It’s a new day at SI.com.
Out is the grid format. In are content tiles.
Paul Fichtenbaum explains what it all means in an editor’s note on the site:
But first the website, which is a dramatic change from a grid-based system to one using content tiles, large, small and everything in between. You will see a number of changes and additions. It’s all meant to serve the audience and help you explore and enjoy the deep layers of content we produce, whether that’s hard news, feature writing, health and fitness or the ever-increasing intersection of sports and pop culture. Among the enhancements:
A flexible, responsive, more graphic layout that allows the editors to change the look and feel of the pages almost instantly to reflect the fast-paced changes in the news cycle. Kevin Durant goes for 50? Johnny Manziel tosses five TDs? Clayton Kershaw throws a no-no? The site is designed to get you the news, analysis and visuals as quickly as possible. The mobile website is specifically designed for users on phones and tablets, with scores front and center on the home page and section fronts and always one touch away through persistent navigation no matter where you are on the site.
A cleaner, clutter-free viewing and reading experience that’s just as simple to access from your mobile device as your desktop, with easy-to-share social tools at your fingertips.
Fichtenbaum told Eric Fisher of Sports Business Daily:
“We needed to break out of the traditional, grid-based system,” said Paul Fichtenbaum, Time Inc. Sports Group editor. “Everything is movable and completely open-ended, and the only limitations we now have are really the creativity of the editors and producers.”
Like anything else, it will take some getting used to.
Their new website sucks. What a slowwwww loading POS. Made for the finger drag mobile device crowd.
Major Sucks
Extremely slow, frustrating. So much so that I have discontinued using it. I think that they screwed up the web speed by trying to incorporate mobile software. Sad because it the old site was great.
Agreed with all these Negative Comments — Why in the Heck did they have to change something that was sooooo easy to use — It is a Muck Job!!!
If you believe his website layout is an improvement you need to honestly take a poll before you pop the champagne cork and celebrate. It is horrible…..it’s not user friendly, a bunch o pictures but lousy presentation of verbiage, very difficult to scroll and find what area of sports you want to review. The menu is a joke. Go back to the old format. As much as I detest ESPN they will suffice until someone at SI comes to heir senses and admit this was a tragic mistake.
Ditto!!! I find myself turning to ESPN almost exclusively now!!! What a shame!!!!
Yes, it’s ESPN for me too…the worst website design for easily browsing topics of interest…whoever made the decision on this design should be fired immediately.
SI.com was one of my favorites, it sux now, switched to fox sprorts or espn
always favoured si because friends work there, was driven to espn just to get college football team schedules. New website is atrocious,
Hate the new format of your website. Slow to load. crashes, no flow to it. Bring back the old one!
hate it from day one , aweful.
Concur. Not nearly as useable as the old format. I have to click on too many tiles to find the information I want. I’m going to try ESPN.
Sucks big time. Sites for me are a place I am looking for info not TV time. You guys FKD things up. I like reading a sophisticated newspaper not a comic show. Your marketing genius is D+.
Do not like the new look – messed around with it for awhile and went to espn, which by the way I haven’t been on in years.
Absolutely the worst thing they could have done. Did they hire the same people that did the ObamaCare website? I’m sure not going back again!
new layout sucks, worst ever.
I’m using ESPN, MLB.COM and NFL.COM as my source for sporting news for the first time since SI came online. SI’s new layout is (in a word) HORRIBLE to use.
I really hate the new website design. The choice of print types is a terrible one. I have to get two inches from the screen to tell a small r from an h. It is far too radical a paradigm shift, one that was not needed. I simply am not going there any more. It’s flow logic is an abomination. It is simply weird and very unresponsive at times. Bad design from someone who must have sold out-of-touch execs on this new master plan.
The new SI format sucks! There’s a saying, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it !” I can’t find things, slow loading. It’s so bad I’ve gone to ESP.com which is easier to use and makes more sense!! My opinion!
SI’s new web site is a disaster. Used to visit every day. Haven’t been back since they changed and I won’t ever. If they don’t get the message from the reduced hits maybe their advertisers will have a little talk with them.
