About the redesigned download section

[+Gunrunner 313]

P.S. : Damned, I managed to post it in the wrong forum... this should have gone into Bug Reports/Suggestions, sorry.

 

Can't we have the old system back, or at least as an option, please, pretty please with a cherry on top ?

 

Let me explain...

 

From a pure usability point of view, this is a giant leap backward, why ?

 

Take the first page; No one really cares about what's new, highly rated, most watched regardless of the game and type of download; Consequently you have to generate a page, load tiny useless images for informations nobody cares about (as they are mostly irrelevant to one's particular interest).

The only relevant informations displayed is the navigation on the left...

 

Now let's go into the SF subsection, once again we are presented with useless pictures and a great mix of skins, weapons, planes, terrains, for both SF1 and SF2, with no clear distinction between them (you have to read a pale grey text on on pale blue background to be sure of the nature of the download and can determine whether it's for SF1 or SF2 only by going into the details or if it's in the first line of the description.

Utterly useless, and once again, you lose resources, bandwidth and viewers time by loading all those ridiculous thumbnails.

Once again, the only useful part of the page is the navigation.

 

Let's move on to the SF2 subsection (and below), at last informations displayed start to be relevant enough to be useful, however, the thumbnails are too small to be useful and use bandwidth and loading time for nothing, getting rid of them entirely would make more sense.

Next are the titles, beyond the pale grey on pale blue readability issue there is the whole problem of the title being far too big, diminishing it a little and reducing vertical spacing won't reduce readability but it will increase the density of information, needing less scrolling for the end user (at the moment I can have up to 9 articles on one page on a 1680*1050 screen).

 

Worse, if you go into the SF1 subsection rather than SF2, what was one page away is now two pages away; In the old system you could go from the SF1 subsection directly to the SF1>Planes>Cold War planes, now you have to first load the SF1>Planes page.

 

Quite frankly, it's atrocious; I don't doubt you made the move because the new code offered better back-end, but on the front-end it's just mind-bogglingly bad.

I also do understand the changes might be a way to augment page count and thus get better returns from ads for non-subscribers, however, the increased resource use and the degradation of experience for everyone, including subscribers, might not be worth it in the long run.

 

What was once austere but efficient became an atrocious scroll-fest full of useless thumbnails and barely readable text next to uselessly over-sized titles (granted, those points are easy to fix).

 

What's worse, despite all the useless cosmetic changes, the IP.Board search engine is still ridiculously outdated, still resembling some student project from the early 90's in terms of functionality, meaning you have no other way to find your download than through browsing it all through this crime against web design.

Edited March 9, 2011 by Gunrunner

[ndicki 22]

I have to admit it's a little different...

[+suhsjake 11]

I am sure they are not done yet, but the layout is a bit annoying at the present time.

 

Also Erik, are you planning on breaking down the SF2 section similar to the SF1 section. It definitely needs and organizational update.

[Teras 67]

no re-design its just a new copy of the whole script ( Invasion Power Board or IP.Board )

its deferent and honestly the last one was better by the look or the css and other tables.

[+Dave 2,319]

I am sure they are not done yet, but the layout is a bit annoying at the present time.

 

Also Erik, are you planning on breaking down the SF2 section similar to the SF1 section. It definitely needs and organizational update.

 

I can answer that, the answer is no not at this time. Why? Because the last time I did it, it really messed things up. Like bad and it took Erik a long long time to fix it all. I may be speaking ignorantly (in a nut shell) but what had happened was all the file moving ect put a strain in the server and it nuked itself. I am sure I'm talking in the lowest form of what happened but that was my take from it all.

 

Updating this software is a huge task and Erik has often spent all night doing this then has to go work his day job. I think if the file section gets too huge then we will come up with a plan to do it without nuking something. For the time being though its not that much of a pain to go through as its not that big. Its 846 files compared to 5335 files.

 

Finally, I dont want to add more work for Erik, his time is limited. That is why you don't see him long periods of time.

