I’m working to overhaul ToolGuyd’s look and layout. Basically, I’m working on a site-wide redesign.
I built the existing layout over a framework that I feel is a bit too restrictive in modern times, and so I’m starting with a different and more modern framework. As with most constructions, the framework is the parts that you don’t see.
The easiest approach is to simply duplicate the way things look now as closely as possible.
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There isn’t much that can be done with the mobile view, which is how a vast majority of users access the site, but there are functional enhancements that can be made.
There’s a lot more that can be done with the desktop view. Shown above is what it looks like now, with a top menu, main list of posts in chronological order, and sidebar.
I was looking through old tech support emails, and found this screen capture in one such email from 2013.
Not a lot has changed since then. I’ve been told by a GenZ/millennial family member in advertising and marketing that the design is dated, and it absolutely is. It’s clean, unencumbered, and functional – I like it.
I have explored different layouts before. The basic i) header, ii) content column, iii) sidebar, iv) footer arrangement still works well in my opinion. The biggest difference between desktop and mobile is that the sidebar shrinks and moves under the content column for smartphones and smaller tablets.
When doing an assessment of ToolGuyd’s content structures, it’s clear that there’s the potential for improvement. The two go hand-in-hand. If I create new content structures, there needs to be a way to put it in front of readers.
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In other words, I’m not only looking at the look and layout, but functionality. What else belongs on the front page? Deals page? New tools page? Reviews page? Can some new inclusions be shared across different pages?
Some pages need to be overhauled, such as the tool brands page. It’s… functional, but is it useful? On mobile, you can expand the menu to see the most popular brands. Maybe that tap/click should instead take you to a page with shortcuts and recent headlines for the most asked-about brands.
Generally speaking, there are two types of readers – regulars who visit regularly, and visitors who are searching for information.
What do regular ToolGuyd readers want? What will serve you better? What would I like to see more of?
These are not easy questions.
Where else can we have static display of dynamic information, e.g. deals that are worth a 30 seconds update but not a 30 minute post?
The last time I redesigned the look and layout, I basically carried over the existing look and layout and adapted it to a new framework that was more mobile-friendly.
This time, I’ve been working on more. It’s an opportunity for functional improvements. It’s been extremely time-consuming, on top of new technical issues I’ve been working through.
What types of info snapshots do regular readers want to see?
What questions can ToolGuyd answer quickly where a standalone post isn’t called for? I’ve started by listing out the questions I seek answers for.
Right now, ToolGuyd’s look and layout works. How can I make it better? There are some problems I will be seeking to resolve with the redesign. But how do I improve upon aspects readers have not complained about, or introduce features no one has explicitly asked for?
Besides considering any suggestions or requests, the plan is to work through the redesign for myself, with the idea that if it’s helpful for me it’ll be helpful for you. That’s worked out well for 16 years now.
There’s a lot of backend work to do this year. I’ll keep everyone in the loop, and so there will be regular opportunities for feedback and requests.
Things We Cannot Do
Sorry, there’s nothing I can do about comment editing.
Things We WON’T Do
Auto-refreshing ads. (If you ever see this, please let me know so I can block it!)
Back button. If you hit the back button, it should take you where you were, not a list of clickbait posts. There’s no justifiable reason for publishers to break the back button and require 3 clicks to get to where the reader was.
“Hamburger” menus on desktop.
What else should I add to the “no-way” list?
Chris
I’d almost be interested in a dark mode. For the late night tool discussions 🙂
Chris
I think a collapsible comments section would help in organization. Show all the main comments but have a button to expand the comments for that initial comment. And show how many reply’s there are to that comment while collapsed. Kind of like Reddit I guess.
Evan
I agree that an improvement with the comment section would be awesome, although I am not sure what the looks like. I like Reddit, and try to keep up on comments on ToolGuyd posts that I comment on but it can get hard. I usually use the search feature on my keyboard (control + F) and search for my name, then scroll to see if anyone replied to any of my comments. Im not sure the best way to navigate around this but it is something that someone more tech savvy than I could have ideas about.
Stuart
Hide all the comments? Easy.
Paginate the comments? Easy, but looks terrible and is very clunky.
Hide comment replies? No. There’s no easy way to enhance the comments section. I would need developers to create new architecture, which isn’t feasible, or replace it with a 3rd party integration, which has more cons than pros.
Reddit was built as a forum. The software we use is more of a blogging and content management platform.
Most blogs and sites have been closing their comments sections, and the owner of the software platform has been funneling efforts towards things like paid content subscription features. There have been very few comment developments or enhancements over the years, and I don’t expect there to be any new ones.
Evan
That makes sense, and I would definitely prefer the current system to closing the comment section. I enjoy the comments! I had the thought that perhaps comments would be easier to navigate on something like Facebook, and then I found your Facebook page and it does look active but for some reason I always use the ToolGuyd website and not social media.
Stuart
I enjoy the comments section far too much to close it, and threaded comments are better than linear.
I tried “lazy loading” for comments, but found the reading experience to be clunky and undesirable. (Lazy loading is where it only displays as you scroll.)
The comments section is more rigid than I’d like, but it’s also simple with few speed bumps that hinder the comment entry process.
Chris
That makes complete sense. Thanks for listen to your audience input Stuart 🙂
Josephus
This is how my wife knows I might be tool shopping. Dark mode would be great. Might cost me some money though.
Evan
Ha! After I make tool purchases my wife asks if Stuart was involved!
Dave
I like dark mode too. That’s why I use the Dark Reader extension. It even works in Firefox on Android, so I can have the entire internet in dark mode. https://darkreader.org/
mark w
I would also love dark mode I typically read these at work or when I’m laying in bed to wind down.
Also I really appreciate the “dated, function, clean, *unencumbered*” nature of this site & keeping that would be too of my list.
For 30 second updates type content maybe a “deals feed/deals page” where it’s got like tweet sized tiles in chronological order of content like “dewalts 12.99 shallow organizer deal is back in stock [link]” would be functional ? Maybe works within the header+sidebar+footer format ?
16 years. That’s a great run already. Thanks for what you do & your willingness to uphold your standards for things like quality of internet content.
Jared
A quick place to reference time-sensitive information (presumably mostly deals) would be cool. Something separate from just scrolling the new posts.
Maybe you could adopt a two or three-column structure for the site, where you get the main review, discussion and information posts on the left, the time -sensitive information on the right (and maybe still a column like exists now with recent posts, the newsletter and other regular links).
I don’t ever use the stuff on the right EXCEPT for recent comments (I would actually like it if that list was longer). I’d be curious if other people do – e.g. I don’t need a list of recent posts, that’s how I use the main page.
I don’t seem to be just looking for “knife reviews”, “New Tool Reviews”, , or “LED Light Reviews” either, but I appreciate those links might be aimed at a new visitor who came looking for something in particular – and then clicks those to see what other related content you have.
It’s hard to recommend changes in part because I’m so-used to your existing format. I’m trying to imagine what the site could look like, but I know this one and like it – which makes it hard to imagine what could be better.
Stuart
I added those categories because I gave them focus and wanted to give them more, but plans tend to change.
The recent post list is for anyone that first lands on a post rather than the front page. I added anonymous tracking codes to the link, and metrics show it gets used enough to leave in.
I’ll address comments in a combined reply below.
DRT42
This is probably more of a hint than an actual suggestion. The first thing I look at is the Comments section. Every time. The comments lead me to the page of interest. I never click on anything on the top bar.
I think Jared is basically saying something similar.
fred
That’s my modus operandi too. I can’t recall when I even looked at the header bar or the right-side column. But I’m not the typical reader – doing my scrolling on a desktop computer screen that is better for my octogenarian eyes.
Josephus
I go by most recent articles and then comments from there. Have never used the toolbar looking thing at top, and I’m on desktop most of the time. Maybe sometimes click the “Related Posts” or “Recent Posts” out of curiosity.
No complaints about the comment system, it’s pretty good for being free, no login (necessary), few ads, and no politics or religion to cause fights. That’s up to the commenters being good contributors and the site owner keeping it clean from the back-end.
Stuart
It’s also on my list of enhancements to explore again. I tried a couple of times to build a comments page that expands upon what you see in the Recent Comments section, but they were never usable.
The way the comments work in the backend makes them rigid to deal with.
Eric
Dewalt Starter Pack and free tool at HD for $180.
HD has an in store clearance going for the starter kit and tool. There’s a tag on the tool on their site. BTW their qty on hand was wrong at my store. Said there was only 1 but found 3 on the shelf. If you’re in Tumwater WA there are still two left at 2:25pm 01-16.
fred
While we are off Topic – Acme is doing a 15% off flash sale on hand tools.