The new format is terrible – are you trying to please the short-attention-span types that are excited (briefly) by shiny things? Bravo, Gentlemen!
Awful redesign. Not that it will matter to anyone, but I’ve talked to about a half-dozen of my friends who (used to) view si.com regularly, and they’ve talked to their friends, and they’ve talked to their friends… and finally we found one guy who likes it = what happens when you let 18 year old interns pitch ideas… I guess they still have a magazine…don’t they?
What a joke! Why do people insist on fixing things that aint broke? And the font style-whose crazy idea was that!! Somebody dropped the ball bigtime on this disaster!!!!
si.com has been my home page for years. It isn’t any more. The design is terrible, the responsiveness worse. What a boondoggle!
Redesign was a mistake, too much “style” and not enough substance. The grid system was organized, this just looks like a sloppy mismatch of randomly sized photos. Hopefully once they see their hits dwindling they’ll switch back to the old style.
“Like anything else, it will take some getting used to.” Who is going to take that time when there are dozens of other sites out there with the same information presented in a better way?
You new website is so hard to navigate and so confusing. Both for Ipad and PC.
Poor performance on my iPad. Content moves hither and yon too much. I can’t quickly check tennis match results with the new design. Bummer. Yes, I’ll adapt. Sad state of affairs when every end result on the interwebs must be big picture this, big picture that. I understand the importance of responsive design, but something is wonky with your new setup.
The new SI.. for illiterates and the handicapped. Horrible site. Can’t think of anything to recommend it.
I HATE the new SI website. What a piece of CR@P! Hello ESPN!
In my opionion, the new sports news website is terrible. I am a baseball fan and when I go to this site, the scores are often backwards, I can no longer see play by play, it is slow to load, etc, etc, etc. It appears they are using pictures so they do not have to put in script. I sincerely wish you would bring back the old site. In the mean time, I am looking for another website to get my information.
Haven’t the drops in viewers given you a clue? Get rid of the new website. We aren’t going back until you do.
I’ve gotta agree – SI totally screwed the pooch with the re-do.
Your new website format is a confused mess. It looks like any other tiled blog site. You have destroyed your Identity and your Brand…..Not a good a good move—bad marketing.
It is BAD!! What are they thinking????
Get rid of it now.
I’m going elsewhere for my sports now.
I don’t get it. Why do you not want people to visit the SI online? Worst ever. Was the new site designed by high school interns? The site is just plain not useful to people looking for information.
What a colorful mess the new SI site is. An unnavigable collage. Making it harder for me to get to the information I want? Brilliant. The more mouse clicks the better has always been my motto. It vaguely reminds me of the grocery store sales technique where they put the milk way at the back so you have to stroll by lots of other products you don’t want. Gone are the useful hover drop-down menus. Have the editors decided that no one uses desktops or laptops anymore? I switched over immediately to ESPN.
Sucks
So sad
Was there and overwhelming consensus from the Internet to change the site?
I hate espn.com
But the new si.com is extremely slow, not user friendly and crash all the time. I could not find the ‘Truth & Rumors’ , etc.
After decades with si.com, I am switching to espn.com. Whomever designed and approved the new design hurt the si.com big time
I’m soooo angry at the idiots at SI.com. SI VAULT was the greatest historical sports collection on the web. Being able to see the full issues with the other stories from that particular week’s issue added context to what you were reading. Also, being able to see the advertisements also added something. You were able to place things in perspective historically. Being able to see & read everything in every issue and discover things I wasn’t looking for was just awesome. I spent hours on that site and would have paid for access to the collection. Now, it’s gone. I hate Sports Illustrated’s new website. Give me back access to those old magazines! The whole new SI.com sucks. Tried complaining but they don’t care.
Couldn’t agree more. SI Vault was brilliant–the finest periodical archive ever done. And they threw it away! Paid a bunch to do it as well I’m betting.
Do they really think that I’m going to be accessing SI Vault on a smartphone?
Fire the whole web team. Anyone connected to this disaster!
