The New Shiny Escapist

[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.

 

[Buizel91]

Seriously Susan...THE BRIGHTNESS IS BURNING!

All ya's need to is the borders (which were fine anyway)

The news which is all over the place

And maybe using the old design for the nav bar, as this new blue one seems like you got it from Piczo or something xD

other than that i don't mind change, however maybe warning the whole site first would of been better

 

[mrF00bar]

Is it just me, or this the menu font hideous? It makes my eyes hurt reading the nav bar and the title of the videos. x,x

 

[falcon1985]

It's ok. I like the layout. Just make the background less eye-blindingly white, and we're good.

 

[Susan Arendt]

*snip*

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.

Absolutely, I understand your frustration! I don't know what you're referring to about "someone threw out that we Obviously will get used to it in a few days so stop complaining", so I can't address that. I personally asked that folks give it a few days to give it a chance, but never suggested that anyone, ever just plain shut up.

As for your suggestion that we're being insulting by not snapping to change the background - first of all, we need to decide what we'd change it to. We've certainly gotten the message that the new color scheme bothers people, but rushing to change it to something would be foolish and likely to just make people even more angry. Whatever we do, we want to make sure it's a good idea, not just slap a band-aid on and then change it again when we make up our minds what the "right" thing to do is. We don't want to jerk you guys around back and forth. That's all. The tweaks, whatever they may end up being, will not happen overnight. We're not blowing you off.

Please also keep in mind that as more time passes (and it's only been, what, two days?), we get more constructive feedback. Much of the first feedback we got was "I HATE IT WHAT DID YOU DOOOOO?" Now we're actually getting specific issues and detailed information from users, because the community has had some time to actually try to use the new design.

Moreover, some users who freaked out initially are discovering that things aren't as "broken" as they had originally thought - they're just different. As people learn the new navigation system, they are altering their opinion. I'm not saying that everyone is going from hate to love, but their feedback is changing from a more blanket reaction to the change, to a specific discussion of a few key issues. The more detailed information we have, the better we can target areas that are genuinely troublesome, as opposed to those that are merely different, or matters of personal taste.

I am sorry to hear that the color scheme actually causes you pain, that's upsetting to hear. All I can ask is that you hang in there and be patient.

 

[Batmandar]

So I never post. But I wanted to try to give some feedback here as someone who has had a very large interest in site design since I was 12ish and Geocities gave us what you don't want to do lists. I will try to not be "a total cock" and give constructive criticism.

First, I was not crazy about your previous layout, but it was mostly functional. The "push next for page 2" in internet articles is a well documented complaint among readers. Of any website. Also the fact that when you start a video an ad takes over control of the page and means you can not navigate anywhere else on the site without pushing the back button is extremely annoying. Generally all this stuff is bad because at the slightest notion a user may get frustrated and just leave your page.

One of the first things you learn in web design, the psychology of it is to not make the user have to think. Don't require them to go searching through your pages to find what they're looking for, or click extra stuff. Bells whistles fancy coding, just the amount of awesome stuff you can do with code, is fun yes, but generally the average user, or reader will not have a clue what they are seeing. If people have to think about it, they just go elsewhere. I'm a technical person so I love lists. I can navigate through a confusing website pretty easily. But most people, will not. They will just leave the page.

The drop down menu's at the top of the screen are not a popular(among readers) system of finding what they're looking for. It means clicking a button, then realizing it was a drop down, then looking through those lists and clicking on what they think they're looking for. This alienates people who are just looking to browse, or who are new to the site. They will not search through lists to find something new to watch or read for instance. The drop downs also mean if you let go of your mouse while reading an article and accidentally hover over a button it obscures part of the page, you groan and move the mouse again. This is so minor it's laughable I know, but it's something I have observed among users.

Your choice to have large amounts of empty white space on either side of your column is distracting. Another thing you learn in site design is about this very thing. Too much white space says emptiness to a user. It emphasizes how thin the column is even though it isn't that thin compared to other sites. It also makes it seem as though you've stuffed everything into the column, with the drop downs and links at the bottom of the page, while not using the space to the sides. It's especially apparent and glaring on a widescreen monitor. As someone who comes here for the videos, I must agree that the sidebar that showed a new episode was a huge help in seeing when there was a new episode up. Most people do not keep a schedule for web episodes. This sidebar also was what got me to watch shows I never had an interest in because I saw the episode title or what it was about. (Such as your podcast. I have no idea what day you post these but I did notice when the tag changed.)

In addition, the facebook comments shown at the end of your articles are in bad shape. As they are forced into a teeny tiny column next to your links and just make you scroll further and make them annoying to read.

Ultimately, extra clicking, extra navigation, extra pages, extra searching, bad.

Simplicity of use merged with aesthetically pleasing design good.

Your colors are fine, just far too much open white space. Top bar drop down are a bit constrained for the nature of your website. Perhaps a mix of top bar links for text contents and a sidebar type for videos and the like would be an easy fix.

For the love of Aphrodite please allow us to continue navigating your site while/after watching a video instead forcing us to just leave or hit the back button, this is the kind of stuff that encourages people to use ad blockers, it's annoying. And also pages in web articles are bad.

 

[kebab4you]

It's ok. I like the layout. Just make the background less eye-blindingly white, and we're good.

Whoring this out again but wrote a stylish that replace the white background with a black one, hope it´s helpful:
http://userstyles.org/styles/57994/escapist-magazine-fix-for-white-background?r=1323983926

 

[Diplian]

Im not sure if i like this new look.
It will take some getting used to but at first glance i strongly prefer the old look.

okay, everything seems to take longer to load, Opera loads the main page poorly: images dont really load but
videos still seem to work.
alsold look.
o that news bar which changes topics every now and then is being obscured by a yellow box, Im guessing the box is for the Extra Punctuation article.

