That looks so Neat! I can't wait for this new layout to take effect! :D

*Sees the news post on the right*
ABOUT FUCKING TIME.
*Clicks the forum link*
….
*Crawls into a hole and cries*

So, when I sign up for this Drunkduck thing, I get a free use of dispenser? HOLY SHIT that's awesome. I love dispenser.

Looks okay. I can't really say much, it just looks like you're improving what we currently have. But I guess when we get it we'll know absolutely all the differences.

But until then, I will have horrid flashbacks of the last redesign, and be completley cynical.
Then I'll threaten to leave the site, then forget how the old site looked.

The circle of redesigning websites. :D

The chick in the maximum clarity ad has a maximum butt chin.

I'm not sure I like the green so much, but then I've been around since the early days of Howard Johnson syled blue and orange. It's your site to do with what you want, and all the stuff looks snazzy and sleek, but it won't feel like Drunk Duck to me unless it's blue and orange.

Think of It like Coke. They're always messing with the look to make things fresh, but it's always red and white.

Diet Drunkduck with Lime.

ksteak, at least in this thread please try to contribute. :]

I'm late to the party but I'm really happy to see that you're making an effort to improve DrunkDuck so thank you for that. Overall I think I like the design though the colours do seem a little too bright. I don't know if it's been said but I don't really care for the location of the featured comics. Putting them on the top like that makes them look like an advertising banner to me and that makes me want to avoid clicking on them. I'd be a little worried that people browsing the main page would skip them thinking it's an ad as well.

Just my 2 cents. Thanks again and really looking forward to seeing this go live.

someone

ayesinback

srhdt
On another note, expect a post regarding the new color scheme shortly.

YAY!! That green was uber ouchy.

Why are we assuming that the green is going? This simply says there'll be a post about the colour scheme at some point: it gives no indication of what's going to happen, or not happen, as the case may be.

?? Hope springs eternal?

Just to clarify, I like green, but this rendition practically pulsates. The intensity/brightness of the color competes with the content for attention, instead of enhancing the content. I find myself wanting to move away from the page more quickly rather than lingering to see what the page offers.

On the other hand, I very much like the horizontal layout of comics rather than the current vertical presentation, although as darrell and others have noted, the featured comics may be ignored because of the upper banner location.

I like the green, green is my favorite color, even pulsating lime green! LOL! But, perhaps blending the darker green at the top into a brown or blue would instead of the lime at the bottom would work better. The green does make sense though since the Duck is green. I just suggest the green to brown or green to blue since the Quail is brown and blue is the color of the logo font. As for the like/dislike/top ten thing. I'm open to Oz's explanation that it could be two different lists in that the 10 spot could end up showing comics that get more outside traffic rather than internal traffic from DD users and I feel as if my own comic is one such case such as this, since I don't get a lot of comments or votes but do seem to get a fairly decent amount of daily page views. So, I'm willing to see how it goes, but I'm all for anything that gets my work or anyone else's more exposure. I think Loud G had a lot of great suggestions as well and I want to second those, but it was said that new suggestions are for another thread so I'll leave it at that.

As a reader, rather than a creator, and a new one at that, I cannot comment on everything noted in previous posts.

But, I do like the general look of the new design, although like many I found it very bright. I am relieved the duck will stay in some way and see that you are keeping the yellow and blue of the logo. Also, I especially like the idea that I would not keep needing to click my favourites to see them - it means I am more likely to visit regularly ;)

I cannot comment fully on the discussion about top ten, like and random. However, I have found a few comics through clicking on the randoms albeit more through browsing. But of all the comments/suggestions made, I believe I would miss the random ones most and I love the idea of being able to locate finished comics in some way

Now I shall sit back and wait to see what appears and hope my eyesight holds out if it remains bright lime green :)

I love that you guys are working on improving Drunk Duck!

But I must say, the bright colours are too much; not only to look at while browsing the site, but I think the new banner might clash with a lot of the css floating out there on webcomic pages - unless we are allowed to select the header tone on our own comic pages, then it wouldn't be so bad.

For myself, however, I am very sensitive to migraines; and such bright colours would likely drive me away from the main page rather quickly. Otherwise, the design is great.

some kind of gradient effect for the color green would help.

OK, at first I was I was going to agree with everyone else and say the colours are too bright, but now that I look at it again they're not as bad as I thought they were.

What I will address is that the featured comics would be better placed under the logo (and banner ad) because they would be more noticeable there.

The colors are ugly. From what I've seen, it looks awful. But why the need to change it? If anything, please change the color scheme. I don't want a lime-green Drunk Duck. I hate how you can now choose a “Like” button. There's not even a dislike button. Just a like? We all know the Top Ten comics will also be the same under “Most Liked” bar, so really, what's the difference? I hope to god that users can still comment on comic pages.

I think there used to be an option to change the theme of the site that would also change the color scheme. Why not implement something like that and allow users to change the color scheme?

