The New Shiny Escapist

[Jabberwock xeno]

I appreciate what you're trying to do, and I hope the new features will prove useful.

In the meantime however, please tone down the bright whiteness! I've got a headache after just the first few minutes. Add a background or something...

EDIT: Also, why do all my Escapist RSS feeds appear to have gone nuts?

My thoughts exactly.

But the front page is pretty bad, honestly, it's not very organized, and everything is spaced out and all over the place.

Can you give us the option to choose which format to use please?

 

[shadyh8er]

Well, there is a LOT more open space, like you said. I can get used to this!

 

[5-0]

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

Thank you so much sir, the difference is incredible.

 

[b1aksh33p]

This is one of the few times that I'm generally pleased with a new website overhaul.

I do thinks its a little too bright and there's an slight bug that shows the webcomics whenever you (or at least I) hover over the forums section of the bluebar on top, but I am really liking the new Escapist.

Edit: That "Webcomics when hovering over Forums" bug happens when I am logged out

 

[Duskflamer]

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

Escapist staff take note: An uncomplicated solid-black for the sidebars works wonders to make the site easier to look at. I know it's been said that you don't want to do something to hastily, but when people are in physical pain from the current color scheme, changing it to something simple as a stop-gap measure before deciding on what the final color scheme will be is appropriate.

As far as the layout as a whole, let me contrast how the old site looked compared to how the new site looked.

Old site

Top
Escapist logo, advertisement.
Top navigation bar
User profile bar, including quick links to profile, messages, friends, and groups.

Left, from top to bottom
The three most recent feature videos, very prominent
Assorted spotlighted articles
Full news feed

Right, from top to bottom
Advertisement
Quick view of the newest 5 articles
Latest forum threads
Latest additions to the site's shows and comics

I'm going by my memory and the image frozen into Chromes "most visited sites" selection, so I might have missed a few things, but overall it was organized, it was easy to understand, it was easy to see what the most important things were and simple to see the rest.

New site

top
Advertisement
Navigation bar including the escapist logo, the e bleeding into the white above and below it (a problem that a better color scheme could solve though)

left
A barrage of news stories with no apparent rhyme or reason to which are showing up here, and no consistent organization. At the very top, there's one that gets a large image next to three that get smaller ones, then there's an article that doesn't get to have an image at all, then what appears to be the latest comic posted, 6 more assorted articles, and then 5 more articles next to a relatively tiny feed for the latest updates.

right
Profile section (I like the idea, but it could stand to have a little more vertical space to it)
Advertisements
Latest Quiz (I do like this being a part of the front page)
Latest forum posts
Twitter feed
Facebook recommendations

my one major suggestion: have a clear organization and progression for the left side of the front page. The old site had 3 prominent features at the top, then 2 columns of featured articles, and then 3 columns, before the full list of articles that took up most of the page (all at the bottom though, it wasn't getting in the way of anything). Figure out a similar organization or progression for the new site, or just use the same organization the old site had, and it will look a lot better than the slapdash, unorganized mess that the frontpage is right now. I don't mean to be rude or anything, it's just hard to see why you would position the articles the way they are right now.

 

[physikl]

When I click on the videos tab, all of the suggested videos are from the end of November. Just a slight bug that can hopefully be fixed fairly easily, but that was slightly annoying.

OT, I rather enjoy the new layout. Not that much has actually changed, although having a hover-over for the links to the videos as opposed to the banners on the side of the page makes it a bit harder to find them.

As well, the links next to the home page to the various consoles seem completely unnecessary to me. The Escapist generally covers trends in the gaming industry, and dividing those trends into the various consoles and platforms seems counterintuitive.

(Also, my first post! Yay.)

 

[adalekplunger]

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?

Alright, fine. Not a cock.
While I understand that you probably have gotten a few complaints over the course of several years regarding your sites layout, it seems like a very big jump to a total redesign that I had absolutely no notice about before it happened, and i imagine that's why you're getting a good deal of flack from people. If you're going to do a total overhaul, then people should be alerted beforehand. Everyone. Being "in the know" about a sites change shouldn't be relegated to a paid service, it should be a very large banner across the top saying something along the lines of "WE MAY BE REDESIGNING THE WEBSITE IN X DAYS". Sure, make beta testing a pub-only deal, but the people who browse the site on a daily basis, the same people who help support your site by viewing all of the lovely ads should be given some obvious, preferably unavoidable, heads up. While that great deal of feedback may have pointed out the difficulty of navigating the site, haven't people complained about the same thing here about the new one? Yes, they'll most likely get used to it, but couldn't the same be said about those other people who complained in the first place?

