Mod Browsing Overhaul Discussion

[jmharris]

8 hours ago, LukeSkyvvalker said:

Instead of "fixing" what isn't broken why don't you fix the search engine for mod comments that you recently took down?

The mod comments search is also being worked on, this will return!

[Battlestar1965]

On 3/12/2025 at 8:47 AM, Pickysaurus said:

Just want to point out that this particular thing is a bug, and we're aware of it. Hopefully, it'll get fixed soon. 

The question remains, which was asked by a lot of people, why did you change the style of the UI, which was working just fine, in the first place?

[Battlestar1965]

On 3/12/2025 at 8:28 PM, HadToRegister said:

The one thing a really HATE, is now the Small Search Box up by your Avatar, opens a new window, rather than just doing the Drop-Down, where you start typing in a word, and the dropdown keeps honing in on the word, until you end up with a dropdown of just mods with that particular name.
Now you end up with a completely USELESS screen with Big PANELS, that show a list of mods with that word they have in common, so instead of being able to scan the mods QUICKLY by just scanning up and down a COMPACT LIST, now it's a gigantic Fisher-Price MY First Mod Page® waste of space, where now you scan UP and DOWN, AND SIDE TO SIDE, that you then have to click on CONTINUE, to get an actual functional list.

I don't know what's happened in UI design, but I believe it started with GOOGLE, and how they love to make their UI design as inefficient as possible, and requiring far more clicks than necessary.

What used to take a couple of seconds, by just typing in a few letters of a mod name and clicking, now involves a new window, then another window that opens on that Query, and then another click to get to a somewhat usable list.

Completely Awful.

Exactly what i was thinking....hate it

[Battlestar1965]

On 3/13/2025 at 9:03 AM, mfPixel said:

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.

Unfortunately, from my point of view, you are doing exactly the opposite....and i wouldn't call it an "upgrade". "Degrade" is more fitting i think....

[HadToRegister]

On 3/13/2025 at 4:03 AM, 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.

 

1. So now we can press the “/“ to search for Author, Mod, Collections, and Images.......BIG DEAL, if you're using a MOUSE, instead of being able to click on the DROPDOWN MENU in the Search Box to select Author, Mod, Collections, and Images, you now have to let go of the mouse and reach your right hand over and hit the “/“ key to do the SAME THING YOU USED TO BE ABLE TO DO WITHOUT LIFTING YOUR HAND OFF THE MOUSE. Explain how that makes it “Easier to switch between searching different content types”?

This is NOT a “QoL” Improvement, in the slightest, it's now an INCONVENIENCE. 

This is a MOD site, I would expect that searching for MODS would be the number one reason to use the search box, and personally, I have NEVER searched for Collections or Images, and WHY WOULD I? They are irrelevant to me, I get enough images on the start page, and I don't care for them, and would like to be able to turn the Images and Collections section completely OFF, (Now THAT would be a QoL improvement.) I'm here for MODDING and MODS.

Quote

The new quick search improves this by making it easier to browse all content types while allowing you to preview more results.

Actually it DOESN'T, it only allows you to preview “quick” results in a huge GRID of useless large Thumbnail that make it difficult because it's just a grid of BIG, DISTRACTING THUMBNAILS that DOWNPLAY the TITLES OF THE MODS, in favor of Big, Pretty Bright Pictures, again, rendering it useless. The people who were using the quick search, were using it no doubt, because they found out the Quick search was far superior to that full page monstrosity of a search that could never find your search terms and would also tell you that it left out at least a 5 digit number of items you searched for. Also, try looking at a GRID of Huge brightly colored Thumbnails, while trying to find the TEXT to read, when you have RETINOPATHY. This big grid of Thumbnails is a setback for some people with vision problems, which is why the old list OF TEXT is much easier to see for some people. Because it's easy to see the words, but thumbnails with dark spots all over them because of retinopathy makes things difficult, because it's far too distracting and adds a level of difficulty that wasn't there before.

The best features of the old Quick Search...

-1. With the old quick search, you could type in a partial name of a mod (which is EXTREMELY HANDY, due to some people's choices of naming their mods, or not putting SPACES in the names), and Quick search used to do that and find them. WITHOUT LEAVING THE MAIN PAGE.

