Can you see me yet?
Visual comparisons of old and new
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
So how are we doing? Let's take a look at the new WinCustomize and the old WinCustomize side by side. here's what they looked like to the typical user.
The new site doesn't have the theme system in yet (allowing users to customize the look and feel of the site). It's in the work queue but it won't be ready for a bit. Lots of little features and bugs and glitches to work out first. So what I'm looking at is how much information is conveyed in both while at the same time how complicated or how simple are these designs?
Let's put them directly side by side:
On the new site, you can see about half of the skin galleries. On the old site, you could only see the top 4. On the new site, you can see the top 5 skins. On the old site, you could see the top 9 without scrolling. On the new site the featured skin and screenshot are together in one area. On the old site they were separated. On both sides you can see the featured premium suite but the new site also lets you see the featured articles on the page. Both have a banner ad at the top if you're not logged in and both have a randomly selected item from the store. The new site doesn't have a sponsor button at the top - it's been moved to the bottom.
I personally preferred the old logo. I think we'll have to find a way to work that one back into the site. If anyone wants to volunteer to try to put together the old logo feel free. I think there's a version of it in the shirts area of the graphics gallery here.
What we have tried to do is have a site that is much cleaner and more easily understandable by new users while at the same time vastly increasing the amount of "stuff" that one might get to. The tabs are a big part of that and having a lot of the key data available on the home page without having to scroll down.
So what do you think? Do you like the direction the new launch has taken so far?
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Reply #42 Thursday, January 6, 2005 2:05 PM
You apparently have to change it to his UID, which is 1. It would be nice to be able to change it from http ://frogboy.wincustomize.com/myskins.aspx?acid=1 to http ://frogboy.wincustomize.com/myskins.aspx?acid=frogboy or anything other nick; acid=jafo or acid=exoduscrow
Reply #43 Thursday, January 6, 2005 2:28 PM
Reply #44 Thursday, January 6, 2005 2:37 PM
Reply #45 Thursday, January 6, 2005 4:27 PM
Other than this the new site is excellent
Reply #46 Thursday, January 6, 2005 6:18 PM
Reply #47 Thursday, January 6, 2005 7:00 PM
Not only is the loading faster, but the tabs cut down surf time. Waiting for new themes, but I am patient. 
I haven't ran into any bugs(knock on wood), so I guess I'll sit back and watchthe site grow up even more!!! 
Reply #48 Thursday, January 6, 2005 7:11 PM
| Brad for some bizarro reason when I clicked on your My Skins link....I got My Skins, not yours |
Same thing happens when I click on your link, Brad. Not that I have any skins, yet it takes me to MY skins page - yet it has 'Skinning the Frog' at the top of my page.
Overall I like the new site, but like many others, wish I had the ability to customize the gallery offerings. If I want to see 'Beatnik', for instance, I have to click on 'more', then Beatnik.
Reply #49 Thursday, January 6, 2005 7:29 PM
No, that's how it's supposed to be. All your skins are mine! MINE MINE MINE!
I guess that link doesn't work. But anyway, you can click on the my skins button at the top and it should show you YOUR skins.
Reply #50 Thursday, January 6, 2005 8:13 PM
Here's a list of tweaks/bugs I still run into...few of them have already been mentioned.
Not being able to return to whatever gallery when viewing a skin is annoying.
When posting a comment on an article/thread, after you make the post, it shows "New Replies", but it's the post you have just made.
When looking at the Watch List, a lot of the articles show up as "www", and not the author who wrote the article.
I would love the "This Just In" box somewhere on the front page, save me an extra click.
...and...I guess that's it. All I can remember anyway...
Reply #51 Thursday, January 6, 2005 8:55 PM
Also, something I think that would be nice is to be able to search ALL of the galleries at once. This would be helpful if you're trying to get an entire theme together with the windowblinds, wallpaper, logon, bootskin etc and not have to manually search each gallery one by one.
Reply #52 Thursday, January 6, 2005 9:23 PM
Opus_Croakus
ODNT subscriber since Dec. 2000; WinCustomize subscriber since Dec. 2003
Reply #54 Friday, January 7, 2005 4:32 AM
And if possible it would be nice to be able to pick which page you want to go to. When you're going through an entire gallery this can get old. (Especially with a big one like ObjectDock).
Overall though I have to give it an A.
Reply #55 Friday, January 7, 2005 12:18 PM
#1 having themes .. which i believe is being worked on.
#2 being able to customize your account settings. User Title/Librarys listed in left column etc.
Reply #56 Friday, January 7, 2005 5:15 PM
Reply #57 Friday, January 7, 2005 6:05 PM
| Compliments for the content possibilities and upgrade. What I miss is the cosy feeling of the old site, it was this nice homestead you could walk through, this is more a slick skyscraper and has become somewhat impersonal |
Not impersonal. Look: "Welcome ExodusCrow!"
It knows my name!!
Reply #58 Friday, January 7, 2005 11:32 PM
Right now the only real bad thing I have to say about the site is that its sems way to text based. Where are the images? There is more text than anything else. Maybeits because there are no site skins? I am not sure, but it seems to be a emphisis on text over images in specific areas for example:
I think 2 things (as the most impotant things to change) about the current site is the front page and the gallery.
Front Page:
Layout s nice BUT the screenshot and featured skin previews should be biger. Right now the text is more important than the image (and we all know THAT wrong
)I would say the same thing abou the popular skins images but if your going to have 5 across like that then it would have to be small. You could change it to 3 of the 5 popular skins get images and then the list of all 5 (top to bottom) in place of the 4th and 5th images. This way the previews can be BIGGER.
The Gallery:
Images to small. I rather have the top 3 in each gallery than small images of the top 5.
Each section should have a 'back to top' and a anchor so that you can view the images from the gallery on the gallery page.
Sections should have more obvious links in the gallery display. Right now I click on "Bootskin Items" or "CursorXP Items" and what do I get? Nothin' because its not a link. LOL I think it should be a link. (It would be nice to also have tags for 'alt' keys so all you have to do is go 'alt+c' to get to the "DesktopX Objects Items" on the Gallery page)
Also in the gallery page there should be showing of announcments of new skins or 'new releases':
https://www.wincustomize.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=195
I'm thinking about making a fake wincustomize to show what I mean.
All in all, the site UI is prety good. A few tweaks here and there and the UI part will be done. then work on the GUI part (let get some graphics in here please!) The user ability to change the site skin IS a great feature. Its alos very powerful is used correctly.
Reply #59 Saturday, January 8, 2005 12:02 AM
Reply #60 Saturday, January 8, 2005 12:25 AM
| What I tried to say is, the site has lost its personality. It's all (green and blue) greys and whites and a bit of blue. Where's the innovation where it comes to a site that is about skinning. Give it Wincustomize flavour. |
All good things will come to he who waits....
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Reply #41 Thursday, January 6, 2005 12:42 PM
Essencay is right on with the My Skins page, and i had the same issue with your link to your "my skins" page, took me to MY "My Skins" page.