Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[ortext]

On 3/13/2025 at 4:03 PM, mfPixel said:

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.

And to quote from this post " We really appreciate all your feedback and are excited to keep improving Nexus Mods. "

Do you? Now there are so many more issues then last time.

- Efficiency down. ( As many people have posted. )

- If to Modernise is to cause discontent, and add more problems. ( Thats a bleak future )

- The word " Jarring " is probably a understatement.

- Color changes? ( its mostly just changed to 0F0F10, 29292C, F4F4F5, 1D1D21 and more dull colors. Even if i maybe wrong on the colors.  )

- Very positive in the testing periods would be an overstatement. ( As certain users have mention how inaccurate that was, due to back door stuff happening. )

- Devs actually ignoring the real issues, and feedback given. ( I would like to see some backbone from even any staff to actually replying with something convincing to quell the sheer discontent nearly 120+ pages of discontent )

- Literally almost so little people use mod collections? Do you see many famous moding youtubers use any? What if suddenly someone wants to tweak a few things? What if a dependency was suddenly removed? and literally i can go on.

- The fact that people from the community had to jump in to save others, tells alot about this UI change.

Note even if not all the points are true. I still can say for sure several of them are still undeniable.

[CaptainSandyPants]

22 minutes ago, sagohi said:

Bring the orange colors back to separate the bland text. Single text color makes it look like one paragraph  column

Are you referring to the orange coloured links for categories?

[LenaWolfBravil]

58 minutes ago, CaptainSandyPants said:

Here's the latest with reducing the contrast on the areas that have been brought to our attention. If you're currently experiencing discomfort, let me know if the below is more comfortable for you. To clarify, this only covers improvements for those that find the contrast too high. It doesn't cover feedback on the layout which we are looking at separately:
 

Is this screenshot supposed to be different from the current mod page? If it is, then the change is too small to notice - there is no difference to my eyes.

[Glitchfinder]

1 hour ago, CaptainSandyPants said:

Here's the latest with reducing the contrast on the areas that have been brought to our attention. If you're currently experiencing discomfort, let me know if the below is more comfortable for you. To clarify, this only covers improvements for those that find the contrast too high. It doesn't cover feedback on the layout which we are looking at separately:
 

I know it's been brought up already, but is it possible that instead of making the "New" bubble solid white, you could give it a white outline and then color it with the same background and text colors as the stats row at the bottom of the mod cards? You use the same or similar coloring (sans outline) for the time range dropdown on the opposite end of the same row.

Edit: it's not quite right, but something more like this:

Edited Wednesday at 05:06 PM by Glitchfinder
Add example

[tpunk23]

2 hours ago, mfPixel said:

Thanks for the feedback - we totally understand that this is a big change and jarring for long term users. When you say "I had to spend 20 minutes refinding everything so I could use it." — what would be the biggest thing that caused issues for you when using the design for the first time? Anything in particular that stood out?

Well for a really old user like me. A large part of using the site is muscle memory. Especially when your THE mod guy in your friend group. So everyone paws at you for mods for their needs or to build modpacks. Cause you do it very quickly. Things moved or require extra steps to use. Finding things that before I could just jump to without thought or even looking. Has slowed down how I use the site by a large margin.

[zloybelka]

Okay, I'm tired of the current forum colors and gonna start posting my own Stylus edits more in line with the old game pages palette (the mod pages themselves will come some other day). Bet, it's somewhat clunky and whatnot and I didn't repaint all elements yet, but it'll do as a starting point. Feel free to edit it in any way it suits you.

Using Stylus 101:

1. Click the forums.nexusmods.com link in the Stylus drop-down menu,
2. Erase all code in the big editor window and paste the new code.

