Jakobo
(?)Community Member
Offline
- Posted: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:49:42 +0000
Hi Everyone!
We're burning the midnight oil right now getting ready for the site redesign launch. The goal is to launch the new site at 10 AM Pacific Time (6PM GMT) assuming no major problems arise. As with any new feature, there's going to be some good and some bad, so like always, we welcome people's thoughts in the Site Feedback Forum, and specifically in this thread: dedicated to the redesign feedback.
Some very important points need to be addressed though:
Profiles: You will notice that the profile system looks slightly off. This is because minimum integration was done at this stage, as we prepare to launch Profiles 2.0 (now in a semi-public test). We actually had a crazy idea of launching it the day after the site redesign, but we figured that would probably do bad things to the servers. As a result, we'll have Profiles 2.0 up pretty soon.
Towns Update: Okay... this didn't happen. sweatdrop The towns update we announced at Fanime is almost ready! It's going through some stress-testing to make sure we don't break the site when it goes live. Soon, we'll all be shaking trees for money. biggrin
And moving on to some things you might notice about the redesign:
More "White": Based on the feedback from the previous site redesign in December, this design has a lot more whitespace, and is a lot more open. The paint splashes give the site a worn feel, and the overall look is a bit cleaner than before. Also, the logo has become a bit more orange in color to compliment the colors.
Landing Pages: Over the past 3 years, Gaia has grown to be not just Forums, but Forums+. Plus guilds, plus journals, plus profiles, plus houses, avatars, arenas, and art. The landing pages under My Gaia, Community, Games, World, and Contribute provide an overview of the content areas, and help bring our members forward with pieces such as the Featured Spotlight and Winner's Circle. We're going to keep these rotating pretty regularly, so there's always going to be something interesting.
A-Z Index: At the bottom of most pages, you'll find the A to Z index. When we changed up the design, a few things moved in the navigation. For example, Shopping was moved under the World tab. If you can't find something, this is the easiest place to look. Everything on the site is listed, and you can even jump to the Full A-Z Index and pull up forums, map names, store names, and more.
New User Tour: New to Gaia? Awesome! Old to Gaia, you might want to check this out too! The New User Tour is a great way to explore and see what Gaia is about. For simply wandering over to the tour, you get the new Starter Sets. Free items that go beyond the Peasant Set! (And old users can pick up their starter sets for free too.)
---
Thanks everyone for all your support! It's been a crazy past 3 months working out all the bugs, and I hope you'll enjoy the new things coming to the site. I look forward to everyone's comments both good and bad in the dedicated redesign feedback thread.
We're burning the midnight oil right now getting ready for the site redesign launch. The goal is to launch the new site at 10 AM Pacific Time (6PM GMT) assuming no major problems arise. As with any new feature, there's going to be some good and some bad, so like always, we welcome people's thoughts in the Site Feedback Forum, and specifically in this thread: dedicated to the redesign feedback.
Some very important points need to be addressed though:
Profiles: You will notice that the profile system looks slightly off. This is because minimum integration was done at this stage, as we prepare to launch Profiles 2.0 (now in a semi-public test). We actually had a crazy idea of launching it the day after the site redesign, but we figured that would probably do bad things to the servers. As a result, we'll have Profiles 2.0 up pretty soon.
Towns Update: Okay... this didn't happen. sweatdrop The towns update we announced at Fanime is almost ready! It's going through some stress-testing to make sure we don't break the site when it goes live. Soon, we'll all be shaking trees for money. biggrin
And moving on to some things you might notice about the redesign:
More "White": Based on the feedback from the previous site redesign in December, this design has a lot more whitespace, and is a lot more open. The paint splashes give the site a worn feel, and the overall look is a bit cleaner than before. Also, the logo has become a bit more orange in color to compliment the colors.
Landing Pages: Over the past 3 years, Gaia has grown to be not just Forums, but Forums+. Plus guilds, plus journals, plus profiles, plus houses, avatars, arenas, and art. The landing pages under My Gaia, Community, Games, World, and Contribute provide an overview of the content areas, and help bring our members forward with pieces such as the Featured Spotlight and Winner's Circle. We're going to keep these rotating pretty regularly, so there's always going to be something interesting.
A-Z Index: At the bottom of most pages, you'll find the A to Z index. When we changed up the design, a few things moved in the navigation. For example, Shopping was moved under the World tab. If you can't find something, this is the easiest place to look. Everything on the site is listed, and you can even jump to the Full A-Z Index and pull up forums, map names, store names, and more.
New User Tour: New to Gaia? Awesome! Old to Gaia, you might want to check this out too! The New User Tour is a great way to explore and see what Gaia is about. For simply wandering over to the tour, you get the new Starter Sets. Free items that go beyond the Peasant Set! (And old users can pick up their starter sets for free too.)
---
Thanks everyone for all your support! It's been a crazy past 3 months working out all the bugs, and I hope you'll enjoy the new things coming to the site. I look forward to everyone's comments both good and bad in the dedicated redesign feedback thread.
