We’re trying out a new look for the blog in the wake of yesterday’s horrific events. I’m still adjusting the top banner image, but what do you guys think of the overall look and functionality? I’m getting comments like “it looks cleaner” and “it’s easier to read”. I think I agree. It’s been three years of the same look and part of me feels like I’m empty inside, but that could be simply my natural resistance to change.  Below I’ve outlined some of the big differences:
New Theme
- Fixed Width
- Built-in Networking buttons
- Nested Comments (indent and reply to specific ones) (Currently disabled)
- Gravatar functionality (images next to your name when you comment, signup at Gravatar)
Old Theme
- Width expands to your resolution
- Comments read like a forum (first to last) without the option to enable nesting.
- Side bar on left
Your thoughts are important to us. After all, it’s what we say that is truly important to us. How it’s presented should be more for our readers than ourselves.  You can vote on our forums and let us know what you think or post here. If enough people are not satisfied with the new theme, I’ll change it back to the original in a heartbeat.
Update:
Alright, here’s what I’ve done (with the help of Kemwer a few topics down).
- Comment font size increased. Should be more readable.
- Content area increased to utilize more space when writing.
- Side bar decreased to be just big enough for the things we want in it.
- Search bar fixed to fit the new size.
- Working social network icons in all topics if you click on them to “read more†or see the comments, in other words it won’t appear on the home page.
We’ll continue to take your feedback and especially your help as we continue to make modifications that will be ideal for all our readers.
Looks good.
I updated the banner. I think I like this one.
I dont like the big menu/bar on the right, takes up too much space.
Previously we had one on the left that was the same size. Is it that the website is a constrained width and you think it’s too big for the width of the site?
I’ve been following you for several years now so while I understand your attachment to the previous look I and love the new one – it’s cleaner and more professional but the indention of replies alone is a big step forward.
Only thing I’d suggest so far is maybe a bit more colour on the right sidebar.
Brought some dark blue in and incorporated a strong white for the sidebar header text to tie the header to the side bar. Better?
I like the new looks, but I find the “inline reply to comments” function a bit tedious. When revisiting your site to check for new comments I’ll have to scroll through it all to see if there’s anything new. How the old one worked makes it a lot easier as I could just scroll to the bottom and check for newer comments.
I agree with you 100%. I’m finding myself missing some comments and feeling like I am spamming a ton by replying to people individually.
Funny how split people are on it.
Update: I just found out that I can disable the nesting! 😛 Like? No? Yes?
The blue in the side bar is a nice color splash. Ties everything together. Easier to look at.
I like the indented comments but Proximo has a point. You do have sort of “read it all again” to see if something new has been posted.
On the topic of GW2 art for your banner (as mentioned in a previous article comment), have you checked their concept art section?
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/concept-art/
I particularly like this one and think it’s great banner material;
http://www.guildwars2.com/global/includes/images/concept-art/guildwars2-16.jpg
They also have a fansite kit you might want to check out. It’s the most extensive kit I’ve seen, not in terms of amount of pics etc but they have PDFs with guids on how to and how not to use it 😛
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/asset-kit/
Really hate fixed-length themes (so much wasted space.) Otherwise…it’s nice and clean and neat.
It is rectilinear-icious! And clean. And I like side bars on the right hand side of things but not on the left, though that might just be my thing.
Now, lovely, a definitive improvement over the old look imo. 🙂
Thumbs up!
Just noticed, there’s no +1 for Google+ on this (no idea if you had it on your old one). Worth keeping at the back of your head.
Yeah the sidebar looks better now 🙂
@Proximo: The Google +1 is now integrated at the bottom of every post as long as you go to the “read more” section so that it’s directly at that post and not the homepage. Let me know if it works!
Like :
More professional, cleaner appearance
No nested comments.
Dislike:
Oversized sidebar wastes far too much space (still way too big; I would reduce it by ~30%)
The comments text size is smaller than the sidebar text size.
Sorry but I am unsure how to activate my Gravatar to appear on this site (or any for that matter); anu help guys?
nvm, I just needed to set it to a “G” rating and reload the page…
Dislike:
Still no edit function…
(Combined all the comments for you. -Keen)
@Gankatron: I’ll see what I can do about the comment size. I’m still trying to figure out how to shrink the side bar. It’s not any larger than it was on the old look, and from what I can tell it’s the same size as most other fixed width sites, but I’ll still shrink it some (if I can figure it out).
If you swap between our site and sites like Shacknews.com or Massively.com or IGN.com you’ll see it’s fairly uniform. I do agree though that it should be a tad smaller.
Update: Shrunk the sidebar but it messed up the search bar since it takes up a bit too much space so I restored the sidebar to standard size. Still can’t figure out how to make the content area larger (can’t find the right span section). Will fiddle with it tomorrow.