-2. Can't quite remember the name of a mod? Start typing in some words that you might remember being in the mod title, and all of a sudden the dropdown list starts adapting and showing you ONLY THE RESULTS you're looking for. WITHOUT LEAVING THE MAIN PAGE.

-3. You could RIGHT-CLICK on each Search Dropdown entry, and “OPEN IN NEW TAB”, so you could have all of those pages queued up to look at, THANKS TO QUICKSEARCH.
And most importantly, WITHOUT BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM THE START PAGE. I can't emphasize that enough. If your search failed, you just wiped the search box, and tried a new word. WITHOUT LEAVING THE MAIN PAGE.

-4. You could also fill that dropdown list with search results, and then hit ENTER, and be IMMEDIATELY taken to an EASILY Browsable LIST with Thumbnails and easy to see mod titles, to continue your search there. There was no unnecessary and wasteful Pop-Up box with big EZ-READER Pictures© to stare at, while you tried to make some sense out of all the “Pretty Colors” all smashed together in a grid, instead of quickly scan a list of WORDS.

 

Quote

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).

LOL, Qucksearch ALREADY DID THIS.
That's why it was so handy.

It worked just like the search in Vortex, start typing a letter, and the list starts filling with entries that have the letter “B” in them, next, type "A", now the list changes and starts showing only entries that have “BA” in it. Next type in “L” and you guessed it, the list changes yet again and now only shows mods with “BAL” as part of the name, and so-on-and-so-on.

WHY did you remove something that ALREADY EXISTED and are now saying this feature (that was already there and being used), is going to be “ADDED”?
It makes it sound like you weren't even aware how powerful the Quick Search used to be, until it was completely dismantled.

Also, you said, “We experimented with a more Compact List View”. Seriously? IT WAS ALREADY THERE IN THE DROPDOWN AS YOU SEARCHED!!!!!!!!!
Now you've actually ELIMINATED IT completely, for the worse.

Once again, that's now TWO features of quicksearch you didn't know that already existed.

The current QUICKSEARCH has become the exact opposite.
What used to take SECONDS, takes much, much, much longer, and is a complete inconvenience now.

As far as the old “Argumentum ad Populum” that is ALWAYS rolled out after something changes on the site, (after a “Beta” or “Feedback” phase), whether people like it or not, is by always saying “The general Feedback was very positive in testing”....we've seen how that's worked every single time, when something new is “being tested”.
We're only told, every single time, that “This is what the majority wanted”

Looking back at the semi-recent article about the new Modding App, and asking users what features it should have, should it be called and “App” or a “Program” etc, after much discussion about that, (once the thread, as usual got locked), the thread ended in the usual “Nexus Feedback Request/User Input Suggestion” way of, us being told what it was going to be named, completely disregarding all the feedback that was asked for.

THAT was why I laughed every time I saw the “Open Beta” Banner at the top of the page the last month or so, because I knew everything was going to be completely disregarded as to feedback, and only used as a way to make changes and claim that “Everybody liked it in testing”

[deadpool0600]

55 minutes ago, HadToRegister said:

1. So now we can press the “/“ to search for Author, Mod, Collections, and Images.......BIG DEAL, if you're using a MOUSE, instead of being able to click on the DROPDOWN MENU in the Search Box to select Author, Mod, Collections, and Images, you now have to let go of the mouse and reach your right hand over and hit the “/“ key to do the SAME THING YOU USED TO BE ABLE TO DO WITHOUT LIFTING YOUR HAND OFF THE MOUSE. Explain how that makes it “Easier to switch between searching different content types”?

This is NOT a “QoL” Improvement, in the slightest, it's now an INCONVENIENCE. 

This is a MOD site, I would expect that searching for MODS would be the number one reason to use the search box, and personally, I have NEVER searched for Collections or Images, and WHY WOULD I? They are irrelevant to me, I get enough images on the start page, and I don't care for them, and would like to be able to turn the Images and Collections section completely OFF, (Now THAT would be a QoL improvement.) I'm here for MODDING and MODS.

