HP revamp

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   Ally Lewisposted 9 years ago

   The formats on HP and the limitations on how we can present our profiles and hubs needs updated. We should have less of a formulaic format in making hubs and more wiggle room for creativity. Gifs, for instance, would be a nice touch to add to some hubs for animation and audience-grabbing elements to our pages. It would bring HP more into the 21st century and help it gain the popularity it deserves.
   
   What do you guys think? Is it good the way it is, or can it stand to be revamped a little?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Ally, although we each have our own separate sub-domains, those were created to get out from under a Google slap - not because that's the way HubPages works. 
      
      HubPages is not a collection of separate blogs like Tumblr, it's one large magazine-style site and like any magazine or newspaper, HubPages wants to preserve a uniform "house" look for the whole site.   
      
      If you doubt me, take a look at one of your Hubs and notice how your photo and byline are small and unobtrusive, and the navigation drives readers to visit other Hubs on the same topic, NOT other Hubs by the same writer.   Most of your external readers probably won't even notice who wrote the Hub.

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         Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly. And that doesn't only apply to appearance, but how pages behave, too. Only the other day there was a thread asking for an option for links to open in new tabs or windows. Imagine how it would seem to visitors if some did and some didn't open in new tabs and windows. Unfortunately, somebody's found a way around the 'lack' of that function, and I hope HubPages does something about it.
         
         As for GIF images--very tacky looking in my opinion.

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         Ally Lewisposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not talking about personalization. I just want to be able to put things on the left or center or make each word of a new paragraph a different font like in magazines or old books. Nothing crazy or tacky (the gif thing was just an example, and I am indifferent towards them overall).

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            Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I'd like to put photos on the left too. I wish they would make that change.

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               Ally Lewisposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Yes! Or the ability to text wrap something and better integrate pictures with words. Something like that!

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I've always liked the format of articles on Hubpages, it's why I've done most of my writing here; it's sort of minimalist and professional, clean. It's my preference, so I'm happy with how it stands.

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   sockiiposted 9 years ago

   Animated gifs, in my humble opinion, only junk up a page and make it hard for me to take an author's work seriously. They just make me think of 1990s geocities pages, you know?
   
   Just give this a try on one of your hubs for a good laugh!
   
   http://www.wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/
   
   There are a few things I think might be nice to have control over, like perhaps being able to add a background image (just like we can on our profile pages), but overall I appreciate the clean and neat design at HP.

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   Ally Lewisposted 9 years ago

   Even something as small as putting the pictures and text wherever we want would be an improvement. I wouldn't want to see a whole page of gifs (who would?!) but sometimes it conveys a message that a still picture or whole YouTube video cannot. But the gif thing is neither here nor there. Any kind of "remodeling" or modernizing would be beneficial to everyone on HP!

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years ago

   I like the clean style.  HubPages routinely changes the style based on information it acquires to increase traffic, decrease slow load times, and increase functionality.  I think there are even more changes coming to help us work even better on tablets and phones.

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   lisavollrathposted 9 years ago

   I love the Geocities reference! That's exactly what I thought when Twitter started allowing animated .gifs.
   
   The trend in content now is mobile viewing. More people are viewing the Internet on their tablets and mobiles than ever before. If HubPages looks sparse, it's because they're focused on making the site responsive to different viewing formats. Less is more in responsive design.

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   Ally Lewisposted 9 years ago

   I completely agree and see everyone's points, but I'm just tired of seeing the same thing on every single page. And it's not their fault that it's so monotonous; it's the restrictive formats. I'm talking more like being able to put pictures on the left instead of the right, and things like that. Not complete website changes.

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      Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I, too, would like to see options for pictures on the left.  It's been suggested many times, to no avail.

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         Ally Lewisposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Awe shucks.

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      Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn't be at all surpised if HubPages didn't soon take away the option of placing images right, let alone giving us the extra option of placing them left! HubPro editors place images, tables, polls etc. full-width, and we're encouraged to do likewise.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I do hope not!    I think it's important that Hubs look good on all devices, and I much prefer the side-by-side look on my larger monitor.     All capsules automatically become full width on mobiles anyway - the only snag is that half-width capsules appear above instead of below the related capsule. 
         
         I've looked at my Hubs and for most of them, it's not really a big deal - the only problem is Amazon capsules, which would look funny appearing before the text which refers to them.

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            Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I hope not, too, so let's hope I'm wrong. There's another recent thread somewhere, where Paul Edmondson even seems to favour the idea of a full-width image appearing at the top of hubs, which I think is a terrible idea.
            
            I use very few Amazon capsules, but I use a lot of half-width text capsules for additional information. Although they appear in the right places on mobile, I can't quite make up my mind whether they interupt the reader or not.

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         Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         It's true that HP is now advising the full width size for images.  It's because of mobile display.  I prefer both options, however, because of the display on computers.
         
         If you look at a site like DailyMail.com, it doesn't mess with it's display on stationary computers.  That is the most visited news website in the world and that site knows what it is doing when it comes to traffic.  If you access from a mobile, you get the mobile display. On their mobile display, you have to scroll to the right to see all of the content!  The site doesn't even try to make it fit on the mobile screen width.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Exactly.   I haven't come across any other site which has responded to the mobile challenge in the simplistic way that HubPages has.  I'm still hoping they will sit down and come up with a better solution eventually.

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               Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Me, too.

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            Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            But, I've noticed, the Daily Mail does seem to feature in Google's search results much more often than other news websites, which could be what is making it the most visited. I can only judge by what I see in my searches, of course.
            
            That would also mean, however, that how responsive a site is might not make the slightest bit of difference to Google, and doesn't really concern users, or they wouldn't keep going back to the Mail.

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               Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               It gets mega Google traffic, that's for sure.  That's why it is a good site to emulate.

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                  Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Although we can't always know exactly why Google might favour a certain site. Perhaps Google forgives the mobile layout for reasons unknown to us.

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            Ally Lewisposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Maybe making HP look more like the Daily Mail's website will give the content here more credibility, like what we're posting is news and read-worthy material

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   Arachneaposted 9 years ago

   I'm loving the hubpage format so far.

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