The New Shiny Escapist

[Hashbrick]

-snip-

Certainly, Susan. Nonetheless is the site as it was redesigned ... not much aid to that goal of making it more streamlined. Yes, the old site was cluttered in some parts and I agree that it turned out better - in those parts. But the mainpage is still a clusterfuck of randomness.
(And it was before just as well, the main difference people see now, though, is that it has much less visible structures than before. But for instance the complaints about the randomness with the sizes and positions of the features on the mainpage are considerably misplaced, as the old mainpage had the same issues, just not as obvious as now.)

That said, I'm a Web Developer, not a Designer ... I can only tell as much, it's merely a radical turn that has some major flaws in some departments, but also some major improvements in others, and as such gives the viewer this classy "It's change, and I see bad points!!!!" feeling.
That doesn't mean, though, that, when people complain about the current design, it's an issue of them actually hating it overall. It's more that they feel the need to address those problems first of all, to get them solved immediately, or at least as soon as possible. And, in all honesty, I understand that. And I know that it's an issue of a bunch of hours to get everything done properly when such complaints pop up. And I understand that some things read like a slap to the face ... But that's what our, and our colleagues' jobs are like, and will always be like.

Dramatic calls for a boycott, or leaving the Escapist, may not be the most appropriate or most desirable way to express ones' complaints, but it's one that needs to be seen as a statement. People wouldn't leave, if their complaints didn't have at least some grounding - unless they wanted to leave anyways and just looked for a reason.

Sooo ... what did I want to say with the core of this post again? .. Ah right ... Noone wants to call you guys drunk clueless jackasses. But it's the way it reads, as the negative points are what immediately jumps to ones eye, and need to be solved asap. And that's all the community wants to tell you guys ... Wrong wording at some points, sure ... But it's neither anything new to the Internet or the Escapist. Heck it isn't even new to the human kind overall. That's how people express their issues with anything they don't like ... Stomping their feet. Either with rather ... soft and respectful wording ... Or with a can of shit spurted out.
Both are valid and both are just as true. The latter does sound worse, disrespectful and whatnot. But it's the same thing, and something one has to deal with in this environment ... As offensive and disgusting it is, it's unavoidable, sadly ...

I'm just going to have to disagree with you on that final point, that it's unavoidable. Believe me, I understand people's reactions, and genuinely want to hear what people find fault with. But if you can't treat me with respect, I'm not going to listen to you - just as you wouldn't want to listen to me if I was being disrespectful towards you. (And I don't mean you, specifically, because obviously you're being perfectly civil and lovely. It's the greater "you".)

Look Susan you guys are offering a service and while you may not need to count on every member as you don't essentially plan on sales except for the pub club members you still need them to load up your ads. Most of the backslash isn't even disrespectful I understand the Escapist is a brand to you that you hold dear and this may also impact the blow of the harsh words a lot are given. Harsh but still constructive criticism, I may be wrong but I haven't seen one post labeling anyone a jackass or belittle anyone. If anything I've seen where people referred (myself included) to the design/code as amateurish. It's a harsh realization but it's true.

I wish I could have talked the way you do to my customers when I was in retail. You don't get that type of freedom you sit there and listen to all the things that come out of his/her mouth cause they are pissed off without saying anything back except "yes sir" "yes ma'am". I might want to find them in a back alley someday but that still doesn't change the fact something is wrong to the point they are irate.

Most are willing to cope with the new design, they just asked for a simple background to kill the white something that literally would take a minute of a designers time and yet here we are day 3 with blinding madness.

Call it whatever way you want but when there is 857 comments and only 10 or so agree with the change without any kind of negative there is something obviously wrong with the way it is now. I know we are just sheep to you guys but still the sheep need grass to survive. Leave them starving too long and they will look for new grass.

See, this is part of what really upsets me. You "know" you're just sheep to us? Why would I be taking the time to talk to any of you about this if that's how I felt? If we didn't care about the community's general happiness, we wouldn't be asking for feedback.

And it's far more than 10 comments, I assure you - you also have no idea the kind of emails and PMs we've gotten. Yes, many people are being perfectly reasonable and civil, and we genuinely appreciate that. But don't assume that simply because you don't see something happening that it isn't. I'm not talking about saying "I really don't like this" or "This hurts my eyes." I'm talking about people being genuinely, truly disrespectful, nasty, and rude.