Don't forget this from four days ago:

srhdt
expect a post regarding the new color scheme shortly.

Substituting Quail's Random with Most Liked is a BAD idea. Just like Hark said right above my post, the Top 10 don't need more promotion than they already have. It's all the others that could use some. And THAT is what Quail's Random is for. Any comic can get featured in that column at any point, regardless of its popularity. There are some pretty darn good comics out there that have poor readership and could never be noticed otherwise. Especially not through the Most Liked column. So, if there HAS TO be a Most Liked column, it should replace the Top 10. Which will probably feature the same comics anyway, so it's like nothing ever changed.

As for the color theme… The first time I saw it, I loved it. I look at it now - on a rainy, gray day - and it makes my eyes bleed. I guess you can get used to anything - but an alternative would be nice.

Wow. I've looked at the colour scheme on several different monitors and it always seems pretty nice ^_^

I think with colour it's a pretty subjective thing. Perhaps the biggest issue is that it's so different to what we have now, so it's sort of a shock?
Personally, I find the current scheme extremely depressing and ghastly. :(

ozoneocean
I think with colour it's a pretty subjective thing. Perhaps the biggest issue is that it's so different to what we have now, so it's sort of a shock?

It's not the colour so much as the intensity. It's ok for you Oz, you're an Australian: us Brits are not used to such bright light. When I look at that green I need vaseline to stop my lips cracking.

Ironscarf
It's not the colour so much as the intensity. It's ok for you Oz, you're an Australian: us Brits are not used to such bright light. When I look at that green I need vaseline to stop my lips cracking.

Oh you crazy but lovable pommy bastard! :)

Skool and I spoke with Kinh last night. He says that the new look is tentatively slated for launch next week and the colours will be toned down a bit.
They will stay green for now, with the colour change or “themes” option being added in the next feature roll-out in another few months.
-tests just have to be done to see how the new things work with comic templates.

This roll-out mostly concerns aesthetic changes, the next one will tackle features.

LAAAAAAaaaaaate.

Anyway, here's my two cents.

-1- That bright green hurts. I really hope that the new scheme has a darker, cooler green. It'd look better in my opinion.

-2- I agree that the likes bar is just gonna be another top ten. Don't believe me and EVERY OTHER MEMBER who has said that just look at the stats for the comics and see what the average between 4's and 5's and comments made is. Then arrange from highest to lowest, betcha the list looks very similar to the unique views list. That is also how you can tell how the new rating system is going to work. I'm a CS major, that bit about not knowing how it's going to work is, excuse me, bullshit. you have to track the number of comments and the number of each rating. It shouldn't be that hard to write a script that compiles that data for you into a nice neat list.

-3- Flip the vertical order of the featured comics and the tool bar.The accent color (which is too loud by the way) should be able to draw attention to them.

-4- Are the forums going to be the same as before with improvements or is the team behind it considering using vBulletin or something similar?

Salsa
-2- I agree that the likes bar is just gonna be another top ten. Don't believe me and EVERY OTHER MEMBER who has said that just look at the stats for the comics and see what the average between 4's and 5's and comments made is. Then arrange from highest to lowest, betcha the list looks very similar to the unique views list. That is also how you can tell how the new rating system is going to work. I'm a CS major, that bit about not knowing how it's going to work is, excuse me, bullshit. you have to track the number of comments and the number of each rating. It shouldn't be that hard to write a script that compiles that data for you into a nice neat list.

No, you're not correct.
And that IS easy to tell too ;)
-Look at all the comics in the top ten. Look at the amount of comments they have. Look at when their updates were posted.

There are many other comics that get a whole HEAP of comments and votes every day, while some of those top ten comics only get a few on the day they update (which could have been a few days ago), what keeps then in the top ten is the unique hits.
SO if “like” votes can only be done by DD users, then the lists WILL be different.
Charby will still be No1 in both though, and maybe Cru :)

Salsa
-4- Are the forums going to be the same as before with improvements or is the team behind it considering using vBulletin or something similar?

They will stay the same for now I believe. Improvements will happen in the next feature roll out. I think they'll use some standard forum code… not completely sure though. Hopefully it won't be TOO different to what we have though. Standard forum stuff is good in that you have lots of options, but often there are way too many and they're not very user friendly :(

ozoneocean
No, you're not correct.
And that IS easy to tell too ;)
-Look at all the comics in the top ten. Look at the amount of comments they have. Look at when their updates were posted.

There are many other comics that get a whole HEAP of comments and votes every day, while some of those top ten comics only get a few on the day they update (which could have been a few days ago), what keeps then in the top ten is the unique hits.
SO if “like” votes can only be done by DD users, then the lists WILL be different.
Charby will still be No1 in both though, and maybe Cru :)

>< Didn't think of that, but still my point about checking the ratio of the number of fours and fives and the number of comments to see if the lists are the same or similar still stands.

