A brand new [H]ard|OCP

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I just checked out the shacknews site, and I have a question. I use a PDA to check [H] more often then not, and IE on the PDA can reconfigure the page to just 1 column. [H] Looks great on this in the 1 column mode. The shacknews site didn't work on any of the views, except the regular desktop mode which requires massive side-to-side scrolling. Do the standard used on the new site allow it to be shrunk down like it can be currently? I know you're going for a fixed with, but it's the IE program on the PDA which actually does the shrinking. Do you have a PDA with Windows Mobile 2003 SE available? If you don't, I could try it if I had a link to the new site. I would imagine I'm not the only one that reads [H] on a mobile device and ease of reading is key.

But otherwise, I think the design looks great. The new fonts for the headlines were a great idea: unique and eyecatching. A bit of brightening couldn't hurt, but it looks good.
 
Wow. It looks a lot more readable and pleasant to the eye. Thumbs up.

edit: Forgot to ask if the forum will also be affected by this? Also, the buttons at the top ([H]Forum, Search, Archives...) seems small, I would recommend to make them a little bit bigger.
 
clean and purdy.....in a schlick kinda way....I really am fond of whats there now.....but it really doesnt matter what I think. change is good. I like the 4 category approach. You do really nice work. :D
 
Nice work, looks great. Looking forward to continue my daily visits to a new updated site, enhancing my pleasure.

~S~ :D
 
The featured/latest articles area immediately reminded me of gamespot. I sincerely hope that the rendering won't be like the rendering for gamespot (ugh--seing flash animations jump back and forth between areas on the screen for 30 seconds while the browser tries to figure out where they belong makes me sick). I agree that the "Featured Articles" and "Latest Articles" seems a bit redundant, since I visit the site at least once a day. It looks like all the articles are articles [H]ardOCP publishes, as opposed to news snippets from other sites. I can see how difficult it is to strike a balance--how much news from each of the four sub-sites do you put on the main page, and which ones go there? Where do you draw the line?

Overall, it looks great. A little dark for my taste, but I understand the branding thing. The fonts look nice, but I'm not a fan of eyecandy on websites (or in my OS. But in games....hoo yeah). Eyecandy too often means larger fonts, which leads to less information on the screen, which I can't stand. But that's just personal preference.

Is there any chance of having a search box, instead of a link to a search page? For all I know, the "search" button could open a little box like we see on the forum, but being able to search from the main page without going to a separate page is a Good Thing.

Other than that, I like the navigation bars, although an "RSS" button/link next to the "Links" button might be a good idea.

There's obviously been a lot of effort and thought put into the new design. It will take me some time to get used to it, but it's definitely a significant improvement. Keep up the good work!
 
Nice But,...I think we could do away with the Tabs on the top linking the other sites and place them where you have the "Featured Articles" with the most recent review synopsized and thumbnailed. ie...

[H] Enthusiast [H] Enterprise




[H] Consumer [H] Console



Reason?...the featured articles will probably be the latest articles from the sub sites anyway (clears up some redundancy) You could even change the name from "Featured Articles" to something like...


" [H]ard Offspring "



:D
 
gonna be easier to read mos def. i dont like changes but i'm always willing to adapt.

dude.gif
 
Talonz said:
The only thing is, the Latest Articles and Featured Articles seems a little redundant and it takes up a whole lot of screen space. When I visit a site, I want to see as much of the content as I can when I first get there. Maybe they could be combined and a little more compact?
Click to expand...


The new site is looking cool...but I do agree with Talonz, the latest articles and featured articles does seem redundant and it does clutter up the first page. It is way too busy with both those items (latest articles seems pointless to me..). Having just the featured articles of just having one of the latest articles from each section would suffice in my opinion.

Same here too, when going to a site, I want to see more actual content instead of having to scroll past banners and links to get to the real stuff...
 
My only nitpick is the font in the lastest article/featured section, is kinda generic
 
Ok, I apologize if someone has posted this before, but I don't have time to read through 3 pages of posts. I have a suggestion for the news....

Is it possible to simply show the titles of headlines and have (+) sign to expand content? Without having 1st, 2nd edition, etc., I think the news looks a little too busy.

Oh, and another suggestion...get rid of those "Latest Articles" boxes. They should only be shown on each portal.

Those two gripes aside...I like it very much. Has a professional and respectable look to it. I wish you guys the best of luck...
 
