The New Shiny Escapist

[Kross]

The old site was almost perfectly streamlined, why change it to be annoying?

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I wish there was an optional darker template

Pretty much this. The bright white background is a bit hard on the eyes.

 

[Deadman Walkin]

I dunno. I am sort of on the fence. I like things here and there but at the same time after four years (3 years registered) using the familiar layout. It is just almost overwhelming, when I clicked on my oh-familiar bookmark to see this completely different looking website it almost hurt.

I do generally like the look though, good job escapist!

 

[Miles000]

It's too white...
I want my blue sides back.

Also. Is the text different? It's making my eyes hurt.
Either that or the fact I have been away from the internet/technology for a week, and my eyes are yet to re-destroy themselves.

Apart from those things though, I kind of like it.

[sub]Give me the blue sides back![/sub]

 

[Kyogissun]

Sorry guys, I'm not liking this. In the most calm and level headed way I can say this, I plead to you, change it back.

The site was fine. Please, just... Stop. It's bad enough youtube made the overhaul they did but... Please, change the site back?

Just for once, ask us before you do something? Test the interface of the site as a whole before saying, 'this is it, deal with it'.

I've been browsing the site since Unforgotten Realms was still around and ZP was just getting started... Please, for the love of god, just 'keep' it the same. ):

 

[smithy_2045]

It's a bit too bright.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

First impressions: I hate it. But, as with every other website who changes their layout, I guess I'll grow more accustomed to it.

Also, and I'll attribute this to the site changing and whatnot, everything is loading super slowly.

Yeh I hate it so far

And yeh WTF change it it was functionally pretty perfect before

 

[tzimize]

Sorry, not a fan. At all. I'm all for change, etc. etc., but this design is incredibly busy on the eyes. Why are the forums more marginalised? You have to scroll down to see the hot topics. Groups aren't as easy to access, either. I can't even find the groups portal.

The new design- the pale blue bars that head the sections- is in fact very busy on the eyes, and incredibly bright. It's just not very satisfying aestheticly.

Overall, this is a very, very disappointing change. The front page is cluttered, disorganised and takes forever to load.

Very disappointed.

EDIT: In case the staff is looking for proper feedback, I'll break it down:
- The colour scheme it unattractive- the pale colours are just, well, garish. The darker navy was better.
-The front page lacks any distinct dividers or visual cues to seperate sections. It looks cluttered.
-The bright white background is, well, too bright.
-The lag is incredible.
-The drop-down menus are nice.

I agreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Someone has done a bad job here. Heads need to roll :\

 

[SextusMaximus]

Been a few days and don't like it particularly. The colours at the top just don't blend, and navigation isn't one click away from your faourite video / series, it's 2 or 3 clicks away. Considering how long escapist takes to load and all... still, it'll probably get bet in time

 

[Vaccine]

Waaaay too bright for me, it's annoying, there's no splits between things, it's like one big lump of information and no sort of system to quickly see what you want from the front page.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The old site was almost perfectly streamlined, why change it to be annoying?

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Pffft... I'll start accepting that excuse from other people when judges start accepting it from me.

 

[Fasckira]

I think I need to get my eyes tested, I find the font display way too small (particularly in the welcome text box underneath the nav bar on the main page).

The front page in general just looks too barren now. I liked the old theme where it had lots of colour and looked, you know, like a gaming news site. I saw in the pub section the point being made about making it corporate looking so people could view it easier at work but that seems like a load of bull crap to me - if your work is that anal about you viewing a site like this, a) you should't be viewing it during work and b) chances are they check your firewall logs anyway.

I do like the fact that now I can roll over the News button and see the last few articles, beats trying to find them in the new front page.

As this theme only recently became available to the pub lot, I figured it was the first draft and that we had months of Q&A and so on... wasn't aware that 6 months had already been spent on something that looks like its been knocked up in a weekend.

Tempted to just switch to reading RSS feeds from this site.

 

[Keava]

My biggest complaint about the new layout is now that the middle part is way too white. Previously the blue bars on sides provided some contrast to the bright colour scheme of forums and articles, but now it's just big void, makes the site feel empty.

Some sort of background or a backdrop colour for content would help to diminish that feeling.

 

[adalekplunger]

The New Shiny Escapist

Today we're revealing some big changes here on The Escapist.

Why the hell aren't my articles at the bottom of the home page?

It was nearly three years ago that we made a similarly large change to the site. The layout changes, modularity and programmatic support that came with that redesign allowed us to change and grow the site naturally with the state of the industry, and to do so relatively efficiently.

Don't give a shit. Why aren't the goddamn articles at the bottom of the home page?

Our key mission was to improve and increase usability. Here at The Escapist we offer a huge amount of content that spans a broad range of subjects and formats, posing a substantial challenge for the site to present all of it easily and effectively.