Of course, I may have a bit of history with website redesigns, as a number of other sites I use to frequent also had redesigns, and subsequently underwent *other* revisions that either sucked the soul out of the site, or otherwise made it unpleasant to use, so any kind of major redesign that turns my previously liked site into a stark-white and somewhat drab and dreary one comes off as a four-horsemen scenario for me. In the end, I just wish that you had at least held on to the old sites color-scheme and design, because that "cluttered" feel actually gave it personality,rather than what i'm currently looking at. While the new design isn't the worst I've seen, I strongly would prefer and encourage whoever makes these decisions to reconsider.


Or at the very least put that lovely article box where it was before.

 

[Aiedail256]

Ugh, I HATE the colour scheme. Nothing but white. Definitely a step backwards on visual style.

Looking at the front page, it seems like a terrible use of space. You seem to think that the old style was somehow cramped, but I liked it. You only had to scroll down half a page to see everything. Now there's boxes all over the place, huge pictures and headlines and everything's spread out over far too large an area.

And where did the Videos > Series Index page go? This is exactly the same problem as my biggest gripe with the latest YouTube update: I liked being able to see, on one page, the last four videos from each show. Now I have to either get one list of all videos, which is inevitably mostly filled up with trailers, or go to the shows' individual pages.

The only good thing about the new stuff I've found so far is that you can hide part of it (my recent activity).

 

[AetherWolf]

My only real problem is that things look cluttered and unorganized, but I'll get used to it, I suppose.

 

[nin_ninja]

THEY CHANGED IT NOW IT SUCKS, RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE

Now that we've got that out of the way, I don't particurally like some aspects of the site change-I liked the old color scheme and feel a bit better. However, I very much like some of the options that the Escapist has added.

I agree. It seems like things were moved around when they didn't need to be, and THERE IS TOO MUCH DOWN WHITE! IT BURNS! Kinda wish there was some blue to counterbalance this.

 

[Telperion]

After using the new site for a couple of days I like it. It's far easier to navigate, it's very clean and crisp to look at and I really like the new icons for comments-sections. No more tiny links with a number after it. So much better. The front page is still cluttered as all hell, but I don't think there's anything we can do about it.

Thumbs up for the new site

 

[thethird0611]

Ok, so after a few days of trying to get around, I still have to say I do not like the new design. Everything is alot harder to get to.

The first thing im noticing now with the warcraft ad, is that the board fades into the sides. That looks kinda tacky really, in my opinion. Why does it have to be a fade/gradient? Why not just try the old escapist borders? (since it seems we arent getting the old layout back)

Second, and the most frustrating, can we have the trailers/videos/news split up like before. When I look for new videos, I dont want to have trailers and news with it. Same with the other way around.

The drop down menus are actually kinda good, but the text font is horrid. Absolutely horrid. I hate to say it... but its horrid.

One other thing I can think of now... can we have the new news feed up near the top? Like the old news bar on the side? It made me feel up to date on things with that, instead of having to go out of my way to read new 'uninteresting' news that didn't seem to make it to the top.

 

[Duskflamer]

The front page is still cluttered as all hell, but I don't think there's anything we can do about it.

They could give some actual organization to it instead of making it look like a web design student decided to experiment with 5 different layouts on the same page.

 

[K4ndY]

Well it's a nice change, but I wish is wasn't so... white. It kinda feels like it's blindingly bright when the page is loaded in a dark room.

 

[Comrade_Beric]

Now with the black advertisements along the sides the place look like a piece of Stormtrooper armor. Definitely solved the "BRIGHT" problem!

To be clear: I do consider this an improvement.

 

[gbemery]

You know funny thing the new layout looks kind of eerily similar to gamespot.com

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The site seems allot more unstable now, with the old site I could open up all of the days news articles at once on different tabs, but now the Escapist just friezes up on me.

And its still white. Please give us a background which doesn't induce eye-strain as quickly as this one.

 

[Sud0_x]

_________

I made a fairly comprehensive post that I'd like to get looked at.

 

[LobsterFeng]

First Youtube, now you guys. Guuuuuhhh. Well I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. Just...the white...I feel so...exposed.

I do like how you can see all the forum sections just by putting your cursor on forums though.

 

[RuralGamer]

I'm not exactly enthralled with this, but its a darn sight better than Youtube's new thing *cringes at the incessant 'Shockwave flash player has crashed for the eleventy billionth time today'*... oh and Xbox Live's new thing *cringes again*; seriously? putting an advertisement larger than the start button for your game on the dashboard? What maliciously evil Kotick-esque villain had that idea!?

As for this - personally, nah; I preferred the old one.