The Windows Club gets a new look – Feedback welcome!

Author: AnandK@TWC Category: General Tags:

I guess getting a new theme for The Windows Club was already a bit overdue. What triggered me to action, albeit a little late, was the need to make TWC load faster after Google’s clarion call to webmasters to wake up and make websites load faster. Well, speed matters now – at least its one of the 200+ parameters which influence your search rankings. And I felt that there was a need to reduce TWC loading time further.

the windows club 600x327 The Windows Club gets a new look Feedback welcome!

Keeping this in mind I commissioned Nirbhay Mandelia, a young dynamic professional web developer and freelancer who recently completed post graduation in Computer Application from Pilani, India, to design a new theme. Although the looks may be similar to our other site The Geeks Club, the theme has been optimized and re-designed in HTML5, with Rich Snippets and in-built ad management support and made fully compatible with WordPress 3.2.X. Its core execution on server is now 2X faster than its earlier avatar on TheGeeksClub.

You may have noticed that the site now sports a clean, easy-on-the-eyes, minimalistic look with the accent being less on looks but more on improving the speed and functionality, thereby giving you a better user experience.

The content loads first so you need not wait for the bells and whistles or the background to load. You can start reading the content right away, with the widgets and ads loading as you read.

The sharing buttons appear in the beginning and at the end of the post to making sharing that much easier, should you like the post and wish to share it.

Disqus commenting system has been adopted and integrated into the theme. You can now Like, subscribe, comment and share too.

The home page includes a list of Authors, a link to submit tips or guest posts and a link to contact us. If your submitted guest post meets TWC requirements, you will of course be credited with a back-link to your blog/website or social profile. If you wish to write on a regular basis and join this team of Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Student Partners and Windows enthusiasts, you are most welcome to contact us.

The theme is still a work-in-progress and a bit of polishing is pending. For instance the Related Posts have to be added at the end of the post and so on.

Meanwhile we would love to get your reactions. Like it? Or not!? Bouquets, brickbats, suggestions, observations, feedback, comments are most welcome and in fact – please – go ahead and have your say. It will help make things better at TWC. icon smile The Windows Club gets a new look Feedback welcome!

If you have liked this post, you might want to check out some more, on topics like .

About AnandK@TWC

Anand aka HappyAndyK is an end-user Windows enthusiast, a Microsoft MVP in Windows Desktop Experience since 2007, and the Admin of TheWindowsClub.com, TheGeeksClub.com & WinVistaClub.com. Creating a System Restore Point before trying out a new software or a tweak is always recommended.

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  • Kelyn Gregory Ferguson

    I love it! :D
    Very minimalist and way faster on Google Chrome! Nice work to you (for making the decision) and Nirbhay Mandelia (for putting your ideas into practice)!

  • Harsh Mahajan

    I like it…

  • Guy Chuaunsu

    At first I thought I was on the wrong site. Once I saw the headline I was relieved that you had not faded away. The new site looks streamlined, not cluttered and easy to navigate. Good work.

    Guy in Victoria

  • Robellyn

    Well done … clean and very readable! An excellent upgrade!

  • Tanmay Patange

    Sir I really Like this new look of TWC :) Now just waiting for the new look of TGC :) …

  • http://www.thewindowsclub.com Leewhittington

    I started noticing the changes yesterday and quite pleased with the new look. Definately easier on the eyes when looking through the content!

  • http://www.askvg.com/ Vishal Gupta

    The new look is definitely nice. Clean and minimal. I like it. :)

  • Ash

    Cleaner. Meaner. Fitter.
    I like the new design.

  • Luis Matoso

    Great, much more clean,and beautiful. Congratulations.

  • Goran Blomkvist

    hello i am from Sweden,this is the best!!!!!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FKL4NHMJ6YFUMNAOKGBSLLKKD4 Mike

    love it :m how about a tool bar?

  • Acmeous Technology

    Cool. Yes much similar to TGC theme and obviously TWC needed it. The minimalist look and the easy-to-read makes TWC more authentic. Now for TGC I think the bold red color goes better than TWC’s authoritative blue. Else HTML5 is the best :) (if your user base is much less in IE).

  • Vodomar

    nice job.clean and modern

  • http://twitter.com/NikolaDrugi NikolaDrugi

    In the era when internet is faster than ever Google makes you save on size? sad…

  • Satyam Yadav

    simple n smooth, really nice

  • Aleksandargonovski

    Looks awesome.Way better than last one.

  • Jjenkins

    sucks. go back to the old format

  • Ashley

    Looks like your search is broken. Otherwise good job.

  • Jonaxle

    Loving it! Very fast too!! Maybe you want to get a floating sharing widget too ;)

  • redk9258

    I wish there were some kind of (simple) background. All of this white is hard on my eyes!

  • http://captaindbg.com ShyamS@TWC

    Nice UI .. I like it :)

  • Philip Yeoh

    It makes a very refreshing change. And yes, the content loads faster than the old theme. Great!

  • http://bestpittsburghimages.com/computerappcrash.html jimsing59

    I like the look of it so far but my website design was inspired by the WinVistaClub website. I don’t believe that load times have that much affect on your page rating. Lets stop catering to that finicky googlebot.

