intuitive and comfortable. Look, I'll probably poke around from time to time - but just like when my favourite restaurant took my favourite schnitzel off the menu, I just found another place that had it when I wanted it.

Really? PORN? Really?
As a woman, and one who is involved in anti-slave trafficking, I take great issue with the word "porn" being thrown around as a cutesy-pie term on a design site. It's just low class, and you guys are not low class. Or so I thought.
PS, are you *professionals*? Please.

I share many of the other posters' concerns that the new redesign focuses more on "visual style" with less regard for "usability". I would have guessed that a majority of your readers want to check in daily on the latest content (in which case a main page that aggregates all content -- except kid stuff -- in chronological order makes sense). I agree that readers with kids is a separate segment that should have easy access to the Family content (which is likely of no interest to readers without kids). Similarly, it seems like there are distinct segments of readers -- those who look for design inspiration, others who want a clearer focus on attainable design -- and I would have expected a redesign effort to help clarify use of the site for those two segments in some way. (DIY only addresses part of the motivations of the "attainable design" crowd, I think.)

From an aesthetic perspective, I find the new design most problematic in that it is not well-designed for people with smaller screens -- the photos and font size are too large to fit in a single screen view, and so the user spends a lot more time clicking and scrolling and actually loses the overall visual impact that I think the redesign was aiming for. I had a more enjoyable experience viewing content on the old site. Time will tell if this means I continue to read for the content, or, whether the overall experience is annoying enough to effectively drive me away (or at least, reduce the frequency of visits).

While I'd expect any new design to provoke strong reactions from a loyal and vocal readership (both positive and negative), the commentary here suggests that the AT redesign might have benefited from a bit more understanding of how people wanted to use the site and perhaps a bit more beta-testing before a full-scale launch. It will be interesting to see whether and how AT chooses to respond to some of this feedback, and what the overall impact on its readership will be.

Thanks, AT, for your work on the previous and current incarnation of the site. I look forward to additional changes as you work out the bugs and respond to your readers' concerns.

As a daily user, here are some specific changes I'd like to see:
1) For those with accounts, a way to personalize the site to see only relevant post categories, with no duplicates, in chronological order. Personally, I'd select everything but scavenger and family, but I know we all have different preferences and it would be great to be able to customize the site by channel and/or category. Bonus: you'd probably get more account sign-ups if this feature was promoted on the main page for folks not signed in.

2) A "reply to" feature on comments. This seems like a huge oversight for a community-driven business.

3) A better solution to navigate through thumbnail images - a pop-up image window ala facebook seems appropriate, and could give users another option for comments on individual images

Thanks!

I've been here an awfully long time Maxwell, from late '04 or early '05, and so I have hung in with AT through many changes. Until now, the only changes that have really bothered me have been the death of the Open Thread and the demise of the live links in the comments (which I was reassured many months ago would be fixed), but this... this is truly awful.

I've tried several times today, and it is just an exercise in frustration. The overlap between the different channels makes no sense and makes it frustrated to wade through. I'm not going to every again try working my way through the different channels to find missed content. I'm not going to waste my time that way -- you don't want to make it easy for me to find content, then I guess I won't see your content. Problem is, I won't be the only one.

And these fonts -- especially this clunky, squat, heavy, awkward comments font which resembles Verdana -- are awkward, distracting, and drive me nuts.

I am so sorry to lose my favourite shelter site in this way, but AT is no longer the model of useful efficiency you promote.

(You really need to work with font experts; few graphic designers are)

I have been visiting Ohdeedoh and AT almost daily for nearly 5 years. I don't know what took me so long, but I just recently registered and I have never felt compelled to comment until now...
I loved this site and would lose hours here just looking through nursery and house tours and posts from the day on all sites, except for the Kitchn which rarely grabbed my attention (no fault of your own, the kitchen is my husband's). After spending the last 15 minutes clicking through the different channels and scrolling through the same content I just saw on the last two channels, I'm bored and I've lost interest. I think it's time to stray away from AT...
I will miss Ohdeedoh most of all.

What? No comments about how rude the other commenters are being about all the hard work AT has done and how rude it is to criticize? I thought was required for AT? ;)

But we do have all the requisite "like it better before" posts!