Well that's gone to shit, because my articles aren't in nice, comfortable, easy to read text window at the bottom of the goddamn home page.

So today The Escapist launches fresh and new, expanding on the previous site with a cleaner, more open design with features that will make it easier to find what is new, what is hot, and to explore our enormous archive of favorites.

So the article box is in the archives? Why isn't it on the goddamn home page?

Available Navigation - To better address finding our wealth of content we have created several new methods of navigating the site.

If that wealth isn't located in a nice, tidy, chronologically ordered little text box, i don't give a shit. Why isn't my goddamn article box on the home page?

We are excited to present the new site to you, but this isn't the end of the story of course. We have already received fantastic input from the Publisher's Club and implemented many of their suggestions. We look forward to your comments as you experience the changes and get comfortable with the new site.

To summarize:
Blinding white background? Don't give a shit.

Slow loading speeds? Don't give a shit.

Annoying additions and changes that I personally never wanted? Don't. Give. A. Shit.

I just want to log on to this website, scroll to the bottom, open up a new tab for every fucking new article, eat my goddamn cupcakes, and enjoy myself. No going to a news tab. No having to sort through the bullshit on the front page.

Just.
Give.
Me.
My.
God.
Damn.
Article.
Box.
On the HOME godDAMN page.

 

[Kyogissun]

So, I don't mean to nag, but can we get an estimated time on the return to the old format?

I mean, I just don't wanna waste my time learning about this one since I assume that hopefully we'll be listened to and the site will revert back to the old format and things will be just fine again.

 

[Comrade_Beric]

You know, the #1 complaint I've read so far is snowblind eye-strain... I like blue and white, but I can see their point about the whole site looking blank now. Maybe if the white and blue were swapped? A blue site with white trim? I can't guarantee that it would look pretty and it clearly won't solve all of the issues complained about, but at least then people wouldn't be screaming about how impossible it is to see anything because they're staring into a website-shaped flashlight.

On the bright side, (heh) I like the drop-down menus.

Edit: Thank you! Now it looks like parchment. I can dig it.

 

[Duruznik]

Sorry, not a fan. At all. I'm all for change, etc. etc., but this design is incredibly busy on the eyes. Why are the forums more marginalised? You have to scroll down to see the hot topics. Groups aren't as easy to access, either. I can't even find the groups portal.

The new design- the pale blue bars that head the sections- is in fact very busy on the eyes, and incredibly bright. It's just not very satisfying aestheticly.

Overall, this is a very, very disappointing change. The front page is cluttered, disorganised and takes forever to load.

Very disappointed.

EDIT: In case the staff is looking for proper feedback, I'll break it down:
- The colour scheme it unattractive- the pale colours are just, well, garish. The darker navy was better.
-The front page lacks any distinct dividers or visual cues to seperate sections. It looks cluttered.
-The bright white background is, well, too bright.
-The lag is incredible.
-The drop-down menus are nice.

I agreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Someone has done a bad job here. Heads need to roll :\

I wouldn't go that far. Sure, it's a blegh design, but I don't think anyone did anything wrong. They just made a design that isn't too popular. With some work it can turn out okay, as long as the staff listens to our feedback.

 

[viciouspen]

it sucks.

the old facebook, oops sorry, escapist. was actually easily navigateable and intuitive, this thing just kind of literally hurts my eyes and makes me not want to bother searching.
you have to actually serach around to FIND anything of interest.

This thing has no personality, just looks like a bland facebook ripoff.

RIP escapist, I loved you while you lived.

Edit: also yeah seriously, ow my eyes, it hurts to look at this combined with the punishing blankness and the tiny text.

 

[BreakdownBoy]

Nah, I believe the old look was very much still relevant and well done, why fix what aint broken? Also it's too bright. Old articles were easy to find as well as the different shows you have were easier to find, so NOT digging the new look at all.

I visit this site everyday.

 

[rofltehcat]

Ok, I tested the site a little longer now and I'd like you change my initial statement.

Initial statement: "Meh, but it'll do if it has to"
New statement:
Please change it back. It is beyond horrible, I don't know what in god's name you guys were thinking? It isn't visually appearing, looks like cheap clone of Facebook and overall looks very bland. In addition, it is far too bright.

Another thing that puts me off is that for every article, the picture is just there without a frame or anything. The strong contrast of the site (really, as I type this it actually starts to hurt my eyes!) makes this even worse.
Overall, it looks like the very test-homepage that I wrote in html code from scratch when I learned very basic html. That is before I learned how to use the background and color scale properly.


Change it. I may not be the most active person on this site but this new design really puts me off right now. Before, I'd watch a few videos and then browse the site for some interesting news, articles or opinion posts. Right now it feels like I'll have to skip news, articles and posts because reading them hurts my eyes.