Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[HadToRegister]

"The needs of the few (40% of Mobile Users), or the One, outweigh the needs of the Many (60% of PC users)"

~ Spock, from some bizzarro Star Trek universe, where everything is backwards.

[HopperUK]

10 minutes ago, Yolstrun said:

 

  

 

 

Best you can do is remove the .../games... section of the URL for your game. 
https://www.nexusmods.com/games/skyrimspecialedition is the new
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition is the old.

 

Thank you so much for this!

[Yolstrun]

On 3/18/2025 at 9:31 AM, Yolstrun said:

Okay let's Compare just the main page of SSE. 
New Vs Old. 
These are my Opinions viewed at 1920x1080 Resolution downscaled from a native 2560x1440 monitor on the Microsoft Edge browser with no Extensions/Addons logged out of my account on Nexus.
Pros; 

• Can see the # of Mods, Collections, and Media right at the top.
• Larger Images for Trending Mods 3+ , Named "Trending Mods" instead of "Hot Mods"
• Collections Now show the most popular ones instead of a Banner
• More mods tabs have a small icon next to them.
• Mod previews and descriptions are Larger.
• Extra tabs made redundant with being able to choose time frame without going into /mods Page.
• More Mods and Media look like they're part of the main page instead of a separate box module.
• Footer has Manage Cookie Settings.

Cons;

• Top bar is now Elongated with Nexus - Support being on the left side, and Search - Register (User Profile) being on the right side Vs being centered closer to the Middle.
• 1/3 of the Site is still empty space on the sides.
• Lack of Background on the sides. (Can have the normal background gradiate into the blur as you scroll down)
• Complete loss of the signature Nexus Orange on everything besides the Logo icon, Register button (Upload outline), Go Premium button, and Full NexusMods Logo
• Cannot see Trending mod 3+ without scrolling down with Ads.
• Only 2 Collections shown, always the most popular. Quite a bit of empty space between Trending and Mods.
• Random being renamed to Surprise. (This isn't a lootbox you need to sell)
• Loss of Tracked Content Updates
• Mods listed are 4x4 compared to 5x4 (Can currently fit 6 per row with the negative side space)
• Media images are not Resized
• Site News lost the small Category tag on the top of the Article.
• Vortex advertisement is gone.
• Longer to load page. 0.291s vs 0.114s (Variable)

There are some good ideas and some bad. I mean The Main Homepage Hasn't gone under the same UI change yet.
In my Opinion this needs some more time cooking in the Kitchen.

I would like to reiterate this again, is only for the Game Home Page. The Game Listing Page(SSE New) (SSE Old) and Mods Listing Page are actually a bit of an improvement compared to the old drop down 'Refine Search' box in my opinion.

Now I cannot speak for everyone but I'd assume most of the outrage here is for the Game Home Page.

[megaman2k]

Problems I have with the new design, while on mobile:

* Header/banner takes up half the screen.

* I have to scroll a lot to get through hot mods, even though there are now 6 instead of 7.

* I have to scroll through collections, which I don't use.

* If I want to see trending mods, I get to see the same 6 hot mods again. So only 8 different trending mods.

* Not a fan of the new font and plain black backgrounds that blend with the fadeout at the bottom of mod thumbnails.

* Generally everything takes up the whole screen. I can get maybe two pieces of info without having to scroll, which induces finger fatigue.

Requesting the desktop site almost looks better on mobile, except that makes most touch targets tiny.

All in all, this makes me less likely to use the site while on mobile.

[jyoih2013]

I've been a user for about ten years but this is the first time I feel the need to give feedback.

The new UI is just unintuitive. The old mod category tabs (New today, new this week, popular 30 days days etc.) were so much easier to navigate and their position on the page was better in my opinion. This update seems very form over function. Looks more modern but user experience is worse overall.

[ModEnjoyer52]

You've modded your games. You probably built your PC. You've even modded the mod manager by now. But... there's one they fear, the Browserkiin.

To mod the Nexus:
Install Stylus extension for Firefox (not sure about other browsers like Chrome)
Click Plus icon in its dashboard and copy paste all this inside: https://github.com/LummoxJR/Nexusmods-style-fixes/blob/main/nexusmods-fixes.css
Credit to LummoxJR.

Install uBlock Origin (who am I kidding, you already have it)
Go into its dashboard then My Filters
Scroooll to the bottom and add:

! Hide Collections section on game page
www.nexusmods.com##section[aria-labelledby="popular-collections-header"]
! Hide News section on game page
www.nexusmods.com##section[aria-labelledby="news-header"]
! www.nexusmods.com##.collections-banner-outer-wrapper-trigger
www.nexusmods.com##.collections-banner-outer-wrapper-trigger
! www.nexusmods.com Hide big Premium ad banner on game homepage
www.nexusmods.com##.p-px.bg-gradient-to-r.rounded-lg.mt-20.to-primary-subdued.via-primary-strong.from-primary-subdued

Credit for the first three uBlock rules goes to jn64.

