Site redesign - 2016 Update #1

[hishutup]

In response to post #34721635. #34724495, #34739595, #34739755, #34746780, #34755530, #34757050, #34758760, #34770470, #34772730, #34777950, #34780075 are all replies on the same post.

hishutup wrote: I think there is the problem with the whitespace on the sides of the page. Most users are using the standard widescreen displays and the sides usually go to waste, why not display more info like a wider list of pictures.

With ulta wides starting to come into play they will suffer from this issue even more.

llihP wrote: The sides of the page have been left open like that for a few reasons, one of those is a requirement for ads that need to run in a side skin format.

Since the site is build in a modular way, it's easy to build upon it later on for even wider screens if the need arises.

hishutup wrote: I pay so I don't want blank space for ads, I rather have the space properly used for a better experience.
For people that have ads, just reduce the width of the modules.

llihP wrote: Here's one of the other 'few' reasons, I was talking about this the other night. Let me quote myself:

"...scanning left to right with a width of 1400px is a bit much when reading. It's why you'll never find a newspaper with text spanning across each page for the full width..."

And that was said after having designed a page with such a large width.

If there's no limit in place, you're effectively leaving articles, result pages etc to the width of the browser, and I wouldn't exactly call looking from one end of my 27" monitor to the other the greatest experience, especially for reading. My neck would definitely be getting a swivel-like workout.

If you look at Steam stats you'll also see that the vast majority of gamers are on 1080p or below.

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Then there's the cost effectiveness, how much you'd benefit from such a design, how such a design would work across all the templates, how practical it'd be and so on. At the end of the day it's not up to me, but there's more to consider than just the fact that ads will make use of this space that would otherwise be empty anyway. As I previously mentioned, at least it's easier to build upon now.

TheThirdRace wrote: "...scanning left to right with a width of 1400px is a bit much when reading. It's why you'll never find a newspaper with text spanning across each page for the full width..."

Sorry, but that's rubbish. Newspapers are designed in sections and subsections, blocks and sub-blocks, etc, but taken as a whole they do span across the entire page.

People aren't asking for 1 block to span the whole screen, they're asking for putting more sections/blocks in a given screen.

The Nexus is designed the same way as newspaper are, it is divisible by sections and subsections, blocks and sub-blocks, etc., it just doesn't span across all the available space for whatever reason.

I'm all for more space between sections, making the site breath and whatnot, but I do have a problem when all that space is used to compress the information in a tight and tiny block on the screen because it displays better on mobile...

For example, with the current layout I have 2/3 of my screen unused. All the information is tightly compressed in the remaining 33% of my screen. If you can't see how it's wasted space I guess you will never understand...

PaladinCarnage wrote: I agree with this,using a 1080p monitor and the empty spaces are such a waste,i'd rather see some content on the sides instead of a background image.

kraag wrote: Maybe admin should implement a mobile-friendly site alongside the desktop version? Would solve both problems.

llihP wrote: "Sorry, but that's rubbish. Newspapers are designed in sections and subsections, blocks and sub-blocks, etc, but taken as a whole they do span across the entire page."

Correct. And this would mean every iteration of the site beneath this super wide version would need to contain these blocks and sub-blocks, and since you can only currently see the homepage, you couldn't possibly have any idea how much this would affect other pages and how they've been divided up.

How many good examples of sites can you find that have Nexus-like content that span the full width of the browser and work nicely across a multitude of templates, responsively? With content divided up like a newspaper? There's a reason you won't find many, if any.

There are are many implications beneath the surface of what you are suggesting, but it's not very practical when it comes to dealing with real world content. The content varies greatly, it's nowhere near as simple as you make it sound.

STURMKATTEN wrote: I don't mind if it's grey. As long as it's not painful white!

AikenHasAHat wrote: llihP--

If there's no limit in place, you're effectively leaving articles, result pages etc to the width of the browser, and I wouldn't exactly call looking from one end of my 27" monitor to the other the greatest experience, especially for reading. My neck would definitely be getting a swivel-like workout.

That's an extremely weak argument. You're going to _force_ a column width, at your end, with no knowledge of what our end displays it with, rather than allow us to size and zoom our browser intelligently on our own screen?

Really, I can't even fathom why you would think it is a _bad_ thing to leave "articles, result pages etc to the width of the browser". That's _exactly_ what you should do. Why do you think windows have size controls? Why do you think monitors can be landscape _or_ portrait? As it is, you just sound like a control freak.

llihP wrote: Hostility already, nice :)

"with no knowledge of what our end displays it with"

Apart from the usage data provided by the Nexus and google analytics.

Before the project progressed to design, there was well over 100hrs of time spent studying and discussing the current site and making wireframes for the new one, which included discussion around max-widths. You can probably imagine how hard it is to have a serious conversation with those who glance at 1 layout (1 of over 30 layouts), with no other knowledge, and assume they know how it can all fit within an unlimited width browser window that needs to handle 7 different screen configurations. Each.

