I briefly looked at the beta home page. Briefly, because it felt very much like the Gawker redesign from a couple years ago that made those sites (I only really read Jalopnik) a jumbled, discordant, unnavigable mess. FWIW, Jalopnik is the only bookmark I've ever deleted from my bookmarks bar... that's how incensed I was about it.
Two main things:
- Don't try to mash the newest three stories into a single picture collage. Every item on the homepage needs to have the blurb, period. Pictures are usually noise for most /. stories, and most of this audience will not tolerate it: you are not aimed at the average user.
- If a story is going to have a picture masthead, put it between the headline and the blurb. Above the headline, the pictures lose most if not all context.
If Nick Denton had anything to do with this redesign, even casually or tangentially, please let us know so we can riot. That idiot has no idea what he's doing.