Editor's Note: Fiction
- Thread starter Andraste
- Start date
Thanks for the feedback. Since this comment has come up a few times I figured I'd address it.tk1989 said:
The content *is* muddled in the sense that we are no longer following a strict allocation of content by chronology and category in the above-the-fold portion of the front page. We deliberately switched from a "categorized-chronological" presentation to an "editorial importance" presentation. On the old site, new content appeared exactly in the same spot, regardless of its importance or interest: All that mattered was its chronology and category. The upper left hand block was always the Weekly Issue, for instance. On the new site, the front page is a flexible grid where we can move any type of content around based on what we think is important and interesting. To use the magazine metaphor, the homepage is now the "cover" of the magazine, highlighting what we think is most interesting and directing you there. Tomorrow the upper-left hand block will be Zero Punctuation, not the Weekly Issue. It's going to be a lot more dynamic.
We knew that some uers would be interested only in very specific content, so we added a right sidebar that hot-links you to the latest of specific series or columns. So on any page you're one click from ZP, one click from Stolen Pixels, etc. And browsing by chronology and category continues to be available via the tabbed menus.
It's definitely new and interesting, although it takes a bit of time to get used to and find out where everything is which is an issue that I think should be covered in the introductory article. I also think that they should have kept that section below the articles that listed the four latest videos, because it's a lot easier and quicker than going to videos, then latest videos, and then searching for the ones that you watch and haven't seen.
Ah, ok. Thank you for the explanation! That actually sounds awesome! I really liked the old page and maybe the diversely different new front page didn't really reassure me at first, so I probably jumped into criticising it. Regardless from what you have written the idea of a dynamic front page sounds interesting and original; I can't wait! I think that if you do it properly (which I am sure you will) it will make the front page more constructive and noteworthyArchon said:
Look forward to tomorrows look!
I wasn't around to give balloons, confetti, and champagne to over-dramatize the new launch, but nice work all the same. I can tell that a lot of thought went into everything.
The new community section is total win!
The new community section is total win!
I was kind of hoping for a throw back to the old days' simplicity, now it seems even more complicated than ever. I squawked during the first major overhaul and here I go again. ;-)
The content reorganization at the top seems for the better though. People who are used to the way things were might have a bit of difficulty at first, but new visitors will most likely have an easier time adjusting to the site now.
I still miss the magazine and lounge from old.
The content reorganization at the top seems for the better though. People who are used to the way things were might have a bit of difficulty at first, but new visitors will most likely have an easier time adjusting to the site now.
I still miss the magazine and lounge from old.
Some days, I do too. But then, we have so much more content now, and so many more fine readers/viewers of that content. As much as I'd like to go back, you never really can. And I think this latest design is first-rate. We put a lot of thought into it. I'm confident folks will adapt fairly quickly.Echolocating said:
Honestly... I can't say I like it. There's absolutely no delineation in between articles, no way to tell at a glance what picture goes with which blurb... borders in between the different sections would be a wonderful thing, in my view.
I understand you folks have a lot of content to put up, and not many people do that whole "scrolling down the page" thing, but when I have to literally puzzle out where one blurb ends and another begins, I have to score it as a step backwards in usability.
[/CrotchetyOldManMode]
P.S. I'm STILL having problems with pages not loading completely. Any idea when that might be sorted out?
I understand you folks have a lot of content to put up, and not many people do that whole "scrolling down the page" thing, but when I have to literally puzzle out where one blurb ends and another begins, I have to score it as a step backwards in usability.
[/CrotchetyOldManMode]
P.S. I'm STILL having problems with pages not loading completely. Any idea when that might be sorted out?
Me too, though mostly when looking at the old issue archive PDFs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/apps/features/issue/1].Echolocating said:
But realistically, there's absolutely no way we could do a fraction of what we do now with that design. It took 6-8 people to get that live each week, with 5-7 articles, and it was always close on the timing. Looking back, I don't know how we did it for two years.
It seems pretty good, but I'm such a fan of simplicity. For example, I look at the bottom of the page and see a column for "most popular" and "most commented" and think... why is that even important to a reader? There's a lot of feature creep going on here, I feel, but I also understand that I don't represent the majority of the viewership. If I ran the site, you'd all be broke. ;-)Russ Pitts said:
And thank you very much for doing what you did for so long. I found it very inspirational, even so to this day; it was so unique and refreshing.Virgil said:
I don't know what it is, but I just can't appreciate the massive online community thing (which is arguably the current focus of The Escapist) which is why I miss the "magazine".
Chocolate chip!! Mmmmm. fresh, still-warm chocolate chip cookies and hot french fries are the two foods I cannot resist.Jumplion said:
nomnomnom
I miss the magazine layout, too. I'm super glad we still have all those old pdfs available on the site. They are pretty special.
