Day 2 - Nexus redesign

[LHammonds]

I have been following all of your blog posts the past few months but don't recall you ever specifying a reason or I wouldn't have asked. I'll go digging for further details.

2 clicks and I found it. 1st post, few paragraphs down.

 

EDIT: Not sure why the direct link above fails to work for you...but anyways, here is a copy of the entire post:

 

I've mentioned in past blog posts that I have started to reach the crux of my talents and time in regards to the Nexus sites. Over the past 10 years I've been working away at the sites when I can, in between school, work projects, and then university, and the sites have continued to grow organically during this time in to the rather large entity they are today. Almost 2 and a half million members and growing, hosting almost 50,000 files across 5 sites.

 

Back in December 2010, before the announcement of Skyrim (but in anticipation), I set plans in to motion to really kick-start things here at the Nexus. 2011 was and is going to be the year of advancement, development and improvement for the Nexus as I devote more of my time and resources in to pushing it on; increasing our functionality and increasing our reach.

 

There are three core areas I'm focusing on; the front-end (the look of the site), the back-end (the features and functionality) and something completely separate that I'm not going to talk about today. The plan is to work on the core foundation of what makes the Nexus sites special and useful to users (ease-of-use, speed, efficiency, helpfulness, etc.) before I even think about any sort of expansion.

 

I'm wary of many gaming community sites past and present that have expanded too-fast, too-soon. They expand out dramatically fast and reach a critical mass before imploding. These types of networks tend to have masses of bloat, masses of fluff and very little usefulness or content for the end-user. It's not what I want the Nexus to be or become and my aim has always been to take it easy, play it safe, and only to branch out in to areas I know about and enjoy. At the end of the day, the worst thing that could happen is for me to over-extend myself, burn out and waste away what the community has built here.

 

 

 

Dedicated staff

 

Back in February I put up a news post in regards to the Nexus looking to hire a dedicated PHP programmer. Several people applied for the position and I was extremely lucky to come across someone who fitted the bill perfectly; he programs in lots of different languages, he's a quick learner, he speaks English and lives in the UK, he's willing to travel to come see me, importantly he can work very well autonomously and most importantly he's an actual user of the sites so he knows how it all works, what people want and what people need. AxelDominator is working full-time now in the background on the Nexus sites. I say full-time, I'm pretty sure he's working much more than that as he's up until 4am some mornings working on something. Crazy person.

 

Axel is currently working on completely rewriting the Nexus sites in to his own framework and code; making it more efficient and more secure while adding some nice functionality along the way. His remit right now is to recode the sites and hold on to all the current functionality; so the only things you'll see are super-cool nice changes like a global login system so when you're logged in on one site you're logged in to them all. The transition over to Axel's work won't be happening for a while as the current focus for the sites is on the site redesign, that has been mentioned in previous blog posts.

 

Having said that, I have grand visions and plans for the future and Axel shares them. With Axel onboard the possibilities for both current and future sites grow greatly, and I'm excited about that.

 

 

 

New site design

 

It's been a few months now and the web site designer I hired to work on a new design for the Nexus sites has handed over his completed pages and I'm now working hard to get all the current Nexus content moved over to this new design.

 

The designer himself is actually one of my housemates. He works for a major web developer in the UK, he's an avid video gamer (albeit not really focusing on single-player games) and he actually helped to develop the original Nihilum/Ensidia World of Warcraft guild website. It might not sound like much to you, especially if you don't know who they are, but they're actually one of, if not the biggest WoW guilds and are dominant in pro-gaming circles. The site was a feature-rich social networking site that has similarities with the Nexus sites, so his expertise are great to have.

 

For now the focus is literally on getting all the current Nexus site code and functionality integrated in to the new design. There aren't going to be any major new features or changes, aside from the new design, in the initial move over. I want to get the design right before I worry about anything else, and I don't want to overburden you by dumping a load of changes on to you all at once.

