The new look Plusnet is here

[#1]

You've probably noticed by now that we've got a new logo. Not only that, but we've also made a few changes to our website to help you find important stuff more quickly. Hopefully you'll like it. Our old logo had been around for a long time and was starting to look tired. So we've got a new one that looks more modern and is much easier to use in small spaces such as mobile screens and sites such as uSwitch. We've also changed the way you get round the site. There's now a sitemap on each page, so key areas should always just be one click away. The main navigation at the top of the page has also been streamlined to focus on the really key areas. We've given our residential product pages a completely new look. They're less cluttered now and we're using a more consistent style across this area of the site. We've got a plan to use this style across the rest of the website, but it's a bit of a beast so it'll take us a while to update all the pages. We've changed the Community Site too so that it looks a bit more like the main Plusnet site. We're getting a lot of visitors to the site because of our blogs, so it makes sense to use our main company branding. Oh and we've got rid of the upper-case N in Plusnet. It just looks better that way 🙂 Hope you all like the new look. Of course I'm well aware that you can't please everyone though. Feel free to leave comments here or in the forums if you want to chat to us about this. UPDATE: Phil has just posted a 2 minute video about the changes, with a little bit of extra background.

[#2]

"On text size increase / decrease - I use Firefox and the key combination of (CTRL) with (+) - this increases text size only. " No it doesn't. That's the keyboard shortcut for zoom (I'm on 3.0.1 FWIW).

[#3]

FF3 has replaced text size increase with zoom I think. I think it was text size in FF2?

[#4]

Yep, Kelly is spot on. They seem to have refined the "Zoom" functionality in FF3, debatable though whether thats better than the way FF1 & 2 did it from the conversations in the office today

[#5]

Hi There, Love the new look-great also the extra usage allowance is superb, thank-you very much. your sincerely Tony Hammond

[#6]

You really threw me there! I had this lady hanging over my shoulder while I was opening the Plus pages to set her up with an Broadband + Phone account and there is all this new stuff I have not seen before. I had to tell her to go and have a cup of tea while I worked out what was what. The main thing that threw me was the new cheap package; as she wanted free evening and weekends that was no good. After a while I found all the familier stuff and gave her a call; she had only put the kettle on. Well, another one is signed up for Broadband and Phone and now we wait for the wheels to go round and a modem to pop out. Note: You can change the colour and design of the box but it's what's in it that counts!

[#7]

I quite like the new site design and, unlike some others, the pink colour doesn't bother me too much. The extra Gb for Option 1 customers is most welcome. One question - I have been paying 75p. per month for one extra Gb. Can I now expect to enjoy a reduction of 75p to £9.99 per month?

[#8]

Asbo dog I love the reference you gave re injured customers coming to us, never even thought of this one. I love it Carol

[#9]

Wojtek: Your comments regarding font size are not quite correct. Kumar / Dr. Peirson is clearly using IE6, which is unable to resize fonts unless they're specified in relative units such as em or % (not em or point as you mention.) In this redesign you have specified fonts in points (e.g. 10pt), which is the worst of all possible choices. It's not resizable in IE6, and gives inconsistent results across platforms (between Macs and Windows, for example). In fact, it's only suitable for print stylesheets. Working with em or % is what pretty much every CSS-savvy web designer out there does. I would strongly recommend you change the stylesheets, as there are (unfortunately) still huge numbers of people out there using IE6. Not to sound too negative. Besides that, I like the new design. It's a vast improvement.

[#10]

Thank you for your feedback. As I have said, we are looking into it

[#11]

@Peter Jackson You ask what I ment by lack of content, For me ther is too much superfluous information stuffed in our face. and when we want info its not easy to find. Google searches your site beter than your own search facility. I actualy looked at the Video today, I still cant understand your thinking. I can remember when I first signed up with you guys in 2000, how nerviouse I was as you were an unknown. If I were that customer and saw your site today I would probably run a mile, as it does not look professional. maybe its just me but the new logo does nothing and is nothing, and definatly does not stand out. I saw it on an IE tab today and at a quick glance thought it was one of those trojan sites offering to repair (infest) your computer. sorry but I cannot think of one possitive thing to say about the new lack of image

[#12]

Just an FYI, the search on www.plus.net is done using Google technology.

[#13]

All very pretty; now can you please get back to running the service; in case you hadn't noticed, there is a massive wave of "CNN.com Daily Top 10" spam. Why is this still getting through your spam filters after 4 days? Other ISPs seem to be managing to block it; probably because they're not all too busy congratulating themselves on their new logo.

[#14]

suits me fine thanks. but then i am not very technical minded. thanks again for extra GB.don't think that it deserves some of the negative remarks tho'

[#15]

@Andrew If we, as a business, had taken our eye off the ball in other areas I'd agree you'd have a point. But if you take a look at the forums you'll see that our engineers and comms team are as focussed as ever on the service we provide. The CNN spam thread should provide background on the issue you mention (and I agree with you, it IS blooming annoying). I'll make sure that we get an update from the Comms team as to where we are with this first thing in the morning. http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,67125.0.html The brand's new look has been delivered by a marketing-led project team comprising of a small number of developers and web designers. There is an awful lot of hard work gone into this and I do believe they have every justification to be proud of the work. You'd be wrong though to suggest that work has slowed or focus has been lost in any other areas of the service - that absolutely is not the case at all.