In relation to what you're asking for, I'll request this again:

How many good examples of sites can you find that have Nexus-like content that span the full width of the browser and work nicely across a multitude of templates, responsively? With content divided up like a newspaper? There's a reason you won't find many, if any.

At this point, since it seems like I'm repeating myself (^^^literally), I'll leave you with some sensible design advice to consider. You should also consider why other popular sites with millions of users cap their widths at one point or another, and why bootstrap (and the other most used frameworks) have capped layouts when it's quite easy to uncap them and go 100% width. Readability, usability, common sense.

http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/14928/why-do-websites-not-use-entire-width-of-browser

http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/3618/ideal-column-width-for-paragraphs-online

http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/which-page-layout

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/life-beyond-960px-designing-for-large-screens--webdesign-7348

"The empty areas of a screen lend focus to areas of content and help direct the user's eye. Don't eagerly fill whitespace just because you can."

Feel free to provide anything to the contrary that cite relevant examples that could apply to the Nexus.

cabanaboy wrote: A simple solution for those who want widescreen viewing: On Windows OS in ANY browser (as far as I know and I have 5 browsers that I use) hold the Control key and tap the + and/or - keys until you reach the desired size. To resize to default simply hold Control key and tap the '0' on the top of the keyboard..

Huh, this topic grew...
Anyway, in not proposing having a line of text(like a description) stretch from one side of the screen to the other because that is ridiculous.
I'm saying have the modules fit there area like have the mod page info aligned left and have several images fill the side on the right.
I always thought the way images are expanded is clunky, I only have three tiny images to view from.
Maybe break some of the modules away from the main list on the mod page like an installation or recommended mod module block that would align left and fill the void.

Its just a thought, filling a page with too much small or unformatted text isn't appear and is easy to get lost in.
Also, enlarging the text size to fill the void is not a good idea. I feel that new pages should be designed for the standard of 1080p monitors.

I'm definitely not concerned with bandwidth. My speeds are good enough to handle what ever this site can throw at it Edited February 23, 2016 by hishutup

[BlueGunk]

In response to post #34795495. #34829255, #34830585, #34839700, #34889770, #34891395 are all replies on the same post.

makutamon wrote: You know What I would like to see? The Website using your download history to create a "recommended for you" page, which selects mods that you might like based on your download history.

BlueGunk wrote: I like that idea! +1 from me!

Jeir wrote: From our 'Endorsements' might be better.
There are several mods I've downloaded just to check something, or simply didn't like and thus deleted and didn't give an endorsement.
In any case, such a thing would probably have to rely on the tagging system, with is rather flawed even when it is used, due to user interpretation of the tags.

cleggmasta wrote: yea, thirded, but from the endorsed mods as Jeir said

seba1337 wrote: Endorsements sounds better, it's a great idea this one :D

BlindJudge wrote: The trouble with this is who decides what mods should be chosen to be displayed, I sometimes look at my Steam recommended list and think to myself - Why on earth are they recommending me X game.

There is something in the works which can work similar, but will let you all know details a bit later when it's ironed out. :)

But I can rummage through Endorsed mods all I want. I'd rather see new content coming up under "recommended for you" not just based on endorsements. Or if I must, be able to sort the recommended-for-you list by New / Endorsed, etc as we can sort right now. Sometimes the heavily endorsed star mods eclipse new fantastic stuff modders are developing. Edited February 23, 2016 by BlueGunk

[shingallon]

In response to post #34709080. #34709435, #34709560, #34709745, #34709825, #34709920, #34711150, #34711250, #34711315, #34726405, #34730040 are all replies on the same post.

BlindJudge wrote: Well we've entered 2016 with a productivity bang, all hands are on deck and there is plenty going on behind the scenes here at the Nexus so I thought I'd give you all an insight into what's happening...

Firstly a quick recap - we began the redesign process in the second half of 2015 by first trying to work out what our users like and dislike about the site. We were overwhelmed with the response to our survey which provided us with a wealth of information, our community is definitely one of the best in the world and it was great to see how truly passionate you all are in regards to our site.

A lot of people commented as to how they cannot browse the site on anything other than their PC, others were more interested in trying to find mods quickly and easily, others just wanted the site to be made 'fresher' and 'inline with modern web standards'. We took the time and read through each and every response that we received, that in itself took several weeks.

We decided to aim towards specific goals that were brought up over and over again, the first is for us to create a cracking mobile / tablet / responsive experience so that the site can be enjoyed by any user on any device, but without this experience lessening the experience from our core crowd of users who still visit the Nexus via their desktops. Secondly, we want the site to be easy to navigate around with search deeply integrated with the main functions, and thirdly, we want it to look nice and be a pleasure to use. The list goes on and on, but you get the general gist.

