MSN.com is allowing users to preview their new design. The new MSN.com sports 2 colors, a white one (Simple White) and a traditional blue (Classic Blue) one.
(Look! New colors, much cleaner, loads faster. But still too much information in one page.)
I like the new Simple White theme. It looks clean and neat. Still the usual 3 column interface which is good to cramp as much information as possible into a page.
My only complaint is - too much information. ‘Popular Searches’ could be simplified. ‘Also on MSN’ is kinda redundant too. The top light blue bar that has the tiny advertisement shouldn’t be there too. The users won’t take note of it and MSN.com would look prettier without it. Side menu bar should be shorter and the ‘MSN Services’ can be slotted there.
The search area. Yes, it’s very well done but it kinda looks like a rip off from Yahoo.com, just that it has cooler colors. Microsoft, you really should be more creative. ‘Encarta’ shouldn’t be one of the categories of search too. And what’s with the text ‘Select a category’? It’s crap. Users aren’t that stupid.
I notice the famous .NET Sign in button is gone. It’s just a small text telling the user to sign in. It’s much better this way. It looks simpler and users won’t mistaken MSN.com as some exclusive site that you have to log in to get the content kinda thing. Good job on that. [I think Microsoft is playing down the whole Passport thingy.]
It is much neater now. But it could have been neater. Could have been better. There is certainly room for improvement. And one last thing - I hate it when I can’t god-damn copy text from your MSN.com with Internet Explorer. I have to type ‘Select a category’ myself, do you know how hard that is?! It’s 3 words long! Damn, get that fixed.