Dilbert.com Redesign

Recently we redesigned the Dilbert.com web site and added a ton of features, such as animation, deeper archives, mash ups, and more. The reaction from readers has been fascinating.

www.dilbert.com

Let me get this out of the way: I realize the Beta version of the web site has lots of issues. It’s overloaded with Flash, slower than it needs to be, and the navigation is confusing. We’re fixing most of that over the next few weeks. I apologize for the inconvenience.

The fascinating thing about the responses is that it revealed three distinct types of Dilbert readers:

The first group is the ultra-techies who have an almost romantic relationship with technology. For them, the new site felt like getting dumped by a lover. Their high-end technology (generally Linux) and security settings made much of the site inconvenient. Moreover, the use of Flash offended them on some deep emotional level.

The second group objected to the new level of color and complexity, and the associated slowness. They like their Dilbert comics simple, fast, and in two colors. Anything more is like putting pants on a cat.

The third group uses technology as nothing more than a tool, and subscribes to the philosophy that more free stuff is better than less free stuff. That group has embraced the new features on the site and spiked the traffic stats.

For you first two groups, if you promise to keep it to yourselves, we created a stripped-down Dilbert page with just the comic, some text navigation, and the archive: www.dilbert.com/fast. This alternate site is a minor secret, mentioned only here and in the text footnote to the regular site as “Linux/Unix.”

The main site will be getting a Flash diet that will make it speedier soon, so check back in a few weeks. That’s where all the fun will be.

Enjoy.

Comments

[simplicity is key]

Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS).

I want to KISS Dilbert.com

By that I mean:
The purpose of the site is the comic strip and the archive.
So, I want to be able to see the strip easily, and have a forward and backward arrow next to the strip to browse through the archive (possibly even a calendar).

That's is all you really need, when the other features of the site interfer with it's basic function, the designer got carried away.

[hans glib]

[quote]I am sorry you ended up with a flash-fan web designer[/quote]

LOL - no designer would produce something like this.

Have another look - now most of the stupid flash is gone, what is left? A load of static (over-compressed - gotta speed the site up, see) images splattered about with no structure, order or anything.

It's a total mess.

Scott, Scott, you need to get a professional in - Dogbert's design skills are as good as his consulting abilities.

Start from the beginning - Why will people be visiting the site?
I'd wager the answer is:
All: for the Strip
Some: for the Blog
A few: for other "cool" (ahem) stuff - mess-ups etc

So the strip appears on the home page. Maybe with an ability to set a cookie for "colour" or "mono" so people get the strip delivered the way they want.

And a nav bar with three buttons: "Archive", "Blog" & "Cool Stuff".

Use CSS to reduce the need for so many image buttons. Break the webmonkey's photoshop hand to stop him doing needlessly complex stuff "because I can".

Et voila! The site would be simpler, run much faster, would be true to Dilbert's ideals and make you more attractive to other sentient life forms.

You could also have some google ads there somewhere (I'll allow you to make some money!)

[Mihai]

ok, I suppose this is useless but I'll give my 2c anyway.

The sloweness it's not associated with the colors but with flash. Most of the people hate flash not because some esoteric reason but because the trouble with flash is that it's files want to load a lot of crap before showing anything and they introduce non-standard controls. You can't put this through any diet to fix it and you can't fix the navigation.
I am sorry you ended up with a flash-fan web designer. Sorry for me, not for you, I am sure you're happy with the new looks and usability is not your problem, it's mine.
Anyway you might consult an usability expert just to check what your web designer is doing and to make sure your page views are not affected by the new flash controls - you won't get the same pageviews if the page is not reloading.
Anyways, I don't really care which way it goes, I will still check your comics everyday, I just hate to see stupid people (flash site designers) win again against common sense.

[Douglas Spencer]

... and STILL the sunday strip isn't working in /fast and in the official feed.

In the OFFICIAL feed, it's still not working.

Still.

Every Sunday.

...

Officially.

[Venky]

For those old timers, who are color blind and prefer ONLY black and white and cannot get used to dilbert in color,
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080502.html

[teh]

... it was just a bad dream... all the black and flashy thingings gone. But, please dump the "Flash diet" too and go back to the original version. I can get only worse...

[Joggs]

Isn't the comic strip working with google reader ?
Just get Loading...
Never had that with another feed before

[d00d]

Ok, I now get my proper black and white daily Dilbert comic at http://news.yahoo.com/comics/dilbert, thus bypassing the flash garbage (and the /fast color).
However, the Sunday one at yahoo.com is too small.
Has anyone found a way to get the full size version without registering at dilbert.com?
Thanks.

[Aidan]

Thank you for the fast version - the slow one was driving me nuts!!!

[cMAD]

The new site has something of the "new Coca-Cola" recipe ... good that you also made the "classic" fast site available.

[DrLex]

I can't agree more with the comment made by Shrink.

I noticed that the size of the comics in the flash version has been increased. Why are the comics on the fast page still the smaller size? Also, why do the Sunday comics need to be the same width as the weekday comics? It makes the text hard to read.

[BTTFVGO]

I'm going to hate to see this blog go...

It's hard enough trying to accept the new site, but the possibility of the blog also being taken away (replaced, rather) is hard to imagine...

[Mauro Cicognini]

Sorry Scott, the fun will continue to be exclusively in your strips, and not in any website design or gadget (amusing as it may be) so I'll get my share of fun no matter what ;-)

Also, being in Italy, your website is the only way I can get my daily Dilbert fix.

[hans glib]

You couldn't make this up!

Dilbert hoist by his own petard - pwned by the very people he was lampooning!

The new site is hideous, overly complex visually (I suppose you need all the ads to pay for the redesign) and overloaded with stuff that has no real value at all! Animation? WTF - who cares? Mash-ups? Pur-lease - some lame attempt by a marketing bozo to "Web 2.0" Dilbert and try to make it some social networking site.

And don't get me started on the widget - so many clicks to see a strip - jeez, who's bright idea was that? I used it twice and binned it.

