I prefer the current design. It's simple and efficient. The new one makes it look like the database is a secondary feature.When I want news, I click "news". I do it daily. But when I want anything else, I just go to cuckhead.com and everything is there. It's neat. Heck, I alread find the HUGE DISTRACTING BLUE HEARTHEAD BUTTON THING really unecessary.Keep it simple guys. :-)
My one suggestion. Mobile responsive version for smart phones and tablets.
We've added some updated images to the blog post reflecting style changes made in the past few days. You can still see the earlier draft by clicking on the "Earlier Images" tab. Thanks again for everyone's feedback!
I think you're making a fatal mistake moving away from the simple home screen that everyone knows and loves. Look what happened to Yahoo! when they cluttered up their landing page, and look at Google now, completely contrasting fortunes.Maybe a simple solution would be to offer a toggle that switches between the current home page and the proposed new home page for those who want the news and tweets on there?
You might be able to bookmark Wowhead.com/search but we'll see. The decision to compete more heavily with the other news sites might not be a bad one from a financial standpoint. There's no one else that could take the "wow search engine" marketshare away from Wowhead at this point. From a user standpoint, I get where everyone's coming from. I know I'm in the minority here, but most of the time I type what I need into Firefox or Chromes address bar and Google does the searching for me and it brings it up as the first result.I also still think the IRC Chat and Forums should be linked prominently on the top bar. I feel like the Wowhead community lends itself well to an irc chat format
It looks better then now, will be good just reading abit from front page :)Well done Wowhead +1 for Design :D
I think the first obstacle to overcome is the light font on a dark background. Since that's the core of the site's identity, you just have to maintain readability! I'm honestly a fan of the original redesign's header font outside of this context - it's beautiful, clean. Just not as readable. But I like the header font change in the updated version! It's a modern update compared to the live site, outside of the box (not Arial), but just as readable as the trusty sans-serif.A few nitpicky things... there's a small margin between the bottom of the featured news images and where the gradient behind the header ends - it sets off my OCD. XD Matching those edges if and making the gradient black instead of grey? Perhaps a wider margin between the featured news images and the news/posts container? With the larger header font in the featured images I imagine things could get a bit crowded, especially with a longer headline. I do love the idea of the larger header font size in the images! It really draws you into the featured section.Now I'm just rambling. I could probably spend time thinking of random small things, but I really like where the design's going. I love that you're moving forward and keeping things fresh. Just because it's a game database, doesn't mean it shouldn't have a modern design. :)I know this redesign is hard work and this community is a tough crowd to please. ;) Keep kicking ass! If you're ever looking for another person to bounce ideas off of - you know where to find me!Thanks for sharing your work.
That blue sidebar in the updated design is too bright and distracting. Maybe you could slightly change the color? I understand that it's the Blizzard blue and it works well in battle.net, but their design is lighter and more aggressive, this is milder and there is no need for screaming sidebar.And I still hope that we are talking about cuckhead.com/news page not the actual front page which certainly should not contain that much stuff unrelated to database.Besides that was a great idea to offer a tabbed choice between tweets and tracker, you should really consider that solution. In the current layout either tweets or tracker will be forgotten...
The new design looks good, especially with the font change, but here's what I would appreciate existing...A sub-page somewhere that I can bookmark, that is pretty much just the search box, like the current main page is. Reasoning being that sometimes I don't care about news or anything, I just want to look something up real quick, especially if I'm doing so on a really slow connection or on my tablet (or both).I love the redesign, and I'll definitely get use out of it (one of the first things I do when I get to Wowhead on my computer on a fast connection is click through to the news anyway), but sometimes literally all I want to do is run a quick search.
I actually like the font. :)
I'm not a fan of websites that try to fill up every little bit of room on their front page with information. It looks cluttered, it's confusing and makes it very unintuitive for new users.Wowhead is first and foremost a database (unless this has changed, or is changing with WoD) and not a news website, so putting the core of your website, and your strongest selling point into a corner where it looks like a forum search function is a really bad decision.I've always enjoyed Wowhead for it's simplicity, the database search function in the center, and the most important/newest news/guide/information right below that in a clean summary. It's what makes Google great, no nonsense, only that which is needed.I also don't like the fact that everything is now borderless, all separations are done purely by using different shades of grey, instead of clear borders and tables, which is far more user friendly.I appreciate the need to want to update your website, but honestly there is zero reason or need for any, save some minor touch-ups.
i like it.10/10
We're still committed to awesome database tools, we've already added a ton of unique things for Warlords like a Garrison calculator, buildings, followers, new glyph behavior in the talent calc, completely updated item stats and gems, customized Warlords models, PvP and spec-specific stats on tooltips. The current layout is not that effective at letting users know when we've added something cool though, so we'd like to redesign the front page in a way that better highlights our work. It will make news more prominent as well, but as much of our Alpha news focuses on datapushes and new data features, we think the changes will highlight the database as well. The search box is also on the right-hand side of interior pages, and as a good deal of users reach wowhead via Google, the first thing they see on Wowhead is a page where the search box is on the right-hand side.
I need some time to visually process this. Something about it is somewhat off, to me, and I've yet to place what. That said, I like that I can open the site right now and it auto-focuses on the search, allowing me to open the site and immediately type in my search terms. I REALLY hope this will remain the case.
Not quite sure how I feel about the changes, I think the current design is pretty good and just needs some polishing, not major changes like a different typeface. Part of why I love Wowhead's design is the unintrusive and straightforward font that was chosen for it. I'd really prefer if Wowhead would stick with Arial.