Update: 18:00 As posted in the details below, the new Chrome Extension is now live. You can read about it here.
As you have probably noticed we've started to update the look and feel of the site to make it more uniform and professional (we hope!).
We've updated the colour scheme to make it look good on both Desktop, Mobile and Tablet devices.
A big thanks to CJ of Spoiled/Podcast fame for updating all the article icons. Not only do these icons fit better with the new theme, they have also been crushed/smashed and reduced in size to improve the loading time as much as possible, all images are around just 1k in size so that mobile readers can view the site easily and quickly.
Here is an overview of the icons.
We've also changed the homepage to hide the "0 Comments" link to declutter the homepage a little. Once a comment has been made on an article then the link will appear indicating the number of articles.
The search box has been removed from the sidebar and can now be found in the Help and/or Features menu. This has helped reduce the page loading time for everyone. It was not a hugely used feature so it seemed wrong to slow everyone down.
We've also updated our Springboard video player to be styled better with the new theme and we'll be further tweaking and improving things on the run-up to Christmas.
Also, very shortly we'll be releasing a brand new Chrome Extension for the site that we think you'll like. It loads a LOT faster and has both a visual icon indicator to alert you of new content as well as an optional full Chrome notification panel. It also features the ability to mark something as "read it later" as well as being able to "favourite" content. We hope that this will be ready shortly and we'll obviously make an announcement here on the site when it is.
We've also been looking at improving the load time generally of the site and we've managed to improve the average page load time from 10 seconds at the start of Dec to around 6.5 seconds today. We've removed a lot of redundant scripts and code that were loading slowly on some devices and optimised all CSS where possible.
NOTE: Many of you will load the site a lot quicker as the avg time includes people on slow connections or mobile phones.
As you can see we've reduced the site load times over the years.
Google's Chrome Browser is still the fastest browser to use on SpoilerTV.
We've also updated the look and feel of the mobile/tablet version of the site to better match the main site as well as improving performance.



We still have a number of other improvements to make such as making sure the video player fits the screen better for Mobile and Tablets so stay tuned.
Whilst we understand that change is hard and some of you will not like the new colours/theme etc we hope that over time you will come to like it as much as the previous theme/design.
As always if you have any comments/feedback/suggestions/bug reports please let us know in the comments below or via the feedback forms that can be found in either the Header or Footer menus.




Absolutely love the new theme. Congrats to all involved.
ReplyDeleteReally nice guys
ReplyDeleteWay better than the previous version! I like this version so much, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks, very much. Glad you like it.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteI love this new theme! And changes at Spoiler TV are always great! Congratulations! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks glad you like it ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks very neat!
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
ReplyDeleteWhilst I like the colour it does make everything pop out more, making it look a lot more cluttered and packed in. It makes it difficult for me to focus on the screen.
ReplyDeleteThats not to say i won't get use to it though.
ReplyDeletei actually like it and usually im not well adjusted to changes .
ReplyDeleteAs I said in the email, great work!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Samy!
ReplyDeleteFreaking love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting us know! :D I admit that I was very confused at first ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteIf in a few days you still feel there are areas then need improvment please feel free to use the feedback forms and detail what areas/details you think could do with being de-cluttered
Awesome, thank you
ReplyDeleteHa lol
ReplyDeleteUr really improving with every change the site makes. This looks great. #thumbsup
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely loving the new theme! It's gorgeous to look at! My only suggestion would be to reduce the size of the tags on the homepage. For example with the article that is currently on the front page, the "What are you watching tonight?" article has many tags and I don't think it would hurt to reduce the size of the tags by just a little. Not too much, but just so that it doesn't overwhelm the front page. If that's not possible, might I suggest (if possible) putting the tags below the title of each article on the homepage and then the author below the tags? To my eyes, it seems a little out-of-the-ordinary to have text that starts out big (title), then tiny (author/date) and then big (tags). Again, these are just my suggestions, either way the site looks cool now! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be collating all feedback over the next few weeks and then sit down and go through them all and try to refine even further the site.