But there was no escape - the stupid content heavy emails started arriving (gotta keep the branding consistent, see).

Who knows how much the redesign has cost, and now everyone is using the /fast site. And even that has fallen to the "MUST... HAVE... COLOUR..." zombies

DUH...

And I thought Dilbert was a well aimed riposte against this sort of stupidity... but as you've clearly been taken over by the buzzword/acronym junkies may I remind you of one...

KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid

[Konrad Garus]

Scott, thanks so much for the /fast site! Not only it's usable in Linux - it's even better than the old design, and has the archive.

By the way, http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080430.html is updated sooner. :-)

[Andy Coulter]

wow talk about the asshole factor

[Mike Michaelson]

www.dilbert.com/fast is better :) Way to go!

[Rack]

I'm part of the third group but decided that the time cost of the new site is way higher than the value I get out of it. Thanks for the fast version.

[Paul Dove]

You are completely wrong about the third group. Those of us who use technology as nothing more than a tool usually don't have the latest and greatest hardware and fastest broadband speeds. And from my perspective everyone who has embraced the new site features must by definiton be an ultra-techie because, to be able to use the new features, you have to own a fairly new computer.

But even that's not the whole story because I can't see the flash site at work, even though I have a brand new PC on my desk, but at home using a five year old PC I can. The difference is that at home I control what's installed on my PC but at work I have not control. But, even at home, I have no desire to embrace the new site because it loads far too slowly.

Thanks for the new fast link, I'll use that from now on. It will be interesting to see how much traffic leaves the new site and hits the fast site instead.

[S@ns.S@nity]

Another vote for the fast site!! Great job from your web design team on that one Scott. And I don't mind the colour version, I mean the heart of the comic lies in the text, and not the drawing (as you yourself have pointed out many times, you are not the best artist in the world)

And although the new flash site is very busy and difficult to navigate, I must say I really liked two things about it. First that you can now load many strips at once, and dont need to have too many tabs open. And second, the mash-ups bit - thats a nice idea, letting people write their own punchlines easily (Many of us use Photoshop or Fireworks to do it anyway...) Read some of the mash-ups, and about 1 in 5 are extremely funny.

But I guess a little bit of a warning might have been useful, something to remember the next time you are overhauling something

[eli edm...]

I dig the changes, and the flash is fun, I totally want to do this with my comic someday...

[Ken]

Great - now I can once more read the Sunday strips properly.

Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with quite a few Sundays - eg 7th & 14th Jan 2001, 11th & 18th Jan 2004.

Had you noticed that you almost have time to read the strip on the new site before it goes blank? You then have to wait for the 'flashy' version to load.

[jm]

thanks for the fast site. i work for the govt. our computers couldn't handle the fancy site.

[Bud]

The fast site is the best Dilbert site yet! I'll be going there from now on. Thanks for all your work!

[Scott (Not Adams)]

> http://www.dilbert.com/fast

Excellent. Greasemonkey script updated.

[ZooZ]

Thanks a lot for /fast. It's a good solution, I hope it's here to stay (add some ads and there's no reason to drop it).

(Spoiler: below this line - only grumbles)

Nevertheless, what's with the patronizing stuff about the ultra-techie-linux-cats-without-pants-guys?

Some people don't like flash (or, actually think that there's little that can't be done better with other tools), is it so hard to accept?

Some people don't like flashy (as in ostentatious, not as in Adobe's Flash ®) epilepsy-seizure-inducing sites, what's so inconceivable here?

Some people don't like to get more (stuff they didn't ask for) for free. Some want to get what they want and what they want only. Do I need to refer you to some anti-consumerism sites? Or are people not involved in consumerism-mania are also weirdos in your eyes?

Actually the more-for-free phrase is the one that irritates me the most because for me it's the number one illness of many websites. A lot of web sites are trying to do a lot of stuff. I wish someone will open a website that will have ALL OTHER WEBSITES IN IT so he's the winner of this stupid contest and we could enjoy our old one-site-does-one-thing era we (I do assume I'm not alone on this wish. The world is so large I bet I'm right) miss so much.

[ZooZ]

Thanks a lot for /fast. It's a good solution, I hope it's here to stay (add some ads and there's no reason to drop it).

(Spoiler: below this line - only grumbles)

Nevertheless, what's with the patronizing stuff about the ultra-techie-linux-cats-without-pants-guys?

Some people don't like flash (or, actually think that there's little that can't be done better with other tools), is it so hard to accept?

Some people don't like flashy (as in ostentatious, not as in Adobe's Flash ®) epilepsy-seizure-inducing sites, what's so inconceivable here?

Some people don't like to get more (stuff they didn't ask for) for free. Some want to get what they want and what they want only. Do I need to refer you to some anti-consumerism sites? Or are people not involved in consumerism-mania are also weirdos in your eyes?

Actually the more-for-free phrase is the one that irritates me the most because for me it's the number one illness of many websites. A lot of web sites are trying to do a lot of stuff. I wish someone will open a website that will have ALL OTHER WEBSITES IN IT so he's the winner of this stupid contest and we could enjoy our old one-site-does-one-thing era we (I do assume I'm not alone on this wish. The world is so large I bet I'm right) miss so much.

[Slap D. Monkey]

I'll never get used to catbert being red and Asok pink. Otherwise, welcome to the 21st century, Dilbert!!

[Autumn]

I'm not really sure what everyone's problem is... I agree with the person who said they just ignored any feature they didn't like.

I have no problem with the color comics, and the animations greatly amuse me. Sometimes, I think people are too picky *shrug*

[Elisa]

re: www.dilbert.com/fast

Aaaaah. Much better! Thank you.

[MarkJx]

I LOVE the fast site.

Thanks for thinking of us Linux and paranoid users!

MJ

[Elisa]

Aaaaaah. Much better. Thank you!

[stew]

well the new site is interesting.

at first i hated the new colour, then I was indeifferent, now I can't live without them.

As the the new functionality, well it's great for the people who want it, those that don't - hey just don't use it moron. There is no law stating that you have to use the clicky-goodness.