JR
Dark mode! Might as well consider a color blind friendly mode while you’re at it.
A “necessary only” button for site cookies would be nice
Stuart
Dark Mode: That might be possible. If it’s not something I can do right away, I can add it to the list.
Color Blind-Friendly: It’s on my list to work on high-contrast colors and avoid confusion. ToolGuyd’s color pallet is purposefully simple. Can you point out any specific areas that you found the color choices troublesome?
I’ve looked into cookie prompts, and will do so again as guidelines and recommendations evolve. Frankly, all the cookies are necessary. I do make it a point to avoid 3rd party integrations whenever possible, but it’s not possible to eliminate them all.
Jronman
Something like Wikepedia would be sufficient. It has a simple apperance settings colum on the side to adjust dark/light modes and text size. sounds like some people could use a sepia mode for an in between of dark and light
Mark W. Ingalls
Like button(s) if practical?
Stuart
Possible? Yes. Practical? No, because the only trusted service that provides that functionality is the same provider I’ve been trying to move away from.
Bob
I agree—adding a “Like” option would be a straightforward way to endorse a comment without needing to add a nearly identical one. That said, I can also understand Stewart’s point about there being “other considerations.”
Ted
Nothing. Literally nothing. I visit at least daily and it’s a simple and functional design.
Stuart
Thank you, and challenge accepted!
Reflector
Agree. Nothing wrong with a clean lightweight site. I check in daily. I’d think really what matters a lot more are quality of life things mentioned by others: Dark mode, single click option (by the article title or such) to jump to the comments and so on.
There’s a lot of less-than-useful design philosophy that’s peddled by “focus groups” from private industry to academic “studies” that might as well be Francesca Gino grade fabrications. Newer is not always better, but it tends to be peddled the hardest whether or not it is objectively better.
DuhWalter
Please. Add features such as lite mode, liking comments, sorting options, etc, but change nothing about the look. Please.
John
Re: Aesthetics: Yes, the logo/heading is very dated. You already acknowledge this. Even without changing the logo (I remember a discussion about this several years ago), the front page would get a significant refresh with merely a cleaner (possibly sans serif) typeface for its heading. I’ve visited this site daily for years, and I never fail to cringe each time I see the ToolGuyd font. It may not be Comic Sans, but it’s still an awful companion to the logo.
My other suggestion is not about design per se. I generally read the entirety of the posts that I’m interested in. Many are very long. I have to imagine my tolerance for long copy is something of an anachronism these days. If an editor is not an option (and I suspect it’s not), I might suggest a paragraph summary (prose or bullet points) at the top of each post. Your readership metrics might even go up. I think it would be a great service to your readers.
Stuart
Logo – I haven’t considered that for a while. Here’s what the earlier ones looked like: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/toolguyd-logos-throughout-the-years-recent-site-changes/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
A lot of things need to be worked on in order. The logo is something I can experiment with after.
In the desktop view of a post, there could be room for a tl;dr (too long, didn’t read) section. I’ve played around with different top-of-post snippets before.
e.g. quick specs (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-dcs367-20v-brushless-compact-reciprocating-saw/%3C/a%3E%29, and review summaries (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/kobalt-magnum-grip-locking-pliers-review/%3C/a%3E%29%3C/p%3E
I never found it to be natural.
The general goal is to put the “what is it, why should I care” part in the first 2-3 paragraphs, with details and contexts to follow.
Headings are added to longer posts.
Generally, and this hasn’t changed much over the years, most people don’t read posts, they skim and search for what’s important to them.
Robert
Search that can search in the comments as well as the main articles. I just did a test with the word “Tealtooth” and it doesn’t work. It was only in a comment so that hit did not pop up. I find details in the comments sometimes very valuable. But it’s hard to get back to a comment of interest, particularly if it’s “off topic” but still worthwhile.
Other than that, I don’t very much use the top tool bar or side bar. Just regularly read the topics of the day. But like search to get back to something of interest. Don’t care about the aesthetics, just concepts.
Stuart
That’s never happening. Even if it were possible, there are 10K posts and 250K comments. One person searching for comments would crash the site.
Irving
If you’re using Firefox, there’s a widget for the toolbar that allows searching that page for whatever you specify. Right-click the toolbar, select “customize toolbar,” select the little magnifying glass and drag it onto the toolbar. I use that search function a dozen times a day to find something on a page.
Farmerguy
The email notification of a comment reply has gone missing on my comment section. It was convenient to know and facilitate discussion if someone has replied to you and if they asked a question then be able to timely reply versus remembering what articles a comment was made and checking comments throughout the day randomly.
Stuart
Short answer: there was a site-breaking bug, and more issues followed, leading me to move away from the subscription service provider.
Longer answer: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/hart-crate-walmart/#comment-1582201%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Tucker
Came to suggest for a way to find my own comments and replies to them. So much good feedback here, but it’s easy to lose track of when/where I commented.
But platform limitations are platform limitations.
JR Ramos
I actually really like the simple (and dated) layout of this site. I’m glad to hear that you do as well. Frankly a lot of what the millennial/gen Z devs have done to web design just bugs me. Maybe I’m more linear like original developers and programmers tend to be but I’m just not a fan of the majority of new layouts and approaches.
Dark mode would be nice, but personally I like something medium-dark so that it isn’t glaring on a desktop monitor at night but not so dark that contrast can suffer. I’ve seen on some discourse-style layouts where they offer users two or three color viewing choices without the users having to script their own.
Please, please, keep the comments and articles in chronological order!! Or at least make it the default if there will be options (like reddit with “new” or “hot” or whatever). I don’t know why people rebelled against chronology in recent years but sometimes it’s just the best layout where communication and interaction on a meaningful level is concerned, and there seems to be a lot of that on this site.
One thing that might be nice is to have a longer list of recent comments with a scrolling option. I think right now it shows the most recent six or so. I like to keep track of older articles and newer comments in those articles but right now I have to just find and open said article and scroll all the way through the comments. That’s not bad for moderately-commented ones but when there are sixty or a hundred it’s time consuming. So a scrolling feed sort of thing might be a welcome addition.
Since you have a fair amount of people that land here and aren’t regulars, maybe a tab that has common articles would help….like tradesmen apprentice tool lists or basic/intermediate/advanced homeowner/DIY tool lists. I know you’ve got a lot of past articles for those but maybe a tab grouping those together would be useful for those who might end up here for that sort of information.
Sometimes it would be nice to be able to enlarge the photos you share in articles. These days some browsers allow that with a right-click but if a click like a photo viewer can enlarge them it might be nice. Of course if they’re borrowed images with a small file size then it wouldn’t be so helpful if they end up grainy. Just a thought.
I know it’s a ton of work to create and maintain a site, let alone redesign one with all the new frameworks and such and such. Thanks for the work you do to keep it up and running and giving us all a place to chat or learn or buy!
Stuart
Thanks for the kind words!
The overarching goal is to replace the framework and rebuild a familiar look and layout that allows for flexibility.
I think the chronological order works well, but there are opportunities for a little more. That’s partly why I’m updating the framework.
Image size is a complication as it contributes towards slower page loading and that dings readability in the eyes of search engines. Mobile readers don’t always have fast service, and some users are on fixed data plans.
I try to include closeups where fitting. And yes, sometimes press images are low-res. I can usually add a closeup image to a post or even to the comments which I hope is a reasonable compromise.
I’ll have top see how large of an image size can fit into a desktop browser view; I might be able to go a little bigger.
S
Id rebut that opinion you got with a reference to google.com. it’s extremely dated with just a simple search prompt in the middle of a blank screen. There’s a reason Google keeps such a simple main page, despite having way more money and web designers at their command than any other site. If it benefited them to update it, they would have already.
I wouldn’t mind a specific section for ‘hot deals’, but I’m overall very happy with the site. There’s no pushy videos that need pausing, or vaguely related articles. Even the ad’s aren’t terribly obtrusive here.
And frankly, that’s what I like. I visit the site at least 3-5 times a week because the information on any discussed product is straight forward and honest. Your recent Dremel article is a perfect example of that. Every other site is touting it as the next coming of tools. While you did a very clear and concise job of laying out what the tools do, I appreciate the honesty that it just doesn’t work for you.
A shinier logo, color change, or a shuffling of the header isn’t going to change any of that for me.
Stuart
In the same sense, consider Google’s Gmail service or YouTube platform – both have been significantly overhauled over the years.