We knew that we weren't going to be able to do this all ourselves and that we were going to need some help from a professional, so we advertised for a UX/UI designer and got a great response from a number of people. Each person brought something to the table but after a lot of deliberation we contracted Phill into the position. He immediately took it upon himself to read through the research we had already conducted (survey results, hot-spots, device statistics) and started producing diagrams and wireframes for us to check out based on his conclusions from the research.

Things were moving along swiftly, but we wanted input from the community and setup a focus group of 15 Nexus users to help. This group has been nothing but brilliant, right from the word go we have had a constant and thorough source of input from them. What has been great is that they come from such a diverse demographic that they represent a great cross section of the Nexus community, giving us an all around feel for what we are doing and whether it would or wouldn't work. I tip my hat to them for the time and effort they have expended on assisting us, it's not over yet though guys ;)

The focus group talks on behalf of the Nexus users. While we would love to include everyone in every stage of the design process, I hope you can appreciate that having 10 million people all chiming in on any sort of process is just completely untenable. I understand that some people are concerned that they’re not being more involved in the process, however, we believe we’ve done well by you these past 14 years and ask that you trust that we’ve got everyone’s best intentions in mind once again!

With the focus group onboard we went full steam ahead on the wireframes. These proved invaluable to begin placement of features on the site and begin to visualise the site routes that people would take to do things.

An example of one of the wireframes we used is below, please note that these are old wireframes and may not reflect the final layout / look of the site.

http://i.imgur.com/H007GXkl.png

After the wireframe stage we worked on design mocks, which included things like fonts, icons, more placement tests and colour schemes. Again, please note that these are old designs and may not reflect the final layout / look of the site.

http://i.imgur.com/4Y6H3THl.png

We’re now into February. Currently, Phill is converting the mock-ups into HTML, CSS and Javascript that our site developers can then integrate into our framework. This is a time consuming and painstaking task, as we test each page created against numerous browsers, devices and resolutions to ensure the maximum compatibility possible. But we’re also beginning to see the fruits of our labour in an interactive way for the first time.

Our aim now is to get the site to a stage where we can open it up to run alongside the current site, at first simply as a shell to allow you to experience it and see if it breaks when you try and do things.  But should this be successful it will then be attached to the live database and you will be able to use it alongside the existing site. Between us we’ll iron out any bugs that are discovered and hopefully come out the end with a product that is better, and that we are all proud of.

For those interested, I’ve created a small timeline of events since the beginning of the redesign process.

http://i.imgur.com/B0RXXQY.png

Any questions, please feel free to get in contact.

Kind regards

http://i.imgur.com/SZYsdYu.png

mannygt wrote: Man, I love this new design, really and I'm talking as Web Designer (and developer).

I have just a suggestion for your back-end: Please add the unload() event to avoid leaving the page when a user is uploading a mod without prompting. It's happened to me when I accidentally clicked a link when I was uploading a huge file (my fault of course).

Thank you :)

EHPDJFrANKy wrote: Hi BlindJudge;

Congrats to all the stuff for the great work on all the site. Good news to see you all are working hard, to better the experience.

Speaking about profiles, and in a more concretely way, about pictures and caps, please, Can you tell us, if the pictures needed for the profiles of the mod will change? if so, do you know, which will be the new sizes for them?

Just to know, and going preparing new images for my mods-translations profiles.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Take Care and C U Soon !!!

TheLich wrote: Nice disign! Can't wait to try it out!

BTW, there is a type in events timeline - last two should be in 2016, no?

Hoamaii wrote: Great work!.. Thanks for sharing :)

One 'small' suggestion: is there a way that you could make the 'back to the top' button slide alongside the page so that it remains clickable from anywhere you are in the page?

And a question: what's the tick button for at the bottom of mods' previews?

(sorry for the inappropriate language, French here ;))

BlindJudge wrote: @TheLich - I have no idea what you're talking about - Typo, what typo! ;)

(cheers, have now corrected it :) )

digitaltrucker wrote: Nice to see Phill hasn't begun work twice now as well ;)

4killmaster wrote: This looks fantastic! Do you have any plans to include a legacy version of the site for those that prefer the current layout?

digitaltrucker wrote: Btw - am I the only one that thinks 'Trending Mods' sounds really lame? What's wrong with 'Hot Files"?

BlindJudge wrote: For the beginning we will most certainly run the two sites concurrently. It will give people a chance to try it out, find things that break and get used to the navigation etc.

kraag wrote: @ digitaltrucker - You are not the only one.

