For the past few years we've been watching the web evolve around mobile and have been planning for NG's ultimate evolution as well.

In addition to a layout that can function well on mobile, we have received very well-informed feedback about the importance of slimming down the NG header for maximum content visibility in traditional browsers. The current layout may compete too much with the content, which is the most important part of NG.

Check out this rough slim header concept.

Artists, UI designers and NG fans, I'd love any feedback and mockups you want to make in response to this. Please read the notes below:

1) The top left has a menu button, increasingly common in modern design for both mobile and web. This would be how our menu is accessed via mobile but is it going too far for web browsers? Are we hiding our awesome content categories and requiring too many clicks? There are trade-offs we could make; for example, users could have the option to PIN a persistent nav under the header. We could also include the nav on any page that is "owned" by NG, such as the front page and individual hubs, whereas content pages and user pages are owned by the individual user and we wouldn't compete with them for attention.

2) The search bar would expand based on screen width, becoming a search button on mobile. We would go back to a unified search, this time powered by Google since our search will never be as good as a Google search of NG.

3) The Upload button is a BIG ONE. In the current design, the header has buttons for Dumping Grounds and the Project System; most people don't have a clue what those buttons are. The upload button would open this menu, providing users with more clear options as well as educating them about the files we accept (many animators and devs still think we are SWF-exclusive). Note: This could be prettier looking.

4) The notifications (exclamation point vs star) is to the right of uploads. This will let you know when you have new interactions and will also be your link to your feed.

5) Next is your PM notifications.

6) Far right is your profile, which could show your user icon like we currently do. The big question here is whether we have one-click profile access like we do now, or if we have this button open a mini menu, like many sites do. The options on this menu would be PROFILE, SETTINGS, EARNINGS and LOG OUT. There are people that don't know they can click the gear to check their earnings, so this might be more clear.

7) Would we still have a 728x90 banner ad under the site header? In a perfect world, not on content and user pages. This could happen if the balance of everything else covers costs and it would be pretty exciting.

For further reference material here is the layout Luis was working on and an example of how it would collapse on mobile.

Here's a new mock-up by test-object that has the menu button anchored to the bottom left, with a fun pop-out menu. We do have other categories that would need to be addressed and the anchoring is non-traditional but looking at it gets the gears turning.

Soak it in and let us know what you think! Mock-ups are fun to look at and even weird ones can inspire great ideas. This is also a good opportunity to pitch your color preferences and other aspects of NG's future visual identity.

Cant wait to see the final product!

It's great that Newgrounds is finally evolving into mobile form as well :)
I'm sorry, but I don't have any feedback to give at this time. I think the template looks pretty fine, but I was never one for web design. I don't know exactly what I want either, which is always an issue when it comes to judging whether something is good or not. Let's hope other people can come up with some better critique. Good luck with this! :D

Looks slick. I'm one of the people who worry about NG losing some of its charm if it gets too streamlined, but the Tankman icon is a step in the right direction. I think that's your biggest challenge is making it very mobile friendly while keeping the "NG aura" around. I really do fear having this site lose its personality to be "modern". I have faith in you, though.

What are the plans for streamlining the BBS? Is that too far ahead into the future? I'd be curious to see what changes would be made on that front if any...

At 9/5/14 02:19 PM, ZJ wrote: What are the plans for streamlining the BBS? Is that too far ahead into the future? I'd be curious to see what changes would be made on that front if any...

For mobile, the BBS would be single column with larger font sizes. The user icon / name / post date would be the divider line between posts. Should be much easier to read through a thread.

I still can't say I'm much of a fan of the dark blueish colour scheme over the warmer orange one. A choice between what colour scheme you want while logged on would be a nice detail then you could go with both and other ones you decide on pulling up like the pink one and the snow one and all that stuff or make new ones in their place. Pretty much treat it like the user aura with the colour you want to use but be a personal thing to the user if it would work out fine doing so.

The combined upload thing does seem useful, but at the same time usally when I find myself uploading art or flash etc. I would naturally go into that section of the current header. It is good to have the tab there that combines them but at the same time you may find something else that could need its own tab as well. But submitting stuff is important so maybe it would have a psychological effect to see it mentioning submitting without needing to hover over a tab to see that you can submit stuff.

I like the simplified header concept. Just make sure you don't get rid of the classic portal.

