Users not keen on new NBCNews.com

Please note: While we welcome your comments on the new NBCNews.com website on the form below, please note this commenting system is NOT an official way to reach NBC News. If you wish to let NBC News know your feelings about the redesign, please use its official contact page. Also please note that comments that are simply attempts to communicate with NBC News are not approved — only comments about the NBCNews.com website will be approved.

The NBCNews.com went live overnight and users around the world have had a chance to explore the site and, judging by the feedback posted to the NBC News Facebook page, it’s not a hit.

Users have been posting their thoughts on the redesign on the somewhat hidden “posts by others” tab on the network’s homepage.

As of 8 a.m. central time this morning, there wasn’t a single positive comment and nearly all the posts concern the redesign. Here’s a sampling (see all the comments here):

• Patricia Gawron Grausam: “Went to my normal NBC News webpage and all I can say is: CHANGE IT BACK! The “new” page is just AWFUL!!!!”
• Phil Harlan: “What? This format is beyond terrible and after probably 15 years of having it as my Homepage and referring to it constantly, I will now look for another site OR BRING IT BACK!!!”
• Larry Emerson: “MSNBC and NBC News has been my homepage for over 14 years and gradually over time they have made it more and more unusable. Now for all practical purposes they have broken it. I just deleted it and will use CNN or Yahoo News as my homepage. I never thought I would use Yahoo for anything, but the day has come.”
• Mark Collett: “I can see the value of the new format for mobile use (and that’s even a bit limited as there isn’t enough being shown on the screen), but for other users (i.e., PC/Mac), the new layout is cumbersome. The images are so large that even on my widescreen monitor with high resolution, I can only see 5-6 news stories at a time. I have to scroll too much to find the information, and it’s not even clear how this is organized. It’s difficult to find news that I’m interested in as the categories are replaced to being links to another page where I still have to scroll through large images to find content. From a user perspective, this design on PC/Mac is less than satisfactory. Windows 8 and the Metro design is a headache and not intuitive or easy to use.”
• Teri Goldman Hruby: “Holy headache, Batman. Is your design team trying to sink you? NBCNews.com is usually one of my first online stops each morning, but that will change after being greeted by your latest version of Windows 8 (Psst! There’s a reason some of us haven’t been back to MSNBC.com) Far too slow to load, too reliant on graphics, chunky, and cluttered. What was wrong with the easy-to-read and streamlined version of yesterday? There’s a reason for the saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it””

As a side note, NewscastStudio has also noticed a large number of users arriving on our site after searching the term “when did nbc change its format online?”

NBC News has declined to comment on the feedback the new site is receiving.

Please note: While we welcome your comments on the new NBCNews.com website on the form below, please note this commenting system is NOT an official way to reach NBC News. If you wish to let NBC News know your feelings about the redesign, please use its official contact page. Also please note that comments that are simply attempts to communicate with NBC News are not approved — only comments about the NBCNews.com website will be approved.

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