Obviously, if certain comments keep cropping up, then that's clearly an area we need to consider. The color scheme is something that seems to be a recurring theme, so naturally that's an aspect of the redesign that we're going to think about addressing.

Fair enough Susan. You're right I don't know the PMs you guys are getting, but I do know the internet and I can only imagine what childish things were said. The reason why people have so much backlash is they see nothing is still done after their feedback. I won't go on anymore at least you are here over-seeing the feedback and that's appreciative in itself just not the way you came out with it.

 

[Deathninja19]

I don't understand the complaints about the white. Books are black on white, and everyone has been fine with them for the past six hundred years.

Books aren't backlit on an LCD screen, I mean even at a low brightness it's making my eyes water and I'm in a well lit room.

 

[Monshroud]

Hi Escapist Staff,
So I tried giving this a few days to get used to, and being one of the PubClub members I had early access to the new site. Here's my feedback for what it is worth, I know I am going to echo a lot of what has already been said, but maybe my two cents will add some additional weight.

Overall I like the layout of the new site. I am still not used to it in terms of being able to find all the content, but it is nice.

That's sadly all the good I have to say. Here's a list of what I think needs some tweaking.

1> The textured background on the sides needs to either revert to the blue gradient or be darkened somehow. On a 1920x1080 display, the combination of the texture on the sides fading into the white of the pages creates this bloom effect that I find tires my eyes very quickly. Maybe try going all white on the sides?

2> I am not enjoying the new font choices. I am finding them difficult to read. I am referring right now about the fonts for the "Most Popular" and the stories below. Even on the top menu bar, I can't pin it down, but the esthetic doesn't match how I view The Escapist brand.

3> I don't have any friends on The Escapist, so on the main page for my profile I just see a broken image "X" symbol next to "Friend Made". There should be a default blank placeholder, or maybe a frown face.

4> Going to the video page, the most recent videos are not always the ones displayed. For instance a day ago it was showing the MovieBob review from mid-november. Why wouldn't the most recent episodes always be displayed. If you had that under a sub-section that said "Most Viewed" or something like that it would make sense.

5> Maybe there is a large influx of people right now due to the new layout, but overall website response has been quite slow. Maybe this is a backend issue, either way over the past two days, when trying to view various forums, I kept getting No Response errors. I know the problem was not on my end since I would refresh the page and open another window and go to another site and the other site would immediately come up.

Those are the big issues for me right now. I really hope you take this information to heart, and look forward to see what you do next.

- Monshroud.

 

[Gemannihilator]

I don't mind the new layout, I'm just glad the site's loading quickly again.

 

[Timmons]

the blue banner at the top should be thicker, the page shouldn't be white and the fonts don't all match up :S

 

[jaaedwards]

To add my voice. The biggest loss is the sidebar showing the regular shows and what the current episode is. I check the Escapist most days. I know what's current and what isn't, and I like to see at a glance if I'm up to date.

If I miss a few days, and the new Escape to the Movies has come and gone through the immediate news feed, there's no immediate way to know that there's a new episode.

I don't want to scroll through lots of stuff, I just want to see the 3-4 video shows I watch regularly.

 

[Jack Rascal]

-sorry to cut-

Escapist is one of my favourite sites, but the change is not all that nice.

Your old design looked like you (if that makes sense). If I ever saw a glimpse of something similar, it reminded me of you. Your new design does not have personality; it has lost all its colour and warmth. The top bar reminds me of Facebook and all the white really does hurt my eyes.

What comes to the layout, I am sure I will adjust in time. It took me a while to learn my way around here in the beginning as well, as on any new site. But please bring back your colour, that soothing blue. My eyes are tired after a day at the office, please don't make me close the browser and have a life.

If Pub Club offered a chance to revert back to the old design, I would send you the membership fee by post; each dollar carefully wrapped around a rose.

 

[Shadu]

It's really, bleh...to me.

It's almost driving me away. I just don't like the look of it. Too bright, as people have mentioned, and it feels incredibly busy and clustered. I loved the old layout. I'm not a fan of this one.