I actually want to suggest something. It would be great if you could CHOOSE between the lay-outs so everyone could choose the lay-out they prefer. Hell it would even be cool if we could have a button which could switch from "PC design" to "Mobile design" in terms of lay-out. Another thing i wanna suggest is the color on the background lay-out you made Tommy,would be cool if i could change it in multiple colors as i'm not a fan of this color blue. Oh,and ofcourse some NG user-made designs would also be neat.

Great to know you guys inform us about this stuff rather than to just implement it without ever asking anyone whenever they like it or not. Amirite Google with your new and "great" G+ intergration?

Another thing I'm wondering:

What's the timeline on all of these changes? Are you showing us this because it's how the website is going to look in a year? Two years?

Are we looking towards having another major "Redesign" day where the website is going to shut down for several hours and come back up looking completely different? Or is this going to be more of a gradual process where "Hey the bbs is now in its mobile state!" and then the portal, user pages, etc. will follow?

It's just interesting to me that on paper it sounds like we're kicking THIS design to the curb so quickly.

It's funny that you post this Tom, I had a dream about Newgrounds a few months back and what I seen was very futuristic version of Newgrounds that it will be so much to code and animated. The mock up is not bad, but I feel it's a step back from what Newgrounds is now, I vision a more Tron design feeling. What I seen in my dream was the site was done in DHTML, HTML 5, Java and so on, the site was broken into sections but was running all pages at once where the user will simply click on an arrow or a link to a page and the current page they viewing will animated to the left or the right. Almost like the front page of Xbox 360, but the pages will just shrink slight left or right; The content of the pages will change on the fly like CSS, I also say that you should also add the Respond Moods into the review box when movies, games, art, music are being review underjudgment. Other than that, good luck!

At 9/5/14 02:30 PM, ZJ wrote: What's the timeline on all of these changes? Are you showing us this because it's how the website is going to look in a year? Two years?

We want to keep it as incremental and painless as possible this time around. The first step would likely be the navbar, after that we would begin tackling individual pages one by one. The trick will be maintaining visual consistency throughout the gradual changes.

any chance to bring the user pages custom banners back?

I feel like the slim header concept would only work well for mobile, whereas the layout Luis was working on would work well for both web browser and mobile

At 9/5/14 02:35 PM, LoboF wrote: any chance to bring the user pages custom banners back?

Yes that's the plan. Right now we have a weird system where you upload two user icons... I'm personally in love with how our Twitter page looks so that would be the biggest inspiration for user page headers.

Oh and BTW Tom,is there ever a chance to bring back the old voting system you had back in...2003 i believe? I don't know the exact year when you replaced it but it's in the Newgrounds Wiki somewhere. Would be great if that could come back.

Would also be great if in the future my subscribers would actually would get a notice when their favourite artist has made a new Newspost.

Now that the layout is being changed, I want to mention that I think a link to the rules should be implemented somewhere in the layout when a user clicks the upload button. As an audio moderator, I mainly speak for the audio guidelines, which require a very convoluted set of clicks to access. You've got to go to Community > Wiki, click Help & Information, collapse Terms of Use and find Audio Guidelines. It's almost the exact same process for any other kind of submission rules, and even as someone who's supposed to enforce these rules I had trouble finding them until I got used to where I needed to go.

Anyway, while I love the flashy textures of the current site, I agree that the new layout so far looks a lot cleaner. What would be cool in the future is if an actual Newgrounds mobile app is made, which looks like the mobile version of the site but integrates with your phone's notifications, so when you get a new review, comment, forum post/review/blog response, etc, you'll get notified on your phone, similar to what Facebook and SoundCloud have - a mobile version and then a similar-looking app which uses phone notifications.

Just a thought. Looks great thus far!

At 9/5/14 02:21 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 9/5/14 02:19 PM, ZJ wrote: What are the plans for streamlining the BBS? Is that too far ahead into the future? I'd be curious to see what changes would be made on that front if any...

For mobile, the BBS would be single column with larger font sizes. The user icon / name / post date would be the divider line between posts. Should be much easier to read through a thread.

Really glad to hear this. Having tiny font like in the picture below on my mobile makes it really annoying to read the BBS haha.

I'd hate to suggest that we just litter it with buttons but I feel that there should be some kind of distinctive links to the individual portals that are always visible. With the latest redesign the portal seems to be getting less attention due to its reduced prominence.

Other than that, I like it.

At 9/5/14 02:05 PM, TomFulp wrote: Check out this rough slim header concept.

It looks like an April Fools Day joke.

