So... What's the plan for VGC going forward?

[Platina]

Machina said:

spemanig said:

So this is what I came up with using the guidelines you provided:

It has the fast tabs banner thing at the top, a big header that shows off a featured article, a slider that changes it to other featured articles, and the Global hardware sales.

Under this, still as part of that header, are the rest of the sales numbers. The Hot Topics are still where they are, and there is a space above the header for the ad. Obviously it could be made bigger to fit whatever ad needed to go there. I moved the ad box that is usually above the Hot topics to be below the weekly sales. I figure since that would give the space for two ads, it wouldn't be much of an issue.

As you scroll down, more of the page is revealed and you get to see more of the articles. There is a small tab above them that lets you filter out what articles you want to read. I intentionally wanted the forums to reach down to the first "recent" article because your eye will naturally go to it as you scroll down to see more threads. At this point, more ads could be put wherever it is deemed appropriate. Below the Hot Topics or even every couple of articles as the user scrolls down.

I'm imagining you'd be able to scroll down until you hit 10 or so articles, and then a link will appear saying "show me more," revealing ten more articles, and so on indefinitely, or somthing.

The Game DB is featured prominately on the top banner thing, and I guess the rest can be occupied by whatever else needs a tab. I do think that the VGC Supporter Program specifically deserves it's own tab though, but that's just me.

EDIT: To the left of the VGC logo is the VGC Buddy Tab. the three horizontal lines. If you click on it, a drop down menu will appear letting you see all the your most recent forum contributions and maybe other stuff. It only goes away when you click the tab again.

Not a bad drawing xD

I quite like it, but I do think the ad movement would be a deal-breaker for Brett, and if it were put back to its usual placing that would probably push the hot topics tab too far down the page.

With the VGC Buddy you say if you click it it would stay until you closed it, and from the dimensions in your image I'm assuming that means it'd eat into other content on the front page when it is out. Do you not think that having the VGC buddy acting as a pop up that will cover some of the content on the front page would annoy a lot of people? At present it just fits neatly down the side so it's pretty unobtrusive.

Another concern is whether a redesign will actually be a good thing in general. It'd definitely make sense for the mobile version to be a major redesign, for the reasons Trucks gave, but a lot of people dislike change so is it a good idea to re-do the front page on the main, non-mobile site? For example, most of the older users here still say they prefer the origina blue or the black site to this day - and that seems to be a fairly consistent feeling across all websites (Platina's post above regarding the Nintendo-dedicated sites is a good illustration of this). What may initially seem like a better design can actually alienate people.

For sure, new changes and layouts will definitely annoy people and alienate some, but don't let that stop you from changing things up! Like how I didn't like the changes on My Nintendo News, I've gotten used to it and will dare say that it was better than before. Just takes time getting used to

I personally do not really mind the current layout, but what spemanig has suggested does look really nice and refreshing. Not sure what the original blue and white colours were, but I don't mind this colour palette either!