As for the flash, I'm not a huge fan, but I can see that you have implemented a non-flash version as well.

So, I just turn off my javascript and just see the flat non-flash version.

lovely.

[AC]

Thanks.

[RichiH]

I have to agree that, in addition to the 'fast' option, I also would prefer a 'fast and black and white' option. The colors hurt more than they help. Kudos for accepting that a large part of your readership simply does not want any of this new-fangled stuff.
Even more kudos if you were to rework this abomination of flash into an AJAX-based application. That would add value for most while keeping the site working for everyone, creating a win-win situation or something along those lines.

[Simon Jester]

Oh, thank-you! The fast site is so much better...

[Piotr Zieliński]

I'm looking forward to see a better version. I don't actually like the current one

[Randolf]

The fast version is all that is required - just keep that and ditch the crap.

[Tushar]

Please fast site should be b/w .
We love dilbert cause it communicates , its to the point and color is an overdose

[Tim]

Well for the most part I like the new site however I use another site to tell me when online comics (including dilbert) have updated and the use of flash means that it doesn't work now. (still the non-flash version should work).

[Yen]

I love the fast site & for the record I'm a Linux user! Keep technology simple. The less complexity on the internet, the less stupid phone calls to my help desk. If I have the say "right click with the right, no the RIGHT mouse button" one more time, I'll eat my undies!!!

[Luke]

Go group 3!

[Laj]

Thanks a lot for the new site...

I was a little embarrassed to request for it, considering that you're giving your work for free.

The third group you mentioned about may have their browsers configured for a disaster. I run IE and Firefox on Windows, but I was not getting dilbert site till Friday on either. I have minimal security on IE, moderate security on Firefox

[Eric]

Thank you Scott. The fast site is wicked!

[Lyn]

Thank you!

[Nelson de Witt]

Thanks for the update about the site.

I was having a really hard time download the MAC widget. Eventually I was able to get it but I'm not a big fan. It is slow and complicated(and I'm in the first group). I loved my simple Dilbert comic every morning.

Glad to hear you are working to make the site better!

[Phil]

We live out in Orc country where the dial-up is 24K on good days (only broadband avail is the dish link).
So I think the fast version is spiffy!
Oh, and I'm not getting the email version anymore. Something may have run afoul of my ISP's spam filters. Any ideas?
Me
Here

[Scott Wallace]

I am a long-time Dilbert fan and Linux user myself, and the Flash site works fine for me. The only problem is I can't seem to be able to submit mash-ups. I personally like the new site better--especially the larger strip size.

Make that two problems. I have problems accessing the animations from Linux. This problem isn't limited to dilbert.com--it, as well as foxnews.com, ABC, and others use Maven Networks, Inc. for their streaming content. The problem is in their server which sniffs out your operating system. Therefore, any complaints about animation not working on Linux might be better directed to Maven Networks (support@maven.net). An interim solution would be to use the User Agent Switcher add-on for Firefox.

[Douglas]

Fast site is much appreciated, thanks! (My bookmark still says Yahoo though, looks like the strips are bigger there, and I *do* fall into the second group - thanks for the recognition!)

[#sohbet]

turksohbetim.net

[Al]

I'm somewhere between the second and third types. I lean more toward the third, though.

[Dan Jolt]

One more vote for (optional) black and white dailies.

With color they are only half as funny.

[Naveen Sundar G]

Hi Scott you are the coolest!! thanks for the fast and ad free site for nerds!!!!!

[=bg=]

PS- I have 3 popup blockers on my PC. One from IE6, one from Google, one from Yahoo.

Old site or new, a cheesy popup ad ALWAYS comes up from Dilbert.com. Do you need the cash from that, that bad?

PS- how bout a Dilbert theme for iGoogle?

[=bg=]

ashok does look like a lobster, but a minor thing. i just got the sunday strip for the first time via email (which is the way I prefer, almost never go to the site.) I consider myself very Net-fluent; live very close to Silicon Valley; yet mash-ups just hold no interest for me.
But since it's very Web 2.0, ya gotta give it a shot. The old site was stagnant for quite a while, so kudos for the facelift.

[Leora]

The Luddite community thanks you for your prompt attention to our concerns.

We have restored our 2D version of Dilbert in black & white (except Sundays, which remain intractably in colour). Glory be!

The rest of the newpaper is used for cat litter-box liners.

[Steve]

Glad you're listening. Although the /fast link should be in black & white, and the images are currently too small, especially on the Sunday strips.

I think you are misappropriating the spike in traffic, though. Much of the spike in traffic is due to the people who were having trouble with the new site and had to visit multiple times just to be able to read the comics. And I know I clicked a zillion links trying to navigate from day to day, or to read the Sunday strips (the new format is AWFUL for those) -- what pinhead decided we didn't want or need a calendar to catch up anymore?

Not only that, it almost seems like it wasn't implemented correctly. I have a fast machine and connection, yet the site was fairly slow, because some of the Flash stuff would load, display, disappear, and then reappear again. It was weird and annoying.

But, sorry, I like my websites fast and clean -- so, Flash Dilbert isn't pants on a cat... it's an entire frickin' tuxedo.

[Chuck]

Might want to make sure your site works with Firefox and other browsers. Us geeks who relate to Dilbert don't use IE crap.

[Shrink]

loading............loading...........loading...........loading..........I grow so old so fast...........loading........loading......(last breath)

[T.I.M.]