@ 4killmaster
Like me? I'm used to the current site layout and frankly detest "flat design" (IE "squares of flat color with no gradients or visual flair at all", IE "Graphic Design Cancer" ) with the intensity of a thousand exploding suns. Edited February 24, 2016 by shingallon

[STURMKATTEN]

In response to post #34770380. #34891990 is also a reply to the same post.

STURMKATTEN wrote: I like how it is / has always been. I'm just getting used to it now. If it changes, I'm back at square one.
If it's changing for people on mobile phones etc, then why don't they keep the PC version as it is? Okay, maybe make a few improvements, but a complete overhaul is just not needed in my opinion.

Anyway, good luck to them. Looks like a lot of work.

BlindJudge wrote: Hey Surmkatten,

The site as it stands at the moment is quite piecemeal, it has had features bolted on over the last few years which have maybe ended up in confusing locations.

They new site has been looked at with old and new eyes, the focus group has been incredible and truly helped shape the site for the general populous. It will be easy to navigate, easy to customise and your experience will only be enhanced by it.

I'm sure that you will love the final product, though we will be running both old and new concurrently for you to get used to it at your own pace.

Fair enough, thanks for reply, you may have made a typo on my name, but whatevs...
Oh I noticed something that I found awkward; When looking at the replies to my comments, I click on the notification in the drop-down list there, expecting it to take me to the reply, and on this occasion it did not, I had to scroll through all the entire thread here, to find your reply here. Anyone had that happen before? Looking forward to seeing the new look anyhow.

[Zaldir]

In response to post #34770380. #34891990, #34918540 are all replies on the same post.

STURMKATTEN wrote: I like how it is / has always been. I'm just getting used to it now. If it changes, I'm back at square one.
If it's changing for people on mobile phones etc, then why don't they keep the PC version as it is? Okay, maybe make a few improvements, but a complete overhaul is just not needed in my opinion.

Anyway, good luck to them. Looks like a lot of work.

BlindJudge wrote: Hey Surmkatten,

The site as it stands at the moment is quite piecemeal, it has had features bolted on over the last few years which have maybe ended up in confusing locations.

They new site has been looked at with old and new eyes, the focus group has been incredible and truly helped shape the site for the general populous. It will be easy to navigate, easy to customise and your experience will only be enhanced by it.

I'm sure that you will love the final product, though we will be running both old and new concurrently for you to get used to it at your own pace.

STURMKATTEN wrote: Fair enough, thanks for reply, you may have made a typo on my name, but whatevs...
Oh I noticed something that I found awkward; When looking at the replies to my comments, I click on the notification in the drop-down list there, expecting it to take me to the reply, and on this occasion it did not, I had to scroll through all the entire thread here, to find your reply here. Anyone had that happen before? Looking forward to seeing the new look anyhow.

Imagine my shock when it change from this to how it is now! It does take some getting used to, but in the end, the site will be more intuitive and better to navigate for most people. :thumbsup:

[mate1146]

First of all, I should thank you for all the effort you have put in the site already, not to mention the current improvements! Just a small suggestion, or, more like a question: is there any chance we will be seeing multiple tracking lists? For example, I would like to track Skyrim STEP and misc mods on different lists but, as of now, I need two accounts for that feat. By the way, the new design already looks promising and by far more mobile-friendly (so it is not a problem if you do not create another layout especially for mobile devices).

[Freso]

I hope someone else has mentioned this in these 11 pages, but the "324.5K" and "19.5m" in the "final layout" image are really glaring to me. "K" means 1024, what you want is "k" for "kilo", which equates 1000. "m" is the symbol for "milli": 0.001's or 10^-3, not millions, "mega", which would be "M". Please use proper notation.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_prefix

[Dreamable]

I am SO looking forward to this.

[Mebantiza]

Where have I seen this before, looks kind of familiar......

 

O yea, here

 

http://store.steampowered.com/

 

Nice rip, I hope nexus didnt pay too much for this. Steam game library is fine, and the store is ok, but for non-library, non-store feature, steam sucks. Really. And if the pics are any indication, someone really seems to think the steam look is a thing.

 

Its not. I suggest keep an option open for classic interface if this is the look your going for....

 

Nexus isn't really a store, or a games library, things steam does reasonably well at, so why copy something that steam is worst at?

 

 

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #34932540.

Mebantiza wrote: Where have I seen this before, looks kind of familiar......

O yea, here

http://store.steampowered.com/

Nice rip, I hope nexus didnt pay too much for this. Steam game library is fine, and the store is ok, but for non-library, non-store feature, steam sucks. Really. And if the pics are any indication, someone really seems to think the steam look is a thing.

Its not. I suggest keep an option open for classic interface if this is the look your going for....

Nexus isn't really a store, or a games library, things steam does reasonably well at, so why copy something that steam is worst at?

I obviously see a completely different Steam Store page to you; because they don't look the same at all to me. And I'm pretty good at "spot the difference".