As for the forum stuff, I understand that they'll update that later, I'm just curious.

I had some trepidation when I came into this thread, but I'm excited now! I think I picked a good time to throw myself back into the community.

I'm thrilled by how responsive the people in charge are to the questions and suggestions of the people here. Usually, in my experience, designers just throw something out with a “like it or go home” kind of attitude– taking the time to respond to concerns and take ideas on board is a wonderful sign. I basically have three comments beyond this:

-I'm also concerned by the possible duplication of the top ten/most liked lists, but the admins have said that if that happens after a trial period, then they'll look into changing it. I'm quite happy to give it that trial period and see what happens. :)

-I'd love to see what an earlier user mentioned about notification upon getting a comment. I'd love something Facebook style where I could opt to receive an e-mail when I get a comment (or not, if I was someone who didn't like e-mails! :D)

-What I would love, LOVE to see on the forum is a search function. I loooooove a good forum search function. :D

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of responses in the last few days, but just a couple of quick updates:

I've posted new images in the first post of the thread. Not of new pages, but of the current pages with an altered color scheme. I want to stress that these pages are STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS, as were the previous pages I posted. We care very much about the community's opinions on how we shape the site, and these new pages, while more indicative of what the look will be in October, are not necessarily final. Obviously the comments in the thread regarding “color intensity” and “brightness” of the previous iteration are being taken into consideration, and we will continue to shape the look of the site as the process moves forward. Let us know your thoughts!

Secondly, based on the general feelings of most of the people here, we've decided to keep the Quail's Random row in the homepage and keep the Most Liked row out for now. We actually have some really cool plans for the Like button in the near future, such as incorporating a “recommended comics” feature into the site based on the comics that you “Like”, kind of like what Netflix or Amazon does. But until we can implement that kind of stuff, I don't want to take away a feature on the home page that so many people clearly enjoy and replace it with something that isn't quite as fully utilized as it will eventually be in the future.

Again, thanks for everyone continuing to voice their thoughts in the thread. Continue to do so, and we'll continue to listen!

Thanks for the update.

I'm still not sold on having the featured comics above the logo. My natural tendency is to overlook things on the top of the page (conditioned by a few decades of standard banner advertising), and I fear that others might do the same regardless of how they are presented or highlighted.

Aside from that, thanks for being so responsive and listening to feedback. I don't have anything to add (until after I see things implemented). I'm looking forward to seeing the new designs in action – and especially glad you are tweaking and testing them ahead of time.


Oh, and that's cool about the recommended thing. I'd love to see something like that implemented to find comics of related/shared interests. :)

If we're keeping Quail's random I'd like to suggest we change the feature to include some practical improvements to the Q-Random to make it more effective because the more effective Q-random is at connecting people with interesting the comics the more likely readers are to use it.

I'd suggest Q-random sort out the following if possible

-Comics already in Most Liked or Top 10. It is redundant.
-Comics that have not updated in X-months but are not complete. I personally avoid Q-random because I don't want to have my time wasted with comics that are no longer updating enough comics I like go on hiatus after I start reading them.
-Comics already in your favorites list. It is redundant.

Actually I would highly suggest we replace Q's random with a semi-random Recomended comic feature based on the comics you have faved. I know those are far from perfect but at least I personally have never started reading a comic from a random list but I have started reading many comics from weighted recomendations on various comics sites or various reader's recomended lists here on DD.

Secondly I have another suggestion find a place for comic banners, at least in the browse section of DD. Imagine if you went to the comic store and instead of comics having regular sized covers with all that detail each one instead have a postage stamp. That is what it is like representing your comic only with a thumbnail. I realize there are many reasons why thumbnails are used on the main page but all comics here would benefit from being able to represent their comic with more then a postage stamp.

Lastly put in text the words web comic, hosting, community and any other good search terms you can think of somewhere, in text not as part of an image, on the main page so they get picked up by search engines. When last I check DD had terrible, awful search optimization which hurts the whole site.

srhdt
Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of responses in the last few days, but just a couple of quick updates:

I've posted new images in the first post of the thread. Not of new pages, but of the current pages with an altered color scheme . . .

This color revision entirely satisfies my problem with brightness/intensity. I can't speak for the others (obviously) but Thank you so much!
The only other tweak that I'd like to see is what usedbooks noted: flipping the features row below the “drunk duck” + advertising row.

Really, thank you so much for taking these comments to heart.

Can we please keep the suggestions for new features and altered functionality in the Suggestions subforum? I do appreciate that DDers have good ideas and are suggesting useful things, but:

1. I think it's important to keep THIS thread on-topic so the issues currently under consideration can be more easily managed

2. Currently this is mainly a visual overhaul with just a few basic features added, later on there may be other functionality changes and when it comes to designing those it will be easier to find the suggestions when they are all in the same place (the suggestions subforum)