Ive never seen this before? What is it supposed to be?

I hope it's the new GameDev front page.

Looks promising and makes the current design look very 90s by comparison.

I'm an op and I approve.

Anything, just anything haha, the current design isnt terrible or anything, it just seems like its time for an update.

I'm an op and I approve.

It looks good. I'm a bit wary about what extra plug-ins and code you need for the tabbed pages - I don't know what technology you're using, but you'd need to look out for incompatibility issues. Plus it does seem a little picture heavy; I don't know how long it would take to load, and given I was browsing without images a couple of years back I'm wondering how usable it would be.

Other than that, it looks good. I'd need to see a mock-up full page to make a more qualified opinion.

It looks nice, but I think I'll reserve my comments for mock-ups of pages I'll use more often, such as articles and forums.

Though I do have to ask, will the new layout support themes? I gots to have my classic black...

Ive never seen this before? What is it supposed to be?

It's a possible (okay, probable) direction for the new home page.


t looks good. I'm a bit wary about what extra plug-ins and code you need for the tabbed pages - I don't know what technology you're using, but you'd need to look out for incompatibility issues.

XHTML, CSS, JavaScript (with AJAX/JSON for dynamic elements like the new polls widget). The page will be designed to degrade gracefully in the absence of JavaScript. CSS2.1 will be a baseline requirement.


Plus it does seem a little picture heavy; I don't know how long it would take to load, and given I was browsing without images a couple of years back I'm wondering how usable it would be.

I aim to provide a stock image-free theme as a user-selectable option.


Other than that, it looks good. I'd need to see a mock-up full page to make a more qualified opinion.

I'm going to continue updating this journal with revisions until I've mocked up all major proposed pages.


It looks nice, but I think I'll reserve my comments for mock-ups of pages I'll use more often, such as articles and forums.

Coming... eventually [smile]. We're planning a staggered rollout, so I'm going to focus on the non-user areas (no forums, no control panel, no private messages) first.


Though I do have to ask, will the new layout support themes? I gots to have my classic black...

Yes, it will support themes. In fact, we hope to have a user themes directory, which GDNet+ users can submit to (subject to review and approval) and all users can select from.

It's so-so. Has potential. If you're looking to change the overall color scheme then we'll have to talk as a group.

Too media heavy. Web 2.0/3.0/whateveritis isn't so much about media as it is about function and connectivity. See Facebook, Google's toolset, CNN, CodeProject, etc.

The front page needs news and "gamedev network" (the social stuff) updates, similar to Facebook's "Home" page when you login. Articles and IOTD's are an extension of that.

Quote:Original post by Khawk
It's so-so. Has potential. If you're looking to change the overall color scheme then we'll have to talk as a group.

No, the colors are simply used for blocking. For now; we'll have that discussion about colors eventually.

Quote:Too media heavy. Web 2.0/3.0/whateveritis isn't so much about media as it is about function and connectivity. See Facebook, Google's toolset, CNN, CodeProject, etc.

When you say it's too media heavy, are you saying that the images are too large and occupy too prominent of a space, or that they will consume too much bandwidth? I don't think of GameDev as at all similar to Facebook, CNN or any Google page in function, and the homepage of CodeProject is not something to emulate - it's completely unnavigable.

More fundamentally, though, the intention is to make the page configurable. That means this is the variant seen by a non-member logging in. I've spoken to a few people who are somewhat interested in games (eg modding The Sims 2) but unfamiliar with GameDev, and they find it confusing and unwelcoming. I think it's important to balance an interface for our "expert" (familiar) users with one that eases our novices in.

Quote:The front page needs news and "gamedev network" (the social stuff) updates, similar to Facebook's "Home" page when you login. Articles and IOTD's are an extension of that.

I don't know. We've been discussing having a specific user "Home" page on GDNet, too - consider it a huge upgrade to our current "Control Panel" area - where you'd get all your social networking news. With widgets, you can put some of that stuff on the site-wide homepage as well, but I still think that the default homepage should emphasize community-wide information (IotD, Recent Threads, Polls) rather than user-specific content, especially because there'll be little of that when the page first launches.

In any case, that's very valuable insight and I'll make some adjustments as I prepare the next mockup.