Did the layout of the Zam.com skin just change?

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#27 Feb 24 2010 at 11:51 AM Rating: Good

Iamadam

@#%^

15,953 posts

Nizdaar wrote:

Iamadam the Prohpet wrote:

Just a suggestion, for massive skin changes like this it may be smarter to implement it in a temporary location and get feedback before simply replacing a well-liked skin.

We did, just not from a very large audience.

A problem we've run into in the past is that by specifically asking people for feedback and then not using or taking it all they can feel hurt. "What's the point in asking me if you won't listen?" type thing. It can also tend to prohibitively extend the whole feedback and tweaking process to a very long amount of time over very small details that just amount to personal preference.

It's a tricky balancing act.

Maybe posting locked threads in some of your more popular forums asking for feedback in a feedback forum thread would yield better results. At the very least, it would help curb the backlash you're seeing today.

Once again, just a suggestion.

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#28 Feb 24 2010 at 11:58 AM Rating: Good

Shaowstrike

Gave Up The D

12,281 posts

How bout setting this one as "Zam Lite", that way you can have both skins available to the userbase.

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#29 Feb 24 2010 at 12:05 PM Rating: Excellent

Raolan

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2,496 posts

I understand the need for constructive criticism but when all that comes to mind is WTF were they thinking, it's hard to pinpoint the individual aspects. Seriously, who actually thought this skin was a good idea?

Color. It's blinding bright and I can easily see it causing headaches for anyone who spends a decent amount of time here.

Size. It may fit on a tiny netbook screen but on a 24" monitor running at 1920 x 1200, it covers barely more than half the screen.

Menus. The limited selection available on the new navi bar is going to force a lot of people to go back to using the forum listing page. Wasn't the original point of the dropdown menus designed to avoid that exact thing? The forum listing page isn't bad but expecting people to sift through the games listing page is nuts.

This is a major step backwards in pretty much every aspect. Seriously, who designed this?

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#30 Feb 24 2010 at 12:23 PM Rating: Excellent

Manosuke

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4,759 posts

Another complaint (although I kind of like) the new navi bar is kind of broken sometimes when I load the site. Other times it works fine.

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#31 Feb 24 2010 at 12:26 PM Rating: Excellent

Jerek

Webmonkey

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Manosuke, ****** Superhero wrote:

Another complaint (although I kind of like) the new navi bar is kind of broken sometimes when I load the site. Other times it works fine.

Interesting. What OS and browser?

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#32 Feb 24 2010 at 12:41 PM Rating: Good

__DEL__1649636418093

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Sage

30,646 posts

The "More..." link under the "Sites" at the bottom is broken.

ETA: Personally, I use the FFXI skin most times. The only reason I use it is because the OOT and the Asylum are on the sidebar. If we had the option to create our own links on the sidebar (or... "bottombar" as it seems to have been changed) I'd be more likely to use the Zam.com skin. I don't mind the colors much, personally. I dislike having all of those links at the bottom of the screen, though. I liked the sidebar. Maybe you could make it so you can hide the links at the bottom?

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 12:43pm by Belkira

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#33 Feb 24 2010 at 12:41 PM Rating: Decent

Raolan

Scholar

2,496 posts

I think you forgot to change the color between the read and unread links, it's not that they are similar, there is absolutely no change. Also, the new skin has a lot of lag. The other skins don't seem to have this problem.

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#34 Feb 24 2010 at 12:44 PM Rating: Good

__DEL__1649636418093

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Sage

30,646 posts

Raolan wrote:

I think you forgot to change the color between the read and unread links, it's not that they are similar, there is absolutely no change. Also, the new skin has a lot of lag. The other skins don't seem to have this problem.

Yes, the read and unread links don't change at all. I'm not experiencing the same lag issue, though.

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#35 Feb 24 2010 at 12:45 PM Rating: Good

Manosuke

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JerekDain wrote:

Manosuke, ****** Superhero wrote:

Another complaint (although I kind of like) the new navi bar is kind of broken sometimes when I load the site. Other times it works fine.

Interesting. What OS and browser?

Linux Mint 8 and in Windows 7 on Firefox, I might try and see if it works better in Midori on linux.

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#36 Feb 24 2010 at 12:56 PM Rating: Excellent

Jerek

Webmonkey

710 pandas

Some forum styling has been tweaked, notably the forum lists, the thread lists, and the appearance of posts. (this last one may require a hard refresh [Ctrl+F5] for some people to clear caches) Unvisited forum posts are now bolded as well.

Manosuke, ****** Superhero wrote:

Linux Mint 8 and in Windows 7 on Firefox, I might try and see if it works better in Midori on linux.