Marshall McLuhan defined the terms Hot and Cool in relation to media in Understanding Media. Olde Dilbert was very cool. Cool means "open mosaic" Cool means "less defined" Cool requires viewer participation. Hot means "all the spaces filled in"
B&W lo rez TV was ultra cool. Big screen Movies are really hot. Sparse Jazz is cool, orchestral classical is hot.
Comics are so engaging because the audience has to fill in gaps between cartoon figures and what they represent in real life.
McLuhan said the shift between hot and cool, in the mind of passionate adolescents using inside hip language, was the clearest vision into the changing media of the moment.
In B&W Dilbert the user puts in all the colors (at least one of your commentors put in drab colors) All your character voices are supplied by the reader. When you create animations you are providing a single window into character movement and voice quality and inflection that overrides the wonderful characters each reader has inside her head, hence ruining your tale.
Bruce Springsteen talked about making his early videos "My first thought was to shoot visuals of what the song was talking about. Like show a guy in a garage with his car when the lyrics suggest it. Turned out this was totally wrong. My fans already have a car and a garage in their heads for the song and it means a lot to them. When I show them my car and garage it ruins their picture. So when the lyrics talk about a car and a garage I now want to show anything but."
Your fans already have a voice for Dilbert and Wally, they already know how they move, they already know what color everything is...inside their own head. When you heat up your presentation by providing all these details you lose their participation in your art. And soon you will lose the interest of your serious Dilbert fans.
However There are other people who really want all that definition because they don't have the imagination to fill in the blanks. They are empty vessels waiting to be programed by state propaganda.
So I guess you are doing the right thing to be in line with the emerging police state. In the federal reserve bank you trust. Hell you could be the next Hanna Montanna. However your dream of saving the world will have to be about saving more zeros in your bank account.

[Kirado]

Thanks for listening it means a lot! I had to give up on Dilbert for a week because your site took so long to load the most recent comics. Then trying to figure out if that was the most recent comic was another battle.

I thought I'd never get to see any current Dilbert ever again. While the mashups idea is interesting.. using flash is a big no no!.. It's slow clunky and annoying. Maybe when we all have web 3.0.. anything that makes it hard to see the latest strip in less than 1/4 of second is baaaaad.

While you might have more traffic temporally because of the latest features, this will quickly wear off as people get tired of it.

[Nimrod]

I don't think so man! The new site is less usuable than the old. That's the problem. Scrolling the Sunday strip = bad. It ruins the comic. Browsing older strips = hard. Which is usually what we want to do.

A lot of the new features are good, though. Like voting, comments, mashups, and search by character.

Also, when you allege that your site is "free" you're oversimplifying your business model. Don't imply that we're not appreciative... It's in your interest to keep us coming to the site.

In my opinion, your designers messed up in a few (important) ways. Good to know you're working on it, though. Look forward to the next version.

[macuga]

I'll definitely be using the fast site. Also, when someone patronizingly calls people's reactions "fascinating," he's usually setting himself up for a nice shin-kicking.

[Neil Wilson]

Sorry already gone to

http://news.yahoo.com/comics/dilbert

That way I can read them in glorious monochrome.

It'll be interesting to see if the 'traffic spikes' continue or whether it is just people wanting to view how awful the site redesign is.

Bad tech, Scott. I'd sack the jesters that came up with it.

[belt]

Sorry to go OT Scott, but I wanted to bring the following to your attention in line with my model of the universe which says we are all the creation of a single mind as well as part of it. http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/pc/brain-universe.html

Isn't that cool?

PS: Not sure if the multipanel strip worked as well for me.

[Anthony Howe]

Thank you for the "fast" site. There is still hope. Now if we could get rid of the colour, which reminds me of badly colourized black & white films.

[bumpman]

Add a RSS feed to the fast page and it would be complete. :)

[bumpman]

Just keep the image shrinking aside and the fast site will be perfect. A browser shrinking images can usually make them look blurry and all compared to an actual image editing tool like Photoshop doing the same job. So I'd suggest to keep the original comic strip sizes from the original site.

[Jayre]

Uh, I think you killed the dilbert strip rss feed with the new site. It hasn't updated since the 16th.

[smsoom]

Thank you.
http://www.roo7oman.com/vb

[Dan Beeston]

I'm just glad that I've got a legit option for RSS now.

[Les Ross]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for Dilbert/fast.
I thought I was going to have to remove the link from our web site.

[elmindreda]

Thank you from a first group Dilbert reader.

[Traume]

Scott,
I hope you have the proper funding for this project. Don't forget to involve marketing, engineering, quality-control, and of course, the legal department.

Traume

[shryko]

I prefer it in colour, hate how slow it loads now, don't use the fancy features (too slow for my patience...)

really, I prefer the way it was (but would prefer it being colour to strictly the way it was)

that in mind, I don't mind the new version... at least, not THAT much...

PS. yes, I use linux, but no, I don't romance my computer. I'll find a person to romance, as computers won't love me back... yet.

[Larry Horowitz]

Personally I would always prefer to read colored comic strips but I don't like losing the ability to navigate to other comic strips at your new dilbert site. Can you put back the drop-down list that contains all comics?

[Desi]

Love the fast version. Thank you.

[Jason Dumler]

The "fast" site is like Google, with funny. I'm one of the Linux techno people, and the new site didn't really bother me. It was slow (as you mentioned), but other than that, I didn't get to notice too much difference. I did get to see some reader's mashups, some of which were really funny, and some were just so-so.

All in all, I think it's OK, if you're not moving ahead, your ducks are just wandering around.

[dontbother]

Thank you very much for the fast site. It's perfect (as many others have said here). Too much Adobe Flash is just too much Flash. Those .swf files are unnecessary. Color is unnecessary. Your humor works just as well in black and white. Keep it simple. Make it fun.

[blake]

I miss the RSS feed working well. That's my biggest gripe. Other than that, I'm thrilled to see you do this. Good work!

[Carter]

I'm not sure why Linux users are having problems. The site works perfectly for me running Swiftfox 2.0.0.4 on Ubuntu 7.10-64bit. It's a little slower than I'd like, but if I just wanted the comic, I'd head to Yahoo! comics. All in all, I like it Scott.

[wilhelm]

full points for the fast site. still, after this mess, I can't wait to see pictures of your new house's beta version.

[Brian Spencer]

it blows

[steve]

I ment to comment earlier I do love the updates to your site. But as my xwife says I am easy to please

[DHT]

I tried to register with the new site, but the confirmation email has never been delivered (tried twice now.) I don't know if it's a flaw on the dilbert.com side, or if my DNS provider (ZoneEdit) is blocking it, which they've been known to do with emails that don't comply with some internet spec.