 

[karkar]

It seems slower and has trouble loading some pages. Dunno if that's just happening for me or everyone else, too

 

[Susan Arendt]

Also, folks, this should go without saying, but we're far more likely to listen to your feedback if you're not being a total cock while delivering it. (This obviously doesn't apply to to the post I'm quoting, which is perfectly fine.) We're not trying to fuck anyone over, or trick anybody, or just generally ruin your experience because we think it's hilarious to watch you all freak out. We launched the redesign in response to a great deal of feedback that we got, over several years, that our old site was confusing, cluttered, and just plain hard to use. If the new design we've chosen needs a bit of tweaking yet, that's ok - we didn't really expect it to be perfect right out of the gate. That's why we're asking for feedback, so that we can focus on the areas that really, truly don't work for you guys and try to find some kind of compromise.

Speaking to us like we're all clueless jackasses who just got drunk one night and decided to fuck up the site just for kicks doesn't help anyone. We all work very, very hard on The Escapist, not just because it's our jobs, but because we believe in it. We want it to be great. We want it to be something that you genuinely look forward to visiting every single day. And we're pretty sure you want it to be that, too.

So how about giving us the benefit of the doubt that we genuinely want to move forward in a positive way, and stop talking to us like we're beneath your contempt?

It is difficult to give you the benefit of the doubt when you made this design in the first place, then pushed it through in contempt of all the PC member complaints, and still acknowledge none of the criticism. Besides, there are real reasons why you would want to ruin the experience for regular members: to attract more new members or to get more ad revenue, for example.

How are we not acknowledging any of the criticism? Because we haven't immediately changed things overnight? That's not a very realistic view. We can't respond to every single comment - just this thread has 26 pages, and it's just one source of feedback. Relax, be patient. We really are paying attention.

And if you genuinely think we would TRY to send regulars running for the hills...I honestly don't even know how to respond to that. It's such an absurd idea that I can't even fathom the logic behind it. Sure, we want more ad revenue, but a drastic drop in traffic isn't exactly the first thing ad firms look for when deciding how to spend their money. Yes, we want to attract new readers, but not at the expense of readers who already enjoy our content. The fact that you think we'd do something so shitty is really depressing. "Sure, the people who've kept the lights on for years will hate it and leave in droves but to hell with them!" Sorry, that's just not how we are.

 

[Don Reba]

I don't understand the complaints about the white. Books are black on white, and everyone has been fine with them for the past six hundred years.

Books aren't backlit on an LCD screen, I mean even at a low brightness it's making my eyes water and I'm in a well lit room.

This still doesn't makes sense to me. Almost all websites are white: Google, Facebook, Reddit, Slashdot, Stackoverflow, BBC, Guardian, National Post, etc. If you are editing a Word document, you're starting at white, if you are working with Excel, it is almost all white, Kindle for PC is black on white by default. Being white is the screen's most common state. If it hurts your eyes in a well-lit room, then something is seriously wrong.

 

[Charli]

Slow, too bright and the font looks awful on my screen... though reading this I think I might be one of the few who see it, but yeah the default news font looks like arse.

 

[LeeHarveyO]

I don't care for it, they have fixed the loading speed issues but at the same time I find it harder to browse through older news and even the current news.

 

[tangoprime]

I'm unhappy that I cant look to the video sidebar from any page and see what the current newest video for each of the shows is. Now I have to click on a chunky video button, and go to each page to see if there's any new videos.

 

[tthor]

SNIP for length

Don't listen to some of these assholes, Susan, stupid people will be stupid.
I've already stated my concerns before; The page is too blinding white, to the point i started using the firefox app NoSquint to change the background to something easier on the eyes- I'd also recommend having some dark borders on the sides of the screen, (to help keep the eyes drawn to the center of the screen rather than the empty borders, as well as to help reduce glare from bright colored backgrounds).
The news on the main page is a bit scattered and confusing, plus it doesn't show much news. I'd much prefer it if the front page had a long, wide list of all the new news articles, with discriptions, organized in chronological order, basically like the old layout (ALL news, not simply what is popular or whatever). However, it is nice have some of the popular news on the front page as well, so that if you don't look over all the news or happened to miss a popular article, its there.
I think you should bring back the list of all the Escapist's current video series on the side of the main page, like what was on the old layout, as it made navigating the videos significantly easier.
And would kinda prefer if you made the facebook-plugin wider like it used to be, as it seems pretty cramped up in the current layout.

