Nexus Mods Redesign - Link Inside

[Dark0ne]

Hello everyone,

The time is almost upon us as we near the release of our redesign. We're now ready to share the redesign with all of you in the hopes that you can help us in identifying the remaining issues before we officially go live and change the site over.

We're doing a very soft launch of this redesign. Right now, we're providing links to it on the Nexus Mods forums and on the /r/SkyrimMods subreddit. You are more than welcome to share this link with anyone, anywhere, but if I may ask a favour, please link them to one of those two sources rather than the redesign itself. This page contains pertinent information that I think is important for anyone to read before they dive headfirst into the new design. We're not currently posting the link on the main website, either as site news or as a notification to users, because we'd like to receive steady traffic and gradual feedback, rather than swarming the site with the sort of traffic it would receive if we were to make an announcement on the main site.

We provided access to the redesign site to mod authors via the private mod authors forums last month and I want to thank all users who have helped us in identifying and fixing issues during this process. It's been an extremely useful time for us.

When we first started this redesign process two years ago the point was to provide us with a much better platform from which we can improve the site and offer new functionality in the future. Right now, for the initial launch, we're only interested in ensuring we're providing the same or similar functionality as the current site. You will find we've added some minor changes and updates in functionality we think might help you while browsing the site, but what we're mainly interested in right now is in comparing the functionality on the old site to the functionality on the new site and ensuring it works as well as or better than it did before. Similarly, we want to make sure we have not missed any functionality out that is currently available on Nexus Mods. These are the two main things we'd like to know most about and what will help us.

Naturally this redesign is a massive change from the current design and it's going to take some getting used to. The last time we changed the design in such a massive way was all the way back in 2011. I'm pretty used to the sort of feedback we receive during these times -- lots of people take to the site comments instantly to express their disgust and vent their frustration, phrases like "why did you try and fix something that isn't broken" gets thrown around a lot. I ask that you stay calm, relax, use the site over the next few weeks, get used to it. Things have moved, things have changed and I understand this can be frustrating, but stick with it. You'll learn the new site soon enough. If you feel you have something particularly negative or disparaging to say then do me a favour and hold off for a little while, give it some time, and if you still feel the same after a few weeks then by all means, share your constructive criticism.

Some things of note before you click the link to the new design:

• The redesign site is using live data. As such, any edits, changes, uploads or literally anything you do will be live on the main site at nexusmods.com as well as on the redesign site. Basically -- don't change anything unless you want your changes to be live on Nexus Mods for everyone to see.
• Once again...The redesign site is using live data! This also means that you can officially use the redesign site from this point on if you so wish. Personally, I'd recommend you move over to using the redesign site permanently now (unless there are major issues) so you can get a headstart on getting used to it.
• Anything you can do on the current site you should be able to do on the new site. If there's something missing or not working right, we really need to know about it. Please let us know!
• We are aware that certain actions and pages on the redesign site are perhaps a little bit slower than they are on the main site right now. If you come across any pages with extreme load times (e.g. more than 6 seconds) then please report this to us so we can investigate.

Access the new site design

We are using GitHub to maintain a bug and issue tracker. If you'd like to help us out by reporting issues then you will need a GitHub account (very easy to make). Apologies for the extra off-site process but there was no point building a custom solution, which would have taken a long time, when other services are readily available that did what we needed. You'll be able to see issues that other users have posted already and comment on them if needed. The bug tracker can always be accessed by clicking the "Report Bug" link on the bottom of your window when browsing the site.

Please only use GitHub to report bugs or inform us of missing functionality compared to the current site. Please don't use it to ask for new features or things that don't exist on the current site. We'll try and keep the issue tracker as clean as possible, so some issues may be removed if they are not relevant to the redesign at this time. Thank you for your understanding.

We are updating the site daily with bug fixes and at some points the site might become inaccessible or look a bit odd. You do not need to report these issues unless it persists for more than an hour.

Unless something major comes up we will start our parallel running of the sites within a couple of weeks. During this time users will be informed of the new site and will be allowed to choose between using the old site or the new site. Hopefully there will be a good uptake of users who browse on the new site so we can squash remaining bugs and stress test our new code on the servers. After a month or two we will then turn off the old design completely and everyone will be forced on to the new design. The old design will not be coming back and will not be usable ever again after this point. Hence why it makes sense for you to try and use the new design as much as possible so you get used to it sooner rather than later.

