Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[Justascarypuppet]

To whom it may concern,

I am posting my reply to this forum in objection to the latest overhaul to nexusmods.com's layout. On top of the many subjective complaints echoed by the wider community, many of which I admittedly share, the website search functionalities that have seemingly been dropped without explanation portrays a sentiment that is user-hostile. In my opinion, the very least that could have been done was wait until the layout was in a complete state before rolling it out and cutting off the workarounds user were utilizing to access the prior layout. In particular, I take issue with the removal of the options to filter search results by trending, filter search results by specific date ranges, and search for mods without the clutter non-mod search results. Ironically, this seems to contradict the claims that the new layout has broadened the pool of mods user see.

Honestly, the whole thing reads as change for the sake of change. As if the Nexus team heard the ole "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" phrase and took personal offense. Though, and I apologize in advance if this comes off as needlessly rude, it wouldn't be the first time the Nexus team seemingly plugged their ears and "La-la-la-ed" their way through community feedback.

[jamesthornbury]

Hi. The new website layout is completely awful.

Front page has awful redundancy between the navigation ribbon telling us the game we're on, the breadcrumb showing us the game we're on, and then yet another mention of the game (we know already, twice). The third game mention also gives us useless information about number of mods, collections, and media, which nobody cares about — anyone who's there to browse for mods for the first time will look at the top mods of all time.

The layout also wastes so much space it's unreal. The section before actual trending mods takes up nearly half the page, and I can't even see all the trending mods when I land, only the top two. Even scrolling down, each mod takes up far too much space. This is painful to navigate, and commits the cardinal sin of both being frustrating to read and slow to navigate.

Look, UI team: roll this back and start again. Utility of use, meaning availability of information, is more important for a site like this than whatever nonsense design paradigm you're chasing. Are you trying to create parity between the desktop site and some mobile design? Don't waste your time. They're entirely different use cases, and most people who mod use desktop (because they actually download mods to install on desktop), not mobile.

To whoever the actual owners and investors are: this looks like a shitty "multimedia content platform" redesign that won't actually improve your bottom line. You understand that your business is hosting mods, right? That the utility is giving people a means to upload and manage mods that's efficient, and to browse and download them that's easy? Everything else is secondary to this core function, and if you neglect it to try to put emphasis on other elements, you're leaving the door open to a competitor. Nobody is actually using the Nexus for articles or screenshots first and foremost, they're just additions to your core product.

I used to click through and browse every day, even if I don't have time to download or upload content right now. If this stays, I won't.

Go back to the old design, and give it a gentle, modernising reskin. The wheel is shaped like a wheel for a reason, don't try to reinvent it.

[jamesthornbury]

Oh, I just realised: you've not designed the page elements to appropriately scale as users zoom in to increase text size. The proportion of the page wasted when at default zoom is far lower than when at a 133–150% zoom.

So it's also an accessibility issue. Cool, cool.

[HadToRegister]

38 minutes ago, NexBeth said:

Good Lord, give these kind of hypocritical remarks a hiatus.  I have the same right to say what I think, just as you and many seem to think you have, only I can say my peace without the vitriol, rudeness, and empty threats.

I don't know, your hypocritical, vitriolic jab in the last sentence of your previous post with the “ever so smug” Emoji certainly was uncalled-for, after you “Said your peace”, and could've just been left out, but you just couldn't resist including that jab and going after others.
Your comments were fine until your personal jab at everybody you disagree with.
I'm just putting you on ignore for the foreseeable future, because every single one of these threads always get a few people in them that try to drag it off the rails.
 

[GrayArkGtl]

38 minutes ago, Justascarypuppet said:

To whom it may concern,

I am posting my reply to this forum in objection to the latest overhaul to nexusmods.com's layout. On top of the many subjective complaints echoed by the wider community, many of which I admittedly share, the website search functionalities that have seemingly been dropped without explanation portrays a sentiment that is user-hostile. In my opinion, the very least that could have been done was wait until the layout was in a complete state before rolling it out and cutting off the workarounds user were utilizing to access the prior layout. In particular, I take issue with the removal of the options to filter search results by trending, filter search results by specific date ranges, and search for mods without the clutter non-mod search results. Ironically, this seems to contradict the claims that the new layout has broadened the pool of mods user see.

Honestly, the whole thing reads as change for the sake of change. As if the Nexus team heard the ole "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" phrase and took personal offense. Though, and I apologize in advance if this comes off as needlessly rude, it wouldn't be the first time the Nexus team seemingly plugged their ears and "La-la-la-ed" their way through community feedback.

The website just lost a great deal of functionality for me. The old layout was efficient and I could use it without problem. The least they could've done is given people a choice between the new layout and the old one.

This could've been chalked up to an isolated incident were it not for the fact that lots of people are complaining about it. The forums even had several posts voicing people's disdain for these changes.

Edited yesterday at 02:22 AM by GrayArkGtl
Further context.

[VexedSprites]

I've been using Nexus Mods under various accounts for 14 years and this is the worst the site has ever looked.

No, I won't give "detailed, constructive feedback" and pinpoint why it looks bad. You know why it looks bad. Those changes you made? They are why it looks awful. Not everybody is a designer who can point out specifically what's wrong. The issue is that it looks like a mobile website when the vast majority of people who are downloading mods are doing it on PC.
Catering to the mobile/tablet generation is not a good thing. The site looked great in 2014.

I actually gave NM money once in the past and I am sure to never do that again. Every time I look at the website, I'm filled with disgust and don't even want to learn the new layout. It is total anathema to me.

 

[Aris074]

everything looks so big and space out for no reason at all, it legit makes me feel bad while scrolling anything so atm i'm trying all i can to not spend too much time on it, it's awful and i hope they reconsider a lot of those additions...

[Evan555alpha]

Oh boy, more change for the sake of change, now with 20% more wasted space! Gotta keep those UI "designers" employed somehow, I suppose...
I have a standard 16:9 monitor, as I'm sure the majority of other users do. Make use of all that space, please!

That's all I'll say on the subject, lest I end up getting banned for saying mean words.

Edited yesterday at 02:48 AM by Evan555alpha
Spelling

[daedriccat]

Can we go back to the different colored favicons for each game? I have several pages pinned on my bookmarks bar and they used to be easy to pick out by color for the different games. Now they are all the same orange.

[Imperial2000]

1 hour ago, NexBeth said:

I can say my peace without the vitriol, rudeness, and empty threats.

Because your piece is pretty easy to say when it's "Well, I like it and it's too late for you all to complain now, so..." and unnecessary clap backs at people's criticism of the change and the poor handling of feedback by staff. All it does is bait reactions and derail the thread into arguments which is the stuff that get's it locked. Which is why I won't engage with you further.

1 hour ago, NexBeth said:

just as you and many seem to think you have

What an odd way to word that, by the way.