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.
This entry was posted by Neil Armstrong on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 8:50 am and is tagged with logo, PlusNet, video and is posted in the category PlusNet News, Video, WWW Front Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I like it.
Looks lots cleaner, and I like the linkage between www and community.
Good work guys!
Loving the new look website although its a shame that the member centre didn't get a much needed facelift too - is that coming soon? Love the flowers and stuff on the main page too and thanks for getting rid of that horrid brown on the community site - that was vile.
Well done Plusnet, you've done well 
)
It was a bit of a massive job to do the member centre at that same time. However, we are working on it, with a redesign of the applications in there too.
Love the new site, but I have an odd question. I'm launching a uk usability site in the next couple of months and I'd really like to use your redesign as a case study, is it still possible to view the old site to be able to take some screen shots?
FYI I'm not inferring at all that the old site was inherently unusable, I'd like to discuss how your new design incorporates usability concepts that have developed since the original site was launched.
Thanks
It certainly looks cleaner and easier on the eye, the 'pictograms' header and footer remind me of that TV ad for a certain 'cleaner' diesel engine
yuk!
whatever happened to the "smarter way to broadband" - that's one of the main reasons I joined! the new logo looks very pharmaceutical.
oh well, you definitely can't please everyone.
New website look? Excellent - but still there is no way to in touch with anyone without waiting and waiting and paying thru the nose to get problems sorted out. The whole set up is really poor and I am looking forward to changing to another server as soon as my contract is up. I will not pay to end it sooner, enough is enough.
And I will be very surprised if the human who does check it, knows how to answer a phone, or puts this onto the website - because its adverse and doesn't go with company policy - no doubt.
The new logo reminds of a hospital or first aid sign that you see on kids toys.
Hi Paul,
Would you mind dropping me an email to let me know what difficulties you're experiencing? Looking at your account, you don't appear to have been in touch since June.
Send me an email to jbailey@plus.net and I'll be more than happy to look into any difficulties you're having.
Hey there,
You say the N in PlusNet has gone - but all the page titles have PlusNet as the title.
What a load of crap,
Looks like a kids toy not a comercial enterprise.
The site colours make it look more like a dating site.
As usual too much emphasis in the prety pics, and not enough on content and the technical we want.
One of the worst sites I have seen in a long time, and definatly not an improvement in any way.
Liam
Changing from PlusNet to Plusnet is going to be a slow job as there are many files that reference it... bear with us as we said in the original post.
Colin
Is it just me - or has the font size been decreased?
It isn't quite as readable as before.
I like the look of it so far and look forward to the full roll-out in due course.
@ David Cload
> too much emphasis in the prety pics, and not enough on content and the technical
Really? what content is it that you think we're missing? We're always pleased to take a look at any suggestions if you think we're missing anything or that we need to improve in certain areas (and I say that knowing full well that we are in a constant review cycle).
Is it just me, or does the new logo look halfway between a cross and an oddly deformed feminine hygiene product? Either way, it looks silly.
The new layout is generally easier on the eyes.
The "Community" idea is naff. I'm not interested in joining a community, I just want internet that works.
I liked the big N. The lettering on the logo looks ok with all small letters. "Plusnet" with only capital P is the worst.
...and an easy link to the main portal at last.
Hi there, only been with you a couple of months, found your old site a real bore, in fact I got fed up when logging on seeing the same old thing, but your new site is a breath of fresh air, easy to navigate, logo is simple and modern.
Good luck for the future, and to the backroom boys WELL DONE.
OK thats weird, the website has changed back to the old one?
@ LiamM - that's related to a problem we've just experienced in the internal network. I believe it was only intermittent and should now be fully resolved. New rollout gremlins.
Looks good, but one small glitch for me is that the main page no longer "fits to screen". We don't all have massive big new screens, and the Webmail link is now offscreen until I move it over.
Any chance of a "fit to screen"?
Hey Tigger: What sized monitor and what screen resolution are you running in?