Actually, if you hit refresh you might see a slightly smaller and more subtle font anyway now. We've just updated some code withing the last 10 mins so hopefully that will help a little.
ReplyDeleteLet us know what you think @Guest
Greath Theme. Menu and Icons a little darker (blue greyish). Great contrast especially the Icons. Easier and faster to focus on the essence. Very nice job done!
ReplyDeleteThanks @Guest
ReplyDeleteI actually preferred the earlier, bolder text in the tags :P hahaha. In my mind, the tags are very important and need to be highlighted, but that may just be me XD
ReplyDeleteWow really great changes, I love the new colours and really look forward to the chrome extension. Just when I thought the site couldn't get any better :-) Thank you for always looking for ways to make things better for us. The effort is greatly appreciated! You are all simply brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThe site look better (it kind of looked like a rainbow in the last week with all the purple, yellow, red, blue...), but your video player still doesn't know what Aspect Ratio is. Videos are not watcheable on a 4:3 full screen resolution. :(
ReplyDeleteAnyway, i like all the changes, congrats !
Thanks @Guest our pleasure. Glad you like ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yep, we're trying to improve the way video works on all screens, it's proving a bit tricky to get them all working on all devices (desktop/mobile) as well as detecting landscape/portrait modes for mobiles and tablets. When I say tricky, I mean nearly impossible lol.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! :)
ReplyDeleteI second this. It was fine before.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sal
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, sorry you find it depressing :(
ReplyDeleteHopefully all the great content we post will cheer you up :)
And hopefully it will grow on you over time.
It's quite neat, I like it :) ... Just out of curiosity Andy whatever happened to the option of having an article in a pop up window? (the little plus sign next to article name)
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the popups, we had to remove it. It was unfortunately causing too many issues with various browsers and older computers as well as not being compatible with mobile devices.
Looks great! I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into improving the site, Andy! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteThanks lisa, glad you like it.
ReplyDeleteIt looks fantastic. Love the color scheme
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad you like it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the hard work guys!
ReplyDeleteThanks, sandi.
ReplyDeleteI'm conflicted....
ReplyDeletePositive change versus comfortable old friend...
As always I'm amazed by all the work put into the site and I like the faster load times and smoother interface, but changes around me offline have angered me lately..
God I feel old! XD
Holiday (lack of) spirit aside...
I like the changes and look forward to the Chrome stuff...
I think.....
Bah! HUMBUG!
Personally I'm not a fan. I think the site looks quite dull now.
ReplyDeleteI do like the high speeds and the better mobile site though.
Ha lol
ReplyDeleteHumbug to you as well ;)
Appreciate the feedback, hopefully it will grow on you over time
ReplyDeleteI really like it!
ReplyDeleteThanks you!
ReplyDeletereally nice, great job as always!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
ReplyDeleteLove the changes. Very sleek, user-friendly and easy on the eyes! Keep up the good work. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteDitto. Great changes :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, glad you like it :)
ReplyDeleteI love the new look, very classy. Looking forward to the new Chrome extension. I just started using the current one and have really enjoyed it...it kind of makes me feel like I'm in on a secret since I'm not getting to the web site in the traditional way. :-)
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it :)
ReplyDeleteWe've literally just posted the new chrome extension here
http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/12/major-update-to-spoilertv-chrome.html
The new theme and icons are looking very snazzy indeed! :D
ReplyDeleteGlad you like them.
ReplyDeleteReally good job!
ReplyDeleteIt definitely has a more professional design and feel to it and the icons really do make it easier to find my favourite articles, features and posts!
Keep up the good work :)
(P.S looks awesome on my iPad)
Thanks @Garry Lloyd Glad it looks good on the iPad. Are you running the full site on your ipad or the mobile version?
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think the site has ever been this fast before. Great work Andy!
