New Nexus Mods design launched

[fireundubh]

In response to post #54933758.

indycurt wrote: Sorry, I'm one of those "if it isn't broke don't fix it" kind of people. However, I'm always willing to try new things. But I just can't get over the feeling that it looks way too much like the layout over at Bethesda's mod pages. I've always hated their site, and actually don't go there because of it. I've been exclusively Nexus and have never downloaded a mod from Bethesda's site. Your old format was always cozy and compact, your new site is full of large pics, large boxes, and looks garish. The giant boxes take up so much space that it creates way more scrolling to see less.

And speaking of "seeing". . .today is a perfect example. As you go to todays page for "New Mods Today", you scroll down and BAM a giant picture of giant boobs slaps you in the face with the mod "Zarya Character Preset". I'm not prudish, but I just find this offensive. Sorry, but I do. I always think that if I were a parent with younger kids, this would really piss me off if I walked in to see them looking at this. At least with the old page, all you got was a title. And yes, I understand that if you click on the title it would take you to these pics anyway, but with the new site you "see" it whether you intended to or not.

Go on haters, have at it.

BAM a giant picture of giant boobs slaps you in the face

So, I take it you've never configured your blocked tag filters. Because I don't see what you see. Edited November 3, 2017 by fireundubh

[Ashes2Asherz]

Using this site on the phone at the moment and it's not a good experience.. it's very slow but even more troubling only two of the front page mods show on my phone and the other 3 are hidden from both the front top if the page and more trending tab.. that really sucks.. to be honest the new site is nice on desktop but the old site works much better on mobile.. it's too frustrating to view the new site on mobile and I'm using high speed wifi at the moment.. Edited November 3, 2017 by Ashes2Asherz

[ScrollTron1c]

Since you're working on the site design right now - are you ever going to fix the following paradox of the Nexus structure:

 

 

Let's say i find out that a mod author has blocked me from his / her mods. Which might be confusing, since i never talked to this person, commented on their mods or had any other contact whatsoever besides silently giving endorsements.

 

Now the (old) page informs me to resolve this amicably via private message - however if that author has turned the messenger system off, there is no way to make contact.

So either mod authors might block someone by accident, which happens very easily on the old page. Or they just abuse their power - "because they can" ?

 

Either way this is obviously a paradox, you are giving instructions that can't be fulfilled currently.

[saladinbobbins]

I have no idea where my last comment went so let me try this again. Love the new design, want the new design to be the default. How do I do that, please?

[Thandal]

<snip>

Either way this is obviously a paradox, you are giving instructions that can't be fulfilled currently.

 

If a mod author (or any member) chooses to disable PMs, that's her/his choice.

If a mod author chooses to block you from her/his mod, that's her/his choice.

There is no paradox, simply an exercise of choice.

 

You can ask a member of Staff to contact the author in question on your behalf, but authors are under no obligation to explain their choices.

[4rc4num]

Wow, ~920 comments as of now. Seems to be mighty controversial. (Yeah, I know, call me Sherlock.)

 

Considering everything that could go wrong with a redesign of this scale, gonna say I'm actually rather positively surprised.

 

For instance, the grey navigation-/searchbar at the top seems a natural fit.

And, to me at least, the color palette is rather easy on the eyes, as it was in the old design.

 

Am I alone in not being able to get over the smartphone-ization trends in CSS design these days?

"It's called convergence! You folks with pc monitors better well enjoy those big buttons! Cause you gonna get bigger fonts on top of that! And lots of empty space too!"

Ah well, there are worse culprits out there (looking at you, Youtube).

 

Rant over. Keep up the good work!

[ScrollTron1c]

In response to post #54937318.

Thandal wrote:

<snip>
Either way this is obviously a paradox, you are giving instructions that can't be fulfilled currently.

 

If a mod author (or any member) chooses to disable PMs, that's her/his choice.

If a mod author chooses to block you from her/his mod, that's her/his choice.

There is no paradox, simply an exercise of choice.

 

You can ask a member of Staff to contact the author in question on your behalf, but authors are under no obligation to explain their choices.

Well you actually just involuntarily confirmed my point, since these combined choices >are< by definition a paradox.
You know these kafkaesque office forms, where form A requires form B which requires form A? The classic impossibility paradox.

Nevertheless i'm not here to spam the thread with arguments, just gonna add that you may want to put some information on the "you are blocked" screen similar to the old site.