I agree 100%. The SI Vault was a great resource for info, or just for reminiscing. I cannot understand why they’d go to all the trouble of digitizing the original magazines–and then make them unavailable for viewing. An SI rep told me they’re redoing the entire website and would make content available again “soon.” That was 3 months ago.
The new SI.com SUCKS BIG TIME!!! For years it has been my primary source for news and browsing. I now can’t stand it and have decided to only use eason.com and yahoo sports. What a disaster of an idea. I feel like I need Ritalin just to browse the site now, so no thanks.
Wow! Does anybody have anything positive to say about the new si.com? I’m with the majority here. This change was awful. I thought that some of the content on the old site got a bit stale but at least I could find my way around things. The re-design is severely flawed and I will get my sports news fix elsewhere.
This revamp is the worst. Confusing, slow, repetitive in content and no eye appeal.
Looks like a HS programing project for a tabloid news service.
Awful
ESPN here I come.
Horrible. I reluctantly switched to ESPN. What a windfall for the competition.
I literally can’t use the site. Enjoyed it previously, but I cannot figure out basic search for my favorite teams across sports. It’s maddeningly poor. ESPN is now my 100% destination.
Two words: New Coke
I would love to see how far the hits have dropped on SI.com. They’ve got to have empirical evidence that it’s hurting them big-time. I guess they just don’t care. Sayonara SI.
Completely useless. Bookmark deleted.
What a mistake! Extremely difficult to find anything. I agree it must be a HS project. I’m going elsewhere for my sports.
I love that S.I. chose to hide/delete all of the hundreds of negative feedback remarks about their new web layout from their facebook page instead of choosing to consider them. just more proof of how much corporations care how we the people feel! I say we try our darnedest to show them what consumer power is all about!
I noticed that also. Was going to remark on it myself.
I can’t even bear to browse on SI.com anymore because the redesign is so bad. Awful layout, even worse load times, it really fails on every level. SI went from a daily visit to a rare occurrence, and every time i visit i remember exactly why i don’t use the site anymore. Hopefully somebody comes to their senses and realizes this was a disastrous mistake, I won’t go back unless that happens.
I used to LOVE reading old issues. I can’t do that now. The S.I. Website has gone from first to worst. Unless they change it back to what it was, which isn’t likely, I won’t be spending any time there. Whoever decided to change the site in this way should have his head blown off. Tell ya what. I’ll do it. So who is the guilty party? Well?
It is the worst redesign of a website I have ever seen. Hard to navigate. I have gone to ESPN so that I can find the information I am looking for easily
Not one positive comment anywhere on the web. The new site sucks. It is dumbed down, difficult and useless. Who made the decision to go with this? Sports fans want to find the information they are looking for and not have to search through shallow content about teams etc that they have no interest in. These changes make New Coke seem like marketing genius.
why did u force me to start looking at espn???
Whoever made the decision to change the SI website should lose their job. It is the worst most cumbersome website I have ever seen. Very difficult to find contents and way to cluttered. I had switched over to SI a few years back because I thought it had better content than ESPN and I was tired of ESPN wanting to charge a fee for any relevant stories. It is now time to switch back or jump to FOX sports as even though I like the SI content, it is way to difficult to find it on the new website.
absolutely the worse thing si could have done. I too have switched to ESPN for sports news. Wake up!
The new SI website is one of the worst redesigns I have ever seen. Additionally- literally nothing works right. Can’t read any MMQB. Many links are broken. Crashes constantly. Doesn’t work on my Kindle or home phone. I’m speechless.
New layout is a train wreck. Impossible to follow, sensory overload. Incorporates everything that I hated about ESPN.com. Don’t cater to the ADHD crowd, bring back the structure and flow from before.
It’s okay to admit you were wrong. Your readers will respect you for it. Just say, “Look, we made a mistake. We thought the new si.com was an improvement, but feedback from our readers has indicated otherwise. Bear with us. We’re going to make this right.” Yeah, you invested a lot of time and money in its development, but sometimes you have to just have to punt and move on. This is one of those times. Far better than to keep hemorrhaging views out of hubris. The website is terrible.
