NEW HOMEPAGE DESIGN DISCUSSION

A return of the newsfeed along the left nav would be tits. I miss that so much.

Did I miss something?  Where's the main site?

 

 

This would be so very, very nice.

All I would say is... pair it down.  Pair it down a lot.  I hate to bring up BAD, but something sort of like BAD with maybe a list of the most recent articles on the left would be great.

Already said my bit here.  Also, the newsfeed on the left is seconded.

Stick to a two column layout. it makes the content distribution cleaner. Also make navigation stand out. The current nav buttons get a bit lost in the header.

Less crap taking up the screen please! Keep the banners at the top (of course), that film ribbon thingee just below below the banner with the most current stories, then underneath that, just list a blurb for the most recent Columns, News, Blogs etc. with hot links so you can easily click on the content that you are interested in. Maybe 5-7 of the most recent content only. And keep the most current Board discussions on the right.

 

That's all I got.

Edited by Cylon Baby - 11/18/11 at 2:35pm

Ok, I am looking at the page right now.

 

- Keep the top part (columns, news, reviews bar  and UP). Its awesome.

 

- Streamline the next sections. Lose the Grill (i know it looks cool but its way to big and basically reiterates what the picture bar above it does),  and move that picture bar to the left of the Welcome to the Sewer, and put the ad bar right below that.

 

-Then have your left side Nav start, and maybe your right side nav for Message board posts (limit them to a few, so the Blogs don't get sent all the way down the page, half way to china. and the footer actually looks like it belongs to the page, not out in the middle of black space land cause all the mboard posts make the page a foot and a half long or whatever)

 

 

When you first click on the page, you shouldn't have to scroll anywhere to see the latest news and the like. I think taking out the grill and making everything above the content smaller so that more of the content shows up pre-scroll, is a good idea.

 

Keep the color scheme, but as for the logo, I honestly believe that maybe go back to the last header logo, because as much as I like this logo, I think it might not be something that is attractive to the 'masses'. I know WE love our tentacles and lovcraftian mythology, the average user probably isn't as up on it)

 

 

I'll never understand Chud's disdain for the blog format. It's popular because it works, and most of what Chud puts out could fit in one timeline anyway. At the moment the reader is thrown in the deep end and expected to find content that interests them somewhere in a mass of identical looking lists of links, without much motivation for doing so. What it really needs is a 'keep it simple, stupid' approach, keeping in mind how to communicate what the site has to the audience.

 

When it comes to non-blog sites, I think the AV Club front page is very well done. It manages to cover a huge amount of content spread across different subsections in a way that is easy to understand and easy to navigate. I'm not as keen on the new Pitchfork redesign because you have to do too much scrolling, but you do know exactly what you're looking at with that.

Film.com & the last version of GUY.com

 

 

The AV Club has a great front page, mostly because the different sections are well demarcated. CHUD isn't like that. There's News, Home Videos, Columns, Reviews with these similar-looking blocks of text and they're all just kind of there. The way I see it, latest news needs to be front and center, followed by unique CHUD-EXCLUSIVE content such as Lost & Found or Franchise Me and you need to find a way to draw the eye to them in different ways.

 

Not to mention that to the right there's another column with THE SAME LINKS. That's pretty ridiculous. I get having the links on the side once you've clicked on a story, but having them repeated there on the front page is unecessary and confusing. You can definitely make better use of that space to list unique content - maybe having it be stuff that's cool but draws fewer page-views, like the Blogs or Home Video Reviews

 

In fact, at the moment some links are repeated on the front page 4 times (not including ones that are repeated in picture-form, because that's cool). For example, 365 Days of Sci Fi is under both Latest News and Latest Column twice. The way I see it, that stuff should not be under "news" at all because it isn't news, neither are any of the lists, blogs or reviews which appear there. 

- I agree with what people are saying about the top. Logo is to big and the fact you need to scroll to get to news just isn't good enough.

 

- The actual news and articles need to be upfront and center. Preferebly more blog like (yeah I know, but it works). Right now, having to scan through so much text is simply frustrating.

 

- Please somehow sort your news items. It can be very annoying to suddenly have 4 DVD reviews and 5 instances of "365 days of sci-fi" fill out the entire news section. Sometimes I miss one of Renn's fantastic reviews or columns by Josh, because they are pushed away by so much "filler".

 

- There is no need for "latest" on the right side.

 

- If you want to keep the big news slider, please at least update it, so the visitor can see previews of the rest of the items it contain. Maybe it's a bit redundant to have both this big slider and the smaller one just above (the one with 7 tiled pictures). Instead just have one, better working.

 

Good luck, and very pleased to hear that CHud sticks around for at least a little while longer!

