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The Latest Changes to SeekingAlpha.com

by: David Jackson August 31, 2008    
David Jackson

David Jackson

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Today we're launching some significant changes to the Seeking Alpha website. We've replaced the "hover over and drop down" navigation at the top of the page with clickable tabs. Those tabs link to dashboards that display all the new articles on the site in five intuitive groups, as well as clear navigation to the sub-topics in more depth. We've also added buttons for Breaking News (Wall Street Breakfast and Market Currents) and Transcripts (which houses our new, improved Transcript Center).

These changes were driven by one goal: to make it faster and easier to find articles on Seeking Alpha.

When I announced the last set of changes we made, we received a ton of valuable feedback. The clearest request from readers was to re-instate the page that shows all the latest articles on the site in reverse chronological order. So we've rebuilt that page, and provided a link to it on the home page ("See all of today's headlines") and in the Quick Links box ("Latest Articles") below the search box.

We've made some significant improvements to our news coverage. You can now view Market Currents, our real time market and news product, in two modes. The default mode shows the latest items at the top of the page; if you leave the page open, it automatically refreshes when new items are added. An alternative mode: to catch up on what's happened so far, you can switch the order so the earliest items are at the top, and that turns off auto-refresh. We've also grouped Market Currents with Wall Street Breakfast, our morning digest of top headlines. Now you can quickly check the top headlines, and then switch tabs to see what's happened since the market opened. (There's no Wall Street Breakfast today because the market is closed.)

We've made more incremental improvements to the Transcripts Center. Search is now easier than ever: you can quickly find transcripts, or search across all the transcripts for a single phrase. We've also made it easier to view the most popular transcripts. There's more to announce in the near future; we'll keep you posted.

We grappled with three questions about the new navigation changes, and would appreciate readers' input on them:

  • The Big Picture. We wanted to group together in one page all the latest articles about the overall stock market and its key drivers, including the economy, the price of oil and commodities, earnings, bonds, and the state of the housing and credit markets. The most intuitive title we could think of for this page is The Big Picture. But that has two disadvantages. First, Barry Ritholtz writes an excellent blog (highly recommended) with the same name, and we don't want to cause confusion. (Here's Google's listing of Big Picture websites for reference. Update: I just noticed that Roger Nusbaum, one of my favorite reads on ETFs, also uses "The Big Picture", and a reader comment below states the IBD has a column called "The Big Picture".) Second, we're unsure whether the name is informative enough. What do you think? Will we reduce traffic to Barry's blog (we don't want to do that)? Can you suggest a better name?

  • Fast navigation. In our old navigation scheme, you could find articles about China with a hover-over and a click. Now you need to click once (on Global Investing) to see the most recent articles about China, and click again if you want to see the full list of articles about China. To make it easy to find all the themes from the old drop downs, we've presented them in large type in the left-hand side bar of the new dashboards. But is the navigation clear enough?
  • Colors. Our choice of colors for the new tabs was driven by only one consideration: how to make them as easy as possible to use. White on orange was has good visibility, and we added two blue tabs for Breaking News and Transcripts because they're different in nature from the other articles on the site and we wanted to make it easy to find them. But let's admit it -- the colors are a break from our old color scheme, and don't fit that well. Any thoughts on the colors?

User testing and statistical analysis of the new scheme versus the old one suggests that it's a big improvement. But changes take getting used to, and we know that the intial reaction of some users will be frustration. We hope that as you try out the new tabs and dashboards, you'll find the site easier and more enjoyable to use.

Let us know what you think.

--------------------------

Update: Monday, September 8th, 7.30 am:

Thank you to all the readers who provided feedback and suggestions. Barry Ritholtz has asked us to change the name of "The Big Picture" tab. I emailed him yesterday as follows:

We're currently planning to change the tab names and sizes (requiring new graphics) in our next code release. Why? Because we constantly strive to provide the best possible experience for our readers, and also respect your wishes and goals... The change is slated for the near future (but not tomorrow). We invest careful preparation and testing in each new code release before upload, and do releases only over weekends when the market is closed and traffic is lower.

We're still debating which name to use in place of "The Big Picture". Any further ideas or feedback on the suggestions below would be welcome.

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This article has 63 comments:

  •  
    Aug 31 10:54 AM
    i like.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 11:15 AM
    White on orange is fine. I'd make the blue tabs the same color...changing colors doesn't make anything easier to find, and the reason for the color change is not immediately apparent. You could make a "different nature" argument about any of the tabs...that's why you have tabs at all. The color change just adds complexity and makes the top look jumbled.

    I don't think you should use "The Big Picture" if that's already the name of someone's inveting blog. Use words drawn from your own description of what the tab is about: "...all the latest articles about the overall stock market and its key drivers, including the economy, the price of oil and commodities, earnings, bonds, and the state of the housing and credit markets." Maybe "Overall Stock Market."

    The new navigation approach seems fine.

