Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[Glitchfinder]

5 minutes ago, kat1004 said:

If they're going to work with someone with impaired vision to verify their designs, they should make three "skins" for the site. One for a light-mode, one for a "pseudo-dark" mode based on the old UI's color scheme, and one high-contrast for vision-impaired users. The vast majority of people who use this site aren't vision-impaired - or at least, not to the extent that they actively need a high-contrast color scheme - so why harm the majority of users for the sake of the minority?

I'm speaking as someone for whom vision-impairment is a well known issue due to having grown up with a vision-impaired parent who did need high-contrast to see (and used the BUILT-IN high contrast color scheme WINDOWS has), but also as someone for whom this new color scheme - even with their extremely minimal tweaking - is physically painful, to the point of not being able to use the site for more than 20 minutes at a time.

A good question, and one I've been wondering (and many people have been asking) ever since they first made the next.nexusmods domain public.

[zloybelka]

51 minutes ago, carpesangrea said:

wtaf...you have got to be kidding me.

Nope, the gotta follow some accessibility guidelines and whatnot that requires high contrast nowadays. For the rest of this discussion you can check last year's User Profiles thread.

[Raven1417]

8 hours ago, Happybara said:

We are currently in the process of moving different bits of feedback into separate threads. This is so that we can better group your suggestions by theme, which will be more useful to us than one ever-expanding mega-thread. As always, we appreciate your continued feedback.

You can find the new individual threads here: https://forums.nexusmods.com/forum/9063-suggestion-board/

That's great and all but can we just address some simple questions?
1. Why make a major overhaul to a site without having a functioning backup of the original? (If this isn't the case then Nexus staff are lying/misleading users about why restoring the old site isn't possible.)
2. Why push ahead with a major overhaul if the team working on it aren't experienced enough to ensure that accessibility and features would at the very least be relatively on par with the previous site?
3. Some staff have mentioned "other looks" that might be available down the track while also saying the old look will never return. Explain why staff are willing to make whole new looks for the site but not recreate the one that users actually want?
4. Will Nexus staff put up a poll, both here and on Reddit as well as any social media channels to actually see what the consensus is on the new site?
 

[HollownessDevoured]

The only visually impaired induvial who backed the the new changes immensely to their vision needs last year, that seemed to just justify the new colour scheme changes, was just giving feedback, that I am aware. I do not think they had that specific individual in mind as their source or consulted them personally, unless that was just not mentioned. I think originally generic accessibility was the reasoning/excuse.

I also questioned and asked why a minority group who usually already have in place adjustments to accommodate their specific narrowed and/or high(er) needs was more important than a seemingly larger group getting actually pain/discomfort. I tried very hard to be respectful to the individual last year, but even my attempts of asking for compromise caused them distress and upset, making the talks last year very difficult. That coupled with a very small sample pool of users who provided feedback gave the devs reason to ignore the high contrast/pain causing theme complaints (as well as other major complaints) and moved forward with the theme for the rest of the site a year later.

This also had us question: why can't those with vision issues zoom in as they probably already do before and even after the update, and give us our 5th tile back (or more), since zooming out does not accomplish this with the new theme. The oversized UI and wasted space was also a very hot issue and concern a year ago.

It was speculated but not confirmed, that accessibility was just the safeguard excuse for the new theme colours/sizing, and that the new theme was more so driven for mobile friendly/geared reasons, as high contrast on a phone/mobile device is not as painful/discomforting than PC view with the same theme/colours.

Edited Thursday at 11:36 PM by HollownessDevoured
grammar fixes

[HeyYou]

1 hour ago, kat1004 said:

If they're going to work with someone with impaired vision to verify their designs, they should make three "skins" for the site. One for a light-mode, one for a "pseudo-dark" mode based on the old UI's color scheme, and one high-contrast for vision-impaired users. The vast majority of people who use this site aren't vision-impaired - or at least, not to the extent that they actively need a high-contrast color scheme - so why harm the majority of users for the sake of the minority?

I'm speaking as someone for whom vision-impairment is a well known issue due to having grown up with a vision-impaired parent who did need high-contrast to see (and used the BUILT-IN high contrast color scheme WINDOWS has), but also as someone for whom this new color scheme - even with their extremely minimal tweaking - is physically painful, to the point of not being able to use the site for more than 20 minutes at a time.

I would expect the vast majority of users here are also viewing the site on their PC, yet we get a UI designed for phones anyway......