I mentioned this in another thread, but traffic wise, I know lots of people, film professionals, who generally would visit this site more, but the black/green thing totally makes it unreadable for them. I know this site is stuck in the mud with things like that, but if you're redesigning stuff, make it drastic and push the site out of the 90s. I also agree, it needs to be more blog like, just because it works and fits in with the reading habits of people today. But as I said, more film.com than badassdigest. Also, its more of a content thing than design, but can we please cut the filler? Way too many DVD reviews that will never be read.

How much of Guy's final layout would you be able to use?  Meaning, can you completely cop that look(and maybe some of the architecture?) and not get into legal trouble? 

 

Before I go into more detail on my own opinions I'd like to know.  Thank you.

I've brought that up before and I'm not sure anyone ever replied, so I assume no.

Oh well... here goes anyway then.

 

I figure you take the filmstrips we have now, ads and article pics and go slightly backwards with the design of the front page.  Use a guy.com format if you can but run the filmstrips on the sides of the front page like an actual roll of film again as in a past design.  Left hand film strip could be your left hand nav bar that everyone wants a return to(I think it's a bad idea if you use words like in the past, personally) but with pics instead of words and the right side could be ads ala GUY.  Then you use another filmstrip in the break sections between your six blocks ala GUY for more ads.

 

If you can use the six "block" Media, Tasting, Library, Control, Lounge and Outhouse design then you go News, [Reviews, Columns](not sure if I wouldn't reverse these two just yet), Home Video, Blogs and Community.  What this accomplishes for you is what I and many others kept harping on with the redesign thread last year; it brings all the pertinent information UP where you do not have to scroll to get to content.  Scrolling down to get to content is why I hardly ever navigate to the front page anymore.  I come straight to the boards and if I see a main page thread for an article that interests me I go to the front page.  I'd be willing to bet that if anyone else cares to admit they have been doing this as well.  What it also accomplishes IF people do scroll is that you get the blogs front and center unlike the right hand nav now AND you spotlight the boards again but neither are sidebar second thoughts.  They are front and center and tell the browsing public that we, as a community, are the entire site and not just the main draws of News and Reviews.

 

I said it last year but you HAVE to(personally) take "Welcome to the Sewer" and lose the tentacles there and stamp it right on top of CHUD.COM, either the CH or the M, whichever looks best.  As I typed all this I think putting on the M works best.  Reading it as such, "CHUD.COm...Welcome to the Sewer".  I think that MAYBE you lose the tentacle design altogether but I'm not to sure about that right now.  It seems that keeping it may make the site feel too niche and unwelcoming for the hopefully desired audience expansion but then again, we are CHUD.

 

Back to the six block format; if you can cop that then you have your blog without feeling like a blog look and you get pretty awesome nav in my opinion.  Now, keeping one the one big pic and two small pics to highlight the newest stuff and the MORE buttons below is probably too labor intensive to keep rotating but if it is NOT then it is a fantastic idea.  I would say that somehow the MORE buttons need to have better visibility though.  But the drop down menu to access more content is good.  And the black bars on the bottom of the pictures like "This Week in Television" or "Wooden Wine Cellars-The Basics" well... that is where your trademarked CHUD snarky taglines go.

 

I'm torn on the color.  I don't see how anyone could think the black/white/green is difficult to read but I also couldn't even BEGIN to tell you what color scheme would fit in with this place besides it.

 

I'd love to be involved on this on maybe a coding level, for mobile security mostly.

Yeah the banner needs to go smaller.

The overall feel and look needs to get more uniform. You got metal, cartoon tenticles, shadow tenticles, and then the banner with film strip and eyes and UGH you see!!!!

On the bottom: I'd create tabs for the 4 news sections. If people want them, they can see them. Oh and image thumbnails!!!!

Maybe move the stuff on the right to the bottom, have a current member shout out, bring up the random quotes.

The ads can stay where they are, one top, one big fat one on the side, then the articles/forum, then another ad, then maybe another small one at the bottom. You can sneak in an Amazon promo or something along the side as well.

I'd say really take a look at ign.com. I'm not saying you guys should be like them in terms of content, but their layout is pretty good. If you're thinking total changes, maybe check out theverge.com.

Reviews of discs, should not only have amazon as an option. Have a section that calls this out, not some dinky little text.

I've got a shit tons of ideas on how to integrate the ads a little more smoothly and make calls to them in the reviews. You know where to find me, because I have one that's pretty big too.

Please never let the site look like IGN, it's horrible and busy and slow as hell to use.

Lose that logo altogether. Take it back to previous designs, a circle or something stamp like that can be easily integrated into other parts of the site.