Actually it DOESN'T, it only allows you to preview “quick” results in a huge GRID of useless large Thumbnail that make it difficult because it's just a grid of BIG, DISTRACTING THUMBNAILS that DOWNPLAY the TITLES OF THE MODS, in favor of Big, Pretty Bright Pictures, again, rendering it useless. The people who were using the quick search, were using it no doubt, because they found out the Quick search was far superior to that full page monstrosity of a search that could never find your search terms and would also tell you that it left out at least a 5 digit number of items you searched for. Also, try looking at a GRID of Huge brightly colored Thumbnails, while trying to find the TEXT to read, when you have RETINOPATHY. This big grid of Thumbnails is a setback for some people with vision problems, which is why the old list OF TEXT is much easier to see for some people. Because it's easy to see the words, but thumbnails with dark spots all over them because of retinopathy makes things difficult, because it's far too distracting and adds a level of difficulty that wasn't there before.

The best features of the old Quick Search...

-1. With the old quick search, you could type in a partial name of a mod (which is EXTREMELY HANDY, due to some people's choices of naming their mods, or not putting SPACES in the names), and Quick search used to do that and find them. WITHOUT LEAVING THE MAIN PAGE.

-2. Can't quite remember the name of a mod? Start typing in some words that you might remember being in the mod title, and all of a sudden the dropdown list starts adapting and showing you ONLY THE RESULTS you're looking for. WITHOUT LEAVING THE MAIN PAGE.

-3. You could RIGHT-CLICK on each Search Dropdown entry, and “OPEN IN NEW TAB”, so you could have all of those pages queued up to look at, THANKS TO QUICKSEARCH.
And most importantly, WITHOUT BEING TAKEN AWAY FROM THE START PAGE. I can't emphasize that enough. If your search failed, you just wiped the search box, and tried a new word. WITHOUT LEAVING THE MAIN PAGE.

-4. You could also fill that dropdown list with search results, and then hit ENTER, and be IMMEDIATELY taken to an EASILY Browsable LIST with Thumbnails and easy to see mod titles, to continue your search there. There was no unnecessary and wasteful Pop-Up box with big EZ-READER Pictures© to stare at, while you tried to make some sense out of all the “Pretty Colors” all smashed together in a grid, instead of quickly scan a list of WORDS.

 

LOL, Qucksearch ALREADY DID THIS.
That's why it was so handy.

It worked just like the search in Vortex, start typing a letter, and the list starts filling with entries that have the letter “B” in them, next, type "A", now the list changes and starts showing only entries that have “BA” in it. Next type in “L” and you guessed it, the list changes yet again and now only shows mods with “BAL” as part of the name, and so-on-and-so-on.

WHY did you remove something that ALREADY EXISTED and are now saying this feature (that was already there and being used), is going to be “ADDED”?
It makes it sound like you weren't even aware how powerful the Quick Search used to be, until it was completely dismantled.

Also, you said, “We experimented with a more Compact List View”. Seriously? IT WAS ALREADY THERE IN THE DROPDOWN AS YOU SEARCHED!!!!!!!!!
Now you've actually ELIMINATED IT completely, for the worse.

Once again, that's now TWO features of quicksearch you didn't know that already existed.

The current QUICKSEARCH has become the exact opposite.
What used to take SECONDS, takes much, much, much longer, and is a complete inconvenience now.

As far as the old “Argumentum ad Populum” that is ALWAYS rolled out after something changes on the site, (after a “Beta” or “Feedback” phase), whether people like it or not, is by always saying “The general Feedback was very positive in testing”....we've seen how that's worked every single time, when something new is “being tested”.
We're only told, every single time, that “This is what the majority wanted”

Looking back at the semi-recent article about the new Modding App, and asking users what features it should have, should it be called and “App” or a “Program” etc, after much discussion about that, (once the thread, as usual got locked), the thread ended in the usual “Nexus Feedback Request/User Input Suggestion” way of, us being told what it was going to be named, completely disregarding all the feedback that was asked for.