 

Before I give you the links let me just put on my tin-foil hat, grab my meat-shield and put on my protective cloak as I'm aware that changes are rarely welcomed. Especially when people think something isn't broken. Indeed "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a favourite quote of mine, but to me the original design was broken, both in terms of it being actually broken (run it through a W3C compliance program and you'll see what I mean) and being not fit for purpose. You see, the TESNexus design was cooked up in an extremely short space of time back in 2007 when TESSource went down for 3 weeks and the sites came back as TESNexus. I was in a massive rush to get something out the door as quickly as possible as there were thousands of mods inaccessible during this period and lots of stuff had to be over-looked or compromised on in order to get back up and running as quickly as possible. The design was one of those things, and for months afterwards many people complained about the design, including the navigation being on the right or the fact it just wasn't as good as TESSource. Over-time people got used to the design, they realised that the functionality was much better, that there was a lot more good stuff going on, and all was forgotten.

 

I have been wanting to redesign the sites for years now. The code is an absolute mess and it makes simple function updates or additions take much, much longer than they should because the HTML and CSS is so shoddy. It's a nightmare for me to work with. I wanted something I could be confident in and happy to use, and this new design ticks both those boxes perfectly. To me, and for me, this new design is fantastic.

 

The move over to the new design is going to take some time as there's lots of pages and small code re-writes to get through, but I've now completed enough of the core pages on the site to be able to provide you with some examples of what the finished product is going to look like. Naturally things are subject to change, and none of the pages are 100% finished yet, but I'd say they're all 90%+ close to being the finished product. If you click a link and it doesn't do anything, it's likely that functionality hasn't been added in yet.

 

So, with that out the way, take a look at the test site and let me run you through it a little bit.

 

Before I talk about individual page functionality let's talk about the general site design, the header and footer of the site. Perhaps the biggest cause for concern will be the fixed width nature of the site. Let me start by saying that I run a dual-monitor set up, both at resolutions of 1900x1200 so I know what it's like to browse a site that doesn't use all your monitor space. Having said that, I have also been working with a fluid width design for the past 10 years and I can also tell you how much of a massive pain in the ass it is to work with. Is the effort I go through to try and make the site work on as many browsers and resolutions as possible any of your concern? I guess that depends. But let me just say that I, personally, am happy with it, but I understand why you might not be. The aim is not to let that space either side of the main content area go to waste, and we'll likely be skinning the sides, and opening up the margins for mod authors to skin their own pages. Axel has already implemented systems in to the new framework that is going to enable mod authors to modify certain aspects of their pages, way beyond what they can currently do, so hopefully this will go some way to making use of the free space available.

 

Among a few test subjects the next point of contention has been the bright orange colour. Colours are very easy to change so if your main gripe with the new design is the colour then make your voice heard, but don't worry too much about it.

 

You'll notice that the right navigation system has been removed to make way for more content in the centre. Instead the navigation can be accessed from drop-down menus at the top of the page, and also at the bottom of the page where a simple to use links system is available.

 

The main content area is split in to two columns, left and right. The left hand column will be used for main content. The right hand column houses an advert (if you're not a premium member) and additional content relevant to the current page you are on.

 

That's the main design in a nut-shell. I'll now run you through the individual pages that are currently available and on show.

 

The first page is naturally the front-page of the site. You'll immediately notice a remastered hot files system has been implemented. The preview images are larger, you get a small description of the file and there's some swish preview thumbnails to play around with. The hot files system is going to be changed a bit. It'll now display the top 5 endorsed files from the past week, rather than 21 days. It should make the system a bit more fluid so that each day (or maximum, week) there's something new to look at on the front page. Because the hot files image is larger there are going to be restrictions put in place on the size of primary images on your files, to the tune of images less than 1024 pixels in width won't be accepted. If you have primary images smaller than 1024 pixels in width then the hot files script will go through all your images until it finds one, or if it can't find any then your file will be omitted from the list and the next candidate on the list will take your file's place. It might sound harsh, but Axel's going to be coding in some checks and notifications to let you mod authors know whether your image will be acceptable in the hot files system (and maybe even offer you a preview of what it will look like).

 

The news follows below the hot files system. Right now it's pretty standard, and you can sort the news by specific categories. The addition of some news staff in the past year has nicely branched out the content offered by the Nexus so we're not just some place you go to for file downloads. Reporting on the news, bringing more members in to the community spotlight and highlighting great mods and endeavours in the community is something I'm really pushing for, so expect the news and other non-files content to get a bit of a nod in the right direction over the coming year.