The new site is terrible!
The New SI site is really fucked up. I used to go to it all the time, but it’s completely unusable now.
Don’t believe that the new format (“here are some pretty pictures for you dummies, uncluttered by the written word and any insight it might impart”) could be any worse. A disaster from every aspect; will no longer visit the site. The persons responsible should no longer be employed by SI, and should be denied unemployment benefits to boot, since that effort was tantamount to a quit. I always felt that the most entertaining element of the site was the reader responses/back-and-forth discussion element of the “Truth and Rumors” section, but apparently, that had to go because there were just too many words and not enough pictures and “headlines”.
The new site is awful, confusing, and I can’t find Truth and Rumors anymore. Everything is slow and nothing I can’t find anything I want to read anymore. I’m going to ESPN with everyone else that used to read SI.
Hey SI,
Are we learning yet?
I won’t be visiting your site again until that awful new site is gone.
Well what do you know, got a request to do a survey from si.com today…I SLAMMED the new website big time..told them it looked like a demented chimpanzee was just randomly throwing paint against the wall. They appear to have dropped the MLB wild card and extended standings info , now just have the standard basic info.
Epic web redesign fail!!!!
The new layout is extremely frustrating. I used to to si.com at least once a day, since the change I have been to it only 4 times. Now I go to ESPN to get sports news, and I really don’t care for their site either, but it is the lesser of two evils.
I find the change so bad, I actually searched for reviews to see what other people think of it.
The new website is so bad, I actually use it less and use competitors more.
Much less info in the same amount of space, a huge amount of scrolling and wandering around required to find articles. And no, it doesn’t get better with time!
I could not believe this new site was dreamed up by anyone that aimed to inform sports minded people. Abstract art enthusiast, yes; someone who wants to know when the Dodgers next play the Giants; NO!!
Not enough words to describe how horribly DREADFUL the new site is!! I’ve deleted every link to SI I had saved on computer, tablet & phone. What a joke.
CBSS ports is my new go-to site for sports news.
amazing how clueless a big company can be. The new site is extremely slow and hard to navigate, the little headlines in the middle section that link to articles get cut off so you cant be sure what they say, the print function – which has never worked well for the 10 years or so that I’ve been looking at their site is now even worse than ever, etc etc
Same with MMQB site, glossy and flashy but slow, hard to navigate and hard to read.
Uggh
What do you get when you mix an oranguntang with meth?
SI’s new website!
The website is an absolute disaster. The execs must be stoned out of their mind or something to even think that keeping it in its current state is a good idea. The old site was great: easy to navigate and find information/articles.
There is no rhyme or reason to the new hodgepodge. Its like someone ate a mess of pictures and then spewed them on a website after a bout of Montezuma’s Revenge following a late night run at Taco Bell.
I guess Peter King saw the dark future of SI coming and chose teh perfect time to depart and start up his own website. Good call on his end! I was originally upset he left and started his site, but it turned out to be a genius move considering the sewage spill that is now SI.
Hello ESPN! Hope you got room on that shiny new boat of yours, because the S.S. SI is sinking and all passangers are heading your way!
Things have gotten so bad that SI took the user feedback off their Facebook page. They were all slamming the new SI website design.
The redesign is, as we say in the South, a hot mess. Terrible flow, hard to navigate, and it absolutely devalues the reading experience, which has been SI’s claim to fame for 60 years. Just a disaster. I can’t believe any sentient editor or designer signed off on this. It’s like a hacker hijacked the site and punked it for laughs. Won’t return until they fix it, though I won’t be holding my breath in the interim. I have no love for focus groups, but did anyone test drive this with actual users?
I was a loyal SI fan before and really don’t like ESPN’s site either, but it’s much better than the re-designed SI site…so back to ESPN I go…un-bookmark SI (unless they switch back).
Finally a place to sound off about si.com It is awful, looks like a kid who skipped his Aderall designed it. I switched to cbssports, I still won’t use People…er, ESPN.
It is terrible. I tried to get around a few times and gave up. Used to visit several times a day. Now maybe once a week to see if they’ve WAKED UP to its awful horribleness. Where’s Capt. Hammer? We need you!