THAT was why I laughed every time I saw the “Open Beta” Banner at the top of the page the last month or so, because I knew everything was going to be completely disregarded as to feedback, and only used as a way to make changes and claim that “Everybody liked it in testing”







 

Honestly I am kinda impressed with how many comments bro has made, 13k? Damn dude, think I was only on 3k before it got removed from the main mod site.

Point being, when the OG guys that have been around long before some of the staff members making changes, are VERY against the changes, then maybe you've made some mistakes.

Please staff, we love you guys but do remember that mod authors and users keep your site running. If it is unpleasant to use we can and will go to other places where it's easier and better. I don't want that, I don't think any of us want that, we love it here.

I mean heck I know dozens of people that left when you made the switch to Vortex (But I'm just a salty NMM user), which is super beginner monkey level easy to use. But a bit of a pain if you know what you are doing, tripping over "Oops doopsy, did you mean to overwrite that file?" pop ups left and right. (Again, salty grizzled modder. I have magic NMM whispering skills, never had any issues)

[SubJimbo]

On 2/18/2025 at 12:11 AM, ArtisanK7 said:

There wasn't an option in the Feedback Form to add additional notes so I'm going to add it here.

There needs to be a way to delete items out of the download history and to filter our download history by game. For those of us who download a lot of mods, it gets hard to keep track of everything when it is all grouped together. Some mods I downloaded a long time ago I don't use anymore but they're still in my download history taking up space when I search for updates.

This right here! When I go into my download history and sort by updated, it's sometimes difficult for me to determine what game a mod is for. If we could sort by game or group the mods by game, that would help.

[showler]

Download history is automatically filtered to a single game if you choose that menu option from a game section.

Compare the result when you open your download history from the main Nexus Mods homepage and when you open it from a Skyrim SE mod page.  The one opened from the mod page will have "skyrimspecialedition" inserted into the url and will only show mods you've downloaded for Skyrim SE.

[Maiq0]

Just adding +1 to the desire to revert or add a way to go back to the old format. This I feel like many, is not a upgrade.

[m661]

Keyboard shortcuts for actions on a site have *never ever caught on.* No site visitor who doesn't already know that you can press / to open the search or someone with a disability which makes mouse, touchpad difficult to use will get it, unless they are maybe a power user. But I doubt that the last group even would think this is efficient compared to the regular navigation.

That / icon hint blends in with the rest of the site most likely the user attention more wanders to the orange,yellow buttons if there would be any heatmap test.
I very much doubt that a lot of users will ever understand that / is actually a hint to press it on your keyboard. There is also no mouse over that explains it to new users. Which is odd because this is implemented right here in the forum when you mouse over any text for longer than a second in edit mode. Or even on the very page on the notification button. Which is obvious it is a button by its design. Why was the / not designed as a clear button. It does not matter that it is fake button it should not blend in with the rest of the site element if you think its important.

The / button only opens the windows yet does not close it. What is the point of that? / as search does nothing in the search field itself so if it does not block the use why the unnecessary key travel to escape. Both keyboard buttons are not in the general reach of the hands with proper placement either with a very good reason as they are not for regular navigation.

Why is it not a responsive window design. You can't put it in a screen grid and search the window it simply does not open it also gives no feedback either of this and when you resize it

When you resize it the current search is lost. I do not know how many use it but I bet a fair bit of users actually multitask and want to compare things that is now virtually impossible without multiple screens or having to minimize the screens constantly.

 

Why if you want to encourage shortcuts in the search is the actual grid not correctly aligned meaning that texts get cut of unless you jump further down after which there is no gentle downward scroll action it instead jumps half the screen. I can already bet that what people will start doing is use the shortcut notice the text cuts of then use there scroll wheel to move it down instead and not bother with the shortcuts anymore.

Why are images in the search of the page all loaded instead on focus. Lazy load for what is visible for the user is good practice but why waste bandwidth loading all image previews when the user has not even scrolled down. 

I really do not get this almost addiction to make stuff less efficient ever for a company there existing users.
I have this discussion on enterprise level several times a year with big companies. It almost always ends in a complete mess a very buggy unnecessary mess.
And every time I am reminded of a image as old as web design itself engraved in my mind.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fi2aeyrivmjoz.jpg