New Homepage (Official Dev Feedback) - updated 4/5/09

[gracewar7]

We've been busy working on a homepage redesign (this is the first page you see when you log in) and wanted to get your feedback on it. For some background, here are some of the issues we wanted to address:
1) We wanted to make the homepage less busy and less ad-like by streamlining the layout
2) We wanted to feature more community/user-generated content on the top half of the page to reflect Gaia's identity as a community site
3) We wanted to make the page more useful to new users by building a central module that can display different content to new users vs. existing users

So here's what we came up with:

What do you think? What do you like or not like about it? Do you feel it meets the goals that we set out to achieve?

We would love to hear from you. We're fairly close to our first release, but we will be listening to you and making tweaks to the design as we go forward.

Thank you for your thoughts!
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4/3/09 update: Thanks for the valuable feedback! I was excited to hear that for the most part most of you felt the new design was more organized and streamlined. I wanted to answer your questions:

- You asked how Featured Avatar works. This will not be pulled from Arena winners, but will be selected by Gaia staff. Yes, we were concerned about abuse as well - for that reason, this content will be refreshed very frequently so no one person gets spotlighted for too long. Also, users will be contacted before being featured, so they can always decline. This module will switch between avatars, cars and aquariums.

- You asked about the Spotlight module and the difference between that and What's Hot. What's Hot will contain news about site features, new items, events and the like. Spotlight will essentially work like Community Spotlight does today, and feature user/community content. (Sorry, I realize the mock did not convey this exactly)

- You asked how Popular Items works. Gaia staff will be taking into account the top items sold in Gold and Cash shops as well as top traded items in the Marketplace when making this selection. We felt that this would represent the pulse of what items the community cares about.

- Finally, some of you were disappointed that Friends are no longer on the homepage as you like to see who's online. I definitely hear that and will try to see what we can do about that. I don't think it will make it back in quite the same way, but perhaps there is another way we can address that.

Thanks again! Keep the comments coming...
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4/5/09 - Announcement released! Please click on the link below to see it.

New homepage is coming soon!

[xShawtyZx]

xShawtyZx = 77Zak --- It's been pointed out that I need to tell people this XD

I like it 3nodding I think it looks a lot more organized than the current homepage. The Featured Avatar part looks neat. And the popular topics part definitely makes the site look more community-based- good job on fulfilling that part. I'm looking forward for its release ^_^

Sorry for the sudden change guys ^_^;;

[Slick Southpaw]

It's a lot more streamlined which I reallllly appreciate. My question is on the featured avatar. All I see is one slot. Is this going to randomly change to top winners from both categories or what? If it is static, I'm hoping that there will be another slot for both sections of the avi arena.

EDIT: under the popular items, which I'm not that all thrilled about because I don't care whats "popular" unless I'm selling, but are the icons going to match the item names? Because of right now you have the following pairings:
teddy bear-hammau
holy gauntlet-box bundle
monthly letter- Captain Ara's nestegg
fresh green skirt-wizard's wand
dandiwhatchamacallit- zomg ring called bump.


Now if you're trying to do a double column list...that's pretty damn confusing. It would look nicer if you just had items from each category: CS, evolving item, monthly item, gold shop, zomg, ect and had the icon match the words.

[moresugarthanspice]

Well you know, it's colorful. It's not got idiot teen MySpace models. It rather represents Gaia fairly well. I like it. Don't love it but hey, not all the new homepages will match the awesomeness of the BIG RED BUTTON.

[Kara Darkholm]

It's very streamlined, and still gives the color that users were asking for, as well as bringing the featured avatar back. I like it.

One thing, leave the username off of the featured avatar. People will abuse the poor spotlighted person.

[Kara Darkholm]

Slick Southpaw

It's a lot more streamlined which I reallllly appreciate. My question is on the featured avatar. All I see is one slot. Is this going to randomly change to top winners from both categories or what? If it is static, I'm hoping that there will be another slot for both sections of the avi arena.

from what i heard that's not going to be an arena winner. It's going to be someone the devs like, is all.

[DJ LAZA]

Not bad.... Less crowded and more organized. I hate when there's too much stuff on a page. Good job wink

[diet otaku]

aesthetically, it looks good, but i do have a few issues:
1) the "what's hot" wording. too reminiscient of paris hilton. something like "breaking news" or "latest updates" would be more appropriate for gaia
2) "keeping the lights on" is extremely tacky. if you're going to have a section highlighting sponsors, don't remind us that you've got bills to pay. just call it "recent sponsors" or something.
3) the items thing should just highlight random items, not popular items, for reasons which have already been stated.

[Erebea revius]

I'll copy what I put in Fin's journal:

I see no problem with using 'what's hot' as from the images you can see it is referring to Gaia features (EIs/zOMG/Aquarium fish) it looks nothing more than announcing what is new. Keep it!

That aside, popular threads and items is redundant and as waste of space. You can already get that from the Community main page and from the marketplace, we don't need to see it twice.

When such a feature was considered for the new avatar dress up page, the idea of a recommended items was shot down and ultimately left out - same applies here. I think more people will be happier not to see it, rather than to see it.

Also isn't the 'keeping the lights on' just the same as the announcement box right next to it? Don't need to be told twice about the same things really!

The friends box should be returned to the home page.

To be honest I'm not hugely impressed, while it is a little less cluttered than the current home page, it doesn't seem as useful as the one we have already.

[Sleep Isabella]

I really like how it looks, but the announcement box looks a bit odd in the corner there. I think it's a bit out of place.

[Morizu]

Eh, it's okay, I guess. Sure, it's pretty on the eyes... but, why does it have to be all about "money, money, money!"? That's what it screams to me when you guys are advertising things like Evolving Items as a large portion of the homepage.

It flows together better, I guess. I'm really indiffirent to it. I don't like it, nor do I hate it. I just wish Gaia would stop focusing on slamming the Cash Shop and everything dealing with "CASH LOL CASH CASH MONEY MONEY!!" in our faces.