And I'm glad to see you/your people recognize that it's overloaded with flash. Thanks for the fast site!

[Michal Malkowski]

Ermmm Scott - I think it's you who got too emotional with technology. The "linux users response" is rather a advanced user resp. It's what people do - whine about too slow and complicated stuff.
"Bah! Php is WAY to complicated. And slow"
"Bah! XP? It's WAY to complicated. It's kinda slow, too."
"Bah! That Vista is to complicated. And Aero is damn slow isn't it?"

Get over it, and stop insulting your fans. Becouse they'll stick to the new site - when thair internet will be upgraded, and site polished.

Altough the argument about printing out dilbert was valid. maybe draw a dotted line around your strips, so people could cut it out easier out of newspaper? :P
Seriously. Am I the only person here entertained by the argument "Aww lame! Now I can't steal those strips! I may have to actually pay for them!" :D
I'm happy with my cut of free stuff :P

[Johan]

Nice work! My mobile phone really liked the dilbert.com/fast site and I enjoyed the new dilbert.com site on my computer.

[Rohit]

Thanks for the fast site. Appreciate it. I daresay that I like it better than the old site :)

[Bob]

I'm part of your first group, Scott. I use Linux and have my browser pretty locked down. I hate Flash with a passion. However, I didn't have any problems with your new design, and didn't even notice that you have some Flash trying to embed itself. The site wasn't too slow for me either, perhaps because I haven't tried to load your Flash.

I noticed your new design and thought, "Eh." It's not really much better or worse than the old one. However, I do appreciate the color, and this page: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/ which has a weeks worth of strips on a single page. No more loading a whole bunch of dilbert tabs for me! Unless I get more than a week behind, of course.

I looked at your "fast" page, and thought, "Wow!" It's beautiful. A single image, and some text navigation. And the URI is simple and predictable. And it looks pretty. A lot of web designers could be taking some tips from you, or whichever of your peons wrote that page. I won't be using it, though, because I like being able to load a week of comics on one page.

[Matt McNamara]

You've done good, Scott.

[jmc]

Another vote for the /fast site. Seems to be a clear winner here. I'm a webmaster myself, and your new site gives me the heebie jeebies. Websites should be simple, easy to navigate, and fast. Flash, whether adobe or the old meaning, on a website is just plain annoying.

[Robby]

And another thing: I don't like the urls at the fast site. I had configured my Opera browser's search function so that I could type "dil 0425" in the address bar and it would automatically change it to "http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080405.html" and fetch the day's strip. Now it only works if I type "dil 04-25". Please get rid of the extra hyphen. It is incredibly annoying.

[kettu]

Thank you for the fast site. I was getting desperate.

I'm on a Mac and it's not like the Flash stuff doesn't work, it's just rubbish and unnecessary. You can count me into your first two groups of users at the same time. And the third group, that must be the same people who think that any thing new is better than anything old, just because it's new.

What really disturbs me about the redesign is that the page now looks like it's the direct result of the pointy-haired sitting in some meetings with some fad-following marketing drones. Dilbert would not have made a page like this. On any other page I would have just shaken my head (and not revisited) but on the Dilbert page it's ironic, but not funny.

Anyway, the fast page it will be then.

[Jorel]

Thanks for that faster site. One problem I have is that the new site doesn't display properly at work. So when I needed a quick lift of spirits it wasn't available. I'll try this new faster site when I get to work.

It's great when people listen to feedback and even act upon it.

Gold Star for Scott.

[Robby]

The daily strips are good on the fast site -- but the Sunday ones are tiny. Actually, they're about the same size, but there's more to them, so they need to be bigger. I'm not making much sense now, so I'll just say this: Make the Sunday strips bigger.

[Leslie]

I'm of a different group ... the kind that knows about technology and cares about it, and thinks the first two groups whine too much. I appreciate your patience and willingness to work though. Good stuff.

[highritz]

I don't understand. why do they color daily strips so much now? Do you colorize them yourself?

At least this doesn't look as screwed up as colorized King Features strips (poor Blondie).

[Peter Payne]

Without a doubt, RSS is the way to go. If you aren't using an RSS reader yet (I recommend Google Reader), it's time to learn. Dilbert's strip can be read daily here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DilbertDailyStrip

[hbm]

My vote for black and white cartoon strips. The colour makes the strip looks garish. It has lost its character.

[Lionel]

Hi

I'm a long time reader, first time blog commenter.

Thanks for the fast link, I guess I am category 1 ;)

cheers

[Thankful dilbert fan]

Thanks for http://www.dilbert.com/fast/ !! its wonderfully efficient. dilbert no longer requires 32mb of ram just
to load the first page : )

thanks, i wish more would keep it simple like that.

Thanks much,
-Jamie

[Peter]

Dilbert fast is great! Getting back to 2001 shows that nothing ever changes and there are strips relevant to my work today. You should get these indexed by subject and then let people send emails of old strips to co workers suffering in kind.

[rd]

i liked the fast site, though i liked the animation too
i'll read the sites alternatingly i guess :)

[Alejandro]

I think the new features are just great. I am an ultra-techie and I hate flash, but the way you're using it for the new features is just right. Having the fast alternative made this upgrade perfect IMO.

[Ankit]

Thanks Scott, are the animations from the Dilbert series?

[Struan]

I am yet to get an email to help me activate my account, I've registered did the forget password thing
but still no response.

[Ricky]

That's great. Now the webclip on my mac finally works with your site. thx Scott

[dantezcoman]

Well, over a hundred and twenty comments saying the new fast site is like a gift from god, I estimate (I read up until early 6 a.m. comments, when the page was 144 comments long)

Nobody defending the new flash site.

You know, you COULD think of it as a sort of demographic research. Nobody defended the new flash site, but EVERYBODY loved the new simple FAST site.

A new meaning to the KISS principle: Keep it simple, Scott.

[tubaguy]

I miss the comics.com drag down menu.

