New redesign - If it ain't broke...

CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
edited February 2013 in Web Site Feedback
So the new website and new forums... I'll be brutally honest - I hate them. I do not like using the website or the forums any more. I find it a painful and off-putting experience and I'm disappointed that there doesn't seem to have been much design oversight before this went live. As a small company your community and their ability to socialise in your webspace is paramount. I feel with this redesign you've shot yourself in the foot slightly.

Where do I begin? Bullet points are easier I guess, every time I open a new page 5 new things leap out at me/assault my eyes... Just remember that while this may come across as whiny, ultimately I love this community and I wouldn't want to see it fall apart because an ill-advised and poorly executed redesign is putting people off frequenting this hirtherto hallowed corner of the internets.

GENERAL
  1. There is absolutely no consistency with font sizes. It's a mess.
  2. Awful colour clashing.
  3. Nasty 'beginners grunge tutorial' metal look everywhere. It looks unpolished. It doesn't look UWE. To a degree your website sets the tone for the quality of the art in your game, so I feel it is in desperate need of a polish pass.
  4. WTH is up with the default avatars? I have this inane tongue-poke green-on-red avatar that is utterly offensive and I would never choose in a million years. This is my identity you're screwing with! I do not approve. Pick something neutral and moreover, pick something suitably UWE, please!
  5. The design is a complete mish-mash of styles. There's the aforementioned low-fi grungy metal, metal panels with corner studs (look a bit closer to see the harsh lack of alpha), next to... blue tech video displays that sometimes are set in with borders and sometimes have harsh edges that take away from the supposed look of the site. Half of the buttons are neon cyan, half are grey. Some buttons have mouseovers, some have none. There's so much inconsistency. This isn't a step backwards, this is a rollerskate left on the top step of your studio staircase.

http://unknownworlds.com/
  1. No linkthrough to the community from the .com... really? Bizarre design considering the close relationship you have with your enduring fans. This is the worse and most astounding thing I've seen with this redesign. It's unfathomable why you wouldn't want to invite newcomers to your community, since your community rocks! Think about it.
  2. On the news carousel there are tiny, tiny buttons you can technically use to quickly scroll through the news items. Except they're tiny and finickety.
  3. Overall look of the site is not as professional as it was before, which is sad considering you're looking to attract hires atm.
  4. /games - completely different style to the rest of the site
  5. /about - again a slightly different style
  6. /jobs - That job title looks like a footnote for the image. I had to look twice before I realised it was A) the primary content on the page and B) expandable! It should look interactive (no - you shouldn't have to interact with it by mousing over before you realise it's interactive).
  7. /jobs You guys have a nice studio and you work in a great city! This is a perfect place to give prospective employees and indication about life at UWE and SF. But there are no pics, no videos and no linkthroughs.

http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/
  1. LOOK AT THIS IMAGE! LOOK AT IT!11 Squashed and ugly.
  2. Random black bar at the right side when you reduce the window size.

FORUMS
  1. There is absolutely no consistency with font sizes. It's a mess. Edit box font is huge! Like I'm typing MyFirstForumPost(TM).
  2. Main page doesn't give me as much interesting info about the topics I might want to read.
  3. Main page conceals the full range of interesting forums newcomers may wish to browse. It is not welcoming and does not at all aid with orientation considering this page is the first port of call of people interested in joining the community.
  4. Don't use 'k' as an abbreviation for 1,000 when talking about pageviews. It's underwhelming. It's the same reason why TV commercials use the phrase four-nine-nine instead of four-hundred-and-ninety-nine.

Hopefully I haven't been too harsh but I think you need some tough love right now if you think the web redesign is an improvement.
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Comments

  • ParagonParagon Join Date: 2012-11-06 Member: 167573Members
    I personally like the new look a lot. Maybe this is because I'm a fairly new user, but still, I find the forum functional and visually pleasing.
    Crispy wrote: »
    [*] Don't use 'k' as an abbreviation for 1,000 when talking about pageviews. It's underwhelming.
    [/list]

    Why not? Kilo (k) is the standard prefix for 1000 in science. Do you know what a kilo-gram is? 1000 grams = 1000 g = kg. Same story with kilo-meters, kilo-watts, kilo-bytes etc. Admittedly five kilo-posts would sound quite odd is someone red it that way, but the notation "5k posts" seems perfectly fine to me. Could be also 5 * 10^3 :)

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  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    Paragon wrote: »
    I personally like the new look a lot. Maybe this is because I'm a fairly new user, but still, I find the forum functional and visually pleasing.
    Crispy wrote: »
    [*] Don't use 'k' as an abbreviation for 1,000 when talking about pageviews. It's underwhelming.
    [/list]

    Why not? Kilo (k) is the standard prefix for 1000 in science. Do you know what a kilo-gram is? 1000 grams = 1000 g = kg. Same story with kilo-meters, kilo-watts, kilo-bytes etc. Admittedly five kilo-posts would sound quite odd is someone red it that way, but the notation "5k posts" seems perfectly fine to me. Could be also 5 * 10^3 :)
    Did you actually read what I wrote? I am not debating whether k is a standard prefix or not.

