At 9/6/14 04:16 PM, TomFulp wrote: WHAT IF you no longer saw scores on content pages?

I would get misled and pissed off. A lot.

At 9/6/14 04:16 PM, TomFulp wrote:

:As a content owner you could view scores under the project system, and we would still have a content ranking category that ranks by score. The general public wouldn't see it though.

Oh goodie, that means that when I look through the content for some animations and whatnot, I'll have no clue whether or not the submission that I'm about to watch or play is a steaming pile of feces and pulped ape diapers, since I use the score to get an idea on what I'm watching. I can't wait to be subjected to deliberately misleading thumbnails that lead to lazy spam that causes my ears to violently eject blood just because the content creator "happened" to have the sound pumping out to eleven for the lulz. I just love getting ambushed by sheer garbage and malicious crap in the desperate search for something enjoyable that's outside the top 50. I mean, let's just replicate the full Fanfiction.net experience here. Let's go, here we go.

At 9/6/14 04:16 PM, TomFulp wrote:

:This is in response to the general ongoing complaint that people don't link their friends to NG because they are embarrassed by their scores - where they can link to any other site just about and show their content without a score.

I think a better option would be to tell these same people to grow thicker skins. Seriously, pretty much every other video/content website allows you to glean just how good or bad something is. Actually, this logic reminds me of those really fat people who complain about paying extra for things like chairs and clothes and they expect the world to bend around them because of their poor life decision. No seriously; like how a person can stop being fat with effort, a person can get a better score by improving and putting more effort into their work. It's actually even easier than losing weight, since there's other alternatives; don't upload it or just show off their animations to their buds privately.

Oh, and two more things Imma complain about:

1. Why on earth is this getting more of a priority over fixing some of the really annoying quirks in the BBS forums? I ask this because I'm honestly tired of not being able to edit my posts in the event that I mess up the formatting, or want to add more to my initial posts. This is the only forum that I've ever been to that doesn't have that as a feature. It makes communicating annoying.

2. Making it so that only one vote is given on a submission likely means that submissions will now get more easily stuck in Under Judgment, especially with games that involve the Unity engine. Seriously, I've seen those get stuck for days already, so I'd love to see what would happen if it takes unique votes to make a decision on its fate. This decision would necessitate more fixes to counteract that type of scenario, likely by further reducing how many votes would be needed for a decision.

I like a lot of the designs offered but I do agree with something mentioned already. I'm no whizz at code or the costs of potential memory for the idea of having options available, such as personally choosing which layout style we'd like. So I'm not going to complain if it's not ultimately an option, but if doable, I would love there to be that available in the settings down the line as well. Choosing between styles that suits us, while still maintaining all the main functionality needed.

Tom,

The layout that Luis is working on is quite fine and simple. I really like it, the smooth transitions and color coded connections. Definitely the way to go.

There's something about the old site, though... about the whole nut-brown scheme that doesn't really want to run away...

S

:I'm honestly tired of not being able to edit my posts in the event that I mess up the formatting, or want to add more to my initial posts. This is the only forum that I've ever been to that doesn't have that as a feature. It makes communicating annoying.

Oh yeah, being able to edit posts would be useful.

It's fine, but it won't feel like Newgrounds no more, but it's ok, i'l adjust to it like always

At 9/10/14 08:36 AM, Ama wrote: I think NG should just slowly keep improving its layout, instead of massive redesigns every 4 years.

If Newgrounds were to "improve" on this old layout, I promise you, it would be bug-infested.

Hi Tom,

This is what I envisioned with the new purple mockup for user pages, it would be cool and awesome if you could have your own customizable bg, header, etc.

What do you guys think?

At 9/10/14 09:31 AM, Blordow wrote: Hi Tom,

This is what I envisioned with the new purple mockup for user pages, it would be cool and awesome if you could have your own customizable bg, header, etc.

What do you guys think?

Here's a bigger image resolution: http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/ba0a352c95acaf601164fa7e4f4a0ca7

At 9/10/14 01:29 AM, Wiesi wrote: Oh yeah, being able to edit posts would be useful.

Agreed.

At 9/10/14 09:31 AM, Blordow wrote: What do you guys think?

I like it although I still want to minimize our header. I do want user page banners back though. Can you put the full-res version on dump and PM me a link?

At 9/10/14 09:36 AM, Blordow wrote: Here's a bigger image resolution: http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/ba0a352c95acaf601164fa7e4f4a0ca7

Oh cool, nevermind my last reply!