Anything under 1024,768 will give the above effect. I regularly run my browser windows at less than full screen as it makes it easier to multitask. That said it's not a big problem for me to resize the window to suit a site, I've come to the conclusion fixed width is here* to stay whether it's good design or not. 
* That's the generic "here" as in "around". Not plusnet/PlusNet/Plusnet specifically. For the first 3 months, £18.99 a month thereafter.
me to think the plus logo is to much of a hospital type.
but then alot of new customers come to PlusNet because they likes of tiscali have injuryed there broadband so come to Plusnet to get fixed up. but still think the smarter way to broadband logo was better.
what stands out better in this message the caped N or plain plusnet.
Anyway keep my broadband running smooth as allways and i dont care if u change the companys coulours to the pinkest pink u can find hehe
The new site skin is fine! We'll all get used to it i'm sure (for those unhappy with it). And as always it's what's under the skin that counts 
And thanks for keeping your word Mr Armstrong! I and a few others were moaning on one of your blogs about the 1GB Option 1 allowance - you said you were listening and to watch this space... I happily note you've come good with an extra 1GB allowance.
So thank you for that. It's restored my faith in Plusnet (and kept me a customer...).
@Daz
Thanks for that. Glad you're happy with the new look and the usage increase.
We've got lots more things on the way including improved 'My Account' section, simpler Help Assistant and totally revamped business site.
I like it !
I like the new look site - clean, clear and easy to read. I'm also very pleased to see the BBYW1 basic allowance increased from 1GB to 2GB. Thank you Plusnet!
Oh well the boys (and girls) have been busy haven't you? No wonder I haven't heard from many of you in a while - you been feeling the force of a cracking whip!
I love the new design and feel to the new aspects of the site guys, it really is the much needed push to a fresher feel. It not only updates the site, but the company as a whole. I disagree with the comments that mention that there isn't enough technical content - there's probably more here than every other UK ISP grouped together (go try and ask AOL staff the tech spec of a router they supply on the spot, they'll cry and explode - not here).
Well done webdev, you've pleased a very picky man. Now get back onto the CS:S servers so I can whoop you like the good ol' days 
(especially you Kelly!)
I am logged in!!!!
I really like, nice design, colour and layout. The only thing I didn't like is the search bit at the of every page, I didn't even realise it was a search bar or anything at first. Looks a bit pointless! Other than that love it!
i like the new site its better for me to read and being a little dyslic the colours r fine 4 me si gd job plus net
Too pink.
Might have to change provider to avoid the pinkiness. The service is great - I just can't stand the new look.
What was wrong with a more neutral colour scheme, or maybe a blue sort of look as voted for by the User Group?
I think its awful! The PN home page looks as though it is the Red Cross' children's website. Did you pinch the picture from CBBC?
As for all that pink. Ugh..
Colours ugh, rest not to bad, but pleased with the increased allowance.
fantastic design guys!
I think its fantastic and much more appealing to the eye. Thanks for the incresed allowance can't believe an ISP gives something for nothing! Well done!! you provide an excellent service. I've only been a customer for a few months and I'm well impressed! The broadband is great so is customer service. I can't see what everyone is moaning about, look at the bigger picture there aren't many companies providing what plusnet does for such a fantastic price!!!!
Well, I read recently that logos do not cut much ice these days. They were a pre-web phenomena...
This one makes me think of a carton of soluble 1 gram vitamin C tablets, raspberry flavour.
As for the whole pinky page for pinky people, you should give us all a 'pinky handbag for life' for coming here!
I like pages that are fluid and where the text column width varies as you resize the browser window but I would say the settings are not right yet. You have left too much grey margin all around the core page information.
I also tried altering the font size in the browser view menu. You have disabled that in your CSS or whatever. For a person with sight problems that is not friendly. It may be, just about, against the law these days.
Regards,
Dr. Peirson
Software Design and Quality Assurance (retired - for the present)
Thought I'd stumbled onto the Cbeebies site by mistake!
Love the pink though - just need a picture of James old trainers to properly colour co-ordinate!