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  • GISPGISP Battle Gorge Denmark Join Date: 2004-03-20 Member: 27460Members, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester, Forum staff
    The forum and site, will just as the game itself evolve, and migrating 10years of acumilated usage is no easy feat.
    I know comprox is closely working whit vanilla, on new features and polishing the sites. And we are all busy looking trough all the feedback, and discusing everything "need-to", "wouldnt x be nice" and "can this be done"s daily.

    That said, we are aware and share (some of) your points, and stuff will get fixed in the future :)
    Its awesome that you keep us on our toes. And just in case that you find any bugs or anything not design related, post em here aswell :x
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  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    edited February 2013
    GISP wrote: »
    The forum and site, will just as the game itself evolve, and migrating 10years of acumilated usage is no easy feat.
    I know comprox is closely working whit vanilla, on new features and polishing the sites. And we are all busy looking trough all the feedback, and discusing everything "need-to", "wouldnt x be nice" and "can this be done"s daily.

    That said, we are aware and share (some of) your points, and stuff will get fixed in the future :)
    Its awesome that you keep us on our toes. And just in case that you find any bugs or anything not design related, post em here aswell :x
    I have found my first use for the 'Awesome' feature! ;)

    I have actually seen a migration of a 10-year old forum and integrated community site, including forum upgrade for hundreds of thousands of accounts, handled by a team of no more than 5 people, and completed with a 24hr transition and only cosmetic issues. However, given that this seems to be an underfunded community effort, a bit more leeway is understandable.

    The truth of the matter is that instead of coming here and spending an hour or so browsing the forums, which these days I infrequently do due to time constraints, I used my time to write up the threadstarter. Now I do not find the forums nice to browse, so I'll be back in a month or so to see how things have changed. But it's great to hear more than one person is working on it and it's great to hear that those people are capable members of the community (and not just a low-budget contractor that isn't going to see the job through to the end). :)

    One thing I might suggest is that you take your hot topics and expose them to the community, then you'll get a flavour of the stuff that the end users really care about. In most cases I'd expect this will align with your own priorities, but there may be some surprises.

    P.S. My avatar shall remain this gawping green trollface as a reminder that it should be replaced with something appropriate to the UWE universe.

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  • GISPGISP Battle Gorge Denmark Join Date: 2004-03-20 Member: 27460Members, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester, Forum staff
    We have a big list of features and fixes we want in the admin subforum, and we poke both at hugh and the vanilla people regulary.
    But unlike the game, the changes and fixes will probaly be ninja´ed whitout people notising. No patchnotes for forums you know :P
    And have a agree poke for the "PS" ;)
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  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    Crispy wrote: »
    GENERAL
    1. There is absolutely no consistency with font sizes. It's a mess.
      Website fine, still an issue on the forums.
    2. FIXED Awful colour clashing.
    3. Nasty 'beginners grunge tutorial' metal look everywhere. It looks unpolished. It doesn't look UWE. To a degree your website sets the tone for the quality of the art in your game, so I feel it is in desperate need of a polish pass.
      Website fine, still an issue on the forums.
    4. WTH is up with the default avatars? I have this inane tongue-poke green-on-red avatar that is utterly offensive and I would never choose in a million years. This is my identity you're screwing with! I do not approve. Pick something neutral and moreover, pick something suitably UWE, please!
      Still an issue.
    5. FIXED The design is a complete mish-mash of styles. There's the aforementioned low-fi grungy metal, metal panels with corner studs (look a bit closer to see the harsh lack of alpha), next to... blue tech video displays that sometimes are set in with borders and sometimes have harsh edges that take away from the supposed look of the site. Half of the buttons are neon cyan, half are grey. Some buttons have mouseovers, some have none. There's so much inconsistency. This isn't a step backwards, this is a rollerskate left on the top step of your studio staircase.
      Except the round studs still have square edges round them.