Strange, not seeing the same on Win7 w/ Firefox.

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#37 Feb 24 2010 at 1:12 PM Rating: Excellent

__DEL__1595780842228

Sage

52 posts

Honestly? I'm not a fan and I think the previous design looked a lot better. It took me a minute to think of what the new design reminded me of, which is a dodgy gold-selling website.

I'm not complaining about some of the new functionality on the front page, such as the clickable tabs for news on different MMOs - it's the design / skin itself that I see as an issue.

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 2:14pm by azerian

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#38 Feb 24 2010 at 1:37 PM Rating: Good

bsphil

Edited by bsphil

21,739 posts

Meh, I've always used the ffxi skin anyway.

To be honest I didn't like the old zam skin either. As long as the FFXI skin stays intact I'm set.

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 1:38pm by bsphil

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#39 Feb 24 2010 at 1:37 PM Rating: Good

lolgaxe

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Too bright, and the text area is too small, creating a lot of dead space.

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#40 Feb 24 2010 at 1:41 PM Rating: Good

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Sorry guys, but this skin is a steaming pile of poo (whoever worked hard on this, I'm sorry, just my opinion).

I wouldn't mind so much but the menu system is virtually unusable, and I really liked having the Gaming Forum as part of the forums list. Color wise I can deal, but functionality has been impacted and is a huge minus for me.

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#41 Feb 24 2010 at 2:02 PM Rating: Excellent

Jerek

Webmonkey

710 pandas

Manosuke, ****** Superhero wrote:

Another complaint (although I kind of like) the new navi bar is kind of broken sometimes when I load the site. Other times it works fine.

Are you zoomed out slightly in your browser(s)? In Firefox you can reset the zoom level with Ctrl+0 (zero).

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#42 Feb 24 2010 at 2:04 PM Rating: Excellent

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Nizdaar wrote:

Overlord Norellicus wrote:

I'm not one to whine and complain but the light colors are really not my thing. I use the zam skin specifically to avoid that.

A lot of people like light color skins on zam.com so they are less conspicuous. If your browser is set for 1024x768, there's very little dark and it looks more like a work/school type application.

I use a lot of terminal applications all day that use dark colors with light text. The opposite looks far less conspicuous, all things considered. I may be the minority of course, but it's just food for thought.

Moreover, I have to question why conspicuousness is a consideration in the aesthetics? Are we seriously trying to cater to the people who are playing hooky? Smiley: dubious

I'm not looking to judge anyone over their work habits, just wondering how "less conspicuous" got into the feature set of what is, for all intents and purposes, a leisure site, given that "leisure" usually means that how conspicuous you may or may not be means precious little.

Edit: And I've just discovered that 'conspicuous' is one of those words that simply doesn't look right anymore once you've read/written it about 4 times Smiley: mad

Edit2: And the coloring aside, 1024p forced page width is not conducive to reading long blocks of text. I didn't get a widescreen monitor just because it looks pretty.

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 3:15pm by Norellicus

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#43 Feb 24 2010 at 2:10 PM Rating: Excellent

Jophiel

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Overlord Norellicus wrote:

Moreover, I have to question why conspicuousness is a consideration in the aesthetics? Are we seriously trying to cater to the people who are playing hooky?

I'm not looking to judge anyone over their work habits, just wondering how "less conspicuous" got into the feature set

Because the previous management made a point out of creating a "work safe" skin knowing that a fair percentage of their customers wanted one and, hey, if you can get more folks posting here, it's good for the site in several ways. Whatever the work habits are of anyone here, that wasn't for Alla & Co. to worry about as opposed to keeping the customers happy and posting (and paying for premium/seeing ads).

The customers here were used to it based on past experiences.

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#44 Feb 24 2010 at 2:22 PM Rating: Excellent

AshOnMyTomatoes

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Bloodle-Oodle-Oodle

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This is the worst skin ever. What happened to the www.allakhazam.com skin? This seems to have lost a lot of functionality too, I don't see all the dropdowns up top like I used to see.

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#45 Feb 24 2010 at 2:23 PM Rating: Good

Shaowstrike

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12,281 posts

Plus some of the undereducated employers might think this was Facebook, which I believe is becoming a banned site at many workplaces.

Edit: Grammar

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 3:53pm by Shaowstrike

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#46 Feb 24 2010 at 2:24 PM Rating: Good

AshOnMyTomatoes

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Bloodle-Oodle-Oodle

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It also loads a hell of a lot slower, and doesn't cover the entire screen like the old news skin did.

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