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear :)
ReplyDeleteI use the full site on my iPad but I use the mobile site on my phone.
ReplyDeleteThe only changes I can see are still needed with the mobile browser is the change of colour of the sidebar to fit with the current colour scheme and also removing the 0 comment titles under posts.
Hope this helps :) If I see anything else, ill keep you updated!
Thanks @Garry Lloyd It helps a lot. I had totally forgotten about the sidebar on the mobile version. I'll try to find some time this week to updated it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comments, that's a little trickier on the mobile version but I'll see what we can do ;)
@Garry Lloyd I've just made some changes to the side bar on the mobile version. Let me know what you think when you get time.
ReplyDeletethe site looks really nice! i'm having a problem though. comments aren't showing up for me in firefox.
ReplyDelete@bondsinseconds Can you drop me an email at darkufo@spoilertv.com and we'll try to figure out why
ReplyDeleteYeah thats a lot better, it keeps with the flow of the main site now so works really well. (The faster loading times of the mobile site is really noticeable so well done.)
ReplyDeleteThe only thing left with design is the highlight colour of the button to get the side bar open. When selected the outside circle goes blue. If you are able to change that too, that would be perfect.
Really do appreciate the constant work you and your team do for this site! :D
Cool, thanks for checking @Garry Lloyd . We've also managed to hide the 0 Comments on mobile.
ReplyDeleteWe'll look at the icon changes as well ;)
I really like the new color scheme. It is much easier on the eyes than the good ole bright blue was. I also really love the icons. It enables me to find what I want at a quick glance. Only thing I would do if possible, is to link all the icons together. That way if you were to click on an icon let's say "Reviews" it would bring you to all the reviews listed from newest to oldest. Kind of like how the tags work. But regardless it is still so much better.
ReplyDeleteYeah I noticed, its a lot cleaner without the 0 comments on it now which is great.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, looking forward to the updates :D
Thanks Ricky glad you like it.
ReplyDeleteIt's something we're looking at. The problem is that not all icons have corresponding labels and it will be confusing to have different things happen depending on the icon clicked.
Thanks Garry!
ReplyDeleteJust saw the updated button :) - Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Ricky Terry We've just updated the site so that the icons for the main categories should now link up to the appropriate category/label.
ReplyDeleteThanks Garry, can you do one final test on your ipad to check the sidebar works ok still.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to test myself without an ipad lol. If I can ask, what model of iPad do you have
I LOVE the "open link in the background" option in the new chrome extention.SO useful!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit though,the size of article titles is ... kind of scary,but I'm slowly getting used to it nonetheless.Great job!
Thanks for the feedback @Leliforever glad you like the new open option ;)
ReplyDeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteLove the new layout and colors. I think its time for me to use Chrome!
ReplyDeleteThanks Laura, glad you like it!
ReplyDeleteDesign is perfect!
ReplyDeleteEvery now and then though the sidebars seem to be acting up. If I press to open once loaded the mobile site for the first time, it opens correctly but then it seems to force close the sidebar if I scroll down it and then unless I refresh the page, the sidebar won't open (This is on both devices). Not sure how to describe it really as its intermittent, as it happened several times last night but then stopped so I believe it may be connected to my internet or how I'm using it maybe.
Thats all okay, I am always happy to help this site :). I use a iPhone 5 and my iPad is I believe called the Retina 4th Gen (The one before the Air).
Great info Garry, I'll see if I can find the cause of the glitch although fixing it might be an issue as we're using the industry standard jquery mobile foundation for the mobile stuff so it might be something in the actual libaries>
ReplyDeleteI'll have a read through there forums to see if it's a known issue.
Using it on my Nexus 7 and Nexus 5 it seems fine but I'll play with it some more.
Thanks for all the feedback, it's very much appreciated.
I don't like the grey colour its dark and depressing.
ReplyDeleteI really like the changes. Good job!
ReplyDelete