2014-09-10 - Preview: Site Redesign

[Endyr_Serifi]

Yay! :3

[Emerald01]

Looking lovely! Props to all involved! And thanks, TJ!

 

Cheers!

Em

[missy_]

It looks great! Love the clock idea and the "awesome painting"!

[Ceiyru]

Love the new clock and the painting. Ah what am I saying, love all the new sneak peaks so far.

[OMGitsKairi]

Me right now:

 

 

but at the same time:

 

 

 

That aside, I'm also worried about the bandwidth thing. All the "visible interest" bits that have been

shown in the teaser do look really nice, however.

[Dimar]

CLOCK!

 

Haha, I'm only an hour off from DC time but I'm really excited about that clock anyway. I'm also glad to see the default design getting some changes; I've never been a fan of it and Nakase always does beautiful work. I know TJ started that thread about reducing the number of site skins, so I'm not surprised to see this at all. Lots of site changes being worked on at the moment... AND DESCRIPTIONS HAD BETTER BE NEXT!!

 

eta: Descriptions yesss!

Edited September 11, 2014 by Dimar

[Pixxelation]

TJ I FREAKING LOVE YOU.

 

Not even for the update.

 

For this.

 

That's right. A clock. Try not to get too excited.

 

Look at that awesome painting. Look at it.

 

Even the errors are pretty.

 

Just. TJ. Just. Just. Yes. Much yes. THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY DAY.

 

That having been said, I look forward to seeing the site layout updated! This also explains the thread about reducing the amount of site skins, and I can see why (Please keep the Portal 2 skin though ;_. I'm curious to see how these updates will affect them, should some or all be kept. I hope the main scroll background gets updated a little too, maybe to be a little more like this, especially if Naka were to do them.

 

[Dawnwing]

Very nice! Looking forward to these!

[Weregazebo]

Wow. Cool! The clock is such a wonderful thing... :3

[Unearthly]

Ooh, a redesign and a clock. Since these are just previews, I'm left to hoping that the ultimate changes aren't massive and annoying. I'd like to keep my Portal 2 skin as well, or at least some variation of it, so I hope we'll still have it after the change.

[Obscure_Trash]

Browsers have caches for exactly this reason. They're quite good at determining that a file hasn't changed and avoiding re-downloads, so even if the new layout required downloading a 2 MB background (it won't), it would only be downloaded once, and subsequent page loads would be much faster. In fact, the cache is often too good, and saves things even when they've been changed (which, for example, caused some sorting issues when multi-sort came out).

 

A lot of people tend to do things that bypass the browser's cache. For example, this is exactly what a "hard refresh" does--it tells your browser to redownload everything, even if it hasn't changed. If you're using Ctrl+F5 to cave hunt, you're going to have a bad time no matter what layout you use (on the current layout, a Ctrl+F5 causes you to download over 250 KB of data, while a normal page load is only around 10-15 KB).

 

tl;dr: If you let your browser's cache do its job, bandwidth shouldn't be a concern for using the site.

I have indeed spent my share of time on a lossy 3G connection with a 5 GB (shared with others) data limit. I also have tools that let me simulate such conditions.

 

I don't know exactly how much the new page will be yet. As a high estimate, the images may be on the order of 500-600 KB total, but the reality will almost definitely be smaller than that, and the amount of non-cacheable data is unlikely to increase. So, the cached data will amortize out to a negligible amount over many pages.

 

Just bringing these up from the last page to make sure people can see them. =3

 

(So glad TJ mentioned description changes publicly, Dimar! I thought you guys would like to hear that! I can now dance about and squee with you guys. Non-specific squeeing, of course, though.)

[Kaini]

Hmm, looks good so far! The clock is obviously very exciting.

[Dimar]

(So glad TJ mentioned description changes publicly, Dimar! I thought you guys would like to hear that! I can now dance about and squee with you guys. Non-specific squeeing, of course, though.)

Maybe I should tie you to the Descripdoom ceiling fan (on the ludicrous speed setting) until you share these secrets! >:3

[Ruby Eyes]

That's right. A clock. Try not to get too excited.

I'm excited!

[AquaBlueRain]

That painting is gorgeous!

 

Looking forward to the changes.

 

w00t! A CLOCK!!!!!!

[Jumbofluff]

Ooh, that's lovely. I can't wait until it's rolled out.

[NightFuryDragon]

Look at that awesome painting. Look at it.

This is pretty much how I just imagined TJ09 saying this.

 

On topic of the...topic, I am gonna miss the old layout. Regardless, this new design actually looks pretty cool! It's definitely going to look more inviting and involved for new users versus the old-school one.

[Quartzk]

It looks so cool, I'm really excited to see the new design! The art looks lovely!

(also it's really cute how dragon cave is like one of the only places ever which would get excited over a *clock*)

[edwardelricfreak]

This is pretty much how I just imagined TJ09 saying this.

Haha, I imagined it like

 

Oddly, I think one of my favorite things about the new layout is the font. :U Dunno why.

[Su_Halcon]

I was so happy thinking we get a cave with real pictures of the eggs until I figured it's an old picture... Bring it back, bring it back! This would be such a help to actually see the eggs instead of reading the Wiki over and over and trying to remember which egg is which.

 

Have to inform a friend of mine, she was already so happy about this as well lol

[Ashes The Second]

Interested to see how it'll pan out.

[TJ09]

Haha, I imagined it like

 

Oddly, I think one of my favorite things about the new layout is the font. :U Dunno why.

Mmmm, dat PT Serif body text.

[trezz]

It's all very Egg-citing !

[FireMercury]

lol @ the captions under the pictures.

kind of excited about night time >.<

[OceanSecrets]

This looks great! And TJ is right, that painting is awesome.