A note on the UI, UX and overall look. When we started this process we worked with a professional designer to create the initial mockups because we didn't have a full-time designer ourselves. The designer we worked with was great, but naturally as we didn't have him full-time and our work on the code took way longer than initially anticipated, it meant that he could only go so far. As such, the current design on the new site is, I'd say, 75% the designer's, following good UI/UX principles and 25% ours, without expert supervision. We've had to change or add functionality that was missed in the original mockups that was not done by a UI/UX professional and as such, we're aware there are some areas of the site that, already, could do with the touch of an expert. Thankfully, our UI and UX designer has begun working in the office on this very day (Monday the 2nd of October). Her initial focus is going to be solely on Vortex, the mod manager to replace NMM. Once we're happy with Vortex she will move her focus on to the sites. I tell you this for two reasons. To inform you we're aware there are a few UI/UX issues with the redesign at this time, and to let you know that it will be resolved to an expert level at some point in the not too distant future.

With the above in mind, obviously feel free to provide feedback on the overall feel of the UI and UX, but understand we plan to make absolutely no major changes to it until our in house expert is available to work on it. I'm sure that, when she comes around to looking at it, she will appreciate feedback on the topic.

If you would like to provide feedback on the redesign and how it looks and feels then please post that here in this thread, rather than on our bug tracker (obviously!).

Thanks for any help you can provide, even if it's browsing the site and finding nothing.

[ARavenCalledWayne]

Looks great. Runs smooth.

 

Not one issue with site from a browser p.o.v

[KermitDidNothingWrong]

Don't like it.

[LordZandor]

"phrases like "why did you try and fix something that isn't broken" gets thrown around a lot"

I have the tendency to think this too, but you are the guys working behind the scenes, and I assume you're doing this for good reasons and know what needs improving.

I think I need some time to get used to the new design, but overall it looks pretty good!

[MalcorScribe]

I like it overall, love the new UI, feels much smoother than the old design. Only criticism I even have is the tending mods at the top of the game pages. I liked having 5 there because there was a variety (usually) I feel like with only two you could end up with two very similar mods being the only things featured there. Like the current Fallout 4 tending mods, for example. Both are new weapons.

 

Like I said, overall I love it.

[SirSalami]

I like it overall, love the new UI, feels much smoother than the old design. Only criticism I even have is the tending mods at the top of the game pages. I liked having 5 there because there was a variety (usually) I feel like with only two you could end up with two very similar mods being the only things featured there. Like the current Fallout 4 tending mods, for example. Both are new weapons.

 

Like I said, overall I love it.

 

You should see more (up to 7, 2 above and 5 below) with a larger screen. If not, try ensuring your browser is not zoomed in.

[Guest deleted5528329]

One of the things I do not like is the new this week feature. It shows the mods with pictures and description even in list form and not in tiles. Under the old site I can get a listing and go thru a whole months worth of updates in a few minutes download and install what mods that I use that were updated run the load order, run wrye and be back into the game within a half hour. This new design it will take forever to go thru the list every time You change the page you have to put it back to list as it automatically goes back to tiles.If you change that feature to look more like download history it would be easier to go thru the list but I would prefer a drop down list like the old site without the descriptions and mod picture. The newer user would like it the way the new design is, but us old timers who want to be in and out and are just trying to update this is gonna be very cumbersome.I am looking at oldrim right now which has fewer updates everyday but what about FO4 that has mods updating left and right to find anything that is gonna be very difficult and gonna take forever. I wonder how many will go thru only a page or 2 and forget about the other 5 pages. Which will be bad for the mod author who just put up an update that within a few hours will be buried pages deep how many will take the time to find it. I know I won't. Simple sometimes is the best and that is lacking on the new design. There is a lot I like about it but You need a few tweaks to make an option so you can get a list without pics or descriptions to make it easier to get your business done. That's why I suggest to make it look a little like the new download history it gives a small pic and the mod name only you can go thru that pretty quickly. I make this suggustion if it is to much to put a feature in that looks like the old system. Thank you

Edited October 2, 2017 by Bradhl55

[DarkstarAlpha]

Playing around with it for a bit and it looks alright. The biggest improvements I've noticed quickly are definitely the mod page photo galleries - so much better and functional than the old Nexusmods galleries.
Visually, comparing the same mod pages in the old and new sites I find I do prefer how the older site had its contents more centered with the game-specific borders on either side. Now the borders are much, much thinner, which really stretches the content section of the page out and creates more empty negative space in the mod file pages.
I'd also agree to some point with Bradhl55 about improving the functionality of browsing mods. I prefer to browse in list rather than tile format, and it would be great to have some capability to set it as the default browsing option or at least make it so that after choosing the list format when you move to the next page of mods it will remain as a list rather than reverting to tiles, forcing you to switch again.
I also can't seem to find a page analogous to the old User Area page with all your user options, file & image management and whatnot. Now your account options, mods & tracking center, images and so on are all separate, and it took me a little digging to find them. It would be nice if there was still a page where a user could access them all together.

Edited October 2, 2017 by DarkstarAlpha

[Uthuriel]

It seems to me there is no longer a "top files" list. Am I missing something? I always thought those were very important.

[Wolfer4004]

It seems to me there is no longer a "top files" list. Am I missing something? I always thought those were very important.

They are in the "Mods" drop down box