At 9/5/14 03:00 PM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: as long as it doesnt effect the PC Version, BTW once again NG is years behind on current trends.

As it is, most webpages aren't that sophisticated, and don't utilize the horsepower and memory of modern PC's/portables (the ads sure do though). But I agree, keeping the PC/mainstream version as is would help. Will there be a button to switch versions, or do the pocket rockets know what to display? I'd like a button, just to see how the other half's living...

Damn you're a cynical bastard for your age! We're behind, because tanks are slower!
It's still a mutha fuckin tank yo NG 4 lyfe!!1

Lots of ideas/comments from this guy!

First off, I'm not a fan of the purple theme; orange has been THE NG color for so long it's like a tradition now. I could go on for pages and pages about the artistic side of the redesign, so I'll just talk about technical stuff for now.

The menu that's accessed in the top left is perfectly fine for mobile, and it's a solution that's actually used by a number of other sites ( Facebook is just the first of many that come to mind). However, that's going way too far for web browsers. The idea to pin a persistent nav sounds ok, and it's always nice to give people options, but I personally probably wouldn't use it, but other people may like that.

The search bar sounds fine to me! It was nice being able to search things individually by catagory, but there'll be the ability to refine your search, right?

I'm cool with the upload button. That also reminded me about the project system, actually: would art be integrated into the project system the way Movies, Games, and Audio currently are? I think it'd be really helpful to be able to manage your art in the same way you can manage those other uploads now.

For profile settings, I'd be fine with either setting you mentioned. I might actually be leaning towards the latter, in which clicking brings up profile, settings, etc. (off topic, but didn't really deserve its own mini-paragraph: Go for the 728x90 banner, it was never too distracting.)

As for Luis' mockups, first thing I noticed is that on mobile, being able to expand/contract areas like Movies or Games is a good idea. Again, I won't go into the artistic side of things yet, and this is probably just OCD talking, but it's nothing short of silly to have the rounded user icons while the icons for audio become square. Yeah, I know it's meant to display
an album, but...a single song isn't an album. Ok, so you could argue that it's a single cover, but I still think having the artwork as though it were on a CD as it is in the current design and in the last design looked really good (hey, maybe the album-esque icon in the mockup could actually be used if someone wanted to upload an album as a playlist? Hmmm...)

Oh, one more quick little question, now that I was thinking of large-scale uploads: would the Lit/Writing Portal come around this redesign (in fact, did you decide on calling it Lit or Writing yet?)? And if so, would users have the ability to upload large scale works, such as novels, or would they be more restricted to short stories or poems?

At 9/5/14 03:16 PM, VicariousE wrote:

At 9/5/14 03:00 PM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: as long as it doesnt effect the PC Version, BTW once again NG is years behind on current trends.

As it is, most webpages aren't that sophisticated, and don't utilize the horsepower and memory of modern PC's/portables (the ads sure do though). But I agree, keeping the PC/mainstream version as is would help. Will there be a button to switch versions, or do the pocket rockets know what to display? I'd like a button, just to see how the other half's living...

Some browsers have a user agent option, where you can change it to desktop so all the websites think you're on a regular PC.

I think the biggest problem I had when the site launched its redesign was how busy it looked along with doing away with the direct link to the portal and simply replacing it with the "classic" portal which really hurt movies that were under judgement. Its great to see that the next redesign will be aiming for a far more simplistic look.

It actually does look pretty rad, but hopefully it's just for mobile. A similar thing (Luis' is nice) would be great for computrons, since the site's best feature (the Classic Portal) already feels like it's hidden. NG had a lot of features that other people are barely keeping up with, but the last redesign buried some of the coolest parts

also, that star up top that apparently nobody liked let me see my favorites' newest cartoons and games from any page, now I have to click my feed, then favorite artists, then movies, then games. The current feed drop-down has news and blog replies (you know, the reason I come to newgrounds. Not flash.)

tl;dr simplifying is cool but please don't prune features

At 9/5/14 02:48 PM, dutchiscool wrote: Oh and BTW Tom,is there ever a chance to bring back the old voting system you had back in...2003 i believe? I don't know the exact year when you replaced it but it's in the Newgrounds Wiki somewhere. Would be great if that could come back.

Would also be great if in the future my subscribers would actually would get a notice when their favourite artist has made a new Newspost.

What was different with the old voting system that you miss - the voting animation and the blam and save animations?

Your blog posts do show up in the feeds of your subscribers, they just don't currently show up on the front page mini-feed.

