People Of Earth: The Giant Bomb Beta Has Gone Wider*

The beta is the shady back alley of Giant Bomb, and it's filled with nefarious people.

Ugh Beta site looks fucking awful. It looks like Gamespot. Gross. Gamespot was my go to site before GB, I still like it, I know its a sister site, but I dont want GB to look like GS :-/ Man thats just depressing. REALLY REALLY depressing....

Everyone knows the Giantbomb beta is really just where all the cool stuff happens.

weird layout is weird. Shiny, though.

@Lava said:

I've been enjoying the beta since it launched. I like the changes and the big images and the new wiki. Great reactive design too. Sticky videos also = awesome. I've also been enjoying watching those side images change from day to day. Always seems to come back to that hardcore duder.

The giant images and "reactive design" make me feel like it was designed under the assumption that I'm mildly retarded and need to be catered to with big shiny shit and fewer words, like your average USA Today reader. I feel bad saying that, because I know Dave and Alex and everyone has been working so hard on it, but . . . being honest about how it strikes me seems more useful than biting my tongue or blowing smoke.

I think the design would be fine, for the "iPad version", but it just doesn't hit home as a "default" presentation, to me.

@joshthebear said:

The beta is the shady back alley of Giant Bomb [...]

Fitting for such an abortion.

(.... What?!... I kid, I kid... :P )

500 error nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Eegh, beta site open for non-premium members? No thank you, yuck!

@Branthog: I went to see it ... I thought it wouldnt go to much over that direction ... yeah it is not that great :( too many big pictures ... too much like a friggin app/magazine , I use a computer not an IPAD !!!! also white background ugh (but I guess they will let you but the black one... right?) Also have they taken out the forum post from the front page like the current site? If so then what a bummer , I mean I like to know what goes on the forums wthout needing to go to a saparate page also I thought they would reintegrate your following duders updates too :( I do like the sticky vids tho

@Aetheldod said:

@Branthog: I went to see it ... I thought it wouldnt go to much over that direction ... yeah it is not that great :( too many big pictures ... too much like a friggin app/magazine , I use a computer not an IPAD !!!! also white background ugh (but I guess they will let you but the black one... right?) Also have they taken out the forum post from the front page like the current site? If so then what a bummer , I mean I like to know what goes on the forums wthout needing to go to a saparate page also I thought they would reintegrate your following duders updates too :( I do like the sticky vids tho

It seems like a lot of content has been wiped off the front page, to accommodate more huge pictures and videos. I interact with the forums almost entirely from the front page and without it, I think the active community will drop significantly. If people have to click on a separate thing to be taken to forum to even get started looking at posts or making them . . . they generally won't. Or maybe that's what they're hoping.

Anyway, I have no idea how close to launch they are. Maybe this is going to be another six months of beta, in which case there's plenty of potential for things to be moved around and added and improved.

I suppose they must have an overall plan that they're following and they should have a lot of resources at hand. This isn't my world anymore, so I'm primarily just commenting as a guy who wants to use the site and doesn't want it to be unappealing or inconvenient to use/search/whatever. That said, I think the current GB interface is far more useful than pretty much any other gaming site I've seen and the new interface (from what I've used of it) seems to be mimicking the other less useful sites.

I'll just have to have a little faith in Dave and Alexis and everyone. They're pretty damn smart. Even if shit doesn't feel quite right immediately, it's sure to evolve over time.

Tear dat beta up.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/do-you-like-the-hot-new-look-for-giant-bomb-dot-com/570468/

I agree with pretty much everything @Branthog has had to say about it. Not a fan =(

@MattyFTM:

:(

@joshthebear said:

The beta is the shady back alley of Giant Bomb, and it's filled with nefarious people.

the kentia hall of giant bomb? :/

Holy awesome. I love the new layout. Seems more professional. I will be diving into it deeper in the time to come but really liking the new layout!

I can't login through Facebook because I'm "not a premium member", and whenever I try to login through my ID/Password I get an Server 500 error. It's been this way since the beta first launched.

Never going back now that all the plebs have been let in.

@Branthog: How odd that a site focusing on video content would want to use a lot of large images to display their content. The site focuses on visual content. It's no surprise they want to make it flashy. I like it. It works just as well as the current site. I can see maybg wanting the latest stories stuff smaller, but that's what the grid view is for.

And, like the current site, I'm sure it'll be the live site soon, and then see some tweaking until everyone's happy.

You want something smaller? CTRL+Mouse Wheel Down. Or scale your windows to take up half a screen, and it drops the front down a bit, makes everything a bit tighter.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

@Branthog: How odd that a site focusing on video content would want to use a lot of large images to display their content. The site focuses on visual content. It's no surprise they want to make it flashy. I like it. It works just as well as the current site. I can see maybg wanting the latest stories stuff smaller, but that's what the grid view is for.

And, like the current site, I'm sure it'll be the live site soon, and then see some tweaking until everyone's happy.

You want something smaller? CTRL+Mouse Wheel Down. Or scale your windows to take up half a screen, and it drops the front down a bit, makes everything a bit tighter.