I could go into specifics (Stuff other people have already mentioned, for the most part), but instead I'll just say this: make the news the star

 

Make the headlines clear, and either be blog like (like BAD), or offer a two sentence summery of the news (or the first two sentences of the article) under the headlines on the NAV BAR. I'm not a fan of image banners with, say, a photo of AVENGERS and a two word headline like "BIG NEWS!" (which has been HUFFPO's style, at least in recent years. That stuff drives me batty)

 

Tell me what an article is, make clear what it's about, and I will click to read it if I am interested to learn more

 

 

Stop referencing Badass Digest when describing what you want CHUD to look like, please.

Yeah, I figured that would the big obstacle.  I am sure you saw my thoughts already but I realize that the architecture of GUY would probably increase labor on the backend of CHUD immensely.  If something similar to what I said above can be done though, I think that would satisfy the people who want a blog and the people who want a more wordy look.

 

One absolute that i would hate to see is anything approximating the first look of GUY or Netlfix' new tablet optimized layouts.  Giant pictures and side-to-side navigation suck.

 

I must say, I like the Logo. I think it works well, but would make it smaller. The grill is nice, but it takes up so much space. I love the header bar and the Chud/Community buttons.

 

Green and White on Black looks fine. I don't understand what makes it unreadable. I like the idea of a news section, a review section, and maybe a columns section (help highlight things like Geriatrocities and 365 of Sci Fi and Lost and Found, but only post the newest ones per column, not the newest columns.) As much as I use the Latest Posts column, I sometimes wonder if it is a good thing. When we have forum squabbles, they show up on the front page for a long time.   I am not a fan of the blog idea. I like the website format; the homepage needs revamping.

Nothing is sacred, design wise. If it's going to make it easier and boost traffic and clicks, I'm for it.

Especially since their new design is painfully bad. I'll just echo others' opinion that  "The Latest" -- or however you're going to brand the primary news feed -- needs to be back above the fold in a semi-prominent position.

 

Personally, I always find simple to be better. People like to bitch about the new Deadspin/Kotaku design, but I honestly find it to be one of the friendliest on the Net right now.

"Dammit, CHUD, where's my tab?"
 

     Quote:

I'm not crazy about the floating eyeball graphics on the left. Doesn't really add anything to the redesign. 

Just a small pet peeve of mine: I really like the community tab leading to my subscribed threads and the top threads etc., but if there was a top button that just went straight to the forum index for plain browsing I think it'd be clearer to new readers that there actually is a forum, especially since the "latest posts" feed is wayyyy down the page. For the front page itself, I'll just echo the sentiment that the article names need to be immediately available to a reader to hook them.

Except snarky headlines and lead ins he meant to say.

 

Sure! Didn't mean to upset you. I don't go to many sites, much less movie sites, so I have a limited frame of reference when it comes to describing things

 

Essentially what I was trying to say was this: one good option would be a list of stories, each with an excerpt, so that you could scroll through the page and get the news and then click any stories that interest you

 

Kotaku, in it's current iteration, is one of the most confusing sites I've ever been to. It went from being a simple blog, into I don't know what. I can't find anything there now

You're not the only one to say this, but I seriously don't get it. Featured stories on the left in descending order of importance with the first few graphs available for reading without having to click. Primary news feed in the right sidebar, which independently scrolls. Graphics are minimal making headlines easy to find and scan while also ensuring that the page won't be too busy. I don't understand what's confusing about it. (It's iPad friendly too!) Personally, I'd prefer CHUD go in that direction rather than splashing photographs and graphic tsotchkes all over the place, which often results in a jumbled mess.

I dislike the new Gawker format because I'm the guy who likes having every single article available on a linear, central path. The new one isn't confusing, it's just annoying if I don't care about the top three stories, and because the rest are just shoved way to the side. Basically the old Deadspin layout was exactly what I like in websites, even if it's ugly as sin, because it was highly accessible.  I'm not sure it's really what would work for CHUD, though, because it has fewer updates and more focus on individual articles.

I dunno, you currently have the articles listed in a tab format when you click the sections above. I think something like IGN has (Top Stories, All Updates, Popular Articles) might work.


Please don't take this offensively. All work is appreciated, and I know things are not finalized, but here we go.

