Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[HadToRegister]

The one thing a really HATE, is now the Small Search Box up by your Avatar, opens a new window, rather than just doing the Drop-Down, where you start typing in a word, and the dropdown keeps honing in on the word, until you end up with a dropdown of just mods with that particular name.
Now you end up with a completely USELESS screen with Big PANELS, that show a list of mods with that word they have in common, so instead of being able to scan the mods QUICKLY by just scanning up and down a COMPACT LIST, now it's a gigantic Fisher-Price MY First Mod Page® waste of space, where now you scan UP and DOWN, AND SIDE TO SIDE, that you then have to click on CONTINUE, to get an actual functional list.

I don't know what's happened in UI design, but I believe it started with GOOGLE, and how they love to make their UI design as inefficient as possible, and requiring far more clicks than necessary.

What used to take a couple of seconds, by just typing in a few letters of a mod name and clicking, now involves a new window, then another window that opens on that Query, and then another click to get to a somewhat usable list.

Completely Awful.

[focusingfoundation]

how do i turn the beta off? the new search is killing me smalls

[showler]

It's not a beta anymore.

[LummoxJR]

7 hours ago, zloybelka said:

And I can't even see the full mod name (if it's a little longer) at 100% scale What's even the point?

Yes, I have to constantly switch between 100% and 90% now, one time the font is uncomfortably big, next time it's uncomfortably small, why can't I just have everything at a normal scale, like a day ago?

My stylesheet fixes the mod titles by switching from the Inter font (not suited to this purpose) to a condensed font. I chose Cabin Condensed, but in earlier tests I really liked Saira Condensed also so I put both of them as options in the stylesheet. I linked to that a few posts back.

[Yizzay]

Hi, I love the new update and changes, it feels so much more modern, sleek & responsive. Thank you for implementing it!

[zloybelka]

1 hour ago, LummoxJR said:

My stylesheet fixes the mod titles by switching from the Inter font (not suited to this purpose) to a condensed font.

Yeah, thanks, already using it! I meant the mod titles in the new search tiles (they're very smol, pointless and annoying).

[CobaltCakes]

Really not a fan of any of these changes, but especially how clicking search opens a window rather then a drop down. actually terrible. Would it maybe be possible to give us an option to turn that off, or roll back to the old layout or anything? bc this kind of sucks

[showler]

What's the difference between an overlay and a dropdown?  In terms of usefulness, I mean.

[mfPixel]

Hey everyone, head of design at Nexus Mods here - thanks for all the feedback so far.

I wanted to provide some context for the recent search changes. The old search system made switching between content types (e.g., games and mods) difficult, and only the "Mods" category had a results preview. The new quick search improves this by making it easier to browse all content types while allowing you to preview more results.

We designed the new modal to be highly visual. During testing, we experimented with a more compact list view, but most users preferred larger thumbnails, as images are often the key factor when scanning for mods, collections, and especially images. If you're solely focused on mods, it’s easy to forget that users browse other types of content too.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

• You can now activate search instantly with the `/` hotkey and dismiss it with `Esc` for quick access.
• Keyboard navigation is coming soon, so you’ll be able to search and browse without a mouse (if that's your thing).
• Search is now much better at handling inexact queries (e.g., “baldurs gate” without an apostrophe) and includes keyword matching (e.g., “fo3” will return Fallout 3).

The general feedback was very positive in testing and during the closed and open beta periods. It’s been interesting to hear from people saying it’s helped them discover more new mods than they previously would have. I understand that this is a big change visually from what you’re used to - there is some extra functionality to coming where the initial screen will show your recent searches and saved games. This will make the modal feel less empty when first opened.

Why the Colour Changes?

The updated colours are part of a broader design transition. We’re rolling out brand-new pages soon, and these changes help make the experience more seamless when switching between old and new designs.

For those who have been using the site for years, we know big updates can be jarring—I’ve had the same reaction to changes on sites I love! But these updates are necessary to modernise the site’s core architecture, allowing us to build and release new features more efficiently. We really appreciate all your feedback and are excited to keep improving Nexus Mods.

[Shade999]

I really don't see the point in automatically opening a new window when i want to search for something. Why change something that doesn't need changing? Also the fact that all the pages for different games now have the same color is pretty bad for people like me, who have oriented themselves with these colors.

Edited March 13 by Shade999