Sorry…the “windows 8” desktop they’re imitating is awful. I can’t find tennis on the menu? I see like 8 tile choices…no tennis…and no obvious way to scroll for more options. I searched “tennis” and it returned a feb 2014 story about Li Na playing her first tournament since winning the Australian Open. WTF? Awful. Goodbye si.com…aint nobody got time for this bs.
You’re lucky you can see anything on the menu. I can’t get it to drop down. Total rubbage
Not sure why they even bother, should have just folded it and gone 100% to bleacherreport.com, which is just as awful.
Would be nice to see how far it has tanked since CNN switched and now with the site update.
Nice to see others agreeing that the new SI.COM website is awful.
Dear Paul Fichtenbaum,
You say that this is a cleaner, clutter-free viewing experience, yet it is so cluttered and free of navigable organization. I feel like I’m looking at a 6-year-old’s collage using glue and magazine photos and I’m trying to make sense of it. Please don’t dig your heels in on this and just accept that it’s a mess.
Love, Everyone.
Where’s anonymous to help with all those facebook posts and getting the old si back when you need them.
I miss the banter on all the truth and rumors!
Please fix it before football season starts.
NFL and College.
Go Pats
Go Heels
New SI layout is terrible. Hate it. Cluttered and slow. The old site wasn’t great, but this is clearly a step in the wrong direction.
Sports Illustrated went from first to last with the changes to their website. Change it back or I will not return. Coke admitted their mistake with New Coke and returned to Old Coke. SI should be big enough to do the same.
I usually spent 15-25 minutes a day on the new SI website. Since the revision to this site, now, if I spend 5 minutes it’s a lot!! The site is difficult to find anything, and I don’t need all the pictures of individual athletes. I enjoyed reading the articles by various writers, now if only I could find them!!! It is with regret that I say…. Unless the website format is revised, I doubt I will be visiting SI in the near future!!
Worst redesigned website in the history of redesigned websites!! I’ve never heard anyone say anything, but bad about it. Check the stats, I’m sure traffic is down. I used to visit SI 2 or 3 times a day. I’ve taken out of my bookmarks and have not been back in more than a month. Now I split my time between 3 other sites, which I don’t like as much as the old SI, but I cannot stand the new SI…it’s unorganized trash.
Si.com blows chunks. It wasn’t broke but it is now. fix that crap
I have been reading SI.com for years years years. It is at the top of my bookmarks. I HATE HATE HATE THE NEW SITE. Now when I get on to surf thru my sites, I look at it, sigh, and click it. Then I do a couple clicks and leave. It feels like there is nothing there. What was so wrong with bullet style headlines that you could quickly look at and click on and read articles. I am so disgusted with the new site I now have put ESPN on my bookmarks. What a mistake.
Well, I checked again after another month and the site is still pure crap.
I’ve removed it from my favorites now and have no intention of going there anymore.
Who wants to scroll 50 pages to see what articles are available.
Another disaster of a web site change…..which are becoming more and more prevalent every month as companies hire idiots to redo them for what reason I don’t know.
Bye, bye…..you lost another long time client
What provoked SI to screw up their site????? Their site was once my first stop for sports info but now it’s just a lot of nothing! They should go back what worked IMHO.
It’s still a f–king train wreck. I’ll miss Don Banks’ articles. Peter King’s haiku, not so much.
I used to spend half an hour per day on the old site. Now I’m on ESPN and I’ve bookmarked a local newspaper site for in-depth information on my favorite NFL team.
I especially miss the reader comments. There were guys on that site who had made more than 10,000 comments to SI articles over the years — and often their comments were more insightful than the SI articles themselves. If anyone knows where those guys have gone (like “50YrFan”?), let me know. I’ll follow them.
anyone hear from Wildfan or Pondscum
Some brainiac should be fired over this! SI’s new website is just horrible! I didn’t want to give up on it believing I’d adjust to the new format in time. It’s been a couple months now and I’ve run out of patience at how awkward it is to use. The old format was wonderful and had been my “home page” for at least 8 years. I originally switched to SI when ESPN did a similar “improvement” to their website (again, this was 8 years ago), but as of today I’ve switched back to ESPN. Good bye SI.com and good riddance.