But I loved the strip about grave spinning.

[Bekkapenator]

Hey Scott

Some points:
1) The strips are of lower quality on the /fast site. Is that a concious decision on your part, kind of a fit of "YouDon'tLikeMyNewChangesSoIgiveYouBadStuff" thing or just an unwanted side-effect.

2) It's not an emotional response, at least not in the sense you seem to think it is. You have a comic strip. Three squares with drawings and words, and it was a perfect setup: You get an IMAGE :-D yay.
New site, now you have sluggish flash all over, and the new strip is heavier. That's where the emotion is, we LOVE when a site opens up fast, and hate when the site is slow. And you made the site slow for no good reason.

3) Those colors were a bad idea. They're too distracting, the old bw ones worked better, specially since Dilbert humor sometimes relies on visual details.

4) "Beta" does not mean "It's bad, but you'll deal with that". It means "it has some glitches, and we're working to make it better". Make your site better.

5) That peak of users is likely to be something called "slashdot effect". You see, sites published on /. usually become quite visited in a short period of time, and most just go down for sometime due to the overload. Your peak may be just that.
And in a related note, I have to say I never thought you would be that optimistic, to think that the stats-spiking-people would be the ones that liked the crappy new site.

Best regards o/

[Will]

Scott wrote: "The first group is the ultra-techies who have an almost romantic relationship with technology. For them, the new site felt like getting dumped by a lover. Their high-end technology (generally Linux) and security settings made much of the site inconvenient. Moreover, the use of Flash offended them on some deep emotional level."
----

I am an "ultra-techie", but I happen to use Windows XP, Vista, a few other variants of Windows, AND Linux, both at work and home, believe it or not. And believe it or not, I actually *like* Windows (most of the time, anyway).

And I also happen to dislike Flash, not because it offends me on a deep emotional level, but because websites built mostly on Flash are relatively slow and bloated compared to regular webpages. This may not be an issue on my modern home computer, but it sure as hell is an inconvenience on my 6-year old work PC (yes, I know I shouldn't be surfing Dilbert at work). There is a good reason that someone wrote a Flash-blocking extension for Firefox (the web browser).

Others have pointed out problems with the misuse of flash (especially regarding accessibility and search engine indexability). Granted, those are not really issues for a site that is mostly cartoons.

Of course, a non-technical person like you will never care to understand about the technical and usability issues surrounding Flash, just like the average Joe off the street will never care to understand about expected value, confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance and all your other pet blogging topics. Just in case you feel like educating yourself:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html
(Remember, I realize that most of these issues do not refer to your site specifically. However, the jab you made about "the use of Flash [offending people] on some emotional level" was also a very generic comment, and it implied that some people hate Flash for no good reason.)

Thanks for telling us about the alternate site!

[GP]

I agree about Asok! He looks freakishly pink. He's supposed to be Indian, right? All the Indians I know are decidedly not pink.

[ROSSIU]

Thanks a lot for the /fast/ site Scott. Many sites who have done horrendous redesignes (like vrtnieuws.be) ignored the uproar of the mobs. Everyone is happy now.

[Jeanne]

I don't where to to send a "bug" type comment. Apparently my account has an empty username. I asked to be sent to my password and got a password with an empty username. Kind of Dilberty. Maybe it was intentional...

[Esn]

Thank you for the "fast" site, Scott! It's perfect.

[UWP]

I also don't like Flash, but there are reasons for not using Flash crap. The worst are viruses and trojans. To have software in the background just showing some pictures is overkill, but for just seeing some images I will not install a dangerous software. If you surf with the Flash plugin you can be sure that some bad webpage will get you sometime. I also don't like the PHP-stuff from the Linux guys or the strange attitude to use mysql or other databases for every crap. When you're creating websites, you should ALWAYS minimze automatic generated content. If you're not trying to do this I'd say your page will lose the main readers (those who understand your cartoons) and you too are responsible for spraying different bad code over the world just by urging your users to use scripted content and bad software. BTW, isn't it exactly what you're praying in your comics: Think before you act, otherwise you're doing like the pointy haired boss. This time you structured the web site in pointy haired boss style. You should change your consulting company, Dogbert isn't uptodate anymore... Mermgfurt, Udo P.S.: The fast page is ok for me. But I'm using konqueror and because it's a browser which uses standards, all pages look different than in Internet Explorer. Most pages are made for IE, so they don't follw any standard, except the Microsoft way, which is always wrong... So, I'm familiar with starnge sites, go ahead!

[BTTFVGO]

I... kind of like it. I think the other site was more true to the look of the books, but maybe that's just me. The site is definitely... interesting.

Hey, Scott, on this page: http://www.dilbert.com/faq/ under "New Website Features", the second entry under the first question states "All Dilberts all the time since 1987". Now, I thought Dilbert's first official strip was from April 16, 1989. So, what comes before that? Content from the Build a Better Life and Clues for the Clueless books? Or were there other strips between 87 and 89 that we never found out about?

[Xepol]

Redesign is ugly, refreshes poorly and is just plain user hostile.

Thanks for the stripped down page, otherwise I suspect I would stop visiting sooner than later.

[Bloodboiler]

WARNING
Do not visit Dilbert site designer company VPI.NET's site with Internet Explorer (IE6). THE SITE MAY START OPENING NEW IE WINDOWS IN NEVER ENDING LOOP. That just happened to me. The only way out was to kill explorer.exe process in task manager.
----------------------------------------------------------

Where the heck did you dig up these clowns? Even their own web site took forever to load in Firefox and tries to screw up your computer in IE.

By the way, they also managed to screw up the extremely simple stripped down fast version of your site by making it JavaScript dependent and pretending it is xhtml. I can almost accept JavaScript dependency on a feature that does not actually need it at all. But pretending that just barely working html tag soup is xhtml-strict is unacceptable. If they don't know what document type declarations do, they shouldn't use them.

Without JavaScript requirement for archive access and correcting the html to actual xhtml-strict you would make the fast site compatible with tens of millions of cellphone xhtml web browsers. I'm sure that would be something many Dilbert fans would appreciate.