At 9/9/14 02:07 PM, Jin wrote: I think the 2005 layout was the best.

I like your reasonings. I genuinely do.

I would argue, however, that a fresh logo would revitalize Newground's image. I do agree that the 2 bars of buttons could feel less stretched out, but for mobile, it's often not the best course of action. Finally, it seems like the Search function would be hidden far away again, which is counter to what Tom is trying to push forward.

The hamburger menu is very valid criticism, though. Worth keeping in mind it's not the best of solutions.

At 9/10/14 10:47 AM, TomFulp wrote:

At 9/10/14 09:36 AM, Blordow wrote: Here's a bigger image resolution: http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/ba0a352c95acaf601164fa7e4f4a0ca7

Oh cool, nevermind my last reply!

Sweet, also if you think having customization like that is too much to offer for everyone, have it come as a supporter perk or something. Just throwing out random ideas! ha

SORRY THIS IS A TOTALLY CRAPLY MADE MOCKUP.

Don't have much time to spend on this but I wanted to jot my idea down.
It is a nod to the original portal style, while still keeping things modern. I HAVEN'T focused on Design at all, sorry again it looks atrocious, just layout. With an additional layer of filtering for each column, this could work really nicely. e.g: Sort by game, art, etc. Was thinking about having on-the-fly playlists and how we can make the portal feel more interactive. Hence the call for a live feed of new entries. Mystery Panel could be swapped with the awards one, have something cool and new.

I thought it would be nice if users didn't have to visit individual movie pages. I don't know how plausible that is? I imagine the individual pages would be accessible via the title and reviews links. Could get laggy, give them the option. Reviews and additional features could all work in a modal but we don't want lag city or anything too confusing/cluttered.

Caveats and notes:
> This player format cannot work for submissions with multiple authors
> I imagined the Under Judgement Legend would be explained per item, in the hover- popup thing.
> Space to the right of movie title could be used for the Share buttons or Reviews.
> Bottom two panels could be sliders

I might do a revised, tidier and pretty version another time. I dunno. My computer is slow as fuck. It's 5am
If anyone makes an asset PSD at any point let me know. If anyone needs help putting one together I'd be interested.

i think the voting bar would be better on the right side of the screen instead of the bottom and i think it should go up/down not right/left

At 9/11/14 12:13 AM, AcidX wrote: I thought it would be nice if users didn't have to visit individual movie pages.

Nice idea. I love how it moves the spotlight towards the stream of new content by putting a video player right up front. I'm afraid this approach might be counter-intuitive though. The original portal works, because it's a step-by-step process. You pick a video from the list, watch the video and then vote or review. In this case, newcomers might get confused by all the stuff they see at once.

@TomFulp I wish there was a way for users to get a notification when you update your game. Given that most flash games are generally short - people just play it once and then move on. So if the game developer later adds new features or expands on the game, all those users that played it the first time will be missing out.

Kind of makes it not worth updating the game at all after release unless you can manage to do it within the first week but that is usually just bug fixes. Speaking on bug fixes - users may have given the game a low rating due to bugs. Maybe if they were notified that the game received an update for fixing the bugs they could try it again and have the chance to rate it differently.

However, I can see the downside to this feature. Since most projects eventually get lost in the depths on NG as more and more new content is released - creators could just spam updates (possibly false ones) just to get people back to their games and increase their views. Maybe to counter this give users the option to "subscribe" to a game so they can opt in to receive notifications of an update?

What do you think? Could this ever become a reality?

At 9/15/14 12:55 AM, Hero101 wrote: However, I can see the downside to this feature. Since most projects eventually get lost in the depths on NG as more and more new content is released - creators could just spam updates (possibly false ones) just to get people back to their games and increase their views. Maybe to counter this give users the option to "subscribe" to a game so they can opt in to receive notifications of an update?

What do you think? Could this ever become a reality?

These are all things we hope to have - the ability to edit scores and reviews, as well as the ability for fans to get notices when content is updated. If an author uses that feature to spam, fans would unfollow those content updates.

At 9/15/14 10:40 AM, TomFulp wrote:

At 9/15/14 12:55 AM, Hero101 wrote:

These are all things we hope to have - the ability to edit scores and reviews, as well as the ability for fans to get notices when content is updated. If an author uses that feature to spam, fans would unfollow those content updates.

Awesome thanks for the reply! This is something I've really wanted since I started my journey of learning to program games since the start of the year. I'm super stoked to see all of the future changes here on NG. Newgrounds is already so great, but I know that whatever you guys do will only make the experience better :)

These are all things we hope to have - the ability to edit scores and reviews, as well as the ability for fans to get notices when content is updated. If an author uses that feature to spam, fans would unfollow those content updates.

ooh, sweet. I always wanted that feature!

