The New Shiny Escapist
- Thread starter Trujkin
- Start date
My extremely short review of the new design:
Is the new structure practical and efficient: yes it is.
Is it stylish and/or beautiful: no, it certainly is not.
Is the new structure practical and efficient: yes it is.
Is it stylish and/or beautiful: no, it certainly is not.
Hi, I noticed a bug that popped up really suddenly and I can't seem to get it to go away.
It looks like the page stop loading when it was only half done, so while I get the content of the site alright the personality is all gone.
All I see is white, lots of white, and one of those design templates that ever single other website in the known universe is using.
I wasn't sure how to report this (what do you call a complete and utter lack of personality on a website?), so I came here to register this bug.
It's not a huge deal but it is annoying that I can't tell the difference between The Escapist and a squatter site.
It looks like the page stop loading when it was only half done, so while I get the content of the site alright the personality is all gone.
All I see is white, lots of white, and one of those design templates that ever single other website in the known universe is using.
I wasn't sure how to report this (what do you call a complete and utter lack of personality on a website?), so I came here to register this bug.
It's not a huge deal but it is annoying that I can't tell the difference between The Escapist and a squatter site.
So far...
Pages take ALOT longer to load (if at all), and I would attribute that to the large increase of SQL queries on the site.
The floating menus for each section don't load, showing long lists of SQL queries. Many, many broken queries.
The new colour scheme makes it easier to get lost on the page. The old look had the blue side borders, which narrowed the eyes onto the content.
The pages are not as cache friendly, due to their dynamic nature.
The new weekly videos made by The Escapist are not shown off as prominently, making it a chore to watch the new weeklies.
The news is smaller text, and in a smaller area. This makes it seem less important, and less likely to read.
On the latest videos page. Out of 20 video's only 2 were actual content, the remaining 18 were trailers. If you want to show all the trailers, seperate them from your weekly content.
As a Pub Member, I am not happy with the new look. It makes looking for the content I paid to view harder to find. That is all
-Swatmajor1
Pages take ALOT longer to load (if at all), and I would attribute that to the large increase of SQL queries on the site.
The floating menus for each section don't load, showing long lists of SQL queries. Many, many broken queries.
The new colour scheme makes it easier to get lost on the page. The old look had the blue side borders, which narrowed the eyes onto the content.
The pages are not as cache friendly, due to their dynamic nature.
The new weekly videos made by The Escapist are not shown off as prominently, making it a chore to watch the new weeklies.
The news is smaller text, and in a smaller area. This makes it seem less important, and less likely to read.
On the latest videos page. Out of 20 video's only 2 were actual content, the remaining 18 were trailers. If you want to show all the trailers, seperate them from your weekly content.
As a Pub Member, I am not happy with the new look. It makes looking for the content I paid to view harder to find. That is all
-Swatmajor1
I can't say I'm a fan of the new lay out at all. But I suppose it's not really in our hands as the readers. If we as the consumers of this product don't like the changes made to said product, then we need to decide how we want to spend our time and money. Dollars and time are both units used to vote, and quite frankly, if the Escapist sees a positive result then they will stay the course.
..if they do not see a positive result, lets hope they have the common sense (that at least most of us believe they have)to make the proper changes to their product.
..if they do not see a positive result, lets hope they have the common sense (that at least most of us believe they have)to make the proper changes to their product.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaawrrdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!Nasrin said:I hope you guys realize that the performance issues (WHY IS IT SLOW? RAAAWR!) are related to the fact that this was just released.
I can't stay mad at you when you pull out pictures like that!
Still though, sore about the community tab.
You know what i was just about ready to rage and say its awefull but after some time i got used to the new system i think this is a good change
i miss the old one but whatever change is good
also the layout is like the new youtube layout i like this its good
GREAT JOB GUYS!!!
i miss the old one but whatever change is good
also the layout is like the new youtube layout i like this its good
GREAT JOB GUYS!!!
Great, you go and pull a Google. Fucking up the interface we were already familiar with and in turn, forcing us to have to relearn it but I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I am going to assume you let a revert to old interface button behind.
Edit: This does not mean I hate the new design. I just cannot stand having to relearn the new layout of every switch, link, and feature when it already worked good.
Edit: This does not mean I hate the new design. I just cannot stand having to relearn the new layout of every switch, link, and feature when it already worked good.
Follow-up:
The lighter blue on a white background REALLY hurts peoples eyes (Just checked with a few mates of mine, I raced for the Panadol)
Advice to The Escapist:
Have a dark coloured border on the left and right to focus the eyes on the content
Separate your content from things like trailers (Because Pub members don't pay for trailers)
Upgrade the SQL server to handle the large increase in average load
That is all...for now.
EDIT: Reply to posts don't work....
The lighter blue on a white background REALLY hurts peoples eyes (Just checked with a few mates of mine, I raced for the Panadol)
Advice to The Escapist:
Have a dark coloured border on the left and right to focus the eyes on the content
Separate your content from things like trailers (Because Pub members don't pay for trailers)
Upgrade the SQL server to handle the large increase in average load
That is all...for now.
EDIT: Reply to posts don't work....
The back end changes seem interesting, but as everyone else has already said the interface is too cluttered and white on blue was not a good choice. In fact it seems to hurt my eyes far more than the old colours when staring at it late at night (as I usually do...).
My opinion?
Keep the new drop down menus, put the content side bar back and revert to the old colour scheme.