    Congratulations for continually trying to upgrade the site.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 11:42 AM
    This site design is fantastic. Great job.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 11:59 AM
    This place has a nice sletion of articles although the authors need to be screened better.One man has picked overa dozen stocks that have lost at least 60% of their value. Hopefully you have shut him down.Enjoy the site though
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 01:51 PM
    Recommend adding the time, as well as the date, of an article. With the current volatility in the market, it is frequently pertinent to know the time of day an article was written; i.e., before, during, or after a large intraday move. Thanks for your work. I usually check SA multiple times each day.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 02:59 PM
    Every day there is the moment I think to myself:
    I must study something new today, Lets go to Seeking Alpha.
    Thanks!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 03:22 PM
    perfect...good changes!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 03:27 PM
    I think it is great. Love having the 'today's headline' back.

    Color is no big deal, it will look normal in a week, just used to the old scheme. If you want to try something else maybe instead of an orange box just make it a two pixel outline of a box in orange and then have the inside of the box your regular maroon color and text in white.

    Big Picture blog is really good, I like Barry's stuff. Maybe you can go with something like Market Landscape, Economic Rundown.

    Kudos on seeking user feedback.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 03:29 PM
    Also, I like the time stamp idea JCCIII proposed. I also like the tabs between Latest Articles and Today's Articles.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 04:07 PM
    SA 3.0 is a marked improvement from 2.0 - thanks for bringing back "Today's Headlines". Congratulations.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 06:56 PM
    Great Site!!!!!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 07:06 PM
    I really like having the "Today's Headlines" back. Now I can benefit from all the enhancements you're doing, but still have the upside of discovering new authors serendipitously.

    Thank you.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 07:20 PM
    Thank you. Very nice. How about "Key Drivers" for The Big Pic. You used the term yourself. Editorial direction and classification is excellent. I don't mind inclusion of doofus or egomaniac authors. The marketplace of ideas needs breadth and volume, which makes SA a busy, somewhat chaotic project. You've done a brilliant job. Sincerely appreciated.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 31 08:06 PM
    dear "alpha" why not call your big picture the macro view, or global view
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:09 AM
    What's great about SeekingAlpha.com and at the bottom line, what's differentiate it from other sites is the fact that the audience and users are actually being heard.
    Thanks for putting back the author names for articles (the show/hide button is very useful) and the all articles stream.

    Overall, the site looks great :)
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:12 AM
    Thank you everyone for your comments so far. We're listening carefully!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:29 AM
    On the front page, the width of the column for "Latest headlines on your stocks" seems too large compared to the other columns and a drop-down menu would do fine here; personal interest can defer to the more general news.
    But this is a detail in a great site!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 07:55 AM
    Wonderfull site. It is my first stop each morning.Thank you
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 09:11 AM
    While the new design looks good, the quality of published articles has steadily declined over the last few months. A filter is somehow necessary that excludes a large amount of badly researched nonsense found lately at this site.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 10:18 AM
    Transcripts are high on my list of important pieces of information. They tell me company performance, what they are thinking, guidance and feedback from the financial community.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 10:23 AM
    Love your site! Re your question, black and orange is a little Halloweenish...also orange clashes with the burgundy. The orange and white is nice though. I agree with Goldpalm and Webisking to an extent; I don't think the number of good articles has decreased, but they are proportionately less as you seem to be running more articles by anybody who feels like advertising their ignorance.
    I also agree that The Big Picture sounds too much like other blogs. Several of the above suggestions are better, esp. Market Landscape. Or maybe something simple like Market Overview.
    A last request would be for those of us on the west coast, is it possible to have news and articles that don't stop when we're eating lunch?
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 01:05 PM
    Rob Goldpalm, thanks for your feedback on research level in articles. I'm sorry you've found the quality slipping. We're trying hard to maintain high editorial quality as daily article volume rises, but there may be some items that get published despite insufficient rigor, and even if the percentage of these items stays constant, the number will grow as our publishing volume grows.

    So we'll push to keep standards high on our end, and on your end I suggest a couple things:

    1) Sign up for a watchlist of authors whose writing you appreciate and who are consistently strong, in your opinion; and
    2) I think you'll find the articles featured in the 'Opinion and Analysis' section of our homepage to be consistently high quality; also, visit our 'Editor's Picks' for articles that we found to be particularly well researched and argued.

    If you'd take the time to drop me a line when you find an article that you feel isn't up to our standards, I'd appreciate it: mick@seekingalpha.com
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 01:21 PM
    "The Big Picture" is also a regular column in Investor's Business Daily. The new section is a very logical addition to Seeking Alpha.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 01:29 PM
    Please restore the drop downs. It is so hard to navigate now!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 01:38 PM
    Hello SA, I've got one question and one comment. My question is have you reviewed the site organization etc. through a disability lens? I'm blind and often site designers don't take the blind into account when designing the site. As for comment, I hope you'll re-start running Reggie Middleton's articles. I found them very well researched and entertaining. I make no comment about personality issues because many in the financial realm seem to have a rather high opinion of themselves. Humility is relatively rare. Cheers.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 01:38 PM
    Hello SA, I've got one question and one comment. My question is have you reviewed the site organization etc. through a disability lens? I'm blind and often site designers don't take the blind into account when designing the site. As for comment, I hope you'll re-start running Reggie Middleton's articles. I found them very well researched and entertaining. I make no comment about personality issues because many in the financial realm seem to have a rather high opinion of themselves. Humility is relatively rare. Cheers.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 02:28 PM
    David,
    You and your team have a winner here. Excellent overall look, better intuitive naviagation and organization yields quick direction to what users are looking for. The colore scheme is a nice upgrade too.