Not exactly layout related, but why do I have to watch ads on my own submissions?

Something somewhat layout related. On the sent message screen,not the Sentbox, but on a individual message, it doesn't appear to say who it was sent to anywhere. I used Ctrl+F and the username didn't appear to be hiding anywhere.

And the emoticon you attach to a news post appears in a really weird spot. Next to the number of comments; Why?

Sorry to triple post. But these were hours apart.

I don't think this was mentioned yet. This is apparently a thing: http://newgroundsmobile.com/

Those damn geek phones.. well aslong as you keep the classic portal available I wont complain too much, ive never had much problems with this layout but I suppose its necessary for NG to adapt with the time (just keep the classic portal!) also will one be able to edit reviews too?

At 9/19/14 11:08 AM, yeahha wrote: Those damn geek phones.. well aslong as you keep the classic portal available I wont complain too much, ive never had much problems with this layout but I suppose its necessary for NG to adapt with the time (just keep the classic portal!) also will one be able to edit reviews too?

Classic Portal will be sticking around and we do intend to let people edit their votes and reviews when that overhaul comes.

Hope it's not too late for feedback...

At 9/5/14 02:05 PM, TomFulp wrote: 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.

I like the idea of an optional drop-down menu. Considering I'm not too fond of the current dropdowns I'm not sure I'd like a slimmed dropdown version much better. It'd still require more clicks than necessary to reach any of the main content sections, though if it's optable there'd be no side-effects! I think I posted in the earlier layout feedback topic, but it still looks great, both this slimmed-down version and the buttoned one.

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.

Would be superuseful if it were possible to narrow down search results when you're looking for something specific but don't know exactly what you want to find, have bandwidth/format restrictions, etc, like being able to filter by for example: submission type (html, flash, mp4, mp3, wav...), size, resolution, year...

I guess with Google that wouldn't be an option though. :/ If it's an improvement on the current search I'm all for it though, I just imagine it could be a lot better.

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.

Looks nice! I imagine 'File Dump' and 'Your File Dump' below it might cause some confusion though, seems to be referring to the same thing. Having both upload screen and listed files on the same page would be ideal IMO, but if not, maybe something like 'FIle Dump' and 'Your Files'?

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.

Sounds good! As for the profile picture opening a menu, how about both: an automatic drop-down with options, but also the ability to simply click the image and be taken to your public profile and/or account overview instead. Would be useful both if dropdowns aren't supported by current browser/device, and as an easy shortcut.

Here's a new mock-up by test-object

Link's gone... :/

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.

Well I posted most of my views earlier on, but in conclusion: I like it! I don't mind the new color scheme either, though as many others I do relate orange to NG so in the long run maybe that is what I'd hope it sticks with. A palette on user accounts where they can choose the base color themselves... wouldn't that be pretty neat? Apart from orange and dark blue/purple, I think green is also a pretty refreshing color. You could have a default that's easy to switch if the entire layout is built up with dynamic gradients, and with opacity maybe the same color could be used even for some different nuances and shades in layout blocks/boxes, minimizing the number of values you'd need for each one.

As for visual identity otherwise, I feel the tank is a big part of it. Hope it sticks around!

At 9/5/14 02:37 PM, TomFulp wrote:

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.

That'd be awesome. :D

At 9/12/14 10:12 PM, Whirlguy wrote: Nice idea. I love how it moves the spotlight towards the stream of new content by putting a video player right up front. I'm afraid this approach might be counter-intuitive though. The original portal works, because it's a step-by-step process. You pick a video from the list, watch the video and then vote or review. In this case, newcomers might get confused by all the stuff they see at once.

Yeah. I put little thought into this, no paper sketch or any planning. I was thinking it would be step-by-step in the sense the player "rolls out". So it could be collapsible. But as you say, this could screw up the flow; people wanting to leave reviews, submissions with lots of credits etc.

I think, more in line with most social media type sites, all the player options should be kept together with the player and the page should follow, making use of the full-width capability. It would also be cool if there was some kind of queuing functionality and focus on accessibility within the movie pages.

Anyway, am sure Luis and the team have great ideas stashed away :)

I know this topic is 4 months dead, but I whipped up a rough header design that uses the elements from the current design, and thought it looked pretty good. The only thing I'd change is to shrink the header buttons even more to make room for the news banner.