  • http://www.thewindowsclub.com AnandK

    Hi Kelyn, Guy, Robellyn, Lee, Vishal, Ash, Luis, Goran, Vodomar, Satyam, Aleksandar, Shyam, Blanker, Paras, Vasudev, Philip for appreciating the change.

    Tanmay, Acmeous: Yes it should be ported to TGC too soon. The navbar will ofcourse continue to remain red there.

    Mike: Although a toolbar can prove to be useful, many consider it as a nuisance. Plus it adds to the load time.

    Nikola: You will surprised at the low Internet speeds which some countries continue to have. Anyway its always a good idea to have a webpage load faster. Everyone likes that.

    Jjenkins: It may not be possible to go back to the old format. What did you like in the earlier theme? What else would you like to see now?

    Ashley: Yes the search broke for a day, but its fixed now.

    Jonaxle: Yes a floating widget is a nice idea. But we have put the share buttons before and after the post. But let me take this under consideration.

    redk9258: I understand, white can be bright for the eyes at times. In fact even I prefer a dimmer screen and at times even use Dimmer.

    jimsing59: Thanks for acknowledging that WVC/TWC design had inspired your website design. Webpage speed is definitely one of the parameters now, but that apart, in some countries where Internet speeds are slow, TWC did take a little extra time to load – so I thought why not just go ahead and get a lighter theme.

    Nirmal: Yes, a logo re-design is on the cards and should be done soon.

    Rustysam: The navigation basically remains the same, just that the UI is cleaner and there are a lot of under-the-hood changes.

    :)

  • Blanker

    Looks good, much have been a lot of work.
    10 out of 10

  • Paras Sidhu

    Awesome! Very good designing.

  • http://vasudevg.blogspot.com/ Vasudev

    Liked it! Nice clean look !

  • Nirmal

    Nice minimalist theme and looks good and very much readable. One thing I would really love to see is a better logo, get it done by a designer, wont cost much.

  • Rustysam

    It takes a little getting used to.

  • http://www.facebook.com/nitinagarwal1988 Nitin Agarwal

    This is something supercool.. the loading time is so nice.. I got a chance to check it on a dial up connection somewhere, and TWC was loading so well on that 16KBps connection also.. Nice job Nirbhay..

  • http://www.facebook.com/nitinagarwal1988 Nitin Agarwal

    This is something supercool.. the loading time is so nice.. I got a chance to check it on a dial up connection somewhere, and TWC was loading so well on that 16KBps connection also.. Nice job Nirbhay..

  • japp

    I became not only surprised but very pleased when I saw this new design yesterday. I do like this clean look. Loads much faster, too and that’s good.

    Thumbs up for Nirbhay Mandelia’s design.

  • Flladi

    Looks much better!
    Keep up the good work!

  • ErnieK

    ErnieK here
    When I tried to post I get message saying something is stopping me from posting so it looks as though I am restricted in posting unless I sign-up for one of the so called social networking sites. I am proud to say that I have never even looked at one and have no intention of doing so. I guess I will have to change my morning habits now and give TWC a miss. I enjoy reading, and occasionally posting but being forced to join a social network site for me is a no-no. I sincerely hope that I am wrong in this supposition.

    As for the new look when I first saw it yesterday I thought my browsers had gone wonky and something was wrong. So tried it on a different PC with same result. I LIKE IT. Cleaner and fresher in looks as well as easier to read. Pity about the restriction now imposed.

    BRING BACK the old system of posting, where name and e-mail address had to be given.
    EnrieK

  • DailyiPhoneBlog.com

    Love it, much better, I really hated the old design. I might come back and use the forum more now :)

  • http://www.thewindowsclub.com HappyAndyK aka AnandK

    Hi ErnieK, No there are no additional restrictions – but additional options. You dont have to register anywhere, You can still post the old way. After you have typed your comment, click the ‘Post as’ button and simply enter your name and email ID, under the default Post as Guest tab. Thats it!

  • http://www.thewindowsclub.com HappyAndyK

    Thanks Nitin, japp and Flladi :)

  • http://twitter.com/chankz22 sumit goswami

    its a ok kinda theme……loads little bit faster on my slow connection………but its certainly not a eye catchy 1 as i speak……sorry sir but this just my opinion about the new look! :-I

  • http://twitter.com/NirbhayMandelia Nirbhay Mandelia

    Thanks Anand Sir for giving me opportunity to work in your guidance and thanks all for appreciating our work.

  • ErnieK

    Thanks Andy.
    As is normal for me I got it wrong again :-) I can now stop sweating and can keep my morning fix.
    ErnieK

  • Brlko1988

    make the the title font in BOLD and keep it as a RED for a wek

  • http://am22tech.com/s/22/blogs/default.aspx Soan

    Well..the design does not look much different than the old one. But it certainly looks better in terms of clutter. I think it was more hotch-potch earlier…and looks more clean now.
    Keep it up.

  • http://twitter.com/rushikesh_ware Rushikesh Ware

    I really loved the idea of text being loaded and available before the images.
    Its a blessing to slow internet connections.

    What I didn’t like is the “too” white background.I think a darker shade of white will be an aiding to the reader.

    Nevertheless the new page looks more sorted and the adds and the “relevant” content is well placed !!!

  • Anonymous

    It’s refreshingly clean, responsibly organize, cool to the eyes and simply put together in the right places. FANTASTIC!!!

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