I love the new layout, its pretty nice looking. Way to keep it fresh
 
Rosewood said:
But srsly, I can't wait for the fuck off insane batshit fast speeds that Im used to at the Shack.
Click to expand...
ROFLMFAO!!! Rosewood, you are my hero man. That was awesome. v(^-^)v
 
My only comment is that the top 2 content areas (extending from the Featured Articles to Top News) are cramped. Really cramped. It might just be an issue of the text being overbright (maybe use #E5E5E5 or something like that instead of #FFFFFF), or the section headers needing to be taller.

Also, for futher clarification on xHTML: in the general sense: xHTML means that every open tag (strong, em, p, meta, form, input, etc) has a closing tag, much like an XML document.
Code: 
<input type="text" name="date_expired" maxlength="50" /> or
<input type="text" name="date_expired" maxlength="50"></input> instead of
<input type="text" name="date_expired" maxlength="50">
Under HTML, browsers would often either not need closing tags for elements (such as form inputs or meta tags), or would 'fake' closing tags for certain types of formatting (i.e. closing a p tag would also close your strong and em tags) - but this wasn't consistent between browsers, and is pretty poor practice.

Writing valid code in xHTML does not mean you have to totally go the semantic route and use 100% CSS. Alot of people I've worked with often do a table for the basic layout, then CSS for everything else (meaning you get to avoid having to do hacks for cross-browser compatibility for your basic layout).

Back on topic, the redesign is a great start, and definitely an improvement.

/Sorry, can't help being a web design geek.
 
I have 2 suggestions/gripes.

First, the news is too far down the newspage. I'd like the news, or at least the top story, to be the first thing I see when I go to the news page.

The second has to do with the four major sections. As it stands, I don't think [H] updates content often enough to warrant four different sections of the site. I would expect many more articles if this were to happen. Also, I feel that tabs aren't the right visualization for this structure. I would think a less obvious division of sections might me more useful but with certain icons or other visual idications that your in that section and the ability to sort on those sections or view all at once. Somewhat of a slashdot kind of approach to the way the site is sorted.
 
I would like to give some feedback:

Looking at the screenshot, there seems to be a lot of 'stuff' that needs to be scrolled down until I get to the news (what I am intersted in). Looking at my LCD here at work (1280x1024) with Opera in Full Screen, about 80% of my real estate is covered by stuff that I could care less about (Ad's, Recent Articles, Featured Articles). Now, I understand that AD placement etc. is important, but I really don't see why there is featured and recent articles? It seems to waste space to me. As someone who is going to [H] Enthusiat, I really don't need to see what recently came up on that part of the site.

Maybe I misunderstand, but with the frequency of original [H] articles being posted currently (maybe 2-3/week) it seems that a frequent reader (me) doesn't need to be reminded constantly of what came out recently, since I have already read it. I would much rather see 'latest articles' scrapped and used as space for more news.

Having gotten the 'bad' stuff out of the way, I like that it will not be some annoying flash site. I am a big proponent of KISS and it seems that the site will adhere to that. Too many sites appear to think that just because I have broadband, their site will have to deliver enough junk to singlehandedly fill my pipe.
 
Being a webmaster involved in remaing a website, I'm familiar the details that can drive you mad. Usually I wait until it's absolutely necessary to make major layout changes/ reorgs, but it looks like your timing is right. Not only that, it appears to be a clean layout taking advantage of more modern, higher-resolution displays.

Golf claps to you.
 
I like it.
Modernized, very smooth. Looks nice and polished like a magazine.
Someone said that most of the first screnfull of the site is essentially tied up in logo/ads/etc.. It's true of the current site. It might be nice to change that, but honestly, I've not found it annoying so far.. and I've been reading this site for well over 5 years now.

Either way, keep up the good work.
 
Do remember to create RSS feeds for the indiviual sections, maybe even useful feeds which contain the entire news story / article teaser.
 
I like the new look. It's the same great [H]ard|OCP we all know and love, but now all grown up and professional looking. I also like the idea of different color schemes for the different sub-sites, as that will really help convey a sense of "place" when you are there. I love visual cues like that.

As for doing away with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc editions of news, I'm not so sure. I acutally rely on those. I read [H]ard|OCP about 10 times a day, and each time I visit I do a quick scan of the "Edition" number to tell me if there is anything new posted. If you must due away with it, perhaps consider some other sort of visual cue that would allow frequent readers like myself to instantly determine if new content has been posted.