 

On the right you'll notice some lists for files and news for easy access.

 

Lets move on and take a look at the downloads index/category list. The old file index page is going to be replaced by this page as I think it's more intuitive. When you click on the files tab you expect to be taken to a list of file categories, rather than another placeholder page with the latest updates. You'll notice not much has changed from the current design, the way the categories are displayed remains the same, just in a different shell.

 

If you click on any category you'll be taken to an individual file category page, which lists all the files in a particular category. This list can be manipulated in much the same way the current lists can, allowing you to sort the results by varying parameters. You can also perform a tag search by clicking the "find exactly what you're looking for with tags" link, which will provide you with a drop-down for tag selections. The tags you select are highlighted in the list when the page reloads for easy adding and removing.

 

The file information is displayed in a flat-format. I often forget that the current Nexus sites have a flat-mode and block-mode option in the preferences; I have always used flat-mode. The block-mode option will be removed in the new design, both because I do not want to be supporting two separate modes and because the block mode won't fit in with the fixed-width design.

 

One feature of note is the "preview" link underneath a file's small description. Clicking this link will open up a file page's full description in an overlay box without you leaving the page so you can see exactly what a file is about without having to leave the category.

 

On the right column are top lists for the most endorsed file in this category, and the most downloaded files in this category. A "random files" box may also be added.

 

Clicking on a file will take you to the file's page.

 

You'll notice the image carousel has been replaced by a more functional one. Using the arrows will take you through your image gallery three images at a time, and clicking an image will expand it out without reloading the page, like the image gallery.

 

I've added a download link to the UI. Lots of newcomers get confused without an obvious download link. Clicking it will take a user to the files tab, rather than download the file straight away. In a way some mod authors have become reliant on the ability to upload multiple files for an individual file page, so offering a one-click download button just isn't feasible as many mod authors offer many optional extras that would be missed, or they don't upload the latest version of their file in to the main file but instead require you to download the main file, and then the patches afterwards. The "vote for me" (file of the month vote) and "endorse me" buttons are currently non-functional.

 

Each of the file tabs; description, files, images, comments, discussions, tags, videos, mirrors and readme have been reworked and redesigned so click through each to take a look at them. Files are now listed in flat-mode, the image gallery has been made more compact and swish, and you can toggle between author images and user uploaded images, the comment system has had an overhaul so there's less wasted space, and the AJAX has been tidied up some more, tags are laid out differently and it's all AJAX'd so you don't have to reload the page. The tags are now coloured so you can better understand the situation of each tag; red means an author has denied the tag, orange means users have suggested the tag for confirmation, and green means a tag has been confirmed. Videos have been tidied up some more, as have mirrors, and the ReadMe has replaced the action log as a tab, placing your readme text straight in to the page which I hope some authors like. The action log isn't currently featured on the page, but it'll be there come the launch.

 

On the right column are your stats and some action buttons for tracking and reporting a file, adding images, viewing the required files, permissions and credits and contacting the author. The action log will also feature here in due time. Underneath is a list of some of the author's other work that's been uploaded to the site, if there is any.

 

If you have files on TESNexus and you'd like to see how your file will look in the new design then simply remove the www. from the URL of your file page and change it to "platform". So http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38781 becomes http://platform.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38781. Data is live, but if you've uploaded any new images recently they might be broken and show as empty.

 

That concludes the currently finished file pages right now. Moving on, the Image Share has also been revamped, removing a lot of dead-space and compacting everything nicely on to the page. The view count and endorsement count are a bit hard to read at time of writing and it'll be touched up soon to make it better.

 

Clicking on an image in the list will take you to the image page that has been modified substantially from the current system. A large preview of the image is visible at the top, and clicking it will expand and magnify the image rather than load a separate page. Below the image you'll see the description of the image, if the author has left one, and below that the comments are instantly visible, rather than a tab needing to be clicked. Many mod authors don't leave descriptions with their images now so it made sense to have comments visible from the start, rather than an optional extra.