My opinion?
Keep the new drop down menus, put the content side bar back and revert to the old colour scheme.
I'm usually optimistic with these things, but this looks like an art student not educated in customer-friendly design had an orgasm.
Constructive Points:
- We don't print internet pages, so feel free to use other colors than white. It's creating too much contrast with blue EVERYWHERE and makes EVERYTHING stick out, causing confusion. Good way to piss off NoScript users tho I suppose since it now looks like the site didn't finish loading.
- Why take out all the borderlines and boxes just to make the site seem lighter? Especially the front page is supposed to direct the view, not cause chaos. You should really think of a better way to tie together the individual elements so we can see which box deal with Extra Credits and which with Movie Bob.
- because of the aforementioned lack of structure, the front page looks so full you don't even want to start anywhere. Like a wall of text in HTML shape. Try to split the posts into different, clearly marked groups. Use colorcoding to your advantage.
- bigger loading times don't seem like a fair payoff.
More personal gripes:
- I don't care about my recent history, please give me the option to hide it so the frontpage looks less cluttered
- make the top navigation bar's category titles thicker and thus easier to read. Slim fonts are neat, but not good for webdesign. Webdesign should always be clear and visible at the core and be SUPPORTED by artsy ornaments, not SUPPORT IT.
- Tickers belong to the top. Sorry, that's just where I always expect them to be, and it's a working concept.
- think about customization options to hide aspects from the website. Those would be real improvements. I'd love to browse the site without the entirety of the right navigation, the top one is enough (I'm sure you can stuff those ads elsewhere)
- The new font isn't terrible, but it's a downgrade from the other one in terms of visibility. No I'm not 60, yes I do a lot of visual design myself, but when I browse the net I have to be able to recognize the contents of a frontpage within a second. That's the kind of medium you chose, people.
- No idea why you made your site's biggest and arguably most important content - the videos - more hidden by hiding the sidebar, but I can deal with it. But please change the font of the titles beneath video thumbnails in the show's gallery. Multiple lines are touching each other and the surrounding elements. Same reason I don't like how the escapist logo touches the white. It's not a smooth transition because the logo wasn't optimized and makes it look even more amateurish.
TL;DR
You tried to make the site lighter and went too far, now you hollowed its bones out and the bird comes crashing down. Too much chaos, not enough clean-cut visibility.
Constructive Points:
- We don't print internet pages, so feel free to use other colors than white. It's creating too much contrast with blue EVERYWHERE and makes EVERYTHING stick out, causing confusion. Good way to piss off NoScript users tho I suppose since it now looks like the site didn't finish loading.
- Why take out all the borderlines and boxes just to make the site seem lighter? Especially the front page is supposed to direct the view, not cause chaos. You should really think of a better way to tie together the individual elements so we can see which box deal with Extra Credits and which with Movie Bob.
- because of the aforementioned lack of structure, the front page looks so full you don't even want to start anywhere. Like a wall of text in HTML shape. Try to split the posts into different, clearly marked groups. Use colorcoding to your advantage.
- bigger loading times don't seem like a fair payoff.
More personal gripes:
- I don't care about my recent history, please give me the option to hide it so the frontpage looks less cluttered
- make the top navigation bar's category titles thicker and thus easier to read. Slim fonts are neat, but not good for webdesign. Webdesign should always be clear and visible at the core and be SUPPORTED by artsy ornaments, not SUPPORT IT.
- Tickers belong to the top. Sorry, that's just where I always expect them to be, and it's a working concept.
- think about customization options to hide aspects from the website. Those would be real improvements. I'd love to browse the site without the entirety of the right navigation, the top one is enough (I'm sure you can stuff those ads elsewhere)
- The new font isn't terrible, but it's a downgrade from the other one in terms of visibility. No I'm not 60, yes I do a lot of visual design myself, but when I browse the net I have to be able to recognize the contents of a frontpage within a second. That's the kind of medium you chose, people.
- No idea why you made your site's biggest and arguably most important content - the videos - more hidden by hiding the sidebar, but I can deal with it. But please change the font of the titles beneath video thumbnails in the show's gallery. Multiple lines are touching each other and the surrounding elements. Same reason I don't like how the escapist logo touches the white. It's not a smooth transition because the logo wasn't optimized and makes it look even more amateurish.
TL;DR
You tried to make the site lighter and went too far, now you hollowed its bones out and the bird comes crashing down. Too much chaos, not enough clean-cut visibility.
Nothing is as bad as what Gawker did. That is a crime against both nature and humanity. However, this is almost in the same class of unusability as that, and just like their redesign led me to stop using all Gawker sites almost entirely and to even usually avoid clicking links to them, this might be bad enough to stop me from coming here. We'll see. (Edit: After dicking around with it a bit, it's not quite as unusable as I thought (still don't like it, but I'll live), but it's still visually atrocious. Nothing so bad that I shouldn't be able to at least make it tolerable with a few minutes in Greasemonkey, at least.)zombie711 said:
The white on white on white look with everything useful hidden in menus reminds me of one of the recent IPB updates that actually got me to stop being an admin on a forum that I've helped run for the past five years, because it was just so frustrating to even use the site. How does it help me to have to go digging through a bunch of stupid JS menus searching for things I'm looking for when I had a perfectly good sidebar before? What good does a blinding expanse of empty whiteness do for me other than make it hard to read? Who started this awful UI trend, and why is everyone copying them?