I really like the change. Everything looks so slick. Like a reboot of a retro game from the early days of video games. Something that stays true to the original formula, but expresses it in new ways.
Thanks Giant Bomb and Whiskey Media. I appreciate your hard work.
I gotta say, duders... not digging the new homepage. I think this is an example of something just being OVER-engineered.
I suppose it could take some getting used to, but I'm just not a fan. It's too big. Not enough information is displayed without scrolling down. It just feels like, where once the site was very economical with its space, it's just the opposite right now. I'm looking at ComicVine.com right now, and can't help but favor it.
Also, is it just me or are the thread titles in the Forum list now all bold? Used to be only Sticky topics were bold, having everything bold looks kinda weird :/
Bring back the followed members blog updates, now I have to click like 3 times to check if there is anything new instead of pressing F5
This. I want my window of status and blog updates, because that was how I knew what was going on. The Friends stream is cool, but it's a little chaotic.
They have already noted that the stream is currently of everyone, which is a bug: it should just be your friends. They have also said that they are still working on having some kind of blog section on the homepage, but that's still in the works.
The problem is that even if it's just people you follow, if you can't scroll the thing then one person's status updates or forum posts could make you unable to keep up with anyone else you're following. Now I'll be too nervous to post in bulk for fear of driving someone important off of someone else's stream. I like the idea, and I want it to stay, but it's not implemented very well for anyone who follows more than a handful of users.
Also, did they do anything significant to the video player? It apparently hates me now and wants to load everything at dial-up speeds.
Also it would be nice if other browsers could actually, you know, browse the website.
I know it's built with Firefox in mind, maybe there's another. I have a friend who uses Opera and literally, hasn't been able to access anything other than text articles on your guys' website. He can't even send any text support issues on the forum to complain or get help on this.
It just seems kind of silly to devote time to only a couple web browsers, that's all.
@Soap: Have always found the white format to be too bright and harsh on the eyes, but with this new redesign I have to agree its looking good, real good.
Although I not sure how to change colour schemes without not being logged in.
what's with the weird inconsistency with the drop shadows? and what the hell's with that weird crooked drop shadow behind the "features games" images? Are they going to update the hover over for the horizontal updated grid of games? the one where you hover over it and you get black text on a white background.
Alot of the features they've added, coming up on giant bomb, community showcase, Friend's stream (interesting if yer into cyber stalkin people), Live stream directly on the home page, they're all cool new features but graphically it's kinda hideous and the monstrous headlining video feels real intrusive to me.
one thing i'm bummed that they didn't update is the forum update list. I should be able to swap between general forum updates and my favorite forum updates.
All in all, i don't care that it's ugly. As long as i don't miss out on any updates, and it remains as functional as before, i'll get use to it.
After checking an archived version of the old home page, I declare the new one to be bullshit. Any benefit brought by the new design is negated by the huge font size and unnecessary video player sitting above the fold. It leaves me with no desire to look at the front page all.
@whatisdelicious: If you have already seen the quick look it should no longer appear. You should get something new. If not then well we are working on it.
Back in a sec guys that are seeing a 500. Also the annoyance with the clickable links and the bombcast should be fixed in a bit. I'm fixing the top header promo area showing non-subscriber stuff now.
Also, the constant pleading for memberships is disgusting.
You're getting that too? I just assumed I was seeing that because I'm a monthly, not a yearly. Only non-members should see that. I'm already a paying customer. What more do you want from me?
Only nobody should see it, ideally. It's annoying. Thanks to some kind of bug, even yearly subscribers can see the constant subscription nagging and get pissed off by it.
So that's my take on getting rid of some of this extra space. It's really rough because it was 2 minutes in Photoshop, but here's what I did: I did a general tightening up of space. I moved the social stuff from under the video and moved it to the right since there was a huge chunk of unused space there. I moved the controls for the four story blocks out, with the thought being that they should be below the blocks to use the space better and to avoid confusion; the first time I saw the controls, I thought they were for the big video.
Also, if you look at the front page now, notice that there are two separate things telling you that there are 135 comments on the Dirt 3 Quick Look. Unnecessary.
I really don't like it. Way too much blank space and everything feels like it's just floating there. I need some grids or lines or something dammit! It wouldn't be as bad if the video player was larger...
This is my only real issue as I love the update's aesthetic. Everything looks sleek as fuck, it's just too spread out. This is especially apparent if you try zooming out in your browser (Ctrl -). It's also compounded by the chunky oversized fonts. I like the way the fonts look, they are just too big.
Here's an example I just threw together drawing attention to all the empty space:
And a very rough example of how reducing these gaps could make the site much more streamlined and concise:
Which is vastly preferable, personally.
There's also a lot of whitespace around the forward/back control. I thought moving it up would help, but it looks like that area under the video would be too busy if they did that.
Can we maybe have an option to turn off smoothing, unless i'm missing something on my end, please? It looks flashy and all, but i don't feel i'm stepping on all-knowing toes by saying that legibility and readability are a top priority, above appearance - the new font look is harder to read, and takes more time to scan over. It doesn't have the clarity of the smooth-less font the site used before. Sorry if this has already been said - i haven't got time to read the whole thread, and i have a 500 error on the home page so i can't see the new look.
Also it would be nice if other browsers could actually, you know, browse the website. I know it's built with Firefox in mind, maybe there's another.