Nice slick design , a major improvement on the last site. Well done guys!
The logo will grow on people and will work well with an array of media promotions i imagine. Plenty to work with.
Unfortunately I now cannot log into either of my accounts!
I also tried altering the font size in the browser view menu. You have disabled that in your CSS or whatever.
Works for me using Firefox and Ctrl+Scroll wheel. I can also "zoom" from the View menu, though increasing just the text-size seems to be no longer an option.
The image you are using on this article (new Plusnet logo) - for me - runs over the HR (horizontal rule) into the heading of the next article.
I am running IE6 but it shouldnt do that!
We like the new layout. Thanks for the extra 1GB.
How about a one click key to go to "View My Usage". Having to go through the present route to find this is a bit long winded and not very clear as to where you start from any way.
On text size increase / decrease - I use Firefox and the key combination of (CTRL) with (+) - this increases text size only.
I'll prod one of the webdev guys to provide an authoritative answer on this subject, and why it's different for different browsers
We are looking into the text size issue now. We know it does exist, and we are not going to leave it, if it is causing problems. The main issue comes from the fact that, while nowadays browsers can zoom the entire page, in the old, dark days of Internet Explorer 6 (and below) text could have been resized only by defining text size in special units called em's or points. These units are platform and font dependant, therefore building complicated, pixel-perfect layouts was problematic.
Now we can mix pixels with points and em's to achieve smooth zooming with functions built into modern browsers (IE7, Firefox, Opera) - but this is obviously causing interference with old software packages such as Internet Explorer 6. That problem is purely related to the browser's malfunctioning rendering engine - unfortunately, these things were not as nicely standarized years ago as they are now and different renderers were handling the HTML code very differently.
However, we will do our best to solve the problem and to deliver pleasing experience for all our website users. For the moment, we recommend using zooming function (Ctrl+/- in Firefox and IE7) to achieve the best results, if text size change is required. Personally we are finding Firefox 3 (available for free from http://www.getfirefox.com) to be the fastest and most secure browser available on the market today.
I thought your web site was hacked! I can't believe you actually designed this rubbish. It looks like it's all aimed at babies with the kindergarten style pictures. What's worse is the candy pink "barbie-doll" colour scheme. I can't bear to actually look at the content.
Not too sure about the pinky purple colour but layout is better. Where did you find that colour? In some Goths make up bag? I suppose it'll grow on me.
"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).
FF3 has replaced text size increase with zoom I think. I think it was text size in FF2?
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
Hi There, Love the new look-great also the extra usage allowance is superb, thank-you very much. your sincerely Tony Hammond
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!
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?
Asbo dog
I love the reference you gave re injured customers coming to us, never even thought of this one.
I love it
Carol
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.
Thank you for your feedback. As I have said, we are looking into it
@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
Just an FYI, the search on http://www.plus.net is done using Google technology.
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.
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'
@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.
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"?
To me, it's more "breath of fresh air" than "childrens play area".
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.
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?
Well done guys, I love the great new look, its so much easier to get round, the logo is kinda cute as well.
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.
[...] 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 [...]
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.
Site now looks clean and easier to navigate. The use of plusnet and Plusnet is a little inconsistent.
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.
Looks good on screen but dont even attempt to print any pages. The formatting goes out the window!!!
Hmm. That shouldn't be! Problem raised.
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?'
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.
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).
Looks fine to me
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)...
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?
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
the first thing i want to do is check my usage... why is it now so much harder to do this?
Don't like it...nuff said...
Surely the "my useage" is from the members page "connection settings" "My useage" as its always been.
Here at Plusnet we're always trying to use clever open source things to make our lives easier. Sometimes we write our own and make other people's lives easier too!
We sell broadband, phone, VoIP and more to homes and businesses in the UK. Winner of 9 out of 11 Categories in the 2008 USwitch survey. Winner of "Best Consumer ISP" at 2008 ISPA awards. Voted number 1 in the Broadband Choices 2008 survey.
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