[bigd4450]

In response to post #54895693. #54896418, #54898518, #54900213, #54900778, #54901488, #54902628, #54905558, #54916983, #54925898, #54925983, #54926948 are all replies on the same post.

bigd4450 wrote: I felt so uncomfortable with the new Nexus. It just seems to be to "fiddly", push this button to push this button to push this button to find what your looking for. Old way, click here to see more and scroll, click to the next page when you get to the bottom. I'm kind of an old guy and I see the trend all over the place to get more info and more options out in front of "the people". But, that being said, I always tried to live my life the way I was taught, the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. And boy do we seem to be veering away from that idea.

fireundubh wrote: "push this button to push this button to push this button to find what your looking for"

What are you talking about? If anything, the navigation path is actually shorter than the old site.

bigd4450 wrote: What do I mean? Well I go into Skyrim SE want to see what's going on with mods. Well, this page just shows me todays mods. Wait a minute, I can see todays, this weeks, popular (30 days), popular (all time), trending, etc. I just want to see some mods, scroll to the top, okay a drop down, there's mods. What am I looking for, a ton of choices, there it is "Browse all mods". Oh wait, do I want to sort them by time, when they were published, or maybe description, nope, just want to look at some mods, losing interest, too much B.S. going on.

Old way, pull up Skyrim SE, oh, there's recent mods, do I want to see more, sure. Click here to see more, scroll to the bottom, page 2, continue, pretty easy.

I realize that what ever I say here will make no difference what so ever. It's just a trend that I see and really don't like, buttons cluttering up pages, spend more time messing with the buttons, (and half don't work) instead of just going where your trying to go. Just my humble opinion, and opinions are like ----- we've all got one.

Zaldiir wrote: Clicking the "Explore all mods" on the front page gives you the same list that you had in the old design. With the new design, the things that were hidden away are now more visible and easier to use, making life easier for those who want to get more refined results. Life for those who follow the KISS principle remains the same; press a button to see all recent mods, scroll down, page 2, continue.

fireundubh wrote:

Oh wait' date=' do I want to sort them by time, when they were published, or maybe description [...'] too much B.S. going on.

Sounds like a personal problem.

buttons cluttering up pages' date=' spend more time messing with the buttons, (and half don't work)[/quote']
Not really. On the new site, if you click "Mods" or "Browse all mods" at the top, you get a better layout of the old "Files" or "Browse files" page, which, by the way, has a sidebar with a long advanced search form, of which the most used options are now simple dropdowns in the new layout. Talk about buttons...

Compare:

- Browse all mods (New) vs. Browse files (Old)
- Recent activity (New) vs. New recently (Old)
- Top files (New) vs. Top files (Old)
- Mods of the month (New) vs. Files of the month (Old)
- View all images (New) vs. View images (Old)

Anyone objective can plainly see the new layouts are less cluttered, easier to navigate, and easier to read.

axonis wrote:

- Top files (New) vs. Top files (Old)

Anyone objective can plainly see the new layouts are less cluttered, easier to navigate, and easier to read.

Easier to read ?

I can read USSEP's description in the old design, but not so in the new design because most of the text is faded to make way for the image. This mod however, like many other mods, cannot be represented by an image.

fireundubh wrote:

I can read USSEP's description in the old design' date=' but not so in the new design because most of the text is faded to make way for the image.[/quote']
By easier to read, I was referring to the font size. On a 27" monitor at 1920x1080, I shouldn't feel like I have to squint.

And, personally, I don't need a wall of text to determine whether I want to learn more about a mod.

The faded text is a good thing and acts as an "effective" character limit, hopefully encouraging modders to be concise and not include extraneous details.

The fixed-size result tiles also prevent modders from abusing the length of the brief description text to expand the size of their tiles and unfairly draw your attention away from other mods. As a modder, I see this as something that helps level the playing field.

axonis wrote: Comparing a 54-word paragraph to a wall of text is exactly why mod authors have such a serious problem with users who refuse to read instructions.

Not every mod has a graphical function. I'd rather trade that huge thumbnail for text; losing the "oh no, wall of text" users would be a most welcome bonus.

fireundubh wrote:

Comparing a 54-word paragraph to a wall of text is exactly why mod authors have such a serious problem with users who refuse to read instructions.

You do realize who you're talking to, right?

axonis wrote: No I don't and I don't see how this is relevant. There's nothing personal in my argument; I just think that your statement about mod descriptions is wrong and I argued against it.

fireundubh wrote: I am a mod author. I had around 60 mods on the Nexus until I moved over to GitHub last year or the year before then. You don't have to tell me about user reading problems. I fully understand the background of your argument, but I still disagree with you and would prefer even shorter short descriptions.

axonis wrote: Very well we can disagree on that, but asking mod authors to rewrite their descriptions is not simply a redesign but a reorganization. We already have this issue with the mod's background bar which has to be remade but this is acceptable as part of a redesign.

All right, spent the last couple of days giving the new version a chance. Still uncomfortable, though I was able to find the "Explore all Mods" button, thanks Zaldiir, I began to realize why it was so uncomfortable. As I said before. too fiddly, or, too busy. As I pushed my glasses up on my nose and moved my head around trying to take in the whole page, the buttons, the over sized tiles, the smaller tiles that run from edge to edge of the screen, trying to find things that were familiar to me and use them to see what they did, my eyes began to hurt, yep I know "personal problem". With in 5 minutes I began to get quite a headache, again I know, "personal problem". Being an older guy that has to wear glasses to enjoy my computer, and games. I have to move my eyes all over that oversized screen, the tiles, that do remind me of Bethesda rejects, looking for the buttons. Uncomfortable, yeah I know.... But, by reading a lot of the other comments I can see that I'm not the only one that has this problem.