If it's any consolation it looks like shit in Firefox 3.0 as well, which is the only browser I have access to aside from some awesome text-only browsers.
I really don't like it. Way too much blank space and everything feels like it's just floating there. I need some grids or lines or something dammit! It wouldn't be as bad if the video player was larger...
This is my only real issue as I love the update's aesthetic. Everything looks sleek as fuck, it's just too spread out. This is especially apparent if you try zooming out in your browser (Ctrl -). It's also compounded by the chunky oversized fonts. I like the way the fonts look, they are just too big.
Here's an example I just threw together drawing attention to all the empty space:
And a very rough example of how reducing these gaps could make the site much more streamlined and concise:
I really really love the new design. Everything is bigger and feels much more dynamic. The fact that Whiskey Media constantly keeps their sites looking fresh is one of my favorite things about the company.
It looks kind of terrible, it's a lot slower than the old version, and videos work even worse on Opera than they did before, somehow. Even the "Tap backspace" trick hardly works, because there's a shitty pop up message informing you that "Something unfortunate" occurred and the video can't be played. Of course it did! That's why I'm trying to click backspace now, and it would have worked if you hadn't fucked the whole thing up, message!
Can we maybe have an option to turn off smoothing, unless i'm missing something on my end, please? It looks flashy and all, but i don't feel i'm stepping on all-knowing toes by saying that legibility and readability are a top priority, above appearance - the new font look is harder to read, and takes more time to scan over. It doesn't have the clarity of the smooth-less font the site used before. Sorry if this has already been said - i haven't got time to read the whole thread, and i have a 500 error on the home page so i can't see the new look.
Smoothing? I'm gonna blame your browser for that, or the fonts installed on your computer. I really don't see any difference there.
Yep I agree with the negative space, It's a good point. The other thing I noticed is that it is a little difficult to read the text of the stories now. I'm not sure if it's my browser or what (Chrome on Mac).
One other thing that I really miss is seeing friends and staff's feed/twitter on the homepage. I always loved reading updates from the regulars. :(
Other than that amazing work. It's a fantastic redesign, I think it just needs a few tweaks.
@HandsomeDevil: According to Jeff's Formspring, they're getting a new Bombcast season image coming up soon.
As for the new design, aesthetically I like it - it's clean and sleek and showcases more of what I visit GiantBomb for, only problem are the things people have already brought up, namely too much free space, needs some structure with grids and borders, and some of the fonts need to be less chunky. Also, the site is pretty broken on my tiny netbook resolution - I think it's a valid concern especially when the older site loaded fine. I coooullld zoom out on Chrome....
It looks kind of terrible, it's a lot slower than the old version, and videos work even worse on Opera than they did before, somehow. Even the "Tap backspace" trick hardly works, because there's a shitty pop up message informing you that "Something unfortunate" occurred and the video can't be played. Of course it did! That's why I'm trying to click backspace now, and it would have worked if you hadn't fucked the whole thing up, message!
The slow part is large in part to the site being hammered right now. Relax...
Even the "Tap backspace" trick hardly works, because there's a shitty pop up message informing you that "Something unfortunate" occurred and the video can't be played.
You know what's really annoying? Having some page open for several minutes, eventually leaving it, and when I do so I'm told that some promo was unable to load. And that's not even a new thing!
And it's not at all unusual that I'm leaving a page before something has loaded. I obviously don't need it any more, so I don't need to be alerted of it as if it was an error.
So in case you guys want to know what things will look like once the Coming Up section is filled in, it will look more like this.
Personally I really don't want to tighten things too excessively. Items need some breathing space! That being said things are getting massaged over the next few days. Thanks for the feedback and support.
I really don't like it. Way too much blank space and everything feels like it's just floating there. I need some grids or lines or something dammit! It wouldn't be as bad if the video player was larger...
This is my only real issue as I love the update's aesthetic. Everything looks sleek as fuck, it's just too spread out. This is especially apparent if you try zooming out in your browser (Ctrl -). It's also compounded by the chunky oversized fonts. I like the way the fonts look, they are just too big.
Here's an example I just threw together drawing attention to all the empty space:
And a very rough example of how reducing these gaps could make the site much more streamlined and concise:
Which is vastly preferable, personally.
There's also a lot of whitespace around the forward/back control. I thought moving it up would help, but it looks like that area under the video would be too busy if they did that.
If you think that's bad switch to grid view on the news update bar and then look underneath the forum updates...yeesh, thats a lot of empty space. they could at least expand the number of forum updates shown when the news is in grid view.
At first I thought it was just me that zoomed in on my browser, but this is just too overwhelming. Everything is blown up(Get it? GiantBOMB, blown up?). The Latest Stories section and the four slides look out of proportion with the main video on the front page. In my opinion, you should just ditch the big main thing on the front page and bring back the original layout because there is already a bunch of squares that report the same stuff. First GameSpot, now you guys? I guess going blind is the new trend ey?
I like it very clean the only suggestion I could make is maybe a tab where featured games is to Show whats coming out in stores That week and latest reviews
Looks great, it's actually tempted me to convert to white as well, as it looks amazing in white!
Where is that again? I'm curious.
Hover over your user name at the top right and click the white A. White has been my default for a while now, just switched back to black to check it out but white is toooons better.
Also just noticed the download option for videos are available for non-members on the homepage but not the video page.
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