 

The compression levels on thumbnail images in both the Image Share section and file section is going to be improved. Have you noticed that the thumbnails can sometimes be bad quality or blurry? That's because they've been compressed to save on hard-drive space. The compression level is going to get tweaked so thumbnails are going to look way better come the launch of the new design.

 

In the right column are the image stats, along with a list of some of the other images the author has uploaded to the Image Share section.

 

Right now that concludes the examples on offer for the new design. Before you click that "add comment" button and start listing all the things you don't like or would change I'd like to tell you that I really like this new look, and I hope you do too. Having said that I know some of you will have concerns and maybe even some of you will downright hate it. I can understand that, but give me a reason to listen to you past "I don't like it".

 

I love Wayne's World, it's one of my favourite films, and whenever I change something on the sites and some people go bonking mad about the change without justifying their reasons I can't help but recollect this scene from the first film. It starts off with me proposing the change (Rob Lowe asking "How do you feel about making a change?"), people go bonkers in the comments (Garth starts hammering the moving hand, or my head), and once the dust has settled I end up making that quizzical look Robe Lowe has on his face with an uneasy stare across to the people expressing their dislike, and that music rings in my ears.

 

If you like the way the new design is looking so far then feel free to express it, if you dislike it then let me know what you dislike, what you'd change and why you'd change it, and if you hate it...I'm sorry, but I'm not sure there's much I can do for you. If you know why you hate it then let me know, but if you don't have a good reason then please could you hammer that robotic hand away from me?!

[TheLozza]

Is there going to be screenshot previews on the main page?

[Syrcanus]

I agree with Tapioks on this issue as well.

 

On another note I do like the example "skin". It saves me from being quite as annoyed by the 6 inches of dead space on my screen when viewing this site, since its not 6 inches of a boring grey color now. It still doesn't justify fixed width in my opinion though...not by a long shot. I mean...six inches of dead space!!! Is this site suddenly a blog? x(

[buddah]

Fixed width works does it not, you are arguing aesthetics. GIve me functionality any day !

 

If it works and it ls more efficient, makes the site run smother/faster I am all for it. Of course we could take half the file servers and use them and go back to the way it was, or use a little faith and see where Dark0ne's vision takes us.

 

I have been around a day or two, and Robin has never let the community down.

 

Just the ramblings of an old man, but I look to the future and let the past remain in the past. The world moves on and so has the nexus.

 

Buddah

[walrus2517]

@LHammonds - I'm sorry, but can you be more specific as to which post has the information? I tried searching through the past few posts from Dark0ne but couldn't find anything, and when I try to click his "blog posts" link I get a 404 error. Thanks.

 

@buddah - The argument against a fixed width is it is not just an aesthetic choice but does directly effect functionality because you can't see nearly as many mods or as much information on your screen. If this is the way it is, it's just the way it is, but it does effect functionality.

 

You are correct on trusting Dark0ne (not that we have any choice :P) to do everything he can, at this point I think folks are just trying to come up with ideas for workarounds in hopes that they can be implemented in the future.

Edited August 26, 2011 by walrus2517

[freddy_farnsworth]

IE8 There seem to be sporadic reports of people not being able to download files because the modal pop-up box isn't showing for them. I don't know if this is IE8 specific but I cannot reproduce this. However, I'm hoping to update the download links slightly so you can middle-click (to open a new tab) a link and it'll just open a completely new page.

 

Yes but it does go thru after a few tries, It seems to me to be related to two of IE8 "features" 1 the blue box up top that says "to protect jgrjgrgjarj click here to download this file, (sometimes shows sometimes not) found a hole huh :)

 

And the do you want to "run, save, ect" window is slow to show..

 

Next...

 

IE8 On the main page "post a comment" to the news is not doing anything, same as file comments WAS. Thanks for that fix...

 

Main page needs Files today (past 24 or 48 hrs) priority over the ones there.

 

Thank You,

freddy

[Mitheledh]

@buddah

 

No, it's not just aesthetics. Functionality and efficiency is having information readily accessible and easy to see. This site, because of the narrow fixed with and other choices, does not present very much information at any one time. It squeezes it into a narrow space and that forces it further down the page. I can only see a whole three mods at any one time. That is NOT efficiency. It forces the user to do more scrolling than is necessary to find what they want.

