The New Shiny Escapist

[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.

 

[AngloDoom]

So far my only complaint about the look would be the way the forum is glaringly white, with something slightly-darker-than-white around the messages. It needs to be mixed up a little.

On the more functional side, though, I get an unholy amount of lag from this website I never used to suffer. It can take around fifteen-seconds to load what used to take about three.

 

[Darkmantle]

I'm not a big fan of the videos and features being moved about. Before to check everything I wanted to check (jimquisition, zero punctuation, drinking games, critical miss, no right answer, escape to the movies, and the big picture) I would load up the main page and scroll down looking at the side bar that had the latest entries. Now I have to go to videos and click on each separate entry, because it might not be on the front page news thing if I havent been on the site in a few days. ESPECIALLY because you've mixed in the news articles with everything else. It feels LESS organized to me, unless I'm missing something

 

[MrTwo]

It is kinda bright, but my main complaint is the font. Maybe I used to be reading the website too zoomed out, but now I have to zoom in to read anything. I dunno what it is, maybe the colour is less dark. Don't know, its just hard to read. Other than that, the front page being so uncategorised is kinda annoying, and the latest posts/hot threads thingy is too far down the page. Other than those complaints, I like it. Good job, design team.

 

[MattAn24]

I'm not a big fan of the videos and features being moved about. Before to check everything I wanted to check (jimquisition, zero punctuation, drinking games, critical miss, no right answer, escape to the movies, and the big picture) I would load up the main page and scroll down looking at the side bar that had the latest entries. Now I have to go to videos and click on each separate entry, because it might not be on the front page news thing if I havent been on the site in a few days. ESPECIALLY because you've mixed in the news articles with everything else. It feels LESS organized to me, unless I'm missing something

Yeah.. I'm personally not sure what the web design team classify as "organized", but it's certainly not this. Not how the front page is. EVERYTHING was streamlined on the front page and easily navigated to get what YOU, the viewer, wanted. This basically throws everything into one basket and expects you to "FUCKING LOOK AT IT, GUYS!"

Considering that a lot of the core LoadingReadyRun community doesn't really want to browse The Escapist much, they're here for a few of the video series, if their videos just get thrown in with other "related news and games", that's just plain poor design..

Oh, and here's a tip for the news banner ticker thing.. How about put it right at the top, below the Escapist header and make it a little longer, so the full title can be seen? Or make the font/text smaller, that works too. Maybe instead of it rolling up each time, have it like a normal news ticker scrolling right to left?

 

[wooty]

Well, I still dont like it at all, but im willing to live with it with one minor tweak............

Fix the old layout link on the profile page and you've got yourself a deal.