I use a bunch of other Google services, and they are regularly changed for better or worse.
Also consider Google search results – they’ve made significant changes there too.
I’m not making changes for the sake of change. The framework has to change, and it’s an opportunity to refresh everything else as the walls and paint go back up.
I appreciate your feedback about the general content and atmosphere!
blocky
Not that I use them, but the share-article icons could be beneath the headline, which is where I would look for them.
The RH column contents are useful; perhaps a change in background color or showing the table frames could help delineate the space visually.
The images are fairly dated, in particular ‘new tool reviews’.
I’m middle-aged; I appreciate how legible Toolguyd is.
Stuart
The sidebar links, which are below content on mobile, are links to ToolGuyd’s social media profiles and newsletter.
I got rid of “share this post on social media” links years ago. Few people used them, and I didn’t like having 3rd party scripts that I was concerned could be collecting data.
I figured that if someone really wanted to share an article, they could easily grab a post link for use in a text, post, or whatever.
blocky
That makes a lot of sense; thanks for explaining it.
Brian Whitton
Maybe this is a me problem, but the reply buttons on comments are too sensitive on mobile. If I hit one while scrolling, it activates.
Michael Third
One time I actually wanted the reply box to show!
Stuart
That’s at the top of my list of QoL things to work on. It’s a difficult thing to fix.
On mobile, I decreased the size of the tap target as much as I could, and I also indented it a bit with whitespace and a little arrow so it’s not just floating.
The tap-to-open method cannot be easily modified.
Most sites closed comments or don’t have nested replies. Hackaday, another high-comment-frequency site, doesn’t seem to have found a good fix either.
The only potential solution I’ve found until now is maybe moving it to the right side.
Tom
I find that if I am using my left hand to scroll the comments, I inadvertently hit the reply button more often. When I use my right hand, it does not happen as much.
Bill
If it ain’t broke…
There are two reasons I see for most redesigns. First is to increase ad placement and click-throughs. Second is larger companies having staff that do such things and needing to justify their continued paychecks. There’s also the ‘not invented here’ when new people get hired and feel compelled to leave their mark.
If there are quality of life improvements you’d like to do so you can concentrate on content versus shoe-horning things in to the site, yes, upgrade the underlying framework to make your life easier. If you feel like doing a face lift to freshen things up, go for it. Otherwise, the current look and feel works well for your content.
Unless Craigslist starts looking more modern than you, then you probably don’t need to worry.
Jronman
Agreed the site isn’t broke and the articles are actually useful throughout. I appreciate that your articles are not full of fluff. It annoys me when other sites have an article that is 75% fluff and 25% useful content. Quality of life features like dark mode is the main change I would make.
Stuart
Much of the redesign will be invisible to readers, aside from instances where I can’t cram a square peg into a round hole.
It’s not necessary, but it’s got to get done and it’s not a good idea to kick the can further down the road.
This is an opportunity to look at everything and ask if it makes sense, and to also ask if there’s opportunity for improvement.
Bonnie
I don’t love Lato as a font. It’s serviceable, but I find it kind of tiring to follow. If you don’t want to stray too far I’d recommend looking at Carlito, which is a slightly more modern derivative (and Google’s answer to Calibri which I also quite like). Montserrat is another favorite of mine you could consider, though it’s further afield.
I find the grey background/sideframes distracting and kind of ugly. There’s no need for them, the content frames itself well enough you don’t need that, and it just calls to attention some of the weird whitespace padding around the top menu. If you do want to stick with it, I’d recommend lightening it and going a little bluer, like #f8f9fa (you’ll recognise this color from Wikipedia).
The brown/blue/red primary colorscheme of the site is functional but they don’t compliment each other well. If sticking with a dark brown/umber main color I’d shift the blue to be darker, and the red to a more russet or orange tone so they compliment each other more. I don’t *love* the current brown either…
Blues: #0E4B9A
Reds: #a51200, #f95f21 (I haven’t checked these for contrast)
The biggest thing I’d recommend is reviewing the current Web Accessibility Content Guidelines. The WCAG standard is very good and important for keeping the internet accessible as a whole. For an example of issues, the grey text beneath the title is lacking contrast from the bright white background and can be difficult to read. Most of your other accessibility issues are inside the ads, which isn’t something you can easily control. The Alt text of the images on your sidebar are describing the purpose of the element, but don’t describe the actual image.
Another accessibility issue is the tab order. Tabbing through the site I don’t notice a way to skip directly to the main content of an article without having to tab through every single submenu.
As for more personal observations: I basically never use the top menu. The only thing in there I find somewhat useful is the “who owns who” page. The related posts are almost never useful and often seem to be old and barely related articles (like the Hart milkcrate post has a link to a 3 year old review of a plier rack?). Unless you have analytics saying those are heavily used I’d just excise the entire block.
Stuart
Thanks!! I’ll look at those fonts. There’s also the potential to play around with vector shapes, but logo redesign is more of a branding consideration than layout. Honestly, I hadn’t even considered that, my primary intent right now is to focus on functionality duplication and then enhancement.
The grey gutters on desktop or landscape views will likely go. I can do that now, and stretch the top header, but the content width wouldn’t change without too much fiddling. It’s best to start fresh and redevelop the responsive breaking points.
Thanks for the other feedback! I’ll be reworking everything. The related category/tag fields are also small and need to be restyled.
The top menu is still well-used, but not all of it, such as certain sub-headings.
I need to reassess the related posts again. That’s plugin-based, and it tries to suggest posts based on common classifications, such as “reviews” or “storage and organization” categories.
Some categories aren’t regularly touched upon, and so the allowable timeframe can’t be too short.
I don’t let it show deals, and so it shows “no related posts” for deals posts, which is inelegant at the least.
The last I checked – I’ll have to add link tags back in if I can – it was used enough to keep it. When I took down the “previous post” and “next post” links, a couple of readers complained.
I’ll look into the tab ordering.
Stuart
I’ll need to do a lot of testing, but I see what you mean about Carlito. Thanks again! (My comment about vectors was in relation to logo font of course.)
Andrew
I’d ask, or pay as a consultant, what your family member feels is dated.
If his suggestions make the experience worse just by adding flash vs functionality, then what he means is you’re not chasing pointless interface trends.
One example:
My car radio can switch between sources with a touchscreen, but I have to push a button as much as 5 times to find the source I want, rather than one button for the list of sources where I can instantly pick the source I want. Sure the scrolling menu looks fancy, but 5 button pushes for what should be done in 2.
Another example:
Slickdeals is my most used site for decades now, but they had some growing pains when trying to modernize and monetize and obscured useful sections like the forums with words like community. Now they’ve found a middle ground with community forums. Or they hid their treasured “hot deals” forum under 2 more layers of menu categories, effectively making it harder to find the content that made their users become the useful base it was. I still use the site in classic mode because their modern mode is harder to follow information presented, and the forums are in two different interfaces depending what button you click. In classic mode nothing switches formats on you.
Basically, don’t modernize for the sake of modernizing if it isn’t necessary.
Jronman
Agreed
Stuart
When all is said and done, the site should be largely recognizable.
Personally, I greatly dislike modern trends. For example, when visiting a site via laptop or desktop, no one should have to click a hamburger menu icon to see the top links.
A refresh and rework is necessary.
Nate W.
I absolutely love visiting this site because I can always count on finding fantastic tool deals that are worth grabbing. Honestly, about 80% of the time, I’m thrilled with the deals I’ve snagged here! I was thinking it would be amazing to have a dedicated button or header that links directly to active tool deals you’ve discovered. It would make finding those gems even easier and super convenient. Just a thought from a big fan of the site!
Stuart
Thank you!! I’ll see what I can do.
Ezzy
Dark mode. Notifications for new posts and email or site notifications about replies to comments. An option to upvote or at least thumbs up/down comments.
Jronman
[1] I would add dark mode.
[2] I like the current format where the newest article is at the top then scrolling down gets progressively older. To improve this, it would be nice to see an option to pick how many articles are shown per page.
[3] I would avoid algorithmic anything if possible. I want to see what I want to see and not what an advertiser or ai thinks I want to see.
[4] One thing I would like to see stay is the RSS functionality. Yup just brought up an ancient term by today’s standards but the RSS is quite useful. I have a channel in my discord that will automatically post your articles via a RSS bot.
[5] If changes are to be made, I would prefer nothing that makes the experience worse or nothing that removes features. It annoys me when companies push a redesign or some kind of update and features I use are either gone, done different, or harder to find.
