pro-football-reference.com redesign

UPDATE: The owner of PFR weighed in below with more info on the new layout. Turns out I may have been a bit reactionary. It's not "awful" (sorry about that), but it does need some tweaking till it's as usable as the old version.

Anyone seen the new site? It's awful. It takes forever to load, and it's too cluttered now.

Pro-Football-Reference.com - Professional Football Statistics and History (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/)

I like the new player pages better than the old ones, but it's a pain in the ass to navigate to them.

The old style was no frills, but it was easy to navigate. Sometimes less is more.

As a web designer, this makes me cry.

Nifty data model and nice content, but the most godawful interface I've seen in years.

Yeah I'm noticing some really slow loading times. Hopefully just some bugs they will work through.

As a web designer, this makes me cry.

Nifty data model and nice content, but the most godawful interface I've seen in years.

Thanks for the feedback.

What issues do you have with the site design specifically? The front page is still going through some design interations, and is probably two or three iterations from a final design. Our challenge is to bring forward the dozens of additions we've made to the site.

Just curious, What comments and changes would you make to these pages?
Sorry, the spam catcher won't let me post links.
The team index, the Redskin index and 1991 team pages, the Art Monk page.

We try to incorporate whatever feedback we can use.

I know that a lot of people liked the simpler preformatted text layout, which is the way I've designed for years. There were a couple of reasons for changing to tables. You can sort the tables very easily. Click any table header and the table sorts. It is more usable for mobile devices and for sight-impaired users as well.

I just don't see that big of a difference between the stats pages on ESPN and PFR.
Is it the green color?

Also, I apologize for the slow load times. Our ad company needs to pick up the pace. We'll get on them about that.

sean

I like the new player pages better than the old ones, but it's a pain in the ass to navigate to them.

onlydarksets,

What info are you looking for that you are having difficulty finding? What makes them hard to navigate? There is A LOT more data on the pages now, would you like to see some of it removed?

First, there is too much info on the main page. The old layout was basically one-click to get to the information you needed. Now you need to find it on the left, then at least 1-2 more clicks to get to it.

Second, it looks like you can't look at year-over-year anymore. The old site let you see, for example, the TD leaders for all years on a single page. Is that still there?

Finally, the search function now looks at the ENTIRE name (including middle). I'd prefer the default search not be that detailed, and then have an advanced search if it doesn't turn up.

Aside from navigation, the pages take FOREVER to load.

On the plus, once you actually find the detail page you need, it seems like there is more data. I like the hover-highlight, too. It's a bit cluttered, though - it would help to have vertical delineations between the types of stats. For example, CP's rushing/receiving stats and then also within the defensive stats:
Clinton Portis Statistics - Pro-Football-Reference.com (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PortCl00.htm)

OK - I just noticed you can click to dynamically sort on the headers. VERY nice!

Is there a feature that lets you compare players by looking at their stats side by side?

Otherwise, really great work with this site overall. The information is invaluable.

First, there is too much info on the main page. The old layout was basically one-click to get to the information you needed. Now you need to find it on the left, then at least 1-2 more clicks to get to it.

Second, it looks like you can't look at year-over-year anymore. The old site let you see, for example, the TD leaders for all years on a single page. Is that still there?

Finally, the search function now looks at the ENTIRE name (including middle). I'd prefer the default search not be that detailed, and then have an advanced search if it doesn't turn up.

Aside from navigation, the pages take FOREVER to load.

On the plus, once you actually find the detail page you need, it seems like there is more data. I like the hover-highlight, too. It's a bit cluttered, though - it would help to have vertical delineations between the types of stats. For example, CP's rushing/receiving stats and then also within the defensive stats:


The year-over-year leaders have not yet been added to the new site, but I'll bump them up the list.

Almost all of the links that were on the old front page are still on the new front page, just in a different area. For example to get to the Redskins index you go to the standings and click the F.E. in the column next to Redskins.

Positional player indices weren't carried forward (because I didn't realize they were popular), and will be added back.

I apologize for the slowness. It is unacceptable and we'll either get it fixed or remove the ads until our ad company fixes it.

Search had to be beefed up because we now have 40,000 players (up from about 10,000 previously) in the db. Middle names probably don't need to be in there. I'll look at that.