 

[ecoho]

Also, folks, this should go without saying, but we're far more likely to listen to your feedback if you're not being a total cock while delivering it. (This obviously doesn't apply to to the post I'm quoting, which is perfectly fine.) We're not trying to fuck anyone over, or trick anybody, or just generally ruin your experience because we think it's hilarious to watch you all freak out. We launched the redesign in response to a great deal of feedback that we got, over several years, that our old site was confusing, cluttered, and just plain hard to use. If the new design we've chosen needs a bit of tweaking yet, that's ok - we didn't really expect it to be perfect right out of the gate. That's why we're asking for feedback, so that we can focus on the areas that really, truly don't work for you guys and try to find some kind of compromise.

Speaking to us like we're all clueless jackasses who just got drunk one night and decided to fuck up the site just for kicks doesn't help anyone. We all work very, very hard on The Escapist, not just because it's our jobs, but because we believe in it. We want it to be great. We want it to be something that you genuinely look forward to visiting every single day. And we're pretty sure you want it to be that, too.

So how about giving us the benefit of the doubt that we genuinely want to move forward in a positive way, and stop talking to us like we're beneath your contempt?

It is difficult to give you the benefit of the doubt when you made this design in the first place, then pushed it through in contempt of all the PC member complaints, and still acknowledge none of the criticism. Besides, there are real reasons why you would want to ruin the experience for regular members: to attract more new members or to get more ad revenue, for example.

How are we not acknowledging any of the criticism? Because we haven't immediately changed things overnight? That's not a very realistic view. We can't respond to every single comment - just this thread has 26 pages, and it's just one source of feedback. Relax, be patient. We really are paying attention.

And if you genuinely think we would TRY to send regulars running for the hills...I honestly don't even know how to respond to that. It's such an absurd idea that I can't even fathom the logic behind it. Sure, we want more ad revenue, but a drastic drop in traffic isn't exactly the first thing ad firms look for when deciding how to spend their money. Yes, we want to attract new readers, but not at the expense of readers who already enjoy our content. The fact that you think we'd do something so shitty is really depressing. "Sure, the people who've kept the lights on for years will hate it and leave in droves but to hell with them!" Sorry, that's just not how we are.

sorry for the long quote(cant figure out how to shorten yet first i have to say i love the escapist and love your podcasts now on to the person you have quoted, i beleave why he is misinformed is there(to my knowlege) no dedicated thread that could perhaps tell us if our opinions have been heard. now i know your all buisy but just a simple were working on it thread would deter about 85-90% of all this hate thats coming in.

to any who would make these peoples lives harder by just saying bring back the old site instead of giveing actual feedback. do i like the new site? no i think it need improvements such as the blue border the old one had but leave these people alone they are working on it.

i would like to apoligize to the escapist staff for people like the guy above who is merly missinformed and for my own kneejerk reaction when this started.

 

[LadyTL]

Also, folks, this should go without saying, but we're far more likely to listen to your feedback if you're not being a total cock while delivering it. (This obviously doesn't apply to to the post I'm quoting, which is perfectly fine.) We're not trying to fuck anyone over, or trick anybody, or just generally ruin your experience because we think it's hilarious to watch you all freak out. We launched the redesign in response to a great deal of feedback that we got, over several years, that our old site was confusing, cluttered, and just plain hard to use. If the new design we've chosen needs a bit of tweaking yet, that's ok - we didn't really expect it to be perfect right out of the gate. That's why we're asking for feedback, so that we can focus on the areas that really, truly don't work for you guys and try to find some kind of compromise.

Speaking to us like we're all clueless jackasses who just got drunk one night and decided to fuck up the site just for kicks doesn't help anyone. We all work very, very hard on The Escapist, not just because it's our jobs, but because we believe in it. We want it to be great. We want it to be something that you genuinely look forward to visiting every single day. And we're pretty sure you want it to be that, too.