Stuart
I cannot promise I’ll always serve full posts via RSS, but at this time I won’t be changing that. I almost did recently, but scrapers will always find ways to steal content. I figured some readers still used it, and didn’t want to take it away from you.
I don’t remove anything lightly, and expect to post again once I make good progress. There will also be opportunities for feedback.
The “related posts” section is the only algorithmic part. There’s not much I can do about the way Google ads work. I can trim down the desktop presence a bit, but can’t do away with it.
Dave
Honestly, if you want to add some higher level categorization, fine, go for it. This website may have an older aesthetic, but it’s clean, simple, functional, and it’s not like it looks like a 1998 Geocities page. People come here for your superb information and reviews, not a flashy website.
Keep a good working search, keep RSS, don’t get too fancy. I too like dark mode, but the Dark Reader extension (https://darkreader.org/) fixes that. Stay focused on the content!
Brian
I use an RSS feed reader to see each new article as it comes out. This isn’t as popular as it once was, but it’s a nice way for readers to stay up to date: I’d love it if it continues.
Perhaps this is already done, but there are a lot of free ways to convert a feed like this to automatic posts (usually with just the first few sentences) on places like bluesky or mastodon. It could be an easy way to draw new readers to the site.
Stuart
Syndication tends to cause duplication issues, which is a good thing since it helps discourage content theft.
I’ll keep the RSS feed unchanged, and appreciated you mentioning it! I almost changed it over, but knowing it’s still used regularly will dissuade me from considering it again for the foreseeable future.
PKS319
Not sure if this is helpful but…. I pretty much like the site the way it is! I find everything I need in a simple layout with no clutter. I do think the logo could be updated and agree with the comment about about the font. But that is a tiny tweak.
You are already doing an amazing community service so if you need to update to make things simpler for you, then go for it. But so many site designs make everything worse. The retro feel is part of the charm and – the way things go – this will look modern again in a few years.
Stuart
All feedback is helpful, thank you!!
Retro? I like that better than “dated.” =)
Plain+grainy
Sometimes a comment has info that I’d like to revisit later. Is it possible to number each comment, so it’s easy to return to later?
Stuart
If you click the timestamp, that’s a permalink to each comment that can be bookmarked.
Kingsley
A dewalt/milwaukee/other brands filter on the news maybe
Stuart
Combining filtering is possible, but the question is where would it go?
Filters cannot be easily created on the fly, but I can create the scripts to create separate pages or on-page lists.
I’m thinking of the refresh with the idea to insert things like easily editable “coming soon” lists and similar where logical, with the ability to quickly update them in one place.
Daniel
I come here daily, sometimes multiple times for the content!
Best tool content on the web in my opinion. I love the simple layout and design.
I hope you keep it simple. I like the chronological order.
A merchandise section might be nice with ToolGuyd T-shirts, coffee mugs and stickers. I generally use DuckDuckGo browser Extension for privacy reasons. (I sometimes disable for your website), I’d love a way to support the website without all the tracking. DuckDuckGo gives your site a D grade. I will leave it off for now, and just be more diligent about clearing cookies after a visit.
Keep up the good work Stuart!
Stuart
There will be a reduction in 3rd party services and thus 3rd party cookies and connections, but it’s impossible to eliminate Google analytics and ads.
Paid merch is hard – you need a LOT of people to make it cost-effective.
AP
Maybe a dark mode. Otherwise I wouldn’t change a thing.
TimL
I like the simplicity of the site and check it probably multiple times daily. Always looking for a deal or something new to learn about. I like that Deals and info are all in the same spot and I can easily see if there is a new post. It would be annoying (to me) for them to be split in sections since there are less than a handful of topics each day.
I dont have the perspective of a new user so it may be different for them. Any of the menus at the top that I have used have been accidental clicks since I was moving my mouse up to the top.
I love the comment section cause you get real user info, not necessarily “sponsored or filtered” content from other sites which are trying to sell you something.
I remember a few years ago a co-author (Ben?) was doing some 20/80 extrusion building and it was fun to see his progress and get recommendations rather than just scrolling endless pages of thousands of shapes sizes and connectors.
Stuart is doing an excellent job and I prefer this site style over reddit since it is simple and clean and easy to navigate. I prefer not being able to edit comments; as typos are part of life.
Stuart
The front page will still have a chronological view, but knowing that readers visit, scroll, and click, what else could be presented in an at-a-glance manner?
Ryan
FWIW, I think you have one of the best mobile sites out there. Everything is listed in one column and in chronological order.
If you want to church it up a bit, you could overhaul and/or ditch the toolbar at the top. At the very least, some of the information is dated and probably needs refreshed.
On the rightmost column, having a separate “Hot Deals” section and/or a “Trending Posts” section may not be a bad idea.
My suggestion would be to make the most changes to the comment section. It’s not that your comment section is bad (far from it), but in my experience having a robust comment section fosters engagement and consistent visitors.
I know that this may sound VERY out there, but have you considered just moving everything to Substack? You could keep the current “blog:” format (albeit with less customization) but have something to further drive engagement and commenting. It would be trivial to do 1-2 opinion/open threads per week by which people can discuss tools and the like. This would also allow you to monetize things a bit, offering both free and “paid” articles while ditching Adsense and the like altogether.
Scott F
Agree with many others that there is little NECESSARY to change here. I am 100% mobile use so cannot speak so much to desktop format, but I am another who appreciates the chronological view of the home page. Agree with others a dark or semi-dark mode may be nice. Comments you know the quirks and bugs, and know you are limited in fixing them so won’t complain – I’m more glad they exist at all and can deal with the tradeoffs until you find a solution you are happier with. This is the only area that improvements would be welcome/have a meaningful improvement on UX. To echo your point in the post, what you have done so far by shaping TG as you see it best, works.
I have never used the top bar, or much any function outside of the search (need to know what you want to find though), and the Contact ToolGuyd button.
I do not know what this would look like, but a set of “brand homepages” could be interesting – a specific page for the top brands displaying a few sections for new tool releases, recent deals and posts, best tool picks across main categories, ….
May be more effort to curate and maintain than it is worth though. The one part of this suggestion i think could really be meaningful is the new releases; it would be awesome to click a button and see all of your posts about NEW tools in one spot. You typically cover new tools very well, and being able to scroll the chronology and see what brands are releasing and have released over the last several years would be nice. I know Milwaukee releases a new impact driver every 1-2 years – when is the last time they refreshed their OPE? The quiet compressor is going on 2-3 years old now, when might they release another, has DeWalt or the other top competitors recently released something new that Milwaukee might be chasing? I know I can locate the Milwaukee pipeline posts throughout the years, but getting all of the other brands at the same time is (maybe) impossible? The existing “New Tools” tag is a little too broad, maybe a little more specificity or additional tags (new power tools, etc).
And of course everyone loves deals. I don’t have productive feedback for better deal visibility or coverage, because you do a great job.
Somebody suggested a TLDR section – I hate to even say this but I have been semi impressed by a lot of the “AI companions” that are attached to zoom and teams meetings and their ability to concisely summarize an hour meeting into 10 bullet points. This is a different application where it may not work as well, but maybe worth looking at to see if it produces anything you would even think of using. I personally will be reading every word anyway and would not find this a very useful feature. Your intro 2-3 para ‘hook’ is enough for me to know why I’m reading the rest of the article.
Last one – simple IS better. Not a lot of colors, images, structures on the page, buttons, ……. I love the simplicity of TGs layout. It is not what keeps me coming back, but it gives a nostalgic feel from the time before everything was about monetization and imagery.
Scott F
Oh wait, I missed one of the most important suggestions.
ADD A PATREON/SOME OTHER SORT OF LINK FOR US TO CONTRIBUTE!!!!
I’d rather donate than buy merch. I don’t need more t shirts, coffee mugs, or cozies.
Stuart
Maybe eventually, but I don’t like the idea of it. I’ve also seen some influencers and YouTubers lie to and manipulate their audience. It seems like a conflict of interest unless there are specific goals.
Daniel
How about just a simple, donate button. A dollar here or a dollar there. Just would be nice to support ToolGuyd and all the hard work you do.
Stuart
Regarding “brand homepages,” that’s part of the idea.
We have brand filters, e.g. https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/brand/dewalt/%3C/a%3E , https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/brand/milwaukee/%3C/a%3E .
Adding content to the top of those pages, above the list of recent posts for the respective brand, is easy. Updating that content is not.