[#16]

The combination of the new "Plus" logo, and the pinky colour scheme do make it look like a site for medical supplies, or mouthwash. But then the TellyTubby style colour graphic assures you that, no, this is either a site for kids, or yet another bad ad for feminine products! It looks like the design team couldn't decide between "clean business look" and "nursery school kids graphics" so they just went for both. I'm sure the general design will be with us for a few years now, but can you at least get rid of the awful graphics! How can I serioulsy introduce people to an ISP with a web site which screams "childrens play area"?

[#17]

To me, it's more "breath of fresh air" than "childrens play area".

[#18]

At 66 comments and counting, it's fab that so many people have taken the time to feedback. It's good to have a mixture of pros and cons - I think this is a sign of a genuine, honest community. What you can be sure of is that our comments and feedback are read by lots of people in Plusnet and we'll use these to make ongoing improvements and changes to the site. Thanks everyone who has participated so far, and keep the comments coming.

[#19]

The site looks fresh but think the font is a little too large on headings. The cross logo (an empty pharmaceutical cross) looks non-descript to me. A bolder sign would have been a better option imho. Last point - why have plusnet chosen not to start with a capital letter?

[#20]

Well done guys, I love the great new look, its so much easier to get round, the logo is kinda cute as well.

[#21]

I like the new site. Its quicker and simpler to log onto webmail, which is now my only email client, its easy to navigate round the site. A nice clean design, easy on the eye and really easy to use. Well done.

[#22]

[...] don’t click play yet! Best place to view is embedded in Plusnet’s Community site post about the new look- it was always designed to accompany the launch post over there, so makes more [...]

[#23]

yes cleaner to look at and the logo looks better, but oh so slow to load. the old site was slow as well but this is even slower. even checked my download speed which is almost 6 gig so i suspect the pages are just too big. happens on every page i've loaded in the last couple of days.

[#24]

Site now looks clean and easier to navigate. The use of plusnet and Plusnet is a little inconsistent.

[#25]

Agree with bill willard as above, the portal page is now VERY slow to load up, so much so that I have just added a Google homepage shortcut on my desktop so now I don't bother using the 'PlusNet' site unless to check my account.

[#26]

Looks good on screen but dont even attempt to print any pages. The formatting goes out the window!!!

[#27]

Hmm. That shouldn't be! Problem raised.

[#28]

Hi Great product but oh that logo. I hope you didn't pay a lot of money for that 'pharmaceutical look' logo. I've asked several people for a comment (without them knowing it was Plusnet) and guesses were all around the medical profession e.g. 'Is that the logo you see outside a doctors or chemists in Spain?'

[#29]

Your top 4 reasons for joining plusnet are pathetic. There are much better reasons to join plusnet. Why don't you mention. UK call centres, highly skilled staff (no scripts, well paid, intelligent), honest usage allowances (you don't pay for the Fat Bar Stewards that take all the bandwidth). No long contracts, no cross subsidy, people that know about internet access rather than in it for the pure profit. Lowest priced non LLU broadband. Have a think about the copy, its no good.

[#30]

I think the design layout of the new site is excellent, it is faster and easier to navigate - 100% well done to all involved. The only two criticisms I have - and these are meant as constructive, are: 1, The pink 2, That Fisher Price style welcome to Plusnet graphic Suggestions: A subtle shade of blue would I feel look better and give a more professional look that better reflects what Plusnet is all about. Replace the welcome to Plusnet graphic with (for example) a same size photo looking down a very long straight road paving the way ahead into the distance (future).

[#31]

Looks fine to me

[#32]

Too pink... Looks like my 9-year old daughter designed it. very amateurish I'm afraid, also, whats with the weird flower emblem? What does it mean? It ain't useful or good looking...get rid of it. The whole site looks like something from CBeebees... It's not sleek or particularly smart. The general layout is Ok but I would rather visit my old provider's website than this one... I only ever come here if I need to now... who did you get to critique it before going live???? (shaking head)...

[#33]

I note that according to your poll 74% of customers entering the members centre do so to check on usage. Previously access to this was via an icon on the first screen having logged on but now it is accessed via "my account", "my settings" & "my usage". For something so fequently used this seems to be a retrograde change. Can we change back?

[#34]

Loving the new design guys. Think it's very clean and has a great feel to it. Needless to say, once it's been rolled out side-wide it's gonna look even better. Good job guys

[#35]

the first thing i want to do is check my usage... why is it now so much harder to do this?

[#36]

Don't like it...nuff said... :-(

[#37]

Surely the "my useage" is from the members page "connection settings" "My useage" as its always been.