And yes, not only do I feel dumped, I feel like a mentally unstable high maintenance cousin of my lost lover is trying to seduce me.

[Rickie]

I actually love the changes. It's just alot of Flash does slow things down a tad.

Mebbe use some...non-Flash for most of it. xD; The navigation looks shiny, but Flash isn't necessary for anything on the site except the animations really. I love them, so don't tamper with that.

But there's always gonna be complaints, oh well. You are Scott Adams, Secret Overlord Ruler of the Planet, you need not listen to such petty complaints. :P

[Scott2]

To be clear, there were three things I objected to with the new site.

1. Too complex, loads too slow. I usually hit Dilbert.com in the morning on my mobile device and, needless to say, my phone didn't agree with it. The Fast site solves that issue, so thank you for that - much better.

2. Once I got on the site with my computer, I objected to having to register an account for anything, much less have forced email activation when you explicitly state in your terms of service you will send me email. Phooey on whoever made that decision. I made up a false last name because I didn't like that either, and dropped the process when I couldn't verify the fake email I put in.

3. It's too much. Its like walking into a 12 lane car auction - there's way too much going on and sensory overload kicked in immediately. Buttons are too big, lines are not clean or defined. Woof. Take your website design lessons from Apple or Microsoft - not CNN or MySpace. But again, you've made me happy with the fast site, so thanks again.

[Dennis]

Linux is high-end technology? ROFLMAO! After 10+ years in development, Linux now does about what Solaris did when Linux started. How's that high-end?

I like the new site design. Is there a way to get the subscription to only send the comic, not all the other stuff?

[ace]

1. love the "fast" site
2. love the dilbert comics in color
3. my only wish: have sundays have not only the "big" strip; but also the 7 day recap--that would be swell.
-thanks

[Timg]

Thanks for the fast site. I really can't stand the new site with all the crap all over the page. I was truly afraid I would have to go back to reading Dilbert in the newspaper!!

[Martin]

The "Flash diet" better be good. The current performance is abysmal using Safari 3.x on a Mac, not to mention that only the first 3 panels of the Sunday strips show up.

Fast site ftw!

[D. Mented]

You missed group four; those of us that didn't remark about your site.
The current version runs just fine on my 56k dinosour (maybe because of Adsubtract - flash is too much for the old beast, but I'm not getting it - just the color strip)
I hope the next round of changes don't make your site inaccessible, but if they do - at least I have Basic Instructions (thanks of that!)
D. Mented

[Mike]

Wow, you love us, you really love us!!!

Seriously, I'm trying to remember if I've ever heard of a business fixing usability problems with their web site before. I think this is a first.

Thank you.

[DC]

I am amazed that you (plural you?) would do this. I'm going to go but 3 dilbert books right now.

[Courtney]

One other thing, none of the Sunday strips seem to be loading for me... I get little red X's. Hmmm.

[Courtney]

YAY! Thanks for the fast site... I'll admit to being in group #2.

And as long as you are taking complaints and then actually doing something about them, can I request that you go back to black and white... I'm finding the colors way too bright... and I agree with a previous poster that it makes them hard to print.

Thanks in advance!!!
-Courtney

[Mike]

Ah .. the "Dilbert principle" in full effect.

"Beta-test" the new site by switching it without notice for the old one (woo hoo! .. new features, more adsense revenue!) .. then grudgingly re-implement the working one when everyone complains.

[b4k4]

Ugh... yeah, I'm glad that you have a de-flashified version. All you need now is to make it so that the strips on that page aren't shrunken, and have a black and white option available for those of us that want to print it out.

[Dean]

My one suggestion...

Make your comic strips searchable by a text entry.

There are some very old ones (like 1990's era) that I'd pay money to get copies of - if I could find them.

[Damien]

I like everything but the animated cartoons. I'm sure you're tired of hearing the same thing over and over again, but it is impossible for you to get the casting right. Every viewer has a different voice for each character in their head, and when I hear something different, it just sounds wrong. Really wrong. It's the same reason I didn't particularly like the old televised cartoon.

[cpbower]

Other than the comic being slightly blurry, the fast site is awesome! It has everything I need, other than food/shelter/water.... and of course a crisp comic.

[eain]

Re: www.dilbert.com/fast

MUCH better than the flash site. However, the comic strip is smaller, more blurry, than on the "normal" site.

Could we get the comic in its regular glory on the fast site?

[chuck]

You should do a comic strip about putting pants on a cat. It would be hilarious. You would get months and months of material from this subject.

Much funnier than Get Fuzzy.

[Boris]

I miss the links to other comic strips that used to be there, when the site was linked to comics.com.

I like the animations, and the site is only slow enough to be mildly annoying. And Scott does say it will get better.

[Dave Owen]

Thanks for the fast site. Not perfect (I prefer B/W) but certainly good enough for me.

The traffic spike seems fairly obviously related to the publicity surrounding the change. You were a bit naughty ascribing it to happy users; for example, I added my own mini-spike as I spent two days trying to learn to like the new design (I gave up).

Comments like "the use of Flash offended them on some deep emotional level" may be (slightly) witty but it's actually more offensive than the Flash itself. Please don't insult me like that, it makes it hard for me to keep thinking of you as my hero.

[synapticmisfires]

I don't dislike the new site, although the mashup feature is still poorly implemented. That feature just seems to work inconsistently, and it's only used by a handful of users whose broken English make their strips unintelligible (is this a secret plan to make yourself seem indispensable?).

It IS a little too bloated though, so until it's stripped down a little, I am glad to have the fast site, and would mostly use that. I wouldn't object to there being an ad or some google adsense on it, though I must admit, I rarely click.

[Jan]

Are there any search possibilities?

(we were trying to book a place in a full restaurant with the old joke "what if the pope was coming, would you have a room for him? I can ensure you he will not come" - I remember, there was a strip with Dilbert (and the Pope :-) at a reception desk in a hotel and couldn't find it...)