So how about giving us the benefit of the doubt that we genuinely want to move forward in a positive way, and stop talking to us like we're beneath your contempt?

I understand your frustration but perhaps you could see ours? Alot of us have been coming to this website for years. Alot of us cannot or choose not to pay for the PubClub. Only warning the PubClub members is disrespectful. Also is disrespectful is the off hand thing someone threw out that we Obviously will get used to it in a few days so stop complaining (paraphrased).

I understand it does take time with these changes but your team was informed from the PubClub people that the background was bad. Adding a tiny really light grey gradient doesn't fix that since people are still saying the massive amounts of white actually hurt their eyes even with monitor brightness turned down. I really enjoyed coming here to read the articles and now I can't read any of them. I haven't been able to physically read anything on this website since the change and I really wish I could.

The news page is also muddled and that is another common complaint. The old system had all the posted items of the day in order filling the page. Now it is a tiny space and confusing since there is no good spacing, there is a bunch of front page articles pinned over it and there is no page numbers to keep from getting lost while scrolling.

It has been a few days, we have given it time and alot of us still feel this is a bad change. I don't mind change, plenty of people don't mind change but your and other people's nice comments aside, it feels like you are brushing us off. Particularly with your comment that even three days later you aren't going to change the background that is painful but "think about addressing" it. That tells me you are not taking any of our complaints seriously since even people who don't mind the new structure, have complaints about the background causing pain. Also I doubt all of us are exaggerating the pain the background causes since
I at least get blinding headaches any time I try and read and article since the change. I am not sitting in a dark room either so it isn't just contrast.

 

[LadyTL]

I don't understand the complaints about the white. Books are black on white, and everyone has been fine with them for the past six hundred years.

Books aren't backlit on an LCD screen, I mean even at a low brightness it's making my eyes water and I'm in a well lit room.

This still doesn't makes sense to me. Almost all websites are white: Google, Facebook, , Slashdot, Stackoverflow, BBC, Guardian, National Post, etc. If you are editing a Word document, you're starting at white, if you are working with Excel, it is almost all white, Kindle for PC is black on white by default. Being white is the screen's most common state. If it hurts your eyes in a well-lit room, then something is seriously wrong.

Not everyone's eyes are the same. Some have more sensitivity than others. Maybe it is the combination of white and bright blue or something. Facebook through is broken up by pictures with different colors though from people's avatars and uses a darker blue. Also alot of those white pages use blue colored font, i.e. Google and Reddit. Maybe there is too much contrast between the white and black and bright blue? Excel is broken up by a grid btw and most default word pages frame it on a dark space so something is different here.

 

[Scratch43]

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.

- 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 agree wholeheartedly with this, and i have to put on my suspicious face for a moment because youtube also decided to change to the increasingly common "Screw your sense of direction and your eyes" theme.

 

[pfcubed313]

I don't think the New Look is ugly, but it is clunky . The most jarring example is the forum posts box, which appears to be too small for its content. Also, the Twitter feed seems to chop the bottom line displayed in half. These may seem like nitpicking, but my former web design teacher would have called my attention to detail into question if I had turned that in as an assignment. My immediate suggestion would be to shrink the video buttons for more space, they don't need to be that large.

And I must say it (along w/ everyone else), the sight looks bleached out. Your white/blue ratio is now on line with a Blue Cross Blue Shield website. And medical insurance websites are where bad design ideas go to die. Don't get me wrong, Abstract Minimalism was my bread and butter in art school, less can definitely be more. But when I first looked at the New Look I waited almost 4 minutes before I realized the page had stopped loading 3.5 minutes ago. For an "online magazine" (sic) that covers such a vibrantly visual medium, your site appears uninspired by its subject, and somewhat unfinished. Blue is an inviting, relaxing color: white is clean, but rigid, and in large doses can be disorienting and give an impression of ignored space/incomplete ideas. Less White is More Blue! (Or whatever new color you want to use, just use something.)

I do want to thank you, however, for toning down the Flash motion ads. I found most of them quite annoying, and some of them would stop my antiquated CPU in its tracks. Despite my critique I will still come to The Escapist for all my v-game info, and will look forward with A New Hope to any changes you make in the future.