If you recall what the top-of-page holiday deal reminders looked like, all of that was hard-coded. It wasn’t easy or difficult to update, and the fact that I only had to edit it in one place was really helpful.
Now image we have deal snippets, plus Dewalt and Milwaukee snippets that aren’t quite worth a post, but great for at-a-glance absorption. That’s 3 places I would need to edit, and so they would likely grow stagnant. What if there are other sections?
What if we want different info blocks in multiple places? That’s a big part of the intent behind the overhaul, at least with respect to the framework.
Brand-specific will be a lot easier than trying to do this for everything. For example, I should be able to create an updatable post for a brand and then “sticky” it at the top of the brand view, along with maybe a box with recent changes.
For instance, let’s say there are 5 new Milwaukee releases today. I could add that into a “2025 new launches” post stickied to the top of the Milwaukee brand page, but also have an info box with the latest updates in condensed view, so that you don’t have to click into that post. This way the info is 1 click away rather than 2 plus some scrolling. Want to check new releases for 3 brands? That’s 3 clicks rather than 6.
The goal is for readers to get what they’re looking for, and not get lost x-pages deep.
*I* also have to be able to find info quickly. I want fewer clicks, not more, and I doubt anyone will say they want otherwise.
Bill
Suggestion, Add a TIP’s section for the commonly used tools and some of their applications. This would perhaps attack more visitors.
Example: [Side Cutters] How to secure cables [Crimpers] how to secure terminals . . .
Example: add a vote button to allow visitors to rate an posted article & this would be helpful for reference a task later down road. I may not need the Tool Today, but I can save the article for an application next month or next year
Example: add a share button so that I can email a posted article for further reference
Example: add a print button so that I can print the article for offline reference
Example: formatting options when we post articles so that we can add structure to information posted, Bold Type, Italic Type, Underline Type, Ect . . .
Just a few quick thoughts.
Stuart
Thanks!
Venturing too deeply into how-to territory can create problems and liabilities. I can share what I do in a project, but don’t want to be responsible for how others might use instructional content.
Articles can be easily printed to paper or PDF. I don’t have print-friendly views because no one’s asked for that before.
Readers can add styling to comments. I don’t actively encourage this because commentors less familiar with html have a high chance of making mistakes.
I removed sharing buttons years ago, and will not be going back.
Dave
Readers can add styling to comments.
🤯
Stuart
I don’t encourage this because it can get very out of hand.
I don’t encourage this because it can get very out of hand.
Stick to basic em and strong tags. More than that and there’s a high likelihood I’ll have to fix things.
James
99% mobile, daily visitor, moderate commenter.
Why did I find the site? Don’t remember but certainly doing research for a tool purchase several years ago.
Why do I continue to come here? 2 reasons.
1. I enjoy the content and Stuart’s approach, as well as the community comments which broaden my context and enrich my life. Does that go too far? I don’t think so, otherwise I wouldn’t be inclined to visit as often as I do.
2. When researching the purchase of any tool >~$100, I am going to take my time and try to get the tool that will benefit my family and/or my business for the long term. For example, if I’m buying a router, I will read the router articles on this site regarding the models I’m considering, as well as (and especially) the reader comments for feedback and nuggets. Sometimes, there may be an educational article about a particular tool…I recall there’s an SDS drill size explanation that helped greatly when we were expanding our SDS fleet a couple years ago.
Look and feel:
– couldn’t care less about the look because the text loads well and the font is decent.
– the reply button on the comments is too sensitive and annoying.
Function:
– I don’t find the related links on any page to be consistently useful, so I am conditioned to ignore them completely. Not a big deal, and I use Google search with « toolguyd » to find specific info.
Changes:
– I see some requests for brand categories. Perhaps you can cover this with « tagging », but I strongly prefer tool categories. Using the example above, it would be helpful when shopping to go to « router » page and see every article about routers, because when I am shopping, I am doing so across brands.
– pics on comments would be nice, perhaps a level commenters can achieve after 50 posts or whatever to minimize the spam, and perhaps with other limits to minimize the data consumption. There have only been a couple instances where I wanted to post a photo but it would have been very helpful to the context at that time. I have also read when others wanted to post a photo for similar reasons.
– perhaps not realistic, but I would like to see more articles, curated and edited, perhaps from the community (for example, Fred or MM), just to increase the tool content that I find interesting in general. These could be topics chosen based on users strengths or experiences. This would increase content, and also broaden the voice (perhaps counter to your goals here, Stuart) and delve into more details about more things than you would ever have time to research. For example, if I were to write one off the top of my head, it would be related to my industry and tools we use for purified water work, and then perhaps that could add a « industry » category that would provide a greater impact as a website.
That’s about it. Unless you really botch it, I’ll be here every day regardless 😉
Stuart
Thank you!!
Router content? https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/category/power-tools/routers/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Woodworking? https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/category/woodworking/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
If you look at the bottom of a post, there are sections to like-categorized, tagged, or branded tools.
Here’s the big problem – where do those links go?
There are 89 categories, 849 tags, and 857 brands. The brands page (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/brands/%3C/a%3E%29 will likely be first to be overhauled, and then I’ll work towards tags and categories.
The Hand Tool and Power Tool elements in the top menu have changed over time based on use. I might simply rework the entire structure for easier navigation. It might add a click, but show more options.
But then we have readers saying they’ve never used the top menu and are unlikely to do so. So, we might need a front page section that provides a pathway to a similar index.
We have industry-specific sections too, e.g. https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/category/metalworking/%3C/a%3E , https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/category/plumbing/%3C/a%3E , at least for categories where they are occasional or regular posts.
Organizing content, both archival and on an ongoing basis as it’s created, is relatively easy. The challenge is in building a map that readers will actually use and potentially benefit from.
Over the years I pared down the map based on what readers seemed to be interested in.
This is why “mega menus” are used, but personally I find them to be usability nightmares.
The NY Times has a relatively clean menu, and logical subheadings. Where do you find “Science” or “Tech?” After finding it the first time under US, I guess I’ll know to look there in the future.
How many sections do we fit into a submenu here? Or do I simply move ALL sections to a page, which involves a click.
Redesign isn’t just about colors, but about the entire experience.
Some readers want greater filtering, others say they don’t use the top menu. Hence the front page could/should be redesigned. Desktop allows for a lot more flexibility. Mobile? That’s where I need to understand readers’ preferences and requests more, and posts like this with your comments like yours and everyone else’s really help with that.
There are also archives by year: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/2018/%3C/a%3E , and even month: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/2018/02/%3C/a%3E .
Guest posts are tricky. That’s an option, but I’ll need to get back to work on a style and best practices guide.
Images in comments is a huge security risk. There’s no way for readers to read from the database, and so there couldn’t be a way for selective permissions. There’s always the option to use imgur with a link, social media posts, or similar, although that does that extra steps.
Dave
“– the reply button on the comments is too sensitive and annoying.”
YES! I knew I wasn’t the only one!
Ben
I come here almost daily; I currently work in the power tools industry and use this site as a source to catch up on competitors’ offerings, as well as your (Stuart’s) reviews of new tools, to see what other people think, to see deals, and to help stay abreast of the industry in general. I’m also just a dork who likes tools. I’m very thankful for the extremely dedicated job you do Stuart. Keep up the great work!
From a site functionality perspective:
1) As others have said, native dark mode would be great.
2) I actually come here mostly on desktop; it would be great to have a “home” button on the floating header bar.
3) I agree with James’ comment about some community-contribution articles – that could be cool. Perhaps the forum was the vehicle for that, but c’est la vie.
4) It would be helpful, if possible, to have other sections/tags/categories more visible from the home page, or at the top of each article. Currently, it looks like each post is given one primary category (e.g. “editorial”, “cordless”, “flashlights and worklights”, etc.) on the home page, and is tagged with “other sections” or “more from” at the bottom of the article itself (e.g. “sections: cordless, new tools | more from: Dremel”). For me, it would be very helpful to be able to see multiple categorizations at a glance from the home page. Maybe I just need to browse the various categories more.
5) As others have said, it would be helpful to be able to see all the comments I’ve made, but we all understand if the backend of that is difficult.
Whatever you end up doing, I’ll still be here!
Stuart
I’ll see what I can do about a “back to top” link or button.
For front page sections/tags/categories, they were trimmed down for a cleaner look.
I’m looking at 13 months of click metrics right now. The top clicks were to the “new tools,” category, followed by “tool deals,” and then “cordless.”
Based on what I’m seeing additional links would just clutter the view for the vast majority of readers. Multiple tags, categories, and brand links are found on post pages.