The beta site isn't design to cope with a change in size dynamically. All you end up with is a smaller presentation of the site in a smaller space. It does nothing to correct the issue of taking up too much space to convey too little information. And while it's a site focused a lot (almost too much, perhaps) on video content, it seems like a real waste to take up literally half the screen on a giant image/video at the top. My display is set to 2560x1600 and half of the full vertical space is the video at the top with links to the three promoted videos beneath it. And then four stories beneath that (three of which are videos). For so much screen real-estate, there really should be a way to pack a hell of a lot more data into it. And, perhaps, offer a button at the top that could switch the mode you want to use, so you could go into a sort of "theater mode" that focuses on consuming the latest video content . . . but that let's you go back to the information-packed version when you're done.

I laid my mark on the beta site. It's not a great one, but it exists.

The beta site login has the option to sign in with Twitter; is that going to be available when it goes live? If so, will it be possible to change my current account over to my twitter login?

Hey, got a question. I used the beta site with my phone, but I can't find a download link for the videos. Can anyone help me out? I usually download the vids and watch them at work. I have bad reception there so streaming is not an option.

I was wondering, with the new site using its own video player, what's going to happen to Youtube videos? I still see YouTube being advertised on the new front page so will premium users still get YouTube videos?

It just says it's only available to subscribers when I try to logon via Facebook. When I type it in it just goes to a blank screen and says check-login/ on the URL.

hey all

if you're having problems logging into the Beta please send me a PM. From the article please provide the following info so I can clear up any issues:

1. Your Giant Bomb user name.
2. Your email address.
3. If you're a user from the old days do you have a central username that is different than your giant bomb username?
4. Is there anything odd about your password (foreign characters, abnormally long...etc) that you think might be causing a problem?
5. Are you using Facebook to login?

thanks!

@Branthog said:

@Jrinswand said:

I tried it out for about 5 minutes and then went back to the current version of the site. The other side is a scary, confusing place.

I want to like it. I've been harsh enough about the direction it's going in another thread, so I won't rehash it here. I think the site needs to change and improve and I'm kind of tired with the design as it is, today. . . . but I just really am not excited by the beta site. I know it has taken a ton of hard work - no doubt about it. I hope it still has enough room to evolve that, by that big day, I see it and think "holy shit, they've really nailed something awesome".

Also, yeah, the content is . . . weird, right now. I kind of just want the normal actual content, so I don't bother with the beta site -- even if I wanted to be a guinea-pig. :)

Yeah now that you pointed it out it does look like that a lot of space is wasted and it appears too big. Zooming out does kinda solve it but you'd still need to scroll down a lot and then there would just be a lot of empty space on both sides at that point as well.

Dang. I thought the title of this thread was "The Giant Bomb Beta has Gene Wilder". 
 
Bummer. Maybe in the next version?

I like the way it looks.

Alright, so here are my thoughts on the new site. Keep in mind that I'm no designer, but I do work in search for a top 10 Ecommerce site. (Probably the one you don't know about, so don't bother guessing - not Amazon or Staples or Walmart.) Anyhow, I think, read and work in this kind of stuff, so I'm not just some Asshole. Ok, I am just some asshole, but I'm not an asshole who thinks he knows web design because he surfs a lot. :)

• THANK YOU for defaulting to a more typical light background. I know the dark background is edgy and all, but it can be really hard on the eyes for a pretty decent segment of the population. Especially if you're talking full on black with bright white text. It's smart that you have given users a toggle to switch to a dark theme, but it's smarter that it's defaulting to dark text on a light background.
• If the two things you want to focus on are video content and searching the site, you're doing it right. I'm guessing those are the two primary goals. I worry that the search box, though large, is bleeding out a bit due to the very large image that's dominating the page above the fold. I'm also not a fan of rounded corners for no apparent reason. Basically everything else on the page is typical boxes, grids and straight lines. Why the rounded corners on the search box? Also, I typically view the site either on my desktop at 1680, or my laptop at 1366. I'll tell you that at 1366 the video content main spot is nearly all I see, I'm only seeing the top half of the other "feature" spots. I might want to squeeze that down a bit.
• I think one of the strengths of GB compared to some other sites is the staff. It's a smaller staff, which feels more intimate (don't get weird on me now!), and probably elicits more loyalty from your fans. I think you could do some things to push that strength in the new layout. How about metadata on your video content that indicates which staffers are in it? Maybe it's already there and I just don't know, but easy ways to search for videos based on who is in them could be nice. Hell, maybe even some fancy combo searches. "I know when Ryan and Dave are in the same video, I'm going to lose my shit. I want more of that!" I also noticed you have some empty space to the right of the video well, how about small staff photos or icons or some kind to indicate who is in that video?
• I wonder about the large image spots you have reserved in the recent releases column. I also wonder if there's a way you could get staff tweets up higher on the page. Again, I think one of your strengths is your staff, moreso than your particular coverage on new releases, use that strength when you can.
• Overall, I think the new site is doing a better job at filling space. The current version has a lot of, well, black space. I feel weird saying that. You just aren't always utilizing space and organizing effectively.
• Are quests gone, or am I just missing it? I know it's fluff, but it's cute fluff that scratches an itch for me here. :)

Anyhow, that's probably more than you need to hear already. I think it's a good direction, maybe a little more "typical" design in some areas, but that's often a good thing. Generally, I'd say find more ways to feature the strength of the GB staff when you can.