    A comment on the navigation buttons. It's clear you've expanded the Sector Dashboard into two pages: The Big Picture and Stocks & Sectors. A minor point here, but you have Housing/Real-Estate on the Big Pic but you have Financials on the Sectors page. Why? It seems to me that both topics belong on the Big Picture due to their powerful effects on our current conditions. However, as we cycle out of this bear market into healthier times, Housing and Financials will be more fitting on the Sector page. Tough to draw lines so maybe it's just best as is, it just stood out to me as an inconsistancy.

    Anyway, I'm very pleased with what you all have done here. I knew you would be able to find that win-win format. Well done!

    Best regards,
    David Weston

    p.s. Big Picture alternatives:

    1. The Big Picture (leaving it would probably be okay if Barry and Roger are okay with it.)

    2. The Situation Room

    3. WallStreet Winds or Market Winds

    4. Market Map

    5. Market Compass

    6. Today's Economy
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 02:38 PM
    I can't find a freaking thing
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 02:51 PM
    User 666 -- I hope it's not that bad! The contents of the old drop downs are exactly as they were before, but in the left-hand margin of the dashboards. We made one category move -- we moved Oil, Commodities and Currencies from Global Markets (now Global Investing) to The Big Picture (formerly US Market). Otherwise everything is as it was before.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 02:54 PM
    DaveW, thanks for your thoughtful feedback (as always). The principle we used behind what goes into The Big Picture and what goes into Stocks & Sectors is that any article about individual stocks and sectors belongs in the latter, while trends belong in the former.

    For that reason, we put Housing & Real Estate in The Big Picture, but Homebuilders in Stocks & Sectors.

    I think you're right about the importance of financials: they're a key driver of this market.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 02:57 PM
    Rumpole, your point about disability access is crucial -- thank you for raising it. One of the benefits of moving to dashboards is that we could display the navigation to the detailed areas of the site (in the left column) in a larger font. In fact, much of the navigation on the site is now in a larger font size. I realize that doesn't help you if you're blind, but hopefully it does help some people.

    We'd be really interested to hear from you: how do you access the site? Do you use text-to-audio software, and if so, how well does it run on Seeking Alpha?
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 03:00 PM
    Steve Sinclair, thank you for pointing out that "The Big Picture" is also a column on Investors' Business Daily. That suggests that (a) the term is generic, and (b) readers will understand what it refers to.

    Out of the alternative names that have been suggested in the comments here, is there one that stands out to anyone?
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 03:44 PM
    just a great site.all authors should be allowed & the readers should determine for themselves whom they can believe.its ok with me as i believe no none.should anyone believe this? im not sure.also-spelling really should not count.sometime its just a typo.why waste time(very valuable) of the readers on this site.thanks again.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 04:19 PM
    Instead of "Big Picture" how about "Markets"? Not as jazzy, but functional.

    I like the new 'dashboards' but miss the ability to jump to different sectors etc. straight from the home page.

    Over all the site feels crisp and performance is very snappy - how do you guys get those pages to pop up so quickly?

    I can indentify with Rob Goldpalm - I'm sometimes left wondering what the point of publishing certain posts is.

    Two examples I came across today: They do no more than summarize old news:

    seekingalpha.com/artic...

    and

    seekingalpha.com/artic...

    Overall, though, a great website with unparalleled breadth.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:18 PM
    let's get author's names on the "breaking news" page... otherwise, i'll stop reading as there is a huge disparity between authors and I favor some and despise others...
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:18 PM
    let's get author's names on the "breaking news" page... otherwise, i'll stop reading as there is a huge disparity between authors and I favor some and despise others...
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:28 PM
    FANTASTIC! My only complaint would have been the lack of the chronological article listing feature but since you've reinstated that - fugeddaboudit.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 05:37 PM
    Jud -- the news in the Breaking News section is all produced by our own editors to carefully defined standards. It's different in nature from the other articles on the site, which is why we color coded it differently.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 07:27 PM
    Our efforts are much appreciated here. Thanks, W.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 07:29 PM
    Your efforts!
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 07:57 PM
    The improvements are solid. I also find that the site is downloading articles and pages a little faster as well.

    The only suggestion I would make is in addition to the Transcripts area is there any way possible to have a section which would include webcasts of investor days or investment conferences featuring all the different companies and their presentations. I know breifing.com highlights these events currently with web pages, but the site does not provide each individual webcast.

    No great shakes if this concept is not implemented. I just think it would offer the site and its visitors yet another valuable source of information many of the sites fail to provide. Seeking Alpha has done a great job with the blogging concept of investing and its model is being imitated by several others but not with the success you folks have done.

    Keep up the good work!