Ciao Redesign 2003

Whaddya reckon then? I reckon pretty much thumbs up. I like this redesign. I always thought the busy, orange colour scheme was dreadful. In comparison to the green and white of Dooyoo, the old Ciao design had a very tabloid flavour, don't you think? The overall look of the redesign is cleaner, fresher, sleeker and very much more upmarket. So, first impressions are good. Navigation from the home page through the product pages is pretty much the same – there wasn't much wrong with it anyway, was there? Product comparisons are vastly improved and there's less clutter on the pages that have the ... more

We've had three days with the new-look Ciao, and although it still seems a little unfamiliar to me, I thought I'd outline my first impressions. On the whole, I like it very much. I've divided this into good points (several), not-so-good points (a couple), and bugs (which I've reported, and assume will be fixed). All comments will be welcome! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE GOOD POINTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • General layout • Personally, I love the new 'look'. Gone is the garish orange, and it's replaced by pleasant pastels, mostly blues and greens. More importantly, Ciao feels as if it's been designed by ... more

Well I think we’ve all spotted it! Some major changes have happened to this site while it was “off-air” last week. Ciao have been asking for suggestions from members for the past few weeks and now we are able to see exactly how these suggestions have been taken into account and used. I’ve been quite overwhelmed by the amount of new changes to discuss in this review so I hope it all comes across logically. New Features Logging in is fairly straightforward. As before you click on the Login button in the top of the right hand page. Members must be logged in, in order to rate and comment on ... more

It’s been a while now, and so I don’t intend this to be a rail against those bits of Ciao that don’t always work, although at the time of the re-launch, I’m sure we were all starting to feel like we were unpaid ‘beta-test’ engineers. No-one’s perfect, and anyway, I keep kicking myself as a way of saying ‘It’s Only a Website, Chris’. Who knows, this may actually turn out to be that really short opinion I keep saying I’m going to write. However, the new Ciao has much to recommend it. Most notably for me… THE ABILITY TO ADD PICTURES TO YOUR OPINIONS I’ve really taken to this in a ‘modestly ... more

And so, Ciao finally gets the large-scale overhaul for which it has been crying out since about 2001. The former Ciao worked well enough (and seemed to be the front runner in the race against the competition) but in order to stay ahead of the game, sites like this need to try and re-invent themselves from time to time. The 2003 re-design has shifted some of the focus towards the consumer, whilst giving the community some new features to play with. The result is a site that feels more like a professional consumer portal, without losing some of those personal touches. But it still ain't perfect ... more