There is a bit of work to do (e.g. it doesn’t make sense to show the same section when in a child section such as https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/category/power-tools/cordless/%3C/a%3E ), but I’m not sure I can justify adding more to the front page or section pages. I’ll your request in mind and will see what I can do.
I will look for ways to include more category links on the front page, other than in the top menu, but it’s not looking practical to do this for every front page or section page headline.
Seeing all of the comments you made requires a query of the database, and there’s no way to do that. *I* can do that, but it’s locked off to the public. It’s like asking to step inside a home to see if you’ve been there before.
James
😂 at the last line. Thanks for caring, and in case you weren’t aware, it shows.
As I was typing in this reply, I turned my phone to landscape mode for a second and my text was deleted….not the kind of thing I would ever mention, except this seems to be the moment….this is something that has happened in occasion and is annoying and I’ve just tested for consistency and it happens every time (iPhone 15 if helpful)..
Stuart
I have an iPhone 13. Just tested this in both Chrome and Safari, and my text doesn’t disappear.
Going from portrait to landscape changes sizes, but not form contents.
It will sometimes move your place on the page, but it shouldn’t be clearing out the comments input field.
I’ll have to see if I can replicate that. Anyone else experiencing similar?
Dave
Testing 123…
(Turns phone to landscape)
iPhone 15 pro. Firefox. Text did not disappear.
Scott F
Moto ThinkPhone
Text stayed as it was. Tried as new comment and threaded reply.
Dave
Have not read all the comments…yet, so I apologize if this was already said.
Personally, on mobile view, I find it way too easy to accidentally click “reply” to a comment while scrolling through the comments. Literally happens all the time. Then I have to cancel out of the reply. Not sure if the button sensitivity can be somehow adjusted to avoid that, such as requiring a press and hold for a fraction of a second to actually reply?
Jason M
Spin the hammer around (jk) man I’ve been a reader for a long time.
Keep up the good work
Mountain View
Who gives a rats ass if your Marketing Industry relative thinks it’s outdated??
I don’t and I don’t think your readers do either. “If it aint broke, don’t fix it”
I’ve built a number of web pages, and honestly, this one is fine. If you want to make real, functional, improvements, go for it. But don’t fall for the “shiny object” of web design. Why waste your time? And it IS a huge time suck!! Content will be more appreciated than the latest greatest font currently in favor (until it’s not).
Stuart
I appreciate that!
To be clear, I’m acknowledging that it looks dated – and am okay with that. There are changes that need to be made under the hood where I can’t just copy/paste things over to a new framework. It’s all got to be converted over, e.g. flexboxes instead of floats.
Scott K
I second this!
Jp
I would like dark mode for mobile.
Ryan Tanner
Fix the logo so the hammer is faced the correct direction
Stuart
Never!! Claw end of the hammer is used all the time. =)
Scott K
I read ToolGuyd daily and now exclusively on my phone. I find it very easy to navigate and I’m not bothered by the layout or aesthetic. I like the chronological layout since I check the site regularly. I find the search, tags, and related posts helpful for when I’m looking for something. I understand the desire to reformat time-sensitive posts about sales or deals; although, it’s nice to have access to these as posts if you’re searching for a tool because it can be nice to know that an item is occasionally or maybe regularly discounted.
I’m not sure if the comment subscription has changed, but it would be nice if there were different options. I thought it used to function such that you received a notification of a reply to your comment. But I’ve have other experiences where I received a notification every time there was any comment. Is that normal or a glitch?
I’ve looked at the various guides in the past, but I can’t recall the last time.
Stuart
I addressed the comment subscription problem above. In a nutshell, unfortunately it’s not coming back.
Geoff
I know you said no hamburger menu, but in your image with the two menu bars, make the items that are on the blue menu part of the click drop down menu (not a hover over) from the “hamburger” menu. Put it to the right of the search field and make the button icon a stack of different hand tools (hammer, wrench, screwdriver). I was thinking menu items that aren’t clicked on very often and/or the menu items that are at the bottom of the page (keep the footer menus). I’m just thinking of keeping down the clutter on the header area of the page.
Do keep the Tool Guy D logo on the top left going to home.
Frankly, I agree with Mountain View. The site is essentially fine as is.
Stuart
The image with the double top menu bars was from more than 10 years ago. In the last redesign the secondary menu was moved to the bottom of the page.
There’s a lot that can be done on desktop, but on mobile, complex menus tend to look and navigate terribly.
Geoff
Do you have any statistics (or a poll) on how the site is accessed?
Desktop, mobile, both?
I’m nearly exclusively desktop. I might have looked something up on my phone one or two time, but it would be something that I realized I needed to reference when I was out.
How critical is a mobile specific site?
Stuart
Last 12 months: 83.3% mobile, 11.3% desktop, 5.4% tablet. It’s more than 7-to-1 mobile vs desktop by visitor.
Among returning visitors for the same period, it’s 86.8% mobile, 8% desktop, 5.1% tablet. That’s 10.8 to 1 for mobile vs desktop.
Mobile is critical.
There’s still a lot of desktop users, and so there could/should be ways to enhance the front page experience for them. There are opportunities for mobile as well, just fewer based on the screen size and aspect ratio.
Ga
Words from the practical and wise pneumatics manager at Pontiac Motors (obviously aged memory!) to a young impressionable sales guy: I can’t honestly use your product, unless it is 10x better than what I am presently using! The aggravation that change causes may not be worth the energy expended. Change and confusion for the sake of change is not worth my time. Your format and data has helped me often. I will trust your expertise to forge on, thank you.
Patrick T
Oh man, this is right in my wheelhouse!
As someone who visits almost daily… sometimes multiple times a day, I find the site functional for the basics. Here are some things I’d consider in my exploration if it were me:
* Improved search with filter functionality. If I search for “dewalt” maybe I only want to search titles or, maybe I want any post with the word “dewalt” in it. I’d also like the ability to do sorting within results. There are times where you’ve had a recent post that has dropped off the first page and when searching, it’s 50/50 if I find it easily.
* Does the excerpt add anything? I personally don’t like an excerpt that is on the homepage but then isn’t anywhere in the post page. If the excerpt stays, I’d consider adding it to the post page as a sub-head or something.
* I’d provide more space to the content. Right now, the layout of the post page and homepage are the same. I personally find everything on the sidebar to be wasted space. Especially on the post page.
* I’d try different layouts for different pages/sections of the site. As a desktop and tablet user, I’d love to see more a grid for the main feed. Can the main feed have 2-3 posts per row? Not sure. But, I would try it.
* Greater and more prominent use of tags/key words. I think you said your using WordPress based on your comments about Auttomatic. WordPress has a couple of ways to organize posts using built in categories and tags with hierarchies. You can also use custom-post-types for greater differentiation if you desire. Editorial vs Review vs News, etc…
* in-post navigation. Not sure this is necessary. But, some posts are divided into sections. Post at the top, competition and other items next. Sometimes a “discussion” section. All of that can be customized in wordpress through templating. You could easily have a “jump to…” bulleted list at the top that would jump to the appropriate section but, only if you’ve written something for it. The Wirecutter does this and I really like it. I’m not sure how custom your setup is but, it’s pretty easy to setup custom fields and sections on posts.
* I would take a long hard look at the nav menu and the homepage sidebar. Maybe it doesn’t change. Maybe the options and hierarchy need to change a bit. I find that sidebar content tends to work best if it’s treated more like promotional material or, is something specific to the page in question. Other than the “recents” the other items don’t appear to change much. Did you add images for “multi tool” reviews there because it wouldn’t fit in the nav bar or was too hard to find? I’d look at what the goals for that sidebar are and why certain things are there. Can they be somewhere else?
* If you keep a sidebar on the post pages, does it need to mirror what’s on the homepage? I’d argue that you could lose the sidebar on either the homepage or the post-page. Or, they should be different. For me, because they are the same, it’s essentially invisible to me. I don’t look because it doesn’t change. When looking at a post pages, the sidebar could have the categories/tags, related posts, then recents, etc… I don’t need to sign up for the newsletter on each page. Or see knife reviews. Etc…
* I understand the aversion to the hamburger button. It’s pretty universal at this point though. I wouldn’t start with that but let my information architecture and design statement inform that decision. It’s all a trade off right? In my experience, The NY Times doesn’t get a hamburger button until you leave the homepage. At that point, the focus is the story or the content and the navigation gets minimized. In their case, the content is the product and therefore is the most valuable part of the screen, The hamburger then mirrors the top-level navigation on the homepage. Simple. Clear. I’d say that the Times is done better than something like the Verge. The Verge has some top-level items in the menu and then has their version of a hamburger. That shows you the top-level items PLUS things that maybe should be there but aren’t for some reason.