The new SI.com stinks, I rarely visit it now and when I do I’m gone in a minute or so, I just can’t take it….
new website is an embarassment. you would have thought maybe they would test it out first with a sample of people. everyone i know is disgusted.
I HATE Espn but I’ve been forced to use it since SI’s HORRIBLE website change. I used to read Peter King every monday, now I browse reddit for important articles and use ESPN. Why do you think SO many of us use reddit? SIMPLICITY, morons
Cannot believe that SI is sticking to this embarrassing mistake. This is a real opportunity for someone to serve sports fans by giving them what they want, information and analysis. I can only hope that advertisers understand that sports fans no longer visit or respect SI. I suggest that sports fans boycott any company that advertises on this mess.
I hope they got their money back from the 5 year old that created it.
The new format is dreadful! Now I just go to ESPN instead…
Frustrated with new SI.com. Tried to use it, but could not stand it. Si was my favorite, but I will have to move on. What a shame….
New SI website is terrible. Reminds me of WIndows 8 – do they have anyone who can read on their staff? Slow and useless now.
Hate it. I went to CNN/SI since the beginning. I am outta here!
Hate it. I went to CNN/SI since the beginning. I am on to Bleacher
This new format is very bad. Until it changes, I will not visit the site anymore. The only reason I add my opinion, if anyone even cares, is because there are quite a few quality writers I enjoy and will miss reading hidden underneath all the pictures that are difficult to maneuver around.
I’ve stopped using si altogether. Can’t make heads or tails of any info because menus make no sense. I am out.
A LITTLE GETTING USED TOO!!! Surely you jest. This is one of the worst pieces of web design I have ever seen. It might not be so bad if it worked or I could even find things that used to be easy to find. The AP college football rankings shows fewer than 25 teams in some random order. And that is on the one browser (Firefox) I can find the button to select rankings on. IE and Safari don’t even show a button to display rankings. I could go on and on and on and on but it is too painful. Never thought I would see something that made the Bleacher Report look good. Pathetic!!!
I have given CNN/SI more than adequate time to straighten out the mess they made of a perfectly fine product. The content now is very poor and my browser starts to lock up on the new web site. Who is in charge of this fiasco at CNN/SI? Never really used ESPN but CNN/SI lost my long term viewing.
I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
Prior to about 2003, I was strictly an ESPN.com guy and never poked around to view other sports websites. However, a friend of mine swore by si.com. Well, I liked it so much that I eventually switched. NO MORE!!! I understand the need to “freshen up” a website from time to time. And often it takes time for users to adjust. But this site is so clunky, so utterly unusable, that after several months of struggling I’ve given up. As of this morning, I’ve switched back to ESPN.com and I will not hesitate to trash si.com to any of my friends. Whoever approved these changes is either ignorant, arrogant, or both.
I gave it 3 months. That is more than enough time to get used to the new site and you know what, its still terrible. Please change it back to the old way. Back to ESPN
As so many others have said, more eloquently and also more angrily than I, the new si.com is absolutely awful. Often hangs, doesn’t load. Way too slow, way too kludgy. It’s gone from a go-to website to a must-avoid. I’m getting sports news from Bleacher Report, ESPN.com (which I’d mostly switched away from, but at least their website works), etc.
What are you thinking? Get someone to fix the damn thing. It’s atrocious.
The old SI Vault was the best website on the entire internet! You have destroyed it. It is unsearchable and unreadable! Please bring it back! It wasn’t broken so why in the world did you “fix” it! Horrible!
The look of your new website is fine. However, it’s the poorest website that I regularly go to as far as use. Though I have IE 11, a lot of buttons I click on simply don’t work or work erratically. I have used SI online for years, but now it’s more frustration than enjoyment.
I used to visit every day. When the new site came online, I tried for a few weeks to adapt. No use. Seems like it got worse every day. Cant find anything anymore.