    http://unknownworlds.com/
    1. No linkthrough to the community from the .com... really? Bizarre design considering the close relationship you have with your enduring fans. This is the worse and most astounding thing I've seen with this redesign. It's unfathomable why you wouldn't want to invite newcomers to your community, since your community rocks! Think about it.
      Can't believe this isn't fixed! I would have thought this would be the first thing to fix.
    2. On the news carousel there are tiny, tiny buttons you can technically use to quickly scroll through the news items. Except they're tiny and finickety.
      Still an issue
    3. Overall look of the site is not as professional as it was before, which is sad considering you're looking to attract hires atm.
      Imo, still an issue.
    4. /games - completely different style to the rest of the site
      Still an issue
    5. /about - again a slightly different style
      Still an issue
    6. /jobs - That job title looks like a footnote for the image. I had to look twice before I realised it was A) the primary content on the page and B) expandable! It should look interactive (no - you shouldn't have to interact with it by mousing over before you realise it's interactive).
      This content seems to have been removed. It says you're hiring, but it doesn't say what for. If you are hiring, there are no job specs. Confusing.
    7. /jobs You guys have a nice studio and you work in a great city! This is a perfect place to give prospective employees and indication about life at UWE and SF. But there are no pics, no videos and no linkthroughs.
      Still very light on images, but at least there are linkthroughs now. The info there is is hidden content right now, when the concept of a 'nice working environment' could be presented on that page as a photo, especially as the 'average day' video is part of NS2HD's channel which has a YouTube advert gate between you and the content. Could still do with some info about SF as a city, since it has a lot going for it.

    http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/
    1. LOOK AT THIS IMAGE! LOOK AT IT!11 Squashed and ugly.
      Still an issue.
    2. FIXED Random black bar at the right side when you reduce the window size.
    3. NEW In the Media section the videos do not autoplay the YouTube vids they link through to when you click the play icon. If you click play, you expect the video to play.
    4. NEW The Media section ignores my 'logged in' cookie.
    5. NEW If I log in on the Media section I am taken back to the forum landing page.

    FORUMS
    1. There is absolutely no consistency with font sizes. It's a mess. Edit box font is huge! Like I'm typing MyFirstForumPost(TM).
      I'm still typing MyFirstForumPost(TM)
    2. Main page doesn't give me as much interesting info about the topics I might want to read.
      Still an issue. I am no longer led to as wide a pool of content as I was prior to the redesign, I have to actively seek it out, which honestly I don't have time for. Time- and exertion-wise, this page is a barrier to entry. Compare to this.
    3. Main page conceals the full range of interesting forums newcomers may wish to browse. It is not welcoming and does not at all aid with orientation considering this page is the first port of call of people interested in joining the community.
      This has improved, but there is still work to do. It's great that there's now a Game Guide section linking through to video content. However, in terms of browsing the forums themselves, I don't think it's clear enough that the main forums sections can themselves be browsed. The 'GETTING STARTED', 'CREATION', 'VETERAN' text should look more clickable. Perhaps it should be replaced with buttons. A heatmap would no doubt prove this.
    4. Don't use 'k' as an abbreviation for 1,000 when talking about pageviews. It's underwhelming. It's the same reason why TV commercials use the phrase four-nine-nine instead of four-hundred-and-ninety-nine.
      Still occurs, but I'm reluctant to call it an 'issue'.
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited April 2013
    Crispy wrote: »
    GISP wrote: »
    The forum and site, will just as the game itself evolve, and migrating 10years of acumilated usage is no easy feat.
    I know comprox is closely working whit vanilla, on new features and polishing the sites. And we are all busy looking trough all the feedback, and discusing everything "need-to", "wouldnt x be nice" and "can this be done"s daily.

    That said, we are aware and share (some of) your points, and stuff will get fixed in the future :)
    Its awesome that you keep us on our toes. And just in case that you find any bugs or anything not design related, post em here aswell :x
    I have found my first use for the 'Awesome' feature! ;)

    Lies, all of my posts are awesome :P



    Also you might find these two links useful, it is the only way I navigate these here new age forums. Right now it doesn't stick to "categories", so you'd best bookmark these for now...


    http://forums.unknownworlds.com/categories - a more familiar looking forum layout
    http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussions - recent threads
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  • GorginatorGorginator Join Date: 2010-07-03 Member: 72241Members
    From the old to new forums - I can see there are ways to disable signature images but is there way to disable avatar/user images? I can't find anyway to do that anymore.

    Also in terms of forum names, can there be request for name changes in certain cases or no?
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    Gorginator wrote: »
    From the old to new forums - I can see there are ways to disable signature images but is there way to disable avatar/user images? I can't find anyway to do that anymore.

    Also in terms of forum names, can there be request for name changes in certain cases or no?

    I don't think there is currently a way to disable avatar images. Maybe there is a way to use the forums in a low bandwidth mode, which basically would do the same thing. But I've not figured that option out either.

    In terms of name changing, just PM a mod (me for instance :P) and we can change it. As for other forum user names, we only change them if they are offensive or sexual content in some way, shape or form. The same goes for sigs and avatars
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  • GorginatorGorginator Join Date: 2010-07-03 Member: 72241Members
    Thanks for the reply, really appreciated :) .
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