Who else hates the site redesign?
- Thread starter E.X.D.
- Start date
Small? I wouldn't say small, looking at it from a design p.o.v. I actually discussed the site's new design with my webdesign teacher, as this semester is all about webdesign, and she applauded me for my analysis of it.Matt_LRR said:
Basically it comes down to a couple of things:
1: They tried to put more air in their design, but honestly just failed at doing so. Air isn't just making everything white, spacing too is very important, and as it is now the homepage is still extremely full. Everything is still cramped together, regardless of the change in colours.
2: There's very little focus. Almost everything shouts for your attention at the same volume, adding more chaos to an already cramped homepage.
3: The colour scheme is pretty bad for overal readability. Especially for longer articles, which are an important part of The Escapist, it can be a real strain for one's eyes. I wonder what kind of feedback they had about this during user testing, because the complaints right now are numerous.
4: The 'feel' this new design has is just completely off. The layout and colourscheme does not say "This website is a cool, friendly and mature community for geeks and videogame enthusiasts." No, everything about this screams it being a cold and impersonal business site. The ice-y blues, the large amounts of white, the straight and no-nonsense fonts, it doesn't reflect what the content and actual feel of the site is all about.
They did make vast progress in terms of site navigation, not perfect but a lot better than in the previous design.
Yeah I was deeply offended and felt that blinding "borderless" white creeping up on me once more. Greasemonkey to the rescue, I'm quite happy now. Navigation is better once you get used to it, and the initial complete freezes are mostly gone now. Slightly long loading times are still an issue, but otherwise it looks like a job well done. Not sure it had to be done, but who am I to judge. I am already grateful the links to articles are still mostly readable and DON'T LOOK ALL CHEW... OR CLICK HE... OR OTHERWISE ABBREV... like the new, modern, fondleslab-friendly style manifested itself on other sites.
Gawker handled things so piss-poorly I never felt like going there again. Not even Greasemonkey can fix that mess. Sometimes, there's an original article on one of the gawker network sites, and sometimes I click on some other article... most of the time I get frozen videos, non-functional links and the gawker 2011 equivalent of the perpetually spinning beach-ball... not much of a joy, and a good example of how not to handle things.
So, yeah, in comparison to that I think the new escapist isn't that bad. I couldn't stand the all-white without Greasemonkeyin' around, though.
Gawker handled things so piss-poorly I never felt like going there again. Not even Greasemonkey can fix that mess. Sometimes, there's an original article on one of the gawker network sites, and sometimes I click on some other article... most of the time I get frozen videos, non-functional links and the gawker 2011 equivalent of the perpetually spinning beach-ball... not much of a joy, and a good example of how not to handle things.
So, yeah, in comparison to that I think the new escapist isn't that bad. I couldn't stand the all-white without Greasemonkeyin' around, though.
Shush! I do agree with everything you say, but please don't make them "improve" things again... if you want to see how not to "improve" the usability of a site, go to kotaku.com or lifehacker.com or any other gawker site... change the background colour... be amazed at the mess unfolding. Compared to that, the new Escapist is absolutely Shangri-Lalaland perfect.Cowabungaa said:
It is a New Thing and nerds, being the self-proclaimed pioneers of all things cutting-edge, are upset by New Things.
Personally, I like it. Don't know anything about web design, but I rearrange my room every two months because I hate the idea of stagnation. I'm guessing that the same sentiment applies to my reaction to this redesign. Never really had a problem with bugs beforehand, so I can't speak for that.
Personally, I like it. Don't know anything about web design, but I rearrange my room every two months because I hate the idea of stagnation. I'm guessing that the same sentiment applies to my reaction to this redesign. Never really had a problem with bugs beforehand, so I can't speak for that.
For me the main page is still broken. The text is in a weird "broken" font that seems broken and unreadable.
Plus I don't like the new facebooky-super bright aesthetic.
Plus I don't like the new facebooky-super bright aesthetic.
Agreed on this one- not that it's particularly hard to find things I'm looking specifically for... but that sidebar helped me discover a lot of things I otherwise wouldn't, by making it obvious there was a new something-or-other starting... or by letting me see the topic of the newest bit of an established column/video. I wouldn't have started reading the Name Game or watching... well, anything other than Zero Punctuation without that bar making me curious.Stale Pasta said:
The new frontpage doesn't display as much new content now, either... things I enjoy are getting pushed out of the spotlight before I know they've been updated. Once again, not a problem for established series I come wanting to find- but I hate to think new stuff could come and go without me even knowing about it.
Other than the sea of white I'm navigating through, least it's not as bright as it was. And the really crapy loads for user groups, or complete failure to refresh the chat. Which needs to be fixed, cause it was a problem before the new site layout came, it's just worse now.
I like everything else so far. Just really want the user group stuff to be fixed.
I like everything else so far. Just really want the user group stuff to be fixed.
It is too bright. But the biggest problem I have with it is the text. Everywhere except in the forums, the text is blurry and hard to read. To the point where I don't want to read articles on this site anymore. And it is NOT my eyes.
It's a little disheartening. I know the escapist will not go back to its' old format, but I get the impression that a statistically significant portion of the community here does not like the new layout.
I'd like to see the Staff respond to the criticism. In ways other than just singing their praise for the new layout on the twitter feed.
It's a little disheartening. I know the escapist will not go back to its' old format, but I get the impression that a statistically significant portion of the community here does not like the new layout.
I'd like to see the Staff respond to the criticism. In ways other than just singing their praise for the new layout on the twitter feed.
I don't mind the design of the thing, I just hate the lag and connection instability that seems to have come with it. Those problems should get ironed out with a bit of time, though. The brightness doesn't bother me, but then I have my monitor brightness pretty low in the first place.
I've noticed my visits to this site have dramatically dropped off since the redesign. I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind it other than it seems that they wished to "facebook" it up a bit (i.e. fix what isn't broken to make it appear more shiny and awesome).
It makes me sad because I <3 this place...
It makes me sad because I <3 this place...
I don't mind the new layout.
But I really really really really really really really really want that stupid fucking ZP promo with the dancing Ipod Imp to stop playing after every video. Whenever the shitty techno song starts, it makes me want to headbutt a wall.
But I really really really really really really really really want that stupid fucking ZP promo with the dancing Ipod Imp to stop playing after every video. Whenever the shitty techno song starts, it makes me want to headbutt a wall.
Can I get your opinion on the white borders? Personally, I hate them. They need some color there.Matt_LRR said:
Pretty much this. We need some contrast. It's especially bad reading threads. There's absolutely no contrast. It's just white with some text in the middle. I'm getting used to the new layout, but it need some borders to frame the site better.randomguy425 said:
This looks like they scrapped their old site and used a budget builder... like common, squarespace is cheap and makes a nicer site. plus all their errors and the top banner constantly blocking the title bar options so I can't just click recent videos... if this isn't fixed in a month, I may move to another site for videos. Nothing against the escapest, they do good work, but my time is too valuable to be spent navigating and manually searching for the videos I am interested in watching.