Result:

Still shonky, but much improved.

Edited March 19 by ModEnjoyer52
updated image, last one was at 125% scaling

[CobaltCakes]

I find it genuinely so upsetting that every time i see real feedback of why this new UI isn't sitting right with a lot of people and real, thought out examples of potential fixes- it's always being replied to as if its just whining. This is not purely an issue of people saying 'i dont like change' and either they know it and do not care, or are choosing not to see it. Sad and frustrating tbh.

[dezerte]

For some reason the search is now defaulting to "All content" rather than "Mods". This creates an additional click needed when searching for mods as "All content" and floods thee user with non-relevant results. Could there be a way to save preferences? I'll in 99% of the cases always want to search for "Mods" and not "All content" so it would be nice if that could be the default setting.

[mfPixel]

3 minutes ago, dezerte said:

For some reason the search is now defaulting to "All content" rather than "Mods". This creates an additional click needed when searching for mods as "All content" and floods thee user with non-relevant results. Could there be a way to save preferences? I'll in 99% of the cases always want to search for "Mods" and not "All content" so it would be nice if that could be the default setting.

Hey there - we're adding the option to choose your default content type for search soon.

[Morkblah]

To echo a lot of people here, I'm less than a fan of the new UI layout or search window; I'd much rather the old UI was kept as much as possible on top of your new backend improvements. If the old wouldn't work with your new systems/framework for whatever reason, at least keep the general style of it.

The best way I can describe my experience with the new UI is to say that it feels like someone has smeared vaseline over the main mod page, objects on it aren't all clearly defined or distinct from each other, sections are almost unnecessarily large overall, and I miss the colours that were present before, as they immediately drew the eye to important/relevant information. The "Popular Collections" section might be nice for other people, but it's entirely irrelevant to me, so a function to disable it (or other elements) would be really nice to have. Not required at all though, as people like me who don't like it will find other ways to hide it.

The mod browsing page is a mixed bag, with the filters being the least objectionable. Making the filters a hideable sidebar instead of a dropdown seems like neither an up- nor downgrade, again I prefer the old dropdown, but the new is completely fine imo. I don't know how popular this is, but I prefer the tiles for the mods to be smaller, and while vertical empty space irks me quite a bit, I have less problem if it's horizontal; thus, if the tiles were just a smidgen smaller or there was one less tile per row, the browsing wouldn't really be any different from old, apart from already-stated colouring issues. The missing time range feature would be really nice to have back.

The mod pages themselves haven't really changed much yet, from what I can tell, apart from becoming darker and breaking the visuals of some mods (can't remember which honestly), but that could be because of the author and, as such, out of your hands. There are, however, some weird things happening with the background colours of the mod pages:

Spoiler

It seems to depend on the banner's colour scheme, but what is that line in the middle? Is that normal, intended, or is it because of some extensions I'm running?

I honestly can't remember if that was there before the update, if it was, please disregard this point. Just please don't put the mod page through a similar update, it really doesn't need it, the colouring changes are enough.

I'll say nothing more about the search feature than that it needs improvement, which I understand you're already working on. Oh, one more thing: please make the "Mods" tab the default, or at least a preference to change it.

I understand you (Nexusmods) have poured a lot of time and resources into this update and are not going to change the course you're on right now, but I do think you're moving the wrong direction with this UI change; the old was distinct, this new one feels just like every other website redesign in recent years: modern, sleek and soulless. Yes, there is a lot of people outright dismissing this update, I was one of them during the beta (I took one look at the beta and opted out, so I guess I'm part of the problem), but also a lot of helpful, constructive criticism here. You need but listen.

The way I see it, people like me who don't like this update have two options:

1. Begrudgingly accept that this is how the site will look from this point on while grumbling unhappily about it until we don't notice the problems any more (honestly, the thing I'm expecting for you to bank on), or
2. Go to another mod hosting site, however they tend to be smaller, more specialised on a few games, have less/worse features, or all of the above.
3. Or the secret, third ending: leave and make their own mod hosting site, with blackjack, and hookers! Not probable in most cases, and even less likely to be profitable in the long run.

Yes, right now there are a lot of outbursts, but not always unfounded, from the loud minority who found this update not to their tastes. The rest will either like it, suffer in silence or leave. This update won't be the end of Nexusmods, just as the "Modpocalypse" wasn't, but it will drastically downgrade the experience of users like me. I highly doubt you'll see any notable downturn in usage because of the update, but I still wish you'd take the design back a few steps toward what you had before.

Thank you for still maintaining this site, it's invaluable when modding most games, despite some of your decisions through the years. I'll still use the site, and as they say, "this, too, shall pass", and I do believe that.

TL;DR: Rambling. The new UI is a mess to me and many others, people can be arses about things that do not matter in the grand scheme of things, I do not expect anything to meaningfully change for the better from here on.