 

Granted, the decision to go with the bars instead of tiles means that a variable width design wouldn't fix that problem. That just means that also wasn't a good choice, though.

[Bullybeef]

So here we are, almost at the end of day 2 since the Nexus site redesign launch. I've been spending most of my time on bug fixes and tweaks based on the feedback you've all been giving me. Thank you for, in the most part, remaining calm and constructive during this period.

 

I'm just going to go through a few of the major and minor things that keep coming up in the feedback and run you through of the changes already made, and a few upcoming changes.

 

First of all my apologies to the IE8 users who experienced issues with the sites, especially with comments missing. I've been using a piece of software called "IETester" to test the functionality on IE8 as you cannot have IE8 and IE9 installed on your system at the same time. The sites worked fine in IETester during the testing stage but I was able to troubleshoot the issue on an old laptop and things should now be better for you. Once again a good reason to actually pay attention to the site news and help during open beta test stages rather than just ignore it.

 

Next the fixed width isn't going to change no matter what is said. However, a few people have brought up some nice ideas in the mod authors forums for some pages to be rearranged so they can use the full width of the central content area by pushing the content on the right in to the centre. It's something I'm going to explore tomorrow.

 

There seem to be sporadic reports of people not being able to download files because the modal pop-up box isn't showing for them. I don't know if this is IE8 specific but I cannot reproduce this. However, I'm hoping to update the download links slightly so you can middle-click (to open a new tab) a link and it'll just open a completely new page. I know some people like to "queue up" their downloads like this and the current system is preventing them from doing it. So hopefully a "kill two birds with one stone" tweak, that one.

 

Some of you will have noticed the file tracking centre has been changed. This is a temporary stop-gap until we move over to Axel's code that's going to be much better than this, and similar to before, but better. It was a "time allows" thing...I didn't have the time to port it over and knowing Axel would be updating it anyway made my decision easier. Just hang in there on that one.

 

There are a few features missing that were in the original site but aren't currently in this new design; seeing who has endorsed your files/images and premium notifications spring to mind. These will be coming back in the coming days or weeks. Negative endorsements are gone, as per the blogs and discussions that were had with mod authors up to the launch.

 

I've just put up the first "skins" for the space either side of the content area. These are skins made by me and spruce things up a little. At least now you can't complain you don't know what games each Nexus site supports. The plan here is to allow members to upload their skins for approval in to a "skin pool". You'll then be able to choose from a long list of skins for the site you're using through your preferences, or choose to have no skin at all. Similarly mod authors will be able to make their own skins for their mod pages or choose a skin from the pool that others will see for their mod pages.

 

A few minor tweaks and fixes have been added; thumbnail images will no longer stretch to fit a specific size in most areas of the site now, the "File temporarily available" issue has been fixed on newly uploaded files, comment threads will now be properly created when adding new files and small downloads will now work through the modal pop-up like the large file downloads rather than redirect you to a totally different page.

 

As mentioned in my last announcement this is just the beginning of many, many improvements to come. The foundation. Some people are acting like I've turned the light off and walked away for some reason. If you keep the constructive feedback coming I'll continue to improve things where I can. You'll get some things, you won't get others, but if you're going to throw all your toys out the pram because you're not getting it all your own way pleeeeease can you do it away from me? Thaaaaanks!

 

Finally a quick note on your bug reports: I'm sorry if you're experiencing bugs but for the love of all that is holy will you please tell me what browser you are using when you report a bug? I can't help you without this very simple piece of information!

 

I'll continue to update the news with more information as we go along.

[Bullybeef]

Don't Know if it's me but I find the new setup on Tesnexes to very slow. Thursday 25/08/11 started to download at 19::23

at 19:46 only got 2. At 20:19 just gave up a waste of time. Friday 26/08/11 sign on at 00:40 at 00:54 still

waiting for download as i said waste of time signed off and went to bed. Put thr old one back please.

[anzolino]

Hi there,

I'm using the last Opera and have noticed that the "sort by" GO-Button (the green one) in the "Manage your files" section just disappears on Linux. So, there is no way to sort the files. The same Opera on Windows shows the button normally.

 

So long

anzolino