[HadToRegister]

FWIW, Discord offer these (Free) presets for viewing their app, (The last symbol syncs the color of the app to your Windows Theme.)
The Theme color that I have picked (Blue Check) was what I always had, but after they updated Discord, they automatically changed everybody to the 3rd Darker Theme instead.
I kept wondering why the text started getting fuzzier a lot faster than it used to, and something felt “off” to me.
And it's when I found this setting and switched to the lighter theme, that I realized they had, by default, changed everybody to a darker, higher contrast theme.
And that's when I realized what the problem was, thankfully I was able to switch back by selecting the lighter theme.

My point? It doesn't take a lot for something to be Too Dark, or Too Light for each individual.

From left to right
1. White, far too bright for me, I'd need sunglasses.
2. My “Goldilocks Zone” of “Just Right”.
3. Was what they changed the default to, and it was noticeable and increased eye strain for me.
4. I would've probably picked long ago, back in my 20s, but after a few days, I eventually would've switched to 3, then probably ended up using 2.
5. Using my system colors wouldn't work because I override them using “Window blinds” for a custom windows color theme that's easy on MY eyes, and Discord would've just used the Microsoft settings instead. So, a moot choice. 

Themes would be nice.



 

[HeyYou]

8 minutes ago, HadToRegister said:

FWIW, Discord offer these (Free) presets for viewing their app, (The last symbol syncs the color of the app to your Windows Theme.)
The Theme color that I have picked (Blue Check) was what I always had, but after they updated Discord, they automatically changed everybody to the 3rd Darker Theme instead.
I kept wondering why the text started getting fuzzier a lot faster than it used to, and something felt “off” to me.
And it's when I found this setting and switched to the lighter theme, that I realized they had, by default, changed everybody to a darker, higher contrast theme.
And that's when I realized what the problem was, thankfully I was able to switch back by selecting the lighter theme.

My point? It doesn't take a lot for something to be Too Dark, or Too Light for each individual.

From left to right
1. White, far too bright for me, I'd need sunglasses.
2. My “Goldilocks Zone” of “Just Right”.
3. Was what they changed the default to, and it was noticeable and increased eye strain for me.
4. I would've probably picked long ago, back in my 20s, but after a few days, I eventually would've switched to 3, then probably ended up using 2.
5. Using my system colors wouldn't work because I override them using “Window blinds” for a custom windows color theme that's easy on MY eyes, and Discord would've just used the Microsoft settings instead. So, a moot choice. 

Themes would be nice.



 

Well, theoretically, they use variables for a lot of those settings, seems like implement different themes would just be a matter of adjusting those variables...

[carpesangrea]

3 hours ago, HollownessDevoured said:

The only visually impaired induvial who backed the the new changes immensely to their vision needs last year, that seemed to just justify the new colour scheme changes, was just giving feedback, that I am aware. I do not think they had that specific individual in mind as their source or consulted them personally, unless that was just not mentioned. I think originally generic accessibility was the reasoning/excuse.

I also questioned and asked why a minority group who usually already have in place adjustments to accommodate their specific narrowed and/or high(er) needs was more important than a seemingly larger group getting actually pain/discomfort. I tried very hard to be respectful to the individual last year, but even my attempts of asking for compromise caused them distress and upset, making the talks last year very difficult. That coupled with a very small sample pool of users who provided feedback gave the devs reason to ignore the high contrast/pain causing theme complaints (as well as other major complaints) and moved forward with the theme for the rest of the site a year later.

This also had us question: why can't those with vision issues zoom in as they probably already do before and even after the update, and give us our 5th tile back (or more), since zooming out does not accomplish this with the new theme. The oversized UI and wasted space was also a very hot issue and concern a year ago.

It was speculated but not confirmed, that accessibility was just the safeguard excuse for the new theme colours/sizing, and that the new theme was more so driven for mobile friendly/geared reasons, as high contrast on a phone/mobile device is not as painful/discomforting than PC view with the same theme/colours.

This entire post would imply that their priorities are seriously messed up...that certainly tracks.

[EagleFour]

On 3/20/2025 at 9:52 PM, Sythix6 said:

It's crowded, its annoying and overall its ugly to me. having them in a list is a lot easier to sift through than having a bunch of tiny tiles that just mash into each other after scrolling. i would really appreciate it if you could reintroduce it because it's causing issues for me.

Hello,

I feel the same way. A list view is much better and easier to read than tiles, where all the information is crammed together. It is extremely exhausting and much more difficult to skim quickly. I already notice that I hardly look for new mods anymore because reviewing them is exhausting.

I don't understand this design decision, a list view is ALWAYS clearer and easier to read than tiles. Tiles are not structured in this way and a page full of tiles looks totally cluttered.

Please bring back the list view.

[EagleFour]

Hi,

 

In the new style, I miss the quick search function. I found it very convenient that the search results were displayed immediately on the same page. The way it is now, it's a step backwards in terms of usability.

Please bring back the quick search function.