Looks good! I should hack your site more often!
j/k :p
+1 and reposting/sharing works fine. 🙂
Might want to consider a solution that bundles all the “resharing” features in one spot though (either move the twitter,facebook etc to where google is or move +1 to the sidebar with the others. Now I’m just being picky though. 🙂
Still waiting for that GW2 presence in the banner…. 😉 😛
I’ll be implementing the sharing features all together this afternoon.
I’ll cut to the problems.
The new header is unimpressive. It looked better with some characters separated from the box. Now it’s your average 1096th blog header.
The sidebar is too wide (yes, that’s important). Also you may want to put the controls on the left side since usability research shows that users notice the stuff on the top-left way more (this is because of the way we read top-down and left-right).
Posts are missing the author name. There are two of you so probably it would make sense to add that back.
Text side should be larger in the comments (have mercy on us IT people!). It appears smaller even than posts’ text.
And there’s this obvious problem of not being able to edit comments. You could have that at least for verified users.
Thumbs down on the GW2 presence in the banner. No need for that clutter.
I like the new look, it looks great. Also, I’m not a fan of nested comments and very much prefer how you have it now with sequential comments
Shoo Bartlebe!
I think the fixed width is too narrow. Peoples names overlap the date, and the banner covers button text.
Cheers
@Fumbles: I’m not seeing any names overlap. What resolution and browser are you using? Perhaps try a refresh.
@Skyve: I am not a graphic artist, but I don’t think the new header looks bad. Maybe we can hold a contest and give the winner a prize for the best header design or something.
Unfortunately, unless someone gives me the code I need, I do not have the technical expertise to make the header appear differently or move the bar to the left as they pertains to the theme’s layout. I did not make this theme, thus any changes I make to it are done experimentally.
General Changes:
– Sidebar is shrunk. Better?
– Sharing options are removed from the right sidebar.
– Post author has been added at the top of each entry.
Working on:
– Fixing Search input bar
– Increasing Comment Text
– Adding Sharing options to the bottom of posts.
Sorry to say, I don’t like the new site near as much as the old one. The new one looks sort of generic and I thought the old look had more personality to it.
Not to say it isn’t good work and grats on getting your new site up, I just don’t like the new look as much as I did the previous look.
Don’t like the fixed width; sometimes I end up needing a fairly narrow browser window and the fixed width becomes rather difficult to read. Also, the side-bar does seem rather large.
Otherwise, looks good. Definitely preferring the side-bar on the right side.
I am running my browser on 150% zoom, on a a high res widescreen LCD and it is gtg for me! The only remaining thing I would want changed was also a problem in the old version, the lack of an edit function. Good job man!
@Keen: not seeing it now, thought you changed something =)
Maybe it loaded bad for me, I would still like to see an increase to the comments width, but if I’m in the minority I can live with it.
Well the sidebar is now smaller than every other website out there that I have seen with a side bar. The content area is the same size or bigger.
Websites with similar looks:
Shacknews.com
Massively.com
Ign.com
Look at their side bars and ours is tiny by comparison.
I updated the header to be more attractive. The characters on the side now pop out (Dota 2 on the left and Prime on the right with a Diablo 3 background).
Still need to work on:
– Search bar, getting it to fit in the smaller sidebar.
– Comment font size made larger.
I appreciate all of the feedback guys. I wish it could be unanimous that everyone loves or hates it. We seem to be about 80% liking the new theme. Keep the feedback coming and I’ll work on getting as close to ‘ideal’ as possible.
Welcome to 2011! 😉
Love the new look.
@Nedral: Lol, yeah I got a lot of crap for the old look being “stone age” or “something from the 90’s”. I thought it was charming. 😛
I like it. Clean.
I’m liking it, I think the new look is better than the old one. 🙂
Sidebar width is good imo. Overall i like the new site better, it’s cleaner and less stoneage 😛
Also comments section looks far better now. I’d love to see a edit button, maybe with a hour or two deadline for edits, just so u can correct any errors but not entirely remove your post a day later cos you suddenly found out you made an ass out of yourself 😛 (not aimed at anyone in particular!)
Alright, here’s what I’ve done (with the help of Kemwer a few topics down).
We’ll continue to take your feedback and especially your help as we continue to make modifications that will be ideal for all our readers.
Looking good, but I liked the old banner more.
Yeah, I liked how the characters could flow down the left. It was accomplished by editing a really old theme (took me like a month to do since I suck at CSS/php) and replacing images/adjusting sizes. I’m not sure it’s possible with this theme, nor would it make sense given the fixed width style.
If anyone knows how, I’ll give you e-hugs if you tell me.