* Speaking of the verge, they just recently redesigned. I believe one of their goals was to have more flexibility to post short posts. Almost like tweets. Is that something you want? Something to consider if you’re looking towards the future. Maybe not everything needs commentary. A type of “quick-link” is pretty standard with the old-school tech bloggers.
Good luck with whatever you do. I’ll still visit on a regular basis for good, honest, insightful news and reviews.
Stuart
Thanks!!
I’ve looked into how to improve search, and it really comes down to content control. It’s on my list to allow for basic filtering. I’ll see what I can do about filtering by new tools, reviews, deals, at the least.
For more advanced filtering or sorting, a Google site:toolguyd.com search can be more powerful.
Search functions are surprisingly complex. For example, if you go to Makita’s website, “impact driver” gives you a lot of results, but if you search for “xgt impact driver” it turns up empty with 0 results. From now being able to easily improve ToolGuyd’s search function, I’ve learned to be more forgiving.
Excerpts are used on the front page on desktop, email newsletters (daily and weekly), and were also used in social media posts when auto-posted to Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes there’s more details, other times it seems redundant. But there’s purpose behind it.
The content column can expand a little, but not too much. I’ve researched readability quite a bit. There’s a sweet spot when it comes to words per line. If the post column doubled in width, that would impact image size and words per line, which would affect readability.
If you look at say Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. , there’s a limit as to how wide the content column can get.
I’ll be working on the sidebar, and expanding the content column, but it won’t – can’t – expand by as much as you’d think.
One thing I can do is have navigation elements at the bottom of the sidebar to stick to the top once you scroll down. That could be where info snippets go, reusing any alerts that go on the frontpage.
Can I put posts in a grid-like format on the front page? Yes. I’m playing around with a couple of ideas, but I don’t live it yet. I can also add category/topic views, but that gets complicated to manage. It looks silly whenever I visit a site and they have the same post thumbnail in 2 or 3 different places.
Greater and more prominent use of tags/keywords how? Categories and tags are built-in, and I use those fairly heavily. I pulled back on some a few years ago because it got messy with too many 1 or 2-entry tags. I also have custom taxonomies for tool brands. I used to have one for stores too, but it wasn’t useful.
I can create new taxonomies easily. The challenge is in presenting these to users in a logical manner. Separate by type of tool/user/application? Would cushion grip screwdrivers be for electricians only, or general purpose and construction as well? My goal over the past few years was to always seek to sweet spot where there are just enough different categorization buckets to be useful.
There’s a tag for wrenches, https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/category/hand-tools/wrenches/%3C/a%3E . Do I really need a tag for combination wrenches? https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/tag/combination-wrench/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Dog Bone wrenches? https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/tag/dog-bone-wrench/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hence the need/desire to know what readers want to see. The better I understand via requests and feedback, the less I have to guess.
Klein recently launched plumbing tools. https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/klein-plumbing-tools/%3C/a%3E Should I have given it a pipe wrench tag? https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/tag/pipe-wrenches/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Just now, this post came up in a search – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/milwaukee-self-adjusting-pipe-wrenches-2024/%3C/a%3E , but wasn’t tagged (I fixed that just now).
Keywords are difficult to balance. In what way would you want to see them used more?
I rarely follow templates. As I wrap up a new tool post, does the price seem reasonable? High? I’ll then do quick market research and add a competition section. Different posts warrant different sections. In-post navigation comes in handy for lengthier posts.
I tried working with templates in the past, and it created too many speed bumps. Wirecutter uses a different approach because they have multiple authors and a very different business model. I’ll take another look, but why overcomplicate things?
The menu will be reworked as part of the redesign, and the sidebar as well, but I really plan to redesign it over time. That’s part of the reason, so that the sidebar can be more flexible and dynamic. The question is what do you and others want to see? It might take experimentation to see what works.
EDC gear – folding knives, multi-tools, and flashlights, is a constant interest for me, and so I built special sections for them. The special layouts – a 3-column grid – didn’t carry over with the last redesign, but I kept the links and redirected them to the sections in chronological order rather than rebuilding a page with custom thumbnails.
Every element on the site was deliberate.
These days, I would likely replace all 3 knife/multi-tool/flashlight links with a single one leading to an aggregate EDC gear page, maybe with subsections leading to the specific categories. The recouped space might then go to a “storage” section, and something else, such as a list/schedule of latest releases.
I used to have a page that populated with the 100 most recent posts. Few people used it so I got rid of it at some point. There’s a screen capture here – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/new-mega-list-page/%3C/a%3E .
Sidebar on front vs post pages. A lot of times, new visitors land on a post page first. Other times, newsletters readers only visit post pages.
The sidebar is less important in mobile view, but in desktop there aren’t too many changes I could or would make. You might notice that “recent posts” don’t appear on the front page, because that would be redundant.
I’m open to suggestions about what you’d like to see added. But with respect to duplication, keep in mind that everyone’s reading habits are different.
The alternative to including the newsletter signup on each page is to have a pop-up overlay. You might think that you could just close it once and forget about it, but what about the regular readers that might use cookie blockers? There’s a chance they’ll get the newsletter pop-over with every visit. Something static can be ignored. The alternatives are less desirable.
In any case, I’ll be redesigning the box, if not at first then down the line.
Regarding NYT and the hamburger menu on article pages, thanks, that’s definitely something to think about. I kind of like that.
I’ve seen the Verge’s mini posts, but don’t know how I feel about that. What I do know is that they’re getting a lot of pushback on their new subscription paywall model.
I will be looking for a place for quick info snippets, but it won’t be a post. Things like that don’t need to live in the database where they could clog up search results 10 years from now.
Thanks! This all gives me lots to think about as I work through the redesign.
JR Ramos
Good conversation and comments. I thought I’d add a couple thoughts after reading through again.
I’d like to place a strong vote against Like/Upvote features. I don’t think this is the type of site to see much benefit from that and quite often in “communities” (which I’m not sure this site is so much compared to other places on the web?) it can create minor issues. I think it’s fun for posts that are humorous but here, where there is a lot of advice (and opinion), what does a like feature do for us and what drawbacks can it create? Ignoring the basic high school type mentality of popularity which isn’t worth much, imho, what if someone posts erroneous advice and others think it’s correct or heard that it’s correct, like that a lot, and now a “bad” post gets upvoted enough that future readers might think it’s good advice? It’s a good potential to spread misinformation (and lord knows there is way too much of that on the internet already). In regard to tools and tool use, this can be very important in the real world, in lots of ways.
None of us commenters are creating new posts, just you, and new posts is where I see a like feature being more appropriate (outside of humor). I just don’t see the need to emulate facebook or reddit in this way and truly don’t see its value here (or most places really). Just my opinion and observation of sites and forums and their evolutions over…since the internet started. Ha.
Photo hosting…oh gosh that’s a can of worms. You probably know a lot more about that than I do but I have seen a couple of forum sites wrestle with this over the years (and one that switched to a highly customized flavor of discord still had major issues to overcome). I think the best option is to allow links to offsite hosts and then just hope spam filters can do their jobs and let buyer beware when they follow links (I also think those links should be displayed as straight url addresses rather than obfuscated with descriptive text…). Onsite hosting costs seem to go way, way up and then there’s the maintenance involved with it. I think it would be neat to have embedded photos at times but it’s a lot for a site to take on. As a reader, great, but as a site owner, I’d happily forego it if it means making your life easier.
Stuart
Everything is possible, but it comes down to i) can I do that without hiring a team of developers, ii) will it negatively impact comments until now, iii) will it affect things if I switch back in the future, iv) does it require user accounts, v) will it impact site performance?
Enhancing the comments in the way readers want would really require either extensive development way beyond my skills, or integration with 3rd party commenting systems that conflict with my goals of having a light system with open entry.
There are really just 2 practical options – light and open commenting system, or off-page discussion forum. In case of the latter, no one should have to visit a separate page and register a user account in order to ask a question or post a comment.
In other words, a like/upvote system is extremely unlikely.
I disallow most obfuscated and shortened links. Generally, they go to moderation, I click through, and I replace them with the clear destination.
I like the idea of the basic commenting system because I can gatekeep things like that. I’ve seen enough malicious use of links and images, and sometimes linked images, to have reason for not entertaining image uploads or similar. There’s also a lot of manipulation being done on social platforms, and so I’m not inclined to allow for more complex types of user-generated content. On top of the technological hurdles, it would allow for things like shill comments with anonymous likes/upvotes. How would I combat that? With anonymous commenting, there’s no way for me to see who clicked to prompt a comment.
