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6495 submissions
FA's New Design
INCONCEIVABLE!
IMPOSSIBLE!
UNACCEPTABLE!
...
um,
that is, I.. err...
kinda like it.
IMPOSSIBLE!
UNACCEPTABLE!
...
um,
that is, I.. err...
kinda like it.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Comics
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 960 x 1200px
File Size 1.23 MB
My only complaints are the comment box(looks ugly with all the empty space to either side and sandwiched between the relatively wide description above and comments below) and they need a better generator for the thumbnails on the side(Reminds me of Weasyl when they forced square thumbnails)
I mostly am annoyed it swapped me to dark theme without asking, that it summarizes my submission and journal counts to 16.8k and 14.5k respectively(now how will I know when they increment by 1?), and that they messed up the form for account options so any change requires verifying password, not just changing your password.
also, pro tip for people who really don't like it, it can be changed to classic layout in account options, right next to the dark/light mode options- but that doesn't fix two of the three things I mentioned
also, pro tip for people who really don't like it, it can be changed to classic layout in account options, right next to the dark/light mode options- but that doesn't fix two of the three things I mentioned
It's generally bad site design to mix horizontal and vertical oriented interfaces when it can be avoided. It LOOKS good in tech demos, but causes all sorts of problems with things not "fitting" right. Resulting in wasted space or awkward interaction with the user.
At work, the customer interacts with our product via a web interface. The old interface had a mix of vertical and horizontal control elements; like buttons, check boxes, and results screens. The problem with that, as we have here, is that not everyone views things with the same size window. Be it different resolutions, window sizes, etc. If you mix vertical and horizontal design elements, the system is gonna puke really quickly trying to serve the user the interface and results in a way that is visually appealing and easy to interact with.
The second problem is that a persons vision will naturally follow things vertically or horizontally, Our eyes will "read ahead" just that extra little bit. Effectively caching data before we actually need it. Having to switch back and forth between vertically and horizontally arranged information screws this up. Instead of your brain already having that data cached, you need to switch back and forth between vertical reading or horizontal reading. Having to switch back and forth also causes eye fatigue. For the same reasons it is fatiguing when you have to flip back and forth in a book to referencing disjointed lines of text.
For example: At work, our product displays records sorted by time. It then will display the related data horizontally. All the sorting and control options are also arranged horizontally at the top of the page. Most eye movement will always be horizontal.
Sometimes a vertical orientation is the correct answer.
On top of this, if you need scrolling, you want the user to have to scroll in only ONE direction.
For all it's faults, the "old" interface is almost exclusively horizontally oriented. You are almost always looking left to right and not up and down. With all the "controls" either above or below the pictures, it's simple to keep them out of the way of the user when not needed. If the user wants to get to the page controls, they just scroll up or down to get to the options they need. You never needed to scroll side to side unless the person uploaded in OMGWTF resolution.
To me, it's amusing to see FA adopt an interface design that my work spent good money to get away from.
At work, the customer interacts with our product via a web interface. The old interface had a mix of vertical and horizontal control elements; like buttons, check boxes, and results screens. The problem with that, as we have here, is that not everyone views things with the same size window. Be it different resolutions, window sizes, etc. If you mix vertical and horizontal design elements, the system is gonna puke really quickly trying to serve the user the interface and results in a way that is visually appealing and easy to interact with.
The second problem is that a persons vision will naturally follow things vertically or horizontally, Our eyes will "read ahead" just that extra little bit. Effectively caching data before we actually need it. Having to switch back and forth between vertically and horizontally arranged information screws this up. Instead of your brain already having that data cached, you need to switch back and forth between vertical reading or horizontal reading. Having to switch back and forth also causes eye fatigue. For the same reasons it is fatiguing when you have to flip back and forth in a book to referencing disjointed lines of text.
For example: At work, our product displays records sorted by time. It then will display the related data horizontally. All the sorting and control options are also arranged horizontally at the top of the page. Most eye movement will always be horizontal.
Sometimes a vertical orientation is the correct answer.
On top of this, if you need scrolling, you want the user to have to scroll in only ONE direction.
For all it's faults, the "old" interface is almost exclusively horizontally oriented. You are almost always looking left to right and not up and down. With all the "controls" either above or below the pictures, it's simple to keep them out of the way of the user when not needed. If the user wants to get to the page controls, they just scroll up or down to get to the options they need. You never needed to scroll side to side unless the person uploaded in OMGWTF resolution.
To me, it's amusing to see FA adopt an interface design that my work spent good money to get away from.
I really wish you would put some of your expertise into a note to the site admins and convince them to clean up their new interface. I'd give them my opinion, but I'm no expert, so they're not going to pay me much mind.
I'd use it, if it was better than what we already had. But it's not. It's a very fancy step backwards - A really nice looking bit of work, that isn't really suited to the purpose it's supposed to serve.
I'd use it, if it was better than what we already had. But it's not. It's a very fancy step backwards - A really nice looking bit of work, that isn't really suited to the purpose it's supposed to serve.
I'm not even the designer. I just worked with them. Testing different layouts and giving feedback, given what I know about our customers and how they use our product.
It's really hard at times to not blindly praise the "pretty" interface with trash usability. When you actually start to use it for more than 5 minutes, the "pretty" quickly wears off and you just don't care if it looks like a Windows 3.1 program. You just want to be able to input the data you have so it will output the data you need. With as few clicks and keystrokes and as little eye fatigue as possible.
Thankfully, once you have the user interface layout figured out, you can then pretty it up with the right colors and fonts so it doesn't like Win 3.1 era. Usability MUST stay number 1 though.
It's really hard at times to not blindly praise the "pretty" interface with trash usability. When you actually start to use it for more than 5 minutes, the "pretty" quickly wears off and you just don't care if it looks like a Windows 3.1 program. You just want to be able to input the data you have so it will output the data you need. With as few clicks and keystrokes and as little eye fatigue as possible.
Thankfully, once you have the user interface layout figured out, you can then pretty it up with the right colors and fonts so it doesn't like Win 3.1 era. Usability MUST stay number 1 though.
I appreciate what's been done with it, and think it's pretty well done, over all, but I've come to expect certain things from FA, such as the location of certain buttons.
Maybe if they'd done an interim step, with appearance changes without altering layout, I'd go for it.
Butm I'mma stick with old style for now. Not that anyone cares what my UI looks like! :P
Maybe if they'd done an interim step, with appearance changes without altering layout, I'd go for it.
Butm I'mma stick with old style for now. Not that anyone cares what my UI looks like! :P
Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Egon Spengler: 40 years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
I missed the emoticon buttons. I tried the 'beta' several years ago and I didn't like it then; it has not improved.
Egon Spengler: 40 years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
I missed the emoticon buttons. I tried the 'beta' several years ago and I didn't like it then; it has not improved.
only gripe is the seeming removal of the ability to go back and forwards through an artist's gallery from a submission in chronological order. it seems to have been replaced with a more from tab that has no concept of liner time that and download no longer shows me an image it actually downloads it (annoying but I can adapt). at least it's less clunky in terms of functionality than DA's revamp.
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