Please don't forget the orange and black Tom.

Hey Tom, could you please explain to me how the voting system works. Every time I vote on an animation or game or whatever other than 5, it gets negative points towards its score. Now, I don't know if this is just me or not, but could you possibly make the voting system more balanced this time around? Like, giving a 3 would still be positive points to an animation's overall score, but not as much as say a 4 or 5 and vice versa.

in terms of what feature that should be added, I would say a way to minimise the screen of a movie or game when reducing the window size.

If I can be 100% honest, I was never a big fan of this current design. As much as I can appreciate all the detail of the layout. It seems every button has some kind of texture to it. I think it takes a lot of focus off the content on the site. The layout feels more of a piece of art on its own, in my brain its competition with the content on the site. It took me a while to take in all the details of the layout, so much to the point where I was focusing on it more than the content when first exposed to it.

Simplifying the buttons, and using flat colors really pops the content. Right away I realize I was focusing a lot more on the content. I'm also not a huge fan of the detailed backgrounds, but that might just be me. I like things to be very simple. They are nice pieces of art, just personally not something I'd want to see on a site layout. Only reason being its a distraction from the content for me. But, its not a big deal.

A big upload button is actually a brilliant idea, its very welcoming to people that don't know anything about this site. Its huge open arms to people that want to put themselves out there.

Something I think might benefit in user retention is accounts have the option to default to their following feed rather than the front page. I know that could harm the power of the front page, so a system like that would take a bit of creativity to not only give users a feed, but also promote content. The front page can't be updated so often that people are basically guaranteed new content all day/night. A system like that can also be very beneficial to the artists that put out content regularly, if users are exposed to their favorite artists as soon as they visit the site, the artist will also see a spike in user activity.
User feeds make the site feel like its as much theirs as it is yours.

Following artists is a huge reason people use websites like this. I think its a main reason people revisit multiple times a day. I visit my Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube almost every hour. No offence, but Newgrounds maybe gets a visit 1 to 3 times a day. The reason I think I visit those sites more often is that its satisfying to see new content every time I visit those sites without fail. I think presenting volume will keep people here longer. People have control over how much and how little volume they receive by how many artists they follow.

A lot of artists use Tumblr, reason is they can push content a lot more efficiently to their audience. Efficient audience activity is the key to attracting fresh blood to this website. We all know that like artists hearing from fans instantly.

Also reviews, I know I mention reviews a lot. But I think some kinda of comment system would really be useful to users that might be afraid to attach a rating to their thoughts. I think it can discourage people from saying something, and also I feel some artists take points way too seriously. I know comment system's get really messy, but I really believe in having an alternative to reviews.

Just a few things to consider, website design in recent years have really turned into a psychology practice. Its all about having the least amount of loops as possible to get to the good stuff. A nanosecond could be the difference from a new user to a one time visit. Its all about shaving off as much navigation time as possible.

I really like the simple layout, keep moving that structure!

I love the slim design, that said, I also love being able to dig through all the archives and stuff. A lot of what I enjoy about NG is content I find that was made 6 years ago, etc. I'd hate to lose that ability to easily dig through the back issues.

At 9/5/14 04:13 PM, Jaltoid wrote: If I can be 100% honest, I was never a big fan of this current design. As much as I can appreciate all the detail of the layout. It seems every button has some kind of texture to it. I think it takes a lot of focus off the content on the site. The layout feels more of a piece of art on its own, in my brain its competition with the content on the site.

I agree that our layout is definitely putting up too much competition for the content. I think about someone who wants to share a movie or game, and maybe they don't LIKE the art that is on their view page, they would rather their friend go to a page on another site that doesn't have that art, and doesn't have the overdone header. It's a page about THEIR MOVIE or THEIR GAME, not about how awesome the host site is.

Also reviews, I know I mention reviews a lot. But I think some kinda of comment system would really be useful to users that might be afraid to attach a rating to their thoughts. I think it can discourage people from saying something, and also I feel some artists take points way too seriously. I know comment system's get really messy, but I really believe in having an alternative to reviews.

This is our current plan - when we switch to one vote per account and make that vote unified with your review score, we'll then allow you to write a review that doesn't show a score. If you vote, that score will be visible, if you don't vote, it won't. The plan is to also let you edit your vote and review, so you can adjust when a game fixes bugs or you realized you didn't give something a fair shake.

I really like the simple layout, keep moving that structure!

Hope we can pull it off!