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Welcome to TV Tonight 4.0

Welcome to the new-look TV Tonight. What's new under the hood?

TVT 2015

It’s the 2015 television year and TV Tonight has had a makeover (who’s been a busy bee over Hiatus, then?).

You will be pleased to know most of the navigation remains intact, to fit with the site’s busy turnover of content, and without reinventing the wheel.

The site is now fully Responsive, designed to fit the device you are using: this will be particularly helpful for reading the ratings on your phone, which has long been a challenge.

I’m pleased to announce that the site will now load much faster than in the past. And yes, the logo has also been refreshed but retains its brand identity.

Let’s go through some of the changes so you can enjoy maximum benefit:

Home Page

  • New Video section: this category will gather together stories with clips, whether trailers, promos, overseas shows etc. As this is a new section it will build over time.
  • Thumbnails now have opacity when you scroll over them and a video icon where they include a clip in the story.
  • New look drop-down menus: always a quick way to find recent stories on current shows.
  • Reviews scroller: includes star ratings on the front of the story.
  • Gone: Late List has been rested after several years of experimentation. Ice TV Guide.

Category Pages:

News, Programming, Pay TV, Reviews, Ratings, Video.

  • On the desktop version when you click on one of these pages you have the option of two layouts: either Grid or List via an icon at the top of the section. Play around and see which you prefer (List is the default).

“More diversity playing with sub-headings and quotes.”

Single Posts:

  • You will begin to see more larger photos being utilised as well as more diversity playing with sub-headings and quotes, especially for longer articles.
  • The biggest change here pertains to Comments, outlined below.

Comments:

  • When you are logged in as a site user you now have the ability to leave a response for a specific comment. You also have the option of receiving an email if someone responds to the topic. And yes, you can now edit a comment after it has been submitted to fix those pesky typos.
  • Please note Comments are still moderated before publication. Please try to make your point in a single initial post of 900 characters. A reminder that Comments Policy rules are enforced with respectful but robust debate, links remain a no-no and you must have a working email registered.

Calendar:

  • I plan to resume the Calendar grid soon after the relaunch.

Advertising:

  • TV Tonight remains a free site with Advertising. Occasionally you will see additional short-term campaigns or even the odd Sponsored Post (these are declared). This is always about striking the right balance, and a site of this size cannot run without a mixed model to pay the bills. Remember that ads will vary according to your browser, location and cookies etc.

Smartphone devices:

  • Now Responsive to your device. A Menu sits at the top of the display followed by Top Stories, News, Pay TV, Programming, Daily Pick, Ratings, Poll and Reviews.
  • You may also like to update the new logo icon to your home screen for shortcut purposes.
  • If you want to quickly get to Ratings on your phone, navigate via the Menu.

“Clean, fast and contemporary.”

This refresh is intended to make the site clean, fast, and contemporary without rewriting the navigation. But there are always a few teething problems with any refresh so please bear with me while I endeavour to sort these.

TV Tonight is now in its 8th year and there’s more content than ever for us to get through together.

Enjoy the ride!

cheers, David

ps. my thanks to DMC Web for the site development!

91 Responses

  1. Hi David, I have to agree with Smithy, i’m a huge mobile phone reader of Tv Tonight (read it multiple times a day and have done for years and years) and having all the articles in order of when it was uploaded regardless of the section it belonged to was a stroke of genius. Now I have no idea what is new and what isn’t and have to rely on memory. Obviously I understand it is a #firstworldproblem but it was part of the ingenious of your original functionality, any chance we can have the mobile view option returned please? Thanks David! Still love your site after all these #1 in my book! 🙂

    1. As the new mobile layout mirrors the standard layout due to responsive design, do not think this should revert. However a menu link to an “all articles” listing with new font etc would be appreciated, giving similar to previous mobile experience.

  2. As I view this site from a mobile, think the only issue I have is that there doesn’t seem to be a view all articles list. Looms like have to go through news followed by programming, followed by ratings etc. I used to like reading site once a day and going back to previous day and read all new items, looks like will be slower now.

    Otherwise colour and rest of layout looms great and modern.

  3. I like the new website. Much easier to read on my smartphone. I just miss the timestamp on the comments. The way networks change their programming these days a timestamp helps to know how current the comments are. Keep up the good work.

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