• Ugh I hate that the text "Cinematic Happening Under Development" is not straight.
• There still is a mixture of styles here. You have the tentacles, the eyes and the menu bar. Maybe taking them all to the metal look of the grill?
• There is wasted space between the tabs at the top. Search should move to an option in the menu bar. The text in the menu bar has to be straightened.
• Not a fan of the tabs at the top. Maybe just moving them to the menu bar It feels rather redundant at times in the forum to have a "community" link and a "home" button that goes to the same place and being so close to each other.
• Moving the ad to the same place the menu bar in might hurt those custom ad displays that take advantage of the background. I'd keep that area clear with the logo, and maybe the search bar. Having the ad below that. Let the ad expand when needs to grab attention.
• Have menus that expand on mouseover. Quicker, and get the attention faster.
• If CHUD is going to have a network of sites again (if GUY.COM comes back), then maybe a light bar at the top.
• The Menu Bar looks a little too cartoony compared to the metal plates below. Maybe to cut bandwidth, just a metal plate, and use text for the menu.
• Possible image previews for the CHUD grill. One has to wait to see the next one, and can lose attention.
• The grill needs to be bigger! Like take the width of the whole central page. It'll grab attention
• Possibly having a random quote somewhere up there, to show the character of the site.

I really need to do a sketch up, I'm more a visual person, so these were just spitballed ideas. I think the current design has a good idea of grabbing focus right away at the top. It needs to project various things about the site right away. Keep the look homogenous, cut bandwidth where needed, and allow the ads to be prominent, but not overly in the way.

I'd try to point out various things about the old site, but my internet is acting up at the moment, so I'll provide better comparisons later.

Oh and a personal request:

• On the backend: More RSS feeds to access for the app.
• A better mobile backend. Although I'd not touch it till the app goes through. If it's modified, the app my not function and approval might get denied. I'll go into future detail behinds the scenes.
• Mitch needs more of a prominence.

Closer, so much better. I like how fast this is happening. I still think the logo at the foot of the page should be the one at the top, or closer to it. It still feels like a tweak and not the overhaul this place needs to drive traffic and survive though. I'd nuke the film strip entirely.

Looks like we're getting there. I'm inclined to agree that the eyes don't do much. But what of The Chud Man or Uncle Mitch on the main page? I'd welcome a return of either.

 

Also, tits? No? Okay then. 

No! MORE! I demand MORE MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND!

 

But to be serious. This looks good. Others have mentioned it, but I do think it would be a neat idea for the overall look and to support more casual visitors to the site if regular columns like Franchise Me, Crossing Streams, etc, had a permanent icon that would always lead to the most recent installment. Maybe that would make things too busy or take up precious ad space (or be a headache to keep updating, for whoevers admin responsibility that would be). Not sure. 

That is so much better, Joshua.

 

I agree with nuking the film strip.  What, exactly, is the film strip supposed to do, navigation wise?  Unless you want to use it to highlight specific series (like Geriatrocities, which I love), get rid of it.

 

Maybe use it to highlight the latest list or continuing series, and clicking on it takes you to the latest entry?  Or is that what "Columns" is for?

 

ETA: re film strip, essentially what Joshua Miller said, but maybe with the film strip?

Oo. Yeah. That'd work.

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20040801210844/http://chud.com/

Just by going back, CHUD had direct links to Amazon for purchase.

I miss the CHUD man/woman.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050108083757/http://www.chud.com/

The Menu here speaks loads about the site with so little. It shows you're at a movie site and subtle animations, and layout show convey a little about the personality of the site. I like also how the filmstrip thumbnails are huge! It's all very compact, and without scrolling, you're already hooked into the content of the site.

Should have a section for the most popular articles or most commented. Also maybe polls? They do tend to increase page views as it reloads the page to see the results.

With also aligning the commenting side and message board crew, maybe the posts listed in the forum should be locked. That way discussions can only be had on the news posting.

Problem w/ the old marquee menu is that it was too busy.  I also never knew you could click on it and get to places on the site.  It didn't look functional. 

 

I agree that the more whimsical stuff (like CHUD man) would be a nice comeback.

I'm going to post this here, I PM'd it to Nick, seeing if he wanted some help design-wise on the front page, but got no response. I was commissioned to design a film site here in the UK (I do graphic design work on the side), this site is still being coded etc, but I did the design quite a bit in advance. I don't want to look like some kind of self promoting prick or whatever, but I did a lot of market research and tried out lots of designs in coming out with something that people wanted, trying to make it super usable. Now, I'm not saying this is the way to go, but this is what I found was the kind of thing people wanted.

Wow, I'd forgotten how much was on the old site.  Joshua M, I like how the current design is shaping up.  It reminds me of Collider's which I always found simple yet effective.  But if we could get some of those permanent links to regular features like Franchise Me, Thor's Comic Column, the Graboid and bring back the CHUD Man, as well as maybe make the pics at the top slightly bigger, I think we'd have a winner. 

 

Switch around the filmstrip and the ad location. An ad that is center and not hidden in CHUD graphics will stand out more, and get more clicks.