I also like the idea of RSS feeds. And you really need to talk Kyle into doing some Podcasts.

Overall, very impressed and looking forward to the new layout.
 
NO TABLES! wow. What software do you use to lay it out using entirely css? MX2004 doesn't seem to deal with all that absolute css positioning nicely (certainly not with the ease of dragging table borders around that I'm used to)
 
drlava said:
NO TABLES! wow. What software do you use to lay it out using entirely css? MX2004 doesn't seem to deal with all that absolute css positioning nicely (certainly not with the ease of dragging table borders around that I'm used to)
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'm going to go out on a limb and say MySQL, PHP and using divs...... We do somthing similar with the assistance of dreamweaver.
 
neat looking, but I don't like the idea of possibly having to navigate more to get to everything I want to see.... I like how now I just scroll down 1 page to see the new stuff.
 
I like it, anything, that looks better and speeds up load times is good. It looks to me that the [H] has some big plans to expand.The only thing I miss with the new lay out is some of the orange, but it does seem cleaner.
 
I'm going to focus on my area of speciality and my apologies in advance for straying a bit off-topic. On the subject of Hard|Console... well, this takes me by surprise because I remember Kyle for years saying that gaming wasn't going to be a focus for the main site because Shacknews fit that bill nicely. I guess I'll have to talk to Kyle off-line and see what the plans for that section are, because I've got some input if he'll have it from me.

Color themed sections: It smacks of Slashdot, but they totally did it wrong. Good lord, have you seen the retina burning colors of their gaming section? (Well, that and the editor there is a nitwit.) It seems that the colors haven't been chosen for these sections, but I'd be really, really subtle with anything. Since HardOCP lacks a logo/mascot and a distinct font, the brand is basically identified by color and brackets. Now sections are mucking with the color.

Note to Kyle: If you're going with a redesign, I'd say this is the perfect time to get with a marketing company and come up with a new logo/font and introduce it with the site redesign. Definitely strengthen the brand. That's just my opinion and others may think it's good enough as it is now.

Hard|Console. Wow... just can't get over that.
 
:D Good stuff. It looks really clean and pro. Can't wait to see it published, and feel the speed.
 
Short (sweet?) and to the point.

I like to have dynamic width. I use a widescreen monitor (1280*800) and want to use that extra realestate to get more on screen and do less scrolling.

If you want to be redundant with Featured and Latest Articles.. why not make the Latest articles, 1 or 2 articles high (instead of the massive 7)?

I would, personally, like the placement of [H]News, [H]Enthusiast, [H]Enterprise, [H]Consumer and [H]Console to be a tad LOWER on the screen. Now it sits at the very top and sort of "falls out of direct view". How about dropping it down, as much below the [H]ard|OCP logo, as it is above now? Keep the grey bar where it is, just place the page tabs below instead of above.

News headlines in yellow and that font is perfect. Very easy to read.
However, the yellow in the text below sort of looks out of focus (maybe only for me?), blurred if you will. Same for the white news text.. maybe due to font smoothing (cleartype? :eek: )

I also just realised, I never used the [H]ard Menu... good thing it is gone.

Edit: And as Torgo pointed out. Be careful with color choices for the subsections. [H] has always been maroon and black, with a bit of orange. Remove that and you lose a lot of the original "brand". But then again, maybe it is time to move on to a more "professional" look that appeals to the broader market?
 
Very nice screeny. ;)

As far as [H]Console color theme goes, I would suggest something to discourage fan-boyism; a neutral color that doesn't relate to any of the current consoles directly (i.e., xbox360 = green and white, ps3 = black and blue, Nintendo = ... I don't know... purple? maybe red?).

I know my suggestion doesn't really help out so much make life harder, but it's just a suggestion. :(
 
I have seen changes over the years to this site, having been a regular since Kyle started out, and this looks quite good.

I like the font choice for the news section. Very easy to read. The loss of First/Second/etc. Edition will take some getting used to, but as long as the time stamp is clear, I am good to go.

The layout is a little cramped. Maybe a little more spacing between Featured Articles, Latest Articles and [H]ard News. It will add a little more scrolling, but it just looks all jammed into a mess of words right now the way it is. Maybe putting in the different background colors for the 4 site boxes would unclutter the look of it. Same with the tabs at top. Make them different colors to match the box colors.

-N8
 
I really like the direction this new site will be going. It will make it easier for all of us technology junkies to find all the info we are seeking on one large page.
 
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