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NG Modern Redesign

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Heyyy!

Just for fun, I wanted to re-imagine the Newgrounds front page as a more modern-looking website. I tried using principles of responsive web design and F-pattern while also incorporating elements from other websites like Twitch, Itch.io, Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. And I wanted to keep as much of the classic Newgrounds charm as possible. I'll write up a little bit about everything below, so read on if you like.

Starting at the top, I used a lot of the existing NG front page header bar in this design. The Newgrounds logo is lifted straight from the original, propped up next to the ol' tank logo. (A simpler logo would work better here - fellow designer BoMbLu is working on a redesign too and their logo looks pretty sick, I'd be using it here if I'd gotten their express permission first.) Then I used the official(?) Newgrounds font (called Featured Item) to create a very, VERY simple navigation bar for the media categories. I made especially sure to include Writing, since where tf is it now anyway? Anyway. The search bar to the right and the user tools in the top-right are straight from the original.

The sidebar was kinda stolen from other websites (mostly Twitch) but I wanted really badly to keep the Tom Fulp news up in there. To me, having his personal news feed right there in the front page makes NG's community immediately pop out as a special feature that other websites can't quite match. It's super personable and inclusive. Love it. Under that, I put a super Twitch-esque "Followed Creators" section. My idea here is that, as creators you follow publish new stuff, they go to the top of the list - hence the less active users appearing at the bottom. (Any users listed there reading this, please know that no judgement was passed in your place on the list!)

I made a decision not to include P-Bot's Daily stuff here, or anywhere else, because the truth is I personally don't feel that it's too necessary to have. The same goes for a lot of things on the original front page. I wanted to make the page simpler, and redundant content got the axe. If anyone feels differently, I'm willing to have my mind changed.

Above the main section I included my imagined version of a Supporter banner. Click the X and it goes away as long as you're on the page. But then it comes baaaack.

The top of the main section of the page is a public-domain skyline (come on! that old classic NG swag!) and a little card-style ticker that I think is a mix between Twitch and old Hulu. I really like how NG showcases important works and events and makes the page topper the ultimate real-estate, so I felt it was really important to keep something up there. And I'm definitely imagining the orange sky being turned snowy for Christmas, evil for Halloween etc.

The "Featured Movies" and "Featured Games" sections are straight outta Netflix. I went into this really wanting to take content, movies and games especially, out of the really dense grid that they're in now. To me, the grid just makes everything really really hard to read. The Netflix-style rows give everything more room to breathe and lets you explore what's there without getting lost. I deliberately made it so the Games section gets cut off where you're at the top of the page, making you want to scroll down and see more.

If I'd had more room here I would have included some idea of what Art, Audio and Writing on the front page would look like. Right now I'm imagining Art and Audio to be in a row as well, but square instead of rectangular. Not sure what I'd do for writing. Any ideas?

And that's it! If you have any questions, comments, critiques or complaints I'm here to accept them. I put a lot of thought (too much?) into this and would love to get a little discusison going. Is it impossible that Newgrounds might actually look like this one day?

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Way better than the original, love this design

Wow this looks close to what newgrounds looks like now

Looks great

I actually like this design more tbh. Looks a lot nicer.

oh yeah looks realllll nice. love the font choice too. all up for this new design, very convenient and pleasing to look at

Will responds:

Thanks warestar. Yeah, forgot to mention in the write-up but i find NG's standard Arial(?) pretty hard to look at so took a card out of Itch.io's hand and went full Lato everywhere.

Credits & Info

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Views
1,522
Faves:
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Votes
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Score
4.73 / 5.00

Uploaded
Dec 8, 2018
3:03 AM EST
Category
Other

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