.. s'driving me mad. I'm outta here.

I love the new design and don't mind the changes, but the whole "porn" thing kinda threw me too, and I'm not easily thrown. VESPERSONGS is right, it is low class. BUT I love you guys regardless, so keep up the awesome work. A reply to button on comments is a fantastic suggestion that you guys should consider.

Day 3.

"Don't make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful." - Shaker rule of thumb

I keep trying the site - I keep scrolling and scrolling and clicking on categories and scrolling some more. And I'm still doing the same as before the redo, and clicking and clicking through pictures. It seems I have more mouse work now, not less.

As I've said in other posts, I think things look good. The content is obviously still there. I'm just not finding it functional. As M. Good said, it's no longer intuitive and comfortable. I've been a steady visitor for about 5 years -reading a variety of things. But right now I think I will only check out the occasional house tour - you all do a good job with those. Be well and remember that commerce is more than the buying and selling of goods.

Absolutely horrible. My eyes hurt just looking at everything and it almost seems scattered and like an "afterthought". I have stopped coming around as often because it is harder to find things and the font is absolutely horrible. It's almost seizure-inducing. ):

You guys were my go-to ESPECIALLY after Domino folded (yes, I STILL miss Domino) and I would check you guys out several times per day. Not anymore...once is enough.

elbaramos: I miss Domino too. A lot. :(

Also, in responding to you I just noticed another annoying thing about the redesign: the posters' names are now in all caps. So I can't tell if you actually call yourself ElBaramos or ELBARAMOS or elbaramos as I wrote it initially. Just another of the many annoyances with this "upgrade." I wish we could revert to the old one.

Why don't you guys just open house tours and posts in a new tab? And then when you're done, you close the tab, and your apartment therapy page is right where you left it. And seriously, one of you who suggested forcing house tours to open in a new window is a web designer?? You must be some sort of a moron, because if you get lost looking through a house tour, you can't possibly design a decent site.

And, to everyone freaking out about the fonts. There are a very limited number of fonts that you can use on a website. There are work-arounds, of course, but most website stick to the same 12 or so typefaces. They could have picked georgia instead of times new roman, but whatever. get over it.

The issue here is their complete lack of understanding of form + function. Also, everybody these days is designing for the future. Everyone wants to make a site that looks good on an ipad. Well guess what! Not everybody reads your stupid site on an ipad. Do you know how long it would take to open each post and then go back to the main page on an ipad? Everything is getting bigger, more boxy, more ipad-friendly. And the site really does look better on an ipad. But, most people aren't on an ipad.

I'm not bothered by the design, by seriously, what were you thinking when you planned out the site map?

Today, while checking AT, I found just two entries under Style, DIY, and Homekeeping that weren't under Main. And yet I still had to check those just to be sure that I DIDN'T miss anything.

Also, the washi tape thing? I saw that THREE TIMES.

Please, please just keep everything under Main! Okay, the remnants of the old sites, they can have their own tabs (I don't want little kid stuff), but the stuff that should belong to traditional AT? Just keep it all in one place, PLEASE!

The Kitchn has all of their posts under Main, why can't you? It was literally just two posts that I had to go hunting for!

Ouch! My eyes are on fire. What's with the white and the font, my eyes physically hurt.
As far as content, haven't made my decision yet on how to find stuff. Doesn't seem too intuitive, maybe just a learning curve.

seems like posts that would normally get a respectable amount of comments (not the polarizing "how to hang your TP" kind) are getting less than 20. Doesn't feel like much of a community when most of the posts have little to no community interaction. It feels like a ghost town, not that people in the AT "community" actually engage with each other much.

I really dislike (my dad taught me not to say "hate") this redesign. I am so frustrated with it I have removed it from my bookmarks. It is too white, first of all, and secondly, too generalized. Remember how you used to have localities? That was good. I know you still nominally have them, but it is just lip service-- those areas of the site don't really apply to just those areas. The whole thing is just homogenized hooey. I'm really upset with you guys. And Ohdedoh is not as cute a word as you seem to think. I've wanted to tell you that for some time!