Check out The Escapist's Updated Layout!

[Scrustle]

I like it. Especially the 3 column layout at the lower part of the page. Makes things large and clear, and separating different types of posts is really useful. Although I'm getting something weird happening. On my browser (Chrome) there's always a large grey area at the top of the every screen.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I do not care for this new layout, it sucks. It's too clogged together

 

[Elate]

It's pretty horrible. The footer, I like but...

What the crap is this, a header should never take up half the god damn page, there is so much empty space in there. It looks like you've taken the page, crushed it down, just so you can move all the space that would have been around the main stuff into the header. Which makes the content look even more cluttered (which I didn't think was possible) than the previous layout.

From aesthetics point of you, yeah it looks quite pretty. From a design point of view, it makes me want to stab my eyes out, I'm a student in this field, it makes me cringe how bad the usability of it all is, IT PHYSICALLY UPSETS ME.

The features section is nice, but in the wrong place. That feels like it should be on one of the sides. As for the whole, staying up for a day thing, yeah that is an issue (not really for me, I check escapist every day because I have no life) but for most people yes.

And I won't even get into how you have seemingly made massive div holes in the design to purposefully make it look worse for anyone who doesn't have ads. (Ironically, It might have made it look much better, as it used to)

 

[walsfeo]

I don't love it, but I like it a heck of a lot better than what they are getting rid of.

 

[wintercoat]

The backgrounds don't seem to fit right for me. For example, the community names background is half cut off(including my name >_>), and the kittens one seems to be cut off even worse, as I'm only able to see the left eye of the cat on the left, and barely any of the cat on the right. The Red Scene is also cut half off.

I'm on Firefox, no magnification set, with a resolution of 1440x900, if that helps.

 

[roushutsu]

The home page looks much nicer than it did before, and I'm especially loving the big scrolling news headline on the home page for each section. It could be a tad smaller, or try and fill it up more with everything. The reviews looks nice when the picture takes up the whole space (like with Lollipop Chainsaw and Dragon's Dogma), but take the latest Zero Punctuation video for example and the picture seems squashed with a ton of empty space on the right. A universal balance with the space could do wonders.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I quite like it. Especially now when my mouse accidentally hovers over something now it doesn't bring down a big bit that blocks what I was actually trying to click on. So good job guys =D

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Looks the best, runs the worst. I can't get any of the features to work properly, I can only access the forums.

 

[Ickorus]

The sudden contrast between the blue borders and white header doesn't look quite right in an interface that's otherwise quite slick.

 

[Generalissimo]

if you ask me, this new design is the definition of cluster

it's a mess! and 'browsing options' it mis-spelled

 

[Little Duck]

Just seen the new site. NICE. It felt a bit slow but I think that may well be my computer.

 

[sprout]

The home page looks much nicer than it did before, and I'm especially loving the big scrolling news headline on the home page for each section. It could be a tad smaller, or try and fill it up more with everything. The reviews looks nice when the picture takes up the whole space (like with Lollipop Chainsaw and Dragon's Dogma), but take the latest Zero Punctuation video for example and the picture seems squashed with a ton of empty space on the right. A universal balance with the space could do wonders.

Definitely agree with your assessment (especially regarding the zp art). We're still getting used to designing for the new dimensions and trying to account for the title that is placed separately via tech is a challenge. It's something that will be refined as time goes by. Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

 

[The Escapist Staff]

The backgrounds don't seem to fit right for me. For example, the community names background is half cut off(including my name >_>), and the kittens one seems to be cut off even worse, as I'm only able to see the left eye of the cat on the left, and barely any of the cat on the right. The Red Scene is also cut half off.

I'm on Firefox, no magnification set, with a resolution of 1440x900, if that helps.

We're working on aligning the backgrounds presently, I assure you! Really sorry about that :/

 

[azurine]

This is even more annoying to navigate than the last layout. Good job.

 

[DustyDrB]

Looks great. I really have no complaints this time around.

 

[Lord Krunk]

It'll take a bit of getting used to, but I don't mind it.

My only major qualm is that the 'recent forum posts' on the main page are gone now. I liked being able to easily see if there were updates on certain RPs I frequent.

 

[Atlas13]

The giant white banner at the top is too bright for the dark design, hurts my eyes a bit. It also seems a bit out of place, like it doesn't belong at all. And the new homepage... too much of a clusterfuck. It's all grouped together haphazardly instead of actually neatly arranged and sorted into categories. The scrolling headline images also don't look like they're designed to fit in with the rest of the page, they just look stuck on as a gimmick.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

It'll take a bit of getting used to, but I don't mind it.

My only major qualm is that the 'recent forum posts' on the main page are gone now. I liked being able to easily see if there were updates on certain RPs I frequent.

Are you sure?

Spoiler: This is how my page appears

 

[Bostur]

Change always takes a little time to get used to, but a few initial impressions.

The drop down on the main page feels too big and gets in the way. I'm not a fan of mouse-over menus on webpages in general, so I'll probably scroll down to the real links right away. They do look very nice they just feel impractical.

The sub-items in the top menu are aligned too far to the right. When I want to mouse over a sub-item I often get the menu item to the right instead. For instance when trying to select "Reviews->Anime" I often get the "News" menu instead. Mouse movements aren't always that accurate, its nice with some room for error.

The sub-items in the Avatar menu (Profile, Posts, Badges, Groups, Friends) are unevenly spaced because some of them have icons. That makes navigation a little unpractical, it may be better to adjust all the items to have the same height.