[DarthRevan 3]

The new download section is totally useless/nonfunctional for us that doesn't use IE or Firefox. I use Chrome and that site doesn't work. I can't speak for other browser but Chrome + Download section = Nonfunctional. It seems most sites takes it for given that everyone uses Internet Explorer or Firefox.

[+Dave 2,319]

DarthRaven

 

In that case I would use Firefox and IE then. Somethings might be even out of Erik's control. I'm sure he will look into it though.

 

 

[OneoftheLost 0]

I like it! It works fine in chrome for me.

[+malibu43 142]

I can certainly live with the new format for the D/L section, but if I was to share my opinion (and I am going to ) the old format was much easier to use.

 

Definitely appreciate all the work Erik does, though, and if it isn't a priority to get it fixed, then that doesn't bother me.

[+Gunrunner 313]

Revan, Works fine in Chrome here too... what is exactly happening for you ?

 

Mods/Admins, thanks for moving the topic in its proper place.

Edited March 9, 2011 by Gunrunner

[+suhsjake 11]

I can answer that, the answer is no not at this time. Why? Because the last time I did it, it really messed things up. Like bad and it took Erik a long long time to fix it all. I may be speaking ignorantly (in a nut shell) but what had happened was all the file moving ect put a strain in the server and it nuked itself. I am sure I'm talking in the lowest form of what happened but that was my take from it all.

 

Updating this software is a huge task and Erik has often spent all night doing this then has to go work his day job. I think if the file section gets too huge then we will come up with a plan to do it without nuking something. For the time being though its not that much of a pain to go through as its not that big. Its 846 files compared to 5335 files.

 

Finally, I dont want to add more work for Erik, his time is limited. That is why you don't see him long periods of time.

 

No worries and thanks for the response Dave.

 

Always appricative of Eriks hard work. Without him, CA wouldn't be what is today.

[+Erik 1,733]

The feedback is appreciated and will be included in our final draft. It's been a year since we upgraded software and in software lifetimes that's an eternity. To evolve we must remain current and to support new platforms like hand held devices and tablets this process is inevitable. I know it's a pain in the backside for everyone including me so bear with us while we make these changes and move forward. It may take some time before I can actually get to some suggestions and ideas but I'll keep them in mind. The first process is getting everything working then we can add the window dressing.

 

Please keep me posted here with any functionality problems or suggestions for improvements. If I don't get feedback I assume everyone is happy so feel free to be involved in the process.

 

E

[DarthRevan 3]

Revan, Works fine in Chrome here too... what is exactly happening for you ?

 

Mods/Admins, thanks for moving the topic in its proper place.

 

The Download button doesn't show up in Chrome for me.

Edited March 10, 2011 by DarthRevan

[+Erik 1,733]

The Download button doesn't show up in Chrome for me.

 

Can you confirm that on this skin "CA Classic" the problem is NOT there?

 

Thanks

 

E

[+Erik 1,733]

P.S. : Damned, I managed to post it in the wrong forum... this should have gone into Bug Reports/Suggestions, sorry.

 

Can't we have the old system back, or at least as an option, please, pretty please with a cherry on top ?

 

Let me explain...

 

From a pure usability point of view, this is a giant leap backward, why ?

 

Take the first page; No one really cares about what's new, highly rated, most watched regardless of the game and type of download; Consequently you have to generate a page, load tiny useless images for informations nobody cares about (as they are mostly irrelevant to one's particular interest).

The only relevant informations displayed is the navigation on the left...

 

Now let's go into the SF subsection, once again we are presented with useless pictures and a great mix of skins, weapons, planes, terrains, for both SF1 and SF2, with no clear distinction between them (you have to read a pale grey text on on pale blue background to be sure of the nature of the download and can determine whether it's for SF1 or SF2 only by going into the details or if it's in the first line of the description.

Utterly useless, and once again, you lose resources, bandwidth and viewers time by loading all those ridiculous thumbnails.

Once again, the only useful part of the page is the navigation.

 

Let's move on to the SF2 subsection (and below), at last informations displayed start to be relevant enough to be useful, however, the thumbnails are too small to be useful and use bandwidth and loading time for nothing, getting rid of them entirely would make more sense.

