Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[bananakillerBRO]

I've been coming to this site daily for well over a decade now. I've seen the UI change countless times, and while it's usually taken me time to get used to new changes, I always found that they were ultimately for the better.

The latest update however, is pretty bad. 

I don't mean to downtalk whoever worked on this, and I certainly do not wish to be a downer. As a user I always appreciate how dedicated the staff here are to providing a fantastic experience for us, and every decision they make seems to reflect that. 

While this new update has the best of intentions I'm sure, it is leagues worse than the previous UI. 

It's smaller, actively harder to read, and devoid of any and all personality. I was already a bit miffed that they removed the colors of buttons on certain game's pages, but now every bit of identity has been scrubbed. I feel like I'm browsing a mod site for Oculus than I do anything else.  Outside of the aesthetic differences, which are subjective, I genuinely find it difficult to read the font when it's contrasted with such a strange choice of gradient. 

I hope that we will get the option to rollback to the previous layout, or have the update rolled back entirely. This UI feels like it would work wonders in Vortex, something that is made to be a streamlined app, but it simply does not feel good to use for regular browsing. 

 

[TheEbonslayer]

Please revert this. The old UI was perfect, there was no reason to change it into this ugly abomination.

[Khaalis]

Definitely have to agree with most of the posts in disliking the changes I see today. It looks like an attempt to be exactly like Mod.io, which IMHO is a crappy site design. I hate the mod.io layout.  The old (from yesterday) design here was great.

If its not broken, don't fix it. No one asked for these changes.

PS: To add, the one thing I HATE the most is the changes to the Tracked markers for Downloaded/Update Available. They are hard to spot, especially the 'Downloaded' just being a check mark. Also the White background does not pop nearly enough. The old Orange banner markers were far better.

The cards are also poorly spaced and take up far more space then they need. 

PSS: After looking at this some more, as UI/UX designer all I can say is ROLL IT BACK. Listen to your users and don't force changes no one wants.

Edited March 21 by Khaalis

[Kanjs]

I understand that you want to make it more modern and easy to scroll with mobile, but let's not forget it's a PC modding website. I think the front page has too much scrolling needed to reach the end; also, it feels like there is no structure, like a word doc written by a young student. Getting rid of the color theme for Skyrim makes me feel uneasy and annoyed. I think you must keep the old color theme for all the most modded games.

[NotOnLand]

I myself am a graphic and web designer, and I'm so tired of this recent (last decade at most) trend of adding so much unnecessary padding between everything. So many designers want to be trendy and modern without thinking about efficiency. Adding a bunch of blank space only makes the user have to look over a larger area to get the same amount of information. 

Take the front page for example; every mod, image, post, etc in a row has a gap of 24px. The old layout had a gap of 10px. With only 1px larger text, the new layout does nothing for readability at the cost of 20% fewer items per row. They're also taller with much more vertical padding, so it takes a lot more scrolling for the same amount of information as the old layout. Only being able to see 4 mods on screen at once instead of 10 is a massive downgrade with zero benefit. 

This all leads back to the root of the problem: something many designers fail to recognize is a layperson's inability to explain what they dislike in design terms. They see people complain about colors or fonts and brush off their complaints, when really they're indicators of larger issues. Changes like these should be done in small tweaks over time, never in large, all-encompassing updates like this. 

[runemythrea]

probably first time forum poster (hopefully last, tbh; I don't exactly have much to say around here but even I can tell this UI situation needs as many users weighing in as possible), long time nexus mod user (longer than I've had this account) here, let's address what points I have in sections:

- SPACING - the older ui has, at least on a monitor of 1920px wide x 1080px high , a roughly 10px wide x 10px high gap between the mod tiles. the new one has *32px wide x 40px high* between them. this means the user's eyes won't be as drawn to the next mod in the results. and there's a 282px high *blank grey space* at the top and bottom of every game subpage under the games mods etc bar and above the footer stuff? 

- SEARCH FILTER SIDEBAR - interesting concept with bad execution, I think. being able to set what categories you're looking at quickly without going back to the category tree is a good change. but having to scroll all the way down to set other search filters (tags, author, language, etc)... the old refine results dropdown works better.

- NITPICKS - if you're gonna change the results subpages to be so  w i d e l y  s p a c e d  then surely you'd also be using all that  w i d t h  on the game subpages too? no? 277px of wasted width, probably more if my browser window was maximized. do you wanna use the edges of the window or not?

[pentapox]

Move collections down to the bottom in both the main page and search results. I don't want to use collections nor do I want to see them show up on the front page every time I use nexus.

[derpneroherp]

Feedback on the Redesign: Preserving What Made the Site Great

I understand the need to update architecture and implement changes, but a complete visual overhaul? I find it very hard to support this change because it's more than just a style choice—it fails to recognize what worked in the old design.

1. Clear category divisions. The old design visually communicated divisions through contrast, requiring no reading. Strongly colored banners and well-defined boxes neatly separated content, making navigation effortless.

2. Colour-coding. Many games look similar—like Fallout 3 and its twin, Fallout: New Vegas. They may even share the same mods with similar thumbnails. The colour-coding made them easily distinguishable, eliminating any confusion. Good design requires no active interpretation; it should be intuitive and effortless.

3. Prominent game artwork. Using game artwork as the webpage backdrop made it instantly clear whether I was in the right place. The environment of the page reflecting the game's mods strengthened the game/mod connection. Many other mod pages don’t do this; instead, they prioritize their own branding. This often left me wondering, Is this the right place to download mods for this game? because the pages looked so unofficial.

I deeply appreciate the hard work that goes into improving the webpage, and I hope you take this to heart. The connection between form and function greatly affects whether I continue visiting the site regularly, as I have for many years. Honestly, I can’t see myself checking the mod pages every week anymore, which saddens me.

[WyrdOh]

On 3/4/2025 at 9:12 PM, JustThatKing said:

We've made some changes that may help you in regards to the lag all of you were experiencing. 
Please let us know if it helps.

Additionally, are you using the Adult content blur setting on the site?
 

Not using the blur and it still lags/hitches while scrolling pages in the version that's been rolled out now. Really disappointing to see that this was still pushed out despite the overwhelming negative feedback you have all received.

[FriendlyFirePL]

Hey so I came here just to ask one question: where the heck did "tracked content updates" tab went? What should I click on now to get the functionality to look at new comments across all my mods at a glance? Personally I don't really care that much about how the site looks, but I'm flabbergasted to notice one of the key functionalities missing from the page.

If anyone could point me in the right direction, it'd be much appreciated. Greetings