Sorry but I don't understand why does this have to be redesigned for the phone? I've been using Nexus for a few years and at least 90% of the time it's been on my phone with no problems. I go through during the day and find things I'd like to look at later that night when I get home.

Will I still use Nexus? Sure, if I want to still use mods. Will I still spend as much time browsing around the site? No, the headaches suck.

[qwormuli]

After a while of fooling around the new site layout, i'm positively impressed. The better use of screenspace, cleaner look and faster load times of the inlaid material is a definite improvement on the old design(which i still hold close to my heart). But nothing is perfect and this new layout is not one to break that rule.

 

First and foremost, i have always been a bit baffled at the ad space usage in here. The sides went mostly unused, not to mention of all the space under the old files of the month - tab. But the new, THICK, ad bar before the hot mods space is extremely disorienting. The thinner one of the old one didn't get in the way, and could have kept people from activating their adblocks to rid themselves of the obstinate ad masses(me included. I have had this site whitelisted for ages, but have been tempted to remove it from there to help me get rid of the large banners popping up at my face every time i come.). I'd revive the old model, or invent another way to keep the ads from coming in the way of the function of this site. As another idea, one could cut the large background banner from the bottom to save space for other ads.

 

On the layout itself, both the main page and mod pages, have a few places to improve in my opinion. The top buttons next to your account could be made uniform with the rest of the site, either in the way the more mods - subcategories are filed, or in the 'track' and 'endorse' - buttons are used in the mod pages. Do as you will, but at least let the background be clickable, instead of the text only! The search bar is a treat and i'd give a pat on the implementer's back(and possibly a case of beer). The 'hot mods' -section is still a bit unfamiliar, but i believe one can get used to it. However, i did like the zoom and extra info feature of the old design a lot. If i were given free reign on it, i'd reserve the upper part of the section for THE hot mod(instead of the current two) and let the lower mods be zoomed in on that space, when hovered over. Just my ideal situation, with the best of both worlds. On the 'more mods' - section, there are a few (a bit idealistic) suggestions. The 'Most endorsed recently added files' - option in top lists would be a fine addition in the list(my favoured tool for browsing the new mods), or even to replace the lately popular tab. My next gripe is the placement and design of the 'view more'- button. It looks like it should extend the list down, rather than take you to a new page(i'm a sucker for consistency in design, plus, i had to learn the truth the hard way, like many others, i expect). Just moving it to the right would make it more telling.

 

Then onto the mod pages. The Picture slideshow is better, faster and zoomier. Kudos! But There is still a few kinks. Firstly, the 'report bug' - button is in the perfect place to report the fact that it's in the way of the minimize button. Otherwise, it sucks. secondly, why doesn't it minimize the whole shebang? I'd also implement the method of scrolling found in many other viewers, where the right side of the picture scrolls right, the left one left and the middle closes it(ESPECIALLY the last one!). I'd also have the "not everything in my face" - setting as the main one, from which the rest could be maximized. When one clicks a pic, he/she wishes to see the pic and not the interface. Lastly, if you have only two options for the drop-down list, why do you have it? It only works to hide the possible user-submitted pictures. It also seems to have a visual glitch with the bad scaling with two+ digits. I also enjoyed the images in the description, images etc. menu(important, i tell you!). But as you see, mostly small stuff.

 

All of this is just the opinions and findings of a single less than professional man, and is in no way intended to s#*&#33; on the hard work of the creators of this new design. Input or other opinions would be amazing. Also, damn, this ended up long.

[qwormuli]

In response to post #54937318. #54940273 is also a reply to the same post.

Thandal wrote:

<snip>
Either way this is obviously a paradox, you are giving instructions that can't be fulfilled currently.

 

If a mod author (or any member) chooses to disable PMs, that's her/his choice.

If a mod author chooses to block you from her/his mod, that's her/his choice.

There is no paradox, simply an exercise of choice.

 

You can ask a member of Staff to contact the author in question on your behalf, but authors are under no obligation to explain their choices.

ScrollTron1c wrote: Well you actually just involuntarily confirmed my point, since these combined choices >are< by definition a paradox.
You know these kafkaesque office forms, where form A requires form B which requires form A? The classic impossibility paradox.

Nevertheless i'm not here to spam the thread with arguments, just gonna add that you may want to put some information on the "you are blocked" screen similar to the old site.

While i support the right for a mod author to choose his/her customers, Scrolltron1c is right on this one. If you nuke any interaction possibilities from the orbit, one can't even try to resolve anything anymore, and resolving things is how a community is supposed to work.