New RPGWatch site design

Do yout think we need a new design?

  • No, keep it as it is

    Votes: 80 61.1%
  • Oh yes, I'll show you...

    Votes: 26 19.8%
  • I want Little Ponies

    Votes: 11 8.4%
  • I don't care

    Votes: 14 10.7%

  • Total voters
    131

Myrthos

Cave Canem
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Just imagine you would have a voice in defining what RPGWatch will look like in the future.
Would you want it to change? If yes, let us know in what way youe would want it to change? Can you provide examples of sites on the web that you think would have a better fit for the Watch?

We are a news site, which obviously means there is and remains quite some text to show, so that potential new look should cater for it.

And I know we should change the logo, so just changing that does not count as a new design :)
 
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I want Little Ponies - that's the option I ticked.

No, I don't want it, but there is no more appropriate option.
What I actually want is the site not buggering me to install tapatalk every single time I access it through phone or tablet.

Other than that, I'm too used to the current design. It's functional and that's what matters to me.
 
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Well…. have a look at these three views from my laptop:

https://imgur.com/a/9Gzuw

The first one is RPGWatch. About half of the space is wasted, which is pretty bad IMO.
The second one is the Codex - kind of the opposite problem, it is too crammed. Also, no images to make it less wall-of-text-like.
The third one is IMO the best - less wasted space, but still clear. One prominent story, a couple other highlights at the top. What it lacks is a smallish list overview of recent news like the watch has in the top left.

I like the mix of an image and a short description. The watch has that, but you gotta scroll down for it - not something I ever do, I just look at the titles and then might or might not click to get to the longer description.
So what I'd do is probably just make the current design use more max width and re-arrange the elements to have both the small news title list and the larger variant with image and text snippet visible on first sight without scrolling.

I don't give a **** about how it all looks on mobile, personally.
 
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I suspect this is not going to be a popular point on this forum, but the fact this site isn't mobile responsive really dates it. Bootstrap has been around for a while now (as well as other frameworks), and it's not hard to implement.
 
If we are making a new design it would be a responsive design.
 
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What I actually want is the site not buggering me to install tapatalk every single time I access it through phone or tablet.
That is a thing yes. I think I just disabled that message, but the documentation is not very clear on it. Let's see if it is still shown.
 
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I like the way it is but I'm usually on my desktop. If you have something better for my phone then that would be cool also.
 
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So can we atleast expect pop up adds and flashing images? In addition I think it would be quite cool if a short video would start playing everytime when the front page is loaded. Like a small video message from Myrthos welcoming the visitor to the rpg watch.. :biggrin:
 
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I'm old and change frightens me!

But really I just like it the way it is.

I live out in the woods and am still stuck with dial-up and also don't own a smartphone...so the fact that it loads relatively fast compared to more flashy image heavy sites is a huge plus for me.

I'd still come here pretty much daily even if it took forever to load...but it'd be nice if it didn't.
 
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Please don't chnage layout. I like the way it is! However I am all for back end speeds up etc.
 
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What I actually want is the site not buggering me to install tapatalk every single time I access it through phone or tablet.

I definitely think the site should stop buggering Joxer. I don't think it's good for him.

To be serious, if it were me, I'd be tempted to do a major overhaul using a more modern platform. But, in practice, the nature of change means it would likely upset more people than it pleased, and I find the site pretty functional as it is.
 
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I like this current design, the other two sites I visit on the web have stupid pictures that flash up and around all over on the screen, for no apparent reason. This design is nice and doesn't make my eyes bleed.
 
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The site seems fine as it is. The one change you might consider is to add a button at the bottom of the main page saying "Load more news stories..."
 
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u know whats cool to implement? the rpgcodex emoticons , so we expand on brofisting
 
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If we are making a new design it would be a responsive design.

If this is code for a mobile "friendly" site with gigantic buttons all over the place, lots of wasted space, and tons of scrolling to accommodate it all, please no. Nexusmods is in the process of doing this as well and I can tell you I won't be visiting much after it goes live. The same would be true for RPGWatch.

This new era of flat design is a plague. It looks and functions like utter shit on anything but a 4" screen. It feels like going back 20 years in terms of web design.
 
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If this is code for a mobile "friendly" site with gigantic buttons all over the place, lots of wasted space, and tons of scrolling to accommodate it all, please no. Nexusmods is in the process of doing this as well and I can tell you I won't be visiting much after it goes live. The same would be true for RPGWatch.

This new era of flat design is a plague. It looks and functions like utter shit on anything but a 4" screen. It feels like going back 20 years in terms of web design.

Unfortunately, responsive design does often go hand in hand with a more mobile-focused aesthetic. There's no need for this to be the case though, and if were implemented well, it just means that more content would be displayed as the screen gets larger. On a site like this, it could be done really well.
 
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I voted yes, but only because I'd like it to work on mobile phones where I read most of my gaming news. Otherwise, it can stay as it is.
 
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Well…. have a look at these three views from my laptop:

https://imgur.com/a/9Gzuw

The first one is RPGWatch. About half of the space is wasted, which is pretty bad IMO.
The second one is the Codex - kind of the opposite problem, it is too crammed. Also, no images to make it less wall-of-text-like.
The third one is IMO the best - less wasted space, but still clear. One prominent story, a couple other highlights at the top. What it lacks is a smallish list overview of recent news like the watch has in the top left.

The Codex has a "fixed width" skin too. It won't spread to the edges of your screen if you select that.

[edit]

I voted "yes" because the site looks dated. Especially the color scheme and "busy-ness" in general.
 
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