Quote

@-moz-document domain("forums.nexusmods.com") {
    body, .ipsReact_reactCount > a,  .ipsPad {
        background: #2D2D2D;
        color: #F9F6F9;
    }
    
    .ipsQuote, .ipsPadding, .ipsApp .cke_wysiwyg_div {
        background: #2D2D2D;
    }
    
    .ipsQuote_citation, .ipsSpoiler_header, .ipsSpoiler, .ipsComposeArea_dropZone {
        background: #222222;
    }
    
    .ipsType_break, .ipsReact_reactions, .ipsApp .cke_wysiwyg_div, .ipsComment_recommendedNote::before {
        color: #F9F6F9;
    }
    
    .ipsPad {
        font-size: 14px;
    }
    
    .ipsBox {
        border: solid 1px rgba(33, 33, 33, .81);
    }
    
    .ipsColumns, .ipsApp .ipsComment_recommended {
        background: #383838;
        border-radius: 0;
    }    
    
    .ipsComment_recommendedFlag, .ipsBadge_highlightedGroup, .ipsBadge_popular {
        background: #2D2D2D;
        color: rgb( var(--theme-link_button) );
    }
}

Edited Thursday at 10:38 PM by zloybelka
added preview and some borders, fixed recommended comment, fixed more comment badges

[xRay4004]

2 hours ago, CaptainSandyPants said:

Here's the latest with reducing the contrast on the areas that have been brought to our attention. If you're currently experiencing discomfort, let me know if the below is more comfortable for you. To clarify, this only covers improvements for those that find the contrast too high. It doesn't cover feedback on the layout which we are looking at separately:

I have to honestly say I barely see any difference and so no real improvement over the current colors. I've seen the proposal of having having a toggle for a dark/light mode. I feel like this would fix a lot of issues for many people as it would be an easy fix/improvement for such a controversial change.
Dark mode being as its now and light mode being the more brighter grey colors as it was before. As seen from this screenshot below the older colors were very easy on the eyes.
The proposed adjustments made here seems like it would still cause eyestrain after a while.

Q:So what about the the background colors as they were pictures before.?
A: Maybe have them just be a solid grey color too or even go back to having a part of a background picture, though I guess this part will never happen/return.

I really hope having a more brighter color layout option will be considered, as I really do not understand why the nexus team is so reluctant to keep these incredible dark colors for everyone.

[jamesthornbury]

Man, when you see the new and old layouts side-by-side, the downgrade is so starkly obvious.

I cannot understand why the C-suite thinks re-orientating a website where people download modding files onto their PCs to mobile is going to be a winner. I'm only showing up to see if this has been fixed. I'm not browsing mods like I used to, and I'm not really inclined to upload the stuff I've been quietly working on.

Edited Wednesday at 06:34 PM by jamesthornbury

[Reaper864]

19 minutes ago, xRay4004 said:

I have to honestly say I barely see any difference and so no real improvement over the current colors. I've seen the proposal of having having a toggle for a dark/light mode. I feel like this would fix a lot of issues for many people as it would be an easy fix/improvement for such a controversial change.
Dark mode being as its now and light mode being the more brighter grey colors as it was before. As seen from this screenshot below the older colors were very easy on the eyes.
The proposed adjustments made here seems like it would still cause eyestrain after a while.

Q:So what about the the background colors as they were pictures before.?
A: Maybe have them just be a solid grey color too or even go back to having a part of a background picture, though I guess this part will never happen/return.

I really hope having a more brighter color layout option will be considered, as I really do not understand why the nexus team is so reluctant to keep these incredible dark colors for everyone.

This side by side comparison really shows me how much I want the old ui back. But sense nexus is being so reluctant on the layout. At least give users the ability to change colors. Also you notice in the right side of the comparison we have a forest in the background. But on the left its mostly just darkness and when you are scrolling down the web page your eyes just starts to get messed up because everything looks the same. Like imagine scrolling down a plain white image as the background, with some images here and there. Your eyes will start to focus more on the white background compared to the images. Also the right pic shows a multitude different of grey, it isn't dark or anything. I honestly think if nexus can at least give users the option to change the color, alot of the negative feedback will go away. I just hope they can at least respond to the colors complaint and allow user choice like discord for example.

On a lighter note i'm glad the forum colors were changed , now I will just like to have the option to change the colors on the home page of the game I select.

[jmharris]

18 hours ago, Wolfpack49 said:

I do believe this could prompt some enterprising person with CSS skills to post an alternate style sheet that can be loaded via browser plugin…

Who knew, modding is fun! @LummoxJR has posted some styles for this as well.

This might get you started: https://github.com/j-m-harris/nexusmods-stylus/blob/main/classic.js

No comment on the new UI intended, this is not reflective of any internal development, no warranty implied or given, etc. This is entirely a quick hack, not tested at different breakpoints, against accessibility guidelines, etc.

But it is fun to play with.