Also the link to the forum is small and not very visible and I cant press my name to go to my profile, i need to search for some button which says 'profile' first, turns out its next to the forums button.

Its not that i dont like change but you changed alot, I still prefer the
also a random CAPTCHA just popped up.
atleast it said it did.
I cant see it.

^I wanted to post that yesterday.
i couldnt, it seems to be fixed somewhat now.

 

[Backerdem]

It's ok. I like the layout. Just make the background less eye-blindingly white, and we're good.

Whoring this out again but wrote a stylish that replace the white background with a black one, hope it´s helpful:
http://userstyles.org/styles/57994/escapist-magazine-fix-for-white-background?r=1323983926

One internets for this man!

 

[game-lover]

It's pretty nice looking. I miss the link that took you to the hot threads and latest threads though. It's a very noticeable difference.

I don't mind the brightness. Though a splash of color wouldn't be bad.

 

[Koroviev]

It's ok. I like the layout. Just make the background less eye-blindingly white, and we're good.

Whoring this out again but wrote a stylish that replace the white background with a black one, hope it´s helpful:
http://userstyles.org/styles/57994/escapist-magazine-fix-for-white-background?r=1323983926

It's very helpful, thank you!

 

[MattAn24]

The Daily Drop logo and Shamus Young look awfully stretched. As far as I'm aware, Shamus is awesome. Stretching that logo like that? Not as awesome. The Shamus must be obeyed!

Yeah, our sizes changed just a *wee* bit, and we haven't caught up with all the assets we had to replace yet. So a few things still look squishy or stretchy. It'll all be fixed bit by bit...though, I dunno, I kinda like Shamus looking all Stretch Armstrongy. Makes me chuckle.

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?

Howdy, Susan! Thanks for the response! Good to know there are steps in motion to fix stuff, even though that was a minor.. Thing? I had.
Granted, a previous post before that one, I was a complete asshat, and I apologize. I certainly don't want to be an ass about it, just trying to weigh the pros and cons and be a little more realistic, y'know? Plus I really wanted to draw a blue beard on an already bearded Graham Stark. That was for lulz.

As I also stated elsewhere, Semiotics has been a large part of my recent college studies, so I tend to notice big changes in "signs/symbols" of things a lot more.. I'm certain others were more.. Unforgiving than me, but I genuinely want to help. (My rather ragey comment about "high-quality journalism" may contradict that though. Just trying to compare things properly, that's all. :3

Thanks again for the update! ^_^

 

[Triaed]

Oh my god, what happened to MY Escapist? It is horrible

... now, after the initial shock is over, I am a believer that all change is good, even the bad change is good. I will survive and I am sure something good will come out of this

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Ok, I've given it a few days.

Positive Points: Latest Work : Excellent. Something I didn't think I needed.
Fonts : Clear and understandable.
Dropdowns: Not immediately apparent, but can be used well.
Overall look: Clear


Negative Points

1) White: Seriously it cannot be understated how much the brightness distracts from posting. While giving the site more "air", it feels like you cannot grasp a specific point to look at. Referring back to the calls that books/Excel etc. are white - that's true, but they're delineated so as to provide context. You can SEE where to look and where not to. With the site as open as it is, you're never sure where your Field of Vision ends, so your eyes are opening up full to the bright contrast. Something as simple as reducing it to grey or providing black lines around it works.

2) Front Page: This is a mess. All of the order to it has disappeared and I don't know what part of the website I am looking at. The News Column has exactly the same dimensions as the Staff Twitter feed - which I'll come back to later. Also parts of the website scroll and move around depending on what you're doing, which makes having fixed visual references very hard - leading to eyestrain again.

3) Bylines - News: The primary purview of the Escapist, I believed, was to provide information. The amount of information has been chopped down to bare bones. Heads are missing, the pictures seem crushed/stretched and it's often tough to tell which piece of text belongs to which picture. What should be the flesh of the Escapist is now simply a fingernail. Given there can be 12 articles a day, space for 5 is unfair to those working on them.

4) Organisation - At the top of the page is the different computers used. Macintosh is missing for a start, and there's a strange order to it. I'd suggest Alphabetical/Reverse-Alphabetical because the order at the moment simply doesn't follow any strategy the Escapist has. Especially given that clicking the "Wii" tab will give you an article from last year as "The Latest News".

5) Placing - Left screen is most used / Right screen is subsidiary. Especially if you swap sides when clicking on profile.

6) Speed - Slowed. And group posting often clogs up, even at low traffic points.

7) What's New: What actually IS new? All I see is some big pictures - often not the ones related to the stories - often with differing text...how can I tell what's something I've not already read?

8) Crashes : Many times I go to look at "Latest Stories" and it's blank.

9) What's Old? There's a lot of good archive material in the Escapist which is completely hidden away from sight. Doomsday Arcade? How...do...I get to it?

10) Relevancy: I click on the Mobile Tab and I get 5 articles. 2 of which are duplicates from Jun/July.

11) Community Tab

12) White : Honest to god, if there's one change I would beg for it's to lose the contrast.

13) Words: "This new tech facilitates easier navigation, more contextually relevant articles, greater social integration, and expanded user customization."

Sorry Greg, but that's just flying past my head. How about "The new look means you can find what you want, when you want, and how you want"?

Some of us still think that cakes being lies is the epitome of humour. Business speak invites comparisons with Electronic Arts et al - and I know you don't want that.

Realistically - in solving this - a few lines, a splash of colour and a re-organisation could get this new look to be loved, but there's still a few hurdles to go through yet.

(Yes, I know - hurdles)