[Gsu]

The fast site is great. Not perfect for me, but a good enough compromise with easy work-arounds. (comic too small, buttons too small, but bare-bones layout awesome)

[Daniel]

Hi Scott,

unfortunately, dilbert.com/fast has been mentioned on German site heise.de. So it is no longer a secret :-(

heise.de is famous in Germany for sometimes causing "denial of service" like attacks on sites, once mentioned on heise.de, because we Germans usually trust what this magazine says (I believe it is one of the best and probably the most serious computer magazine on this planet).

Flash sucks. I am a hardcore Windows techie, and Flash is a f#**!*g pain in the t!#s. Use Silverlight if you want to be on the technological edge. These security holes in Adobe products will harm that company really bad someday.

[dipy911]

Thank you!

Firefox user.

[Jane]

I think I fall somewhere within the first 2 groups. But that "putting pants on a cat" line really made me crack up. Thanks for the fast site! But it's still in more than 2 colours :-|

[Dennis]

Count me in on the "second group": the color is awful.

[kL]

230KB of JavaScript for date picker is *not* fast.
This is just another technological insult...

The most ridiculous bit about new slow website is that video stream is used for animations, rather than raw Flash (I don't mean blocky crappy Flash video, but Flash vectors like http://homestarrunner.com/ ).

Website's creators clearly love avant-garde in choice of technologies.

[C]

The www.dilbert.com/fast site is almost perfect. The only change I would make would be for a slightly larger strip.

[jim]

Thank you.

However, I'm not un-bookmarking http://news.yahoo.com/comics/dilbert yet; the colors distract from the (often sublime) idea.

P.S. The third group are also known as the Storm botnet.

[Ryan]

Thank you for the calendar. That's all I was wanting a quick calendar with the strip. Even better than the old site!

[Farzad]

really thanks for the "fast" page, it was more than a week I didn't checked dilbert.com, because of those stuff all arround the screen.

[Angus Lander]

The fast sight is superb -- mutatis mutandis how all websites should be. Thanks.

[Stuart]

Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!!! for the /fast link. I'm online most of the time via an aircard (i.e. 512Kbps - 1Mbps) and the new site sucks! Not to mention the lack of easy navigation to the past few days' strips.

[Fuzznsmoo]

I'm definitely group 3. I wonder if that's age related. At 53 anything free is good, but maybe the kids expect free, since that's all they have ever known. For a quick view though that linux link is like the old history link - a nice way to just view the comic and maybe do a quick catchup after a few days off. But I do like poking around the new site - especially the most popular tab. I never realized there were so many panels I haven't seen before. All in all the new site seems like a fun new toy.

[B-Con]

Nice move, Scott. Thanks.

[Arnd]

First of all "Thanks!" for providing Dilbert at all, as no other comic strip provides so many déjà-vus.

Besides the usability nightmare of the main page (independant of whether Windows or Linux is used), I think that the new layout really distracts from what Dilbert is all about: The comic strip. It's really a pity: "form beats content".

That's also the reason I would prefer to see the daily (except Sunday) strips in black and white...

Nevertheless, the "fast" page also works fine in my Nokia N800...

Now to something different: When first visiting the new page I recognized that I would have to register to have a look at all the features offered. But neither the amount of information collected (like date of birth and ZIP code) nor the Privacy Policy is acceptable to me. Why are you collecting more information and (ab)use the collected information more thoroughly than other web sites? Web 2.0 at its worst. And it shows a strange approach to customer relations, contrary to what has been critized in many Dilberts in the past...

73, Arnd

[bob]

thanks for the fast site -

[Dana W]

Thank you for an alternative to the flash site! The one really annoying thing about it is that the comic itself is the LAST thing it draws when it brings up the page.

Thanks to the training I received from your most excellent book "The Way of the Weasel" I can only assume this is so you are forced to read the ads while while you are waiting for the comic itself to load. A basic Sales Weasel.

The ONLY complaint I have about the "fast" site is the back and forth buttons do not work in Safari. "and thanks to Vista we have a lot of new Mac users" If someone could fix this minor and non esthetic detail it would be appreciated.

Mac/Linux user
Dana

[Doug]

Brilliant, I'm a windows user, so to hell with the linux nerds, however much of your fanbase they are!

Although sticking "beta" on something doesn't make it so. I wonder if Hillary Clinton had that on the speech in which she "mis-spoke"?

I don't like the colour version though - not because its colour, but the choice is rubbish. I've bought various regurgitated versions of Dilbert in dead-tree format, and they look ok in colour.

And it does look decidedly blurry rather than subtley anti-aliased.

But never let that get in the way of a poke in the eye for nerds!

And no criticism of this comment, its only beta, and no, I won't be doing a fast version :p

[John Koetsier]

Tried your mashup - cool.

Didn't work - not cool.

http://sparkplug9.com/2008/04/25/new-dilbert-mashup-cool-but-broken/

[Michael]

The "fast" site is awful. The cartoon strip is shrunken and blurry.

Makes me want to clean my glasses, but they're already clean.

[Dewayne]

Thank you for the Fast Site.

Perfect. ( Could you add support for my VT100 Terminal? Those new fangled images really screw up my escape sequences.)

-D

You need have black and white as an option.

1. People love to print out your strips and put them in their offices, on their doors, etc. Most do not have a color printer. Printing a color strip through a black and white printer destroys the strip because it looks all washed out.

2. The way you have implemented color only de-emphasizes facial expressions by distracting viewers due to the intensity of the colors you have chosen and by blurring the lines in the strip.

3. I usually don't comment on anything on the internet, so there must be something significant about my message. ;)

Alas, if you make the strips higher resolution and chose colors that Add the the comedic value of the strip, rather than Remove it, you should go color.

As a comic about the absurdities of workplace life, I think drab colors are preferable, perhaps even black and white. ;)

Lastly, let me provide an example. http://dilbert.com/fast/2008-04-13/

This strip depends on the facial expression of the character in the last frame. I can't make it out, but I can make out bright colors.

Change it good - and necessary - but not all change.

~Chris