In theory, all of these things sound nice – to be able top build a more enhanced commenting system. In practice, not really.
We have a great small community. I don’t think regulars realize that ToolGuyd is read by millions of people every year. Hundreds of thousands every month – at least.
I want to enhance the everyday experience for regular readers – that’s a big part of the redesign, because there are things I want to do that the current infrastructure doesn’t allow.
But things like the comment section are open to everyone. When we have a giveaway with comment entry, some regulars ask “who are these people?!”
We can take small group conversations to other platforms, such as Reddit, Discord, or similar if there’s strong interest.
Image hosting can be a challenge, but bandwidth and server space are the least of my concerns. I’m moving to a new server, and just the disk
storage costs pretty hefty.
But it’s a moot point. Adding images to the server requires fairly high user account privileges. Even if ToolGuyd required user accounts for commenting, which I don’t want to do, there’s no path where contributor user accounts can get image upload permissions.
A lot of what readers want done to the commenting system is akin to trying to drive in a framing nail with a precision screwdriver. There are ways you can get it done, but if you have to beat on a screwdriver with a hammer to drive in the nail, you may as well just toss the screwdriver aside and use the hammer directly on the nail.
So the question about comment enhancement is this: do regular commentors want to take conversations offsite? I do not want to host a forum (any more), and so the conversation would move to a subReddit or other 3rd party platform.
JR Ramos
Hozan, PB Swiss, Moody. All of these can probably drive framing nails. 🙂
Good to hear and I appreciate your candidness and approach to the site. I guess I hadn’t noticed that links here are plain URLs but yeah, they are, aren’t they. That’s a labor of love for you to do the manual confirmation and correction…thank you for doing that!
Stuart
It’s easy to do things like trim links and vet shortened ones. It’s also relatively quick to do quick checks on new commentor entries.
I don’t like it when I visit a site and there are scam comments or similar.
John S
“The design is dated”
>“my users are dated”~would be my response
Eric
I’ve been coming to the site several times a week for the last few months. The value it provides me is centered on the Tool Deals and the New Tools sections.
For New Tools, is more is better. Maybe leverage some volunteer contributors to give you a hand. Knowing a few people who manage content, I’m told that doing many brief synopsis posts and more comprehensive writeups only on the ones that generate enough traffic to merit the attention works. The brief posts are simpler for “guest” contributors, leaving the dev free to go deep on the traffic drivers.
On Tool Deals, I can’t tell you how many times there’s been a flash sale Yesterday on something I’ve been waiting months to pick up but can’t rationalize paying MSRP on.
My, potentially impracticable, suggestion is somewhere for people to post deals they find so others can take advantage of them. It could be as simple as a pinned article with comments that auto delete in two weeks or as complicated as a form to generate a DB entry. I know there are sites that specialize in that but most of them are just spam generators or I have to list everything I might be even vaguely interested in buying. Just getting a heads-up on good deals by people that actually know something about tools would be valuable.
Anyway, changes or not it’s a good site with useful content, so nice work. Best of luck with the redesign.
Mike reeve
It’s a good site works well don’t fluff it too much.
Check it every day from new zealand because we r months behind u guys when it comes to tools
P.s you are all tool geeks.
Dave P
You serve a noble purpose, and I hope that you are making good money doing so. You haven’t compromised your principles and you don’t let manufacturers push you around. You have values and are honorable and these are very important things that really add to your site. You are to be commended. I bet that you are continually enticed to compromise and yet you stand strong. Your character is shining through and this is why you are successful. I am very thankful for that.
You need some help with reviews. From people who USE this stuff regularly.
A new wrench set comes out and you seem to endorse it, and then I look at it, and it’s missing the 15mm, and since I wrench EVERY day, I immediately see that this set is JUNK for missing the much-used 15mm, no matter how good the individual wrenches are.
A new reciprocating saw comes out which you think is pretty good. I take one look and see that it doesn’t have a rafter hook and realize that this tool’s use is limited and can be very unsafe.
I think that you’ve gone about as far as you can go without better insights from people who use this stuff to make their living. Knowing that something new is coming out is only half of the equation. I need to know from someone WHO KNOWS, if this stuff will work for me.
I think that this is more important that a “new look”.
Stuart
Thank you for the kind words!
You have brought up the same suggestion before. I’ve worked with some great contributors over the years, and the door is always open for them, although I might need to update ToolGuyd’s style guide. I also freelanced as a contributing editor at a magazine where I gave assignments to reviewers. Frankly speaking, I don’t enjoy managing people, and that’s what it would take to open the door to more guest reviewers or regular contributors.
“I want to hear from a pro that uses the same tools in the exact same way as I would.”
ToolGuyd’s audience is broad. Is how you use combo wrenches going to be helpful for an aviation maintenance tech? They too might want to hear from someone who uses the same tools in the same exact way as they would. How many different reviewers would I need to ensure everyone was happy?
If you want reviews from a user more closely aligned to your specific needs and preferences, you might be able to find an influencer for that.
Just because I use tools on different types of work and projects as you, that doesn’t mean I haven’t made any efforts to understand your particular needs or wants, or gathered feedback from others in your trade. There’s also the comment section.
I am fairly certain that you, for example, would rather have at least 4 multi-bit screwdrivers for the same price as say a $36 Wera model. We’re going to have different usage preferences and priorities most of the time. The goal isn’t for me to tell you whether a screwdriver will be a good fit for you, but to ensure that I provide as much as possible for you to make your own determination.
I started ToolGuyd because I enjoy discussing tools, and because there were informational holes that needed filling.
I might be open to a regular contributor or two, but I’m not interested in turning ToolGuyd into a crowdsourced review platform. If you can’t find what you’re looking for here or anywhere else, there could be an opportunity for you or someone else to build it.
eddiesky
I know but really? Why not?
“Sorry, there’s nothing I can do about comment editing.”
See, I type really fast and cam’t always catch my errors or thoughts to re-read then post. I am on other “sites” that have pencil icon to edit, etc, in the elipsis. Perhaps they have some custom code for this and your budget is like, nope.
I would like the ability to return to the home page from comments/article. I have to scroll to top, and then click logo or new tools then logo. I don’t use the back command, as this is a navigation thing.
Otherwise, more images of products, and is there a way to scrape comments for items people suggest that are really good but they fail to provide a link (again, no edit tools, linking in comments..).
Where you brands are, it sorts your articles by them. Would be nice (I know, its work) to links to them as well.
Whatever you do… we’ll like it, or hate it and tell you that.
Stuart
Comments write to the database. Editing comments requires editing permissions. The way WordPress was designed, editing comments also requires post editing permissions. There’s no way to wall things off, even if a user account wanted to only edit their own posts or comments.
WordPress isn’t putting effort into further developing comments, and I can only guess that it’s because a lot of websites don’t allow them.
It’s like standing outside of a house and screaming “it’s 9 o’clock,” and someone inside sets their clock. You can’t just shout “sorry, I meant 8 o’clock.” The way WordPress works, you would have to go inside the house and adjust the clock yourself.
But you don’t have a key. There’s no way to vet you’re the same person that gave the original time. So no, you can’t come in to change the clock yourself.
It’s simple and even archaic, but robust and secure. There are few plugins that can allow for limited editing, and they don’t work well.
The best workaround involves 3rd party integration that requires user accounts and logging in.
Aren’t they all links?
There’s a “home” link at the bottom of every page, in the menu bar. It gets squished into a hamburger menu on mobile. I’ll see if I can rework this area so as to not require a tap to access.
JP Barringer
This is a bit of a tangent, but I’m a web developer and work with WordPress frequently. The new “full site editing” features built into WP’s latest stock themes are good enough to replace older site editor plugins like Elementor. Fewer plugins, lower performance overhead, and no upsells, which is pretty great. I’d strongly recommend checking out the native functionality if you’re moving away from an older theme or site builder system.
For comments, we usually just integrate Disqus or something similar, but that comes with its own tradeoffs.
Stuart
I never used WYSIWYG builders, as they added way too much bloat. I’ve been experimenting with blocks, but it won’t replace PHP and CSS entirely.
JP Barringer
If you’re doing custom code in the templates yourself I’d also recommend looking at Timber / Twig and possibly Tailwind CSS. (Tailwind can feel a bit clunky at first but ends up being a huge time saver)