Verizon Customers, Grey Site

[TomFulp]

Are you browsing on Verizon FIOS? Notice that NG content loads really slow in the afternoon? There's apparently some sort of peering issue between Cogent (our bandwidth provider) and Verizon. Not sure when it will be fixed but I sure hope they fix it soon or else I'll have to switch back to Comcast!

Totally different topic... If you aren't a supporter (or a supporter who isn't logged in), you may have noticed some pages on the site (ie game pages) are using a grey layout like the store. Do you prefer the site this way? Been pondering stripping the colors out of the page elements and just going with grey - it seems to make the content pop. During the redesign, Wade used to complain that the front page looked like someone took a shit on it and Rob used to say we should style the entire site with the store colorscheme... Were they right? Is it time for a change?

This came up due to some quirks with our CSS that made it difficult to run dynamic skins while retaining a variety of page layout colors, because it's all wound up so tight at the moment.

[poxpower]

Finally a redesign! lol

[Sundownx]

hmm yeah i think i prefer it better when nothing is distracting you from the content... plus user content is what newgrounds is all about.

[MrDaemon]

At 5/29/13 05:22 PM, TomFulp wrote:
Totally different topic... If you aren't a supporter (or a supporter who isn't logged in), you may have noticed some pages on the site (ie game pages) are using a grey layout like the store. Do you prefer the site this way? Been pondering stripping the colors out of the page elements and just going with grey - it seems to make the content pop. During the redesign, Wade used to complain that the front page looked like someone took a shit on it and Rob used to say we should style the entire site with the store colorscheme... Were they right? Is it time for a change?

I think it's just a matter of preference, so you should definitely tally up everyone's opinion in the thread and go with what is popular. Personally, I prefer the store color-scheme as well, less is more I guess is a way to sum up how I feel. Feels more professional, like Newgrounds is a handsome young gentlemen prowled upon by desperate cougars.

[Step]

I prefer having it coloured. I like how colour-coded everything is; music-related stuff is green, game-related stuff is blue, movie-related stuff is red, art-related stuff is pink, etc. This even reflects in our auras and in the colour schemes of the backgrounds. So yeah I think it looks awesome the way it is and beats having everything grey.

[TomFulp]

At 5/29/13 05:48 PM, EJR wrote: I'm all for gray pods site-wide (except the actual portal pages - i think they should remain colorful) but I like the colorful backgrounds regardless of what page you're on.

When you say the actual portal pages - do you mean the hub pages, like when you click GAMES in the nav? Or do you also mean the view pages for the individual content?

[squidly]

To be honest, the issue with the redesign mostly falls with the crapload of new buttons and general disorganization of everything.

When we had a portal, it was easier to see everything at once.

I think there were so many ideas in this redisign that not enough thought was put into how to actually display it, and the result is 7 options per "tab."

Next redesign should simply make the important buttons larger and the site layout in general less busy.

[Cyberdevil]

Gray and orange everything, just like the old days? :P I wouldn't mind at all!

[WarSyndicate]

If it was possible to set up something where I can select which NG layout I want to view, I'd love to view the site in some legacy layouts. (my favorite being the late 2002/early 2003 or the Early 2005 layout).

[MrDaemon]

At 5/29/13 06:05 PM, WarSyndicate wrote: If it was possible to set up something where I can select which NG layout I want to view, I'd love to view the site in some legacy layouts. (my favorite being the late 2002/early 2003 or the Early 2005 layout).

You might be on to something grand. How difficult would it be to allow the user to select the style of layout from their settings? Offering options such as NG Classic, (pre-2007 design) NG Reloaded (2007-2012) or current NG with both color schemes available would satisfy everyone I'm sure, although it's also probably too much unnecessary work and a huge time sink when you could be focusing on other projects.

[Viper]

At 5/29/13 05:22 PM, TomFulp wrote: Totally different topic... If you aren't a supporter (or a supporter who isn't logged in), you may have noticed some pages on the site (ie game pages) are using a grey layout like the store. Do you prefer the site this way? Been pondering stripping the colors out of the page elements and just going with grey - it seems to make the content pop. During the redesign, Wade used to complain that the front page looked like someone took a shit on it and Rob used to say we should style the entire site with the store colorscheme... Were they right? Is it time for a change?

I'm somewhat indifferent to it. But I will admit it does make whatever you're viewing at the moment stand out a bit more.
Though if you change the color scheme I think it'd be better (to me personally) if instead of completely changing all the colors (or whatever you're planning on doing with it) you made them a darker shade of whatever color they already are or something. So it doesn't all look the same with it being grey.
But whatever, it's your site you get to do what you want with it.

[MSGhero]

At 5/29/13 06:20 PM, MikeyS9607 wrote: It would be a pain in the arse to code that's for sure. Different designs have different amounts of CSS elements (Or in the case of a lot of the pre-2007 designs, are held together by tables)

Luis wants more tables.

I like the grey.

[Luwano]

The more I think about the idea, the more I like it. The navigation will keep the colors, right? Cause it should.

[deletedTAMyStudios]

Removing the colors makes the content pop, but it also makes the site look really boring and the extra padding/margins around elements seem pointless.

I don't think Newgrounds needs to have the typical slick/modern, tile-based layout as every other site but I really hope someone at NG has time to just play around and prototype this stuff.

