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

[Andromeda Phoenix]

I've a horrible headache, so excuse me if I get a bit rude.

Where in the world are people getting the "It looks less cluttered and more organized." More organized...a little, but damn is that page crowded. Looks more like the homepage to the BBC News or some other news website than the homepage to a Avatar forum community page.

Why do we need to see the popular items on the homepage? Can we keep that to marketplace page please? That's just unecessary. It makes more sense to throw a "newest items" list on there, like other sites do. Just as unecessary, but makes a lot more sense. We can easily see what items are popular just from browsing the forums.

And from what I see on the picture...the "Keeping the lights on" list = The "featured" list underneath the announcement pane. There are things you guys should repeat on the same page. This isn't one of them. Can we say spam?

I like the "popular topics" list. That'll get people introduced to more forums...but wasn't that on the Community page. Can we quit with the uneeded repetition please? Keep what was originally listed on the homepage on the homepage. Nothing new really needs to be added. You guys are thinking of taking off me seeing which friends are online easier for things that were more easily accessible on other pages? *headdesk*

I can deal with the design of the page, despite how cluttered it is. Just take off all that uneeded...stuff. Put something like a "most popular features" list or something more logical on the page. That entire bottom row on the left panel is completely unecessary. You've essentially replaced "outside advertisement spam", with "site advertisement" spam. sweatdrop Change is only good when you change it right guys.

Now if you excuse me, I've a date with two advil. X_X

[Honto-kun]

I still don't like it though I agree it is better than the current one.
1. Why should we look only at "popular stuff"? I prefer not popular, but NEW things to know what is going on, happens and appears.
2. A homepage for me is "My Gaia" where I can see new journal entries, information about my friends, what they are doing and who is online.
3. This page could be more personalized in a lot of ways. I could select what blocks of data to show (ads consume 60% of space and not removable, ok), choose interests to filter forum topics and items that would be useful for me (maybe even watching the price of things I selected earlier as graphs).
3. I think no one would look at or click at some text blocks with no decorations under the huge picture: everything that goes after the Spotlight section. Only 30% of people will see it and only 10% will really use. Swapping image and text parts is not a solution, so I don't know a way out.

[BenjaminBriggs]

Overall I like it, it's colorful and I like the aspect that a lot of features will revolve, but one thing caught my eye - the "less advertising". I'm all for having less ads sitting on a page, but I hope this is the result of picking up a better ad company and not because Gaia's going to depend more on cash shop sales. biggrin

[Esprz]

If you can bring back the friends feature but instead have only the friends that are online pictured that would be swell. Seeing who's offline at the moment is kind of useless. The page is pretty good though with that exception.

[Darc Eon]

Repost from another thread that I think belongs here:


The ability to choose your own homepage has been asked for since (believe it or not) `05. So its not a new idea. I would love a mix of the old with the functionality of the new. So many sites think we want a facebook clone; if we did we would go there.

In Gaia's case I think they're not sure which direction they're going. And the result is an odd mix. Some sleek grays (kinda bland) mixed with flat purples. The rest is either sponsorships or self advertising images. There's just nothing that ties it all together. I think they need to sort out the My Gaia page as well. It's all just not quite there.

There's always potential.

@The SuperGa: You took the words right out of my brain. It lacks the friendlyness it had. It's not about whats on the front page, its more about the presentation. I think we've all seen quite enough rounded rectangles, hows about more ART less LAYOUT.

[Aumid]

i like the main idea of the new layout. trying to make it more organized is a very good idea. although i must agree with the other when they suggest you place "New" stuff instead of "Popular" ones. aside from that i like how you designed the home page. biggrin

[iTruffles]

i like it the way it is.
I never want to change it, i'm used to this way period.

[cezix]

I have to say that I'm one of the "YES!" for once biggrin
I like the cleaned up look of the page, and hopefully it'll be userfriendly and a LOT of the css code bugs and wrongs would hopefully be cleaned up (at least that's my hopes for this new launch).
So I for one am looking forward to it!

[epc-cy]

It's great! Modern, tidier and easier to see what's happening.

[Breakability]

I love it! I think you guys did a great job <3

[Lexenos the Knight]

♂

HOLY s**t YES. I love it, guys! Fantastic job!

20/m/fairytale romance land

[ReaperEX]

It does look alot better yes, but since it's been updated I've been getting errors whenever I collect my Daily Chance or just visit a page.
The page gets all screwed up and the menu bar appears at the top, the site goes blank and I can only see white and purple... It might be just my browser, I hope it is.

Dunno if this is the right place for that or not, but hey, it's on topic!

[bahnhof zoo]

» Ugh. I really don't like it.
It's boring and plain, and it doesn't look as good as the old one.
I liked it having a lot of stuff on it. Isn't that what a home page is for?
And the only thing I'll use on the new home page is the Announcements. Who cares about all the popular stuff?
I used a lot of the stuff on the old home page. I loved how it looked before.

Why didn't you ask us if we wanted it changed before you even started designing a new one??
Why don't you guys fix and other things that we want fixed and added, instead of changing something that doesn't need changed?

[DJ Eclipse]

I don't particularly like it. Friends need to come back somehow (which I do see you've addressed) but its got too much content that doesn't appeal to people. Popular items, featured avatar, that stuff. I say make it more customizable if that is possible. So I could put up the items I care about or popular topics from a certain forum or something like that. I do like the color though. It seems more useless and not really less crowded. I'll definitely be using the my gaia page instead of the homepage from now on. There's nothing on the home page I care about anymore.

[Chema]

The rollover for the button on the main showcase area is a little hard to read (when hovered over). Maybe make the text a bit darker?