The new site looks terrible

[Gorramit]

Much hard to read (for those of us who arne't 16) with all those blacks tones all over. Confusing and over busy layout on the addon pages, way to many clicks to get to the addon (i guess that's the point, eh - more chances to show adds)

I wish people would just stick to their design instead of constantly changing them (this is web people in general - not just this one)

And since I expect there'll be no change and nothing but flaming from teenagers. So long.

[Elly]

Thanks for the feedback. Shame because the general feedback has been that it's less busy, less cluttered. There are actually less clicks to get to addons and less banners on the pages (both intentional).

I think you're doing teenagers an injustice. Not all are flamers and not all flamers are teenagers. As a member since '05 you know we try to keep any of that sort of stuff off these forums so feel free with your constructive feedback.

[Amthea]

To be fair the old design was around for at least a year, and it was definitely time for a change. Unfortunately your closing comment makes it difficult to take you seriously.

[joejanko]

To be fair the old design was around for at least a year, and it was definitely time for a change. Unfortunately your closing comment makes it difficult to take you seriously.

Why? Change for change sake is a poor reason for change.

[Jumpy]

Maybe as a user you don't like the changes but as a mod author there have been some changes that I like. Changes and all, for an author this is still the best UI mods site available.

[gryphn]

I am a user interaction designer by profession. I understand the urge for change, however it isn't always warranted. There must be business logic behind the re-brand after the site has transitioned ownership. Here are some quick suggestions to make the site a bit more user-friendly:
1. Use more contrast. Not only in hue but in value as well. Meaning, don't assume you will get contrast by changing colors -- instead, change the brightness and/or darkness. Learn more here. (http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/visible_narratives.html)
2. Better use of whitespace. Review this link (http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000097.php) for a better understanding of how blank spaces affect user behavior.
3. Better line-height (leading) on text paragraphs. Also look into the container padding.
4. Consistency in visual elements. I am seeing a variation on link styles and form button styles. Try to remain consistent in each. Pick one style and use that only. Develop a site style guide and adhere to it.
5. Navigation and link hierarchy. I think this really needs some work. There is a huge wealth of information available in this site, but most is now hidden. I would suggest reverting back to the previous navigation until this is well thought through.

Best of luck with your redesign. Remember - keep testing. Focus groups, feedback, surveys.

[Elly]

Hi gryphon

I'll leave the nitty gritty answers to Rush but I wanted to clarify a couple points on your opening paragraph. The site hasn't changed ownership. The redesign was from the ground up. Every last piece of code - backend, everything was changed. Security was also tightened up. The design was the very last thing to be done and not a motivating factor.

4. The rectangle buttons are done via vbulletin in CSS whereas the rest are graphics. To use the same font on the css buttons would require users to have the font or dl it. It would also need to be smaller than you see on the graphics and that font doesn't do well smaller than you see it on the graphic buttons. Form buttons are very often the standard grey on sites. I just formatted ours to match the graphic buttons in colour at least so they weren't the default grey.

As you've probably guessed the UI site is just the first section to be changed over to the new style (together with its support forum), obviously the entire website is following.

Thanks for the other comments anyway.

[AJ Riddle]

I personally think the new design looks very nice and is not very hard to read at all. Also, the forum style is MUCH better.

[Thargos]

I personally think the new design looks very nice and is not very hard to read at all. Also, the forum style is MUCH better.

QFT .