UX/UI is the #1 priority of a site which already has content-related stuff going for it. Not saying it should receive the most time invested into it, but there should be a day a week, or a few hours every now and then where someone sits down and talks about/prototypes new layouts or sections + the themes.

With modern web tools, that stuff isn't really hard.

I'm not sure how difficult the site would be to modify to adapt it to layout changes. I recommend just making something work and then learning, over time, the best way to refactor difficult code. Sometimes, rewriting very small portions at a time and using new code, slowly fading out old code (ex: replacing only one instance of old code, rather than all similar instances and seeing how that works) is all you can do.

[SpikeVallentine]

At 5/29/13 05:22 PM, TomFulp wrote: Do you prefer the site this way? Been pondering stripping the colors out of the page elements and just going with grey - it seems to make the content pop. During the redesign, Wade used to complain that the front page looked like someone took a shit on it and Rob used to say we should style the entire site with the store colorscheme... Were they right? Is it time for a change?

This came up due to some quirks with our CSS that made it difficult to run dynamic skins while retaining a variety of page layout colors, because it's all wound up so tight at the moment.

I think maybe the store scheme would be nice. So all pages are unified instead of every page trying to be something on their own.

[DieterTheuns]

I would very much enjoy a slicker look, but if you're gonna go grey, go much lighter than the shop. The dark grey gets really depressing, especially when surrounded by the black. That shit doesn't entice me to keep on looking.

Also, at the risk of sounding like an Apple representative; get rid of the billions upon billions of textures. There's so much visual references everywhere it's near impossible to focus. I've tried a small experiment and a common user who's not familiar with NG does not know what to click. It might just be too overwhelming.

[Tanadrine-Studios]

If you're asking strictly from an aesthetics standpoint, I have no problem with the design of the site as is. As another user posted, I too like how things are color-coded... you can always tell where you are simply by the color of things. This is especially important in differentiating flash movies and games.

There are some weakpoints in the area of maximizing usability as already mentioned... it is some shitton of work getting a layout that conveys the most info without concealing it while still maintaining asthetics!

Also, I am convinced that "shit" is the word of the month. Yay!

[Tanadrine-Studios]

Oh, and one other thing:

The featured content area is mostly useless.

1) It is not clear to a new or even existing user whether the buttons take you to a new page or not.

2) It doesn't tell you what is being displayed. Am I looking at games? Movies? Channels? There is no indicator here. I'm more of a movie guy than a gamer on NG, so that constitutes most of my appeal factor.

3) I've noted the content at the bottom bar can be quite static at times.

[seanjames]

I prefer the grey. Tying the color to the nav while in a section is nice, but I'm not sure many people use it to mentally anchor where they are in the site at any given time. When you pull out that color, the content does stand out better but it also feels more like the old NG that was largely dark colors and orange, which I like.

There's enough to draw your eye and I don't think the headers and other minor elements need to compete by being styled with a color.

[RydiaLockheart]

Is it just FiOS users? I'm on a non-FiOS Verizon connection and it works OK for me anytime of the day.

[Mexal]

As long as it's not white.

[deathink]

I think this is the first time I have looked around Newgrounds while signed out since you created the the support feature. The site looks much better if you are a supporter!

[BrentHeMan]

At 5/29/13 08:20 PM, RydiaLockheart wrote: Is it just FiOS users? I'm on a non-FiOS Verizon connection and it works OK for me anytime of the day.

Just Verizon in general as far as we know. Unfortunately, that's what we have at the office and I have at home!

I'm pulling 2 Mbps from the site right now, but in the morning I can pull down 55+Mbps. I can't even stream a movie in 1080p without the player stopping and buffering over and over again.

[VicariousE]

Just... fix (and/or streamline) the bugs, we'll worry about teh drapes after the Summer's over, k?

[LAVAGASM]

At 5/29/13 05:22 PM, TomFulp wrote: Were they right? Is it time for a change?

I think instead of yet another redesign you need to revert back to the old portal and focus on finding and implementing a better way to exhibit user content. It seems to me that a only a core group of people or movies with a certain type of humor are what is displayed. More often than not a lot of movies go under the radar and don't get the recognition they deserve. I'm sure this is infuriating and dispiriting for the content creators. Not only that, but when only certain types of movies are the only ones being showcased, what that leads to is a lack of originality in the content that is created in the future. People want to conform to get the page views.

It seems to me that Newgrounds no longer has the focus that it used to and it's way too complicated and superfluous. This site could really used to be streamlined. Perhaps it's also time to rethink or rework many of the features of Newgrounds. For example, judgement, in my opinion, needs to be retooled, and bad. The site no longer has the popularity it once did, and sometimes flash will sit in judgement for several days before they pass the portal. As the months and years go by, the number of active users are dwindling and while your site is surely an impressive achievement in coding, it really has lost its accessibility and mass appeal.

[LAVAGASM]

I also want to say, that the amount and way user content is exhibited needs to be expanded. There is plenty out there to do so.

[feircedeity64]

Yes! Everything New! Everything Clean!!

[sweet21]

Aha! So the slow content loading has been answered! Hallelujah! Now the problem can be resolved, but at least now I know its not a problem on my end.

[Luis]

i like the madness theme site

[sweet21]

Why not go with orange universally? Orange and black have always been Newgrounds's color scheme. Black and grey just feels boring.