Next are the titles, beyond the pale grey on pale blue readability issue there is the whole problem of the title being far too big, diminishing it a little and reducing vertical spacing won't reduce readability but it will increase the density of information, needing less scrolling for the end user (at the moment I can have up to 9 articles on one page on a 1680*1050 screen).

 

Worse, if you go into the SF1 subsection rather than SF2, what was one page away is now two pages away; In the old system you could go from the SF1 subsection directly to the SF1>Planes>Cold War planes, now you have to first load the SF1>Planes page.

 

Quite frankly, it's atrocious; I don't doubt you made the move because the new code offered better back-end, but on the front-end it's just mind-bogglingly bad.

I also do understand the changes might be a way to augment page count and thus get better returns from ads for non-subscribers, however, the increased resource use and the degradation of experience for everyone, including subscribers, might not be worth it in the long run.

 

What was once austere but efficient became an atrocious scroll-fest full of useless thumbnails and barely readable text next to uselessly over-sized titles (granted, those points are easy to fix).

 

What's worse, despite all the useless cosmetic changes, the IP.Board search engine is still ridiculously outdated, still resembling some student project from the early 90's in terms of functionality, meaning you have no other way to find your download than through browsing it all through this crime against web design.

 

 

I don't have time to answer all of this, but can you confirm this layout is what you were looking for more or less? The functionality of the download section has changed quite a bit with some vast improvements to the front end not the back end. I could go into detail but it's boring babble unless you're into that sort of thing. What hopefully everyone will understand is that upgrades on a community of this size require vast amounts of time. I would not commit myself and others to this drudgery unless it was necessary, and it was.

 

Thanks.

 

E

[DarthRevan 3]

Can you confirm that on this skin "CA Classic" the problem is NOT there?

 

Thanks

 

E

 

There is only one skin to change to and that is CA Classic no other skin is available in my chrome

[+Gunrunner 313]

Erik, that's a better proposition yes, it eases access with less clutter and when there's "embelished" content, it's actually relevant; Thanks for taking my whining into account, but don't lose sleep over it if you lack the time/motivation.

 

Revan, which version of Chrome are you using ?

I'm using Chrome 10 and have no trouble of the sort.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Gunrunner

[DarthRevan 3]

Gunrunner I updated my Chrome to the latest one just before I logged in here and the problem is still there.

[DarthRevan 3]

I just found out that the whole dowmload section doesn't load properly on my computer but I reloaded the section and now it show up properly.

[+Erik 1,733]

Erik, that's a better proposition yes, it eases access with less clutter and when there's "embelished" content, it's actually relevant; Thanks for taking my whining into account, but don't lose sleep over it if you lack the time/motivation.

 

Revan, which version of Chrome are you using ?

I'm using Chrome 10 and have no trouble of the sort.

 

I've trimmed some of the fat out of the download section and there will be more changes coming soon. I'm on the fence about some of the stuff being fluff and some of it being useful, that's a direct reply to the "clutter and emblished content". The reason I mention this is because I can't count the times I've seen, "where is the weapons pack?" when it's the most downloaded file on the site. Sure to those of us who are old hat it's a no brainer but to those less familiar new content, most downloaded content, and highest rated content makes for deciphering the thousands of files a bit easier. Those options when used by the members correctly especially file ratings can sure go a long way. Reviews and ratings are a big thing. I can't tell you the last time I haven't read a review on something or valued what others thought about it before I took the time download it or purchase it whether it be software or a large appliance. Some of the concerns might just be attributed to change. I know most of us like things that are familiar to us but I'm confident the changes that were made are so minimally invasive that adapting won't be hard. The form and function remains the same just things have moved a bit. I'm confident even this change will soon become common place to everyone so much that if we made a change back in a couple weeks to the old stuff the new stuff would be missed. Concerning the "time/motivation" thing if you knew anything about me you'd find that very humorous so thanks but that's never been and never will be an issue this community has to worry about.

 

E