118 replies to this topic

[α∂αмяoss]

Wow, i've been gone for a week a v4 is released?! Looks great!

[Flanders]

I like the clean look overall, but may I make a suggestion?

In regards to the advertisements listed within the tutorial search results, could those perhaps have a different background tint? I browse a lot by thumbnail, and I find myself clicking on ads by accident quite often...maybe it could be set up like Google's sponsored search, where the have the blue background behind their paid advertising?

Just an idea...I'm not sure if the ads on here are based on a click-through rate, and I'd hate to be taking away from someone's business because everything melds together so much.

[Griffin]

I'm gone for a week and the whole site changes heh

Very nice job to everyone involved, looks great

- Griffin

[Demonslay]

I feel kind of bad about only posting in the Help forums now, but I gotta voice my opinion on this, lol.

I really liked the splash page, lol.

When I first came to P2L and noticed the v4 change, I was extremely lost to say the least. And on first impression with the look, I didn't want to because I have always loved P2L... but I kind of slightly... hated it.

I do agree that the tutorials are the single most important content on the page, but I actually missed everything else. Especially having the nice user dock on the front page, and being able to view the news from time to time (since I generally just skip down to the Help section as soon as the forums load up). Also missed the featured site, and pretty much everything else. I honestly miss the ads. To me, they just gave the site a better balance, especially with the three column layout, and the way everything just complimented so well.

I'm kind of torn, because I loved the blue and green, and now I love the new sleeker gray and white, web 2.0 style if you will, but I just don't think they go together that well.

I honestly liked the other navigation better, with the menus on the side. About the only thing I like about the new navigation bar is the Category Browser (which is absolutely perfect in my opinion, definitely much better than that stupid option menu). The rest I honestly kind of hate.

Now granted, I'm a little more used to the site now, and I don't hate it as I did when I first looked, but I did love the old version.

Since I've kind of knocked up all the parts I don't like, I'll put in some positives.

As I've said, I absolutely love the Category Browser; only flaw is when it goes off screen, but that's obviously something that can't be helped, lol. Also is a tad annoying how it clicks off if my mouse goes even a pixel off the menu. Normally wouldn't bother me, but I use a touchpad on a laptop, so, meh. Would be great if it atleast had a half second to second delay before it closes.

I also absolutely love the new way of searching with just one click pretty much, and then it telling you which categories showed results. Absolutely love it.

I also like the way the Featured Tutorial is displayed. Very nice.

The new display row is pretty nice looking for tutorials, but I just honestly liked the old look, with it more centralized in the middle column. Also with it being not so wide, it just looked better to me.

Probably the first time I haven't fallen in love with a new version, but oh well. Love the features, not so crazy about the look and lack of content. I guess I just liked that 'busy' you were trying to get rid of; made the site look more complete to me, and kept me from navigating all over the place for everything.

Well, opinions aside, I still do have to congratulate the staff for a good job. Even if I don't completely like it, I can tell that there was definitely alot of work put into it. So thumbs up guys.

[scientifix94]

I like the clean look overall, but may I make a suggestion?

In regards to the advertisements listed within the tutorial search results, could those perhaps have a different background tint? I browse a lot by thumbnail, and I find myself clicking on ads by accident quite often...maybe it could be set up like Google's sponsored search, where the have the blue background behind their paid advertising?

Just an idea...I'm not sure if the ads on here are based on a click-through rate, and I'd hate to be taking away from someone's business because everything melds together so much.

I definetly agree

[Faken]

Thanks for the comments everyone, keep them coming! I haven't been able to read much up until now because I've been CRAZY busy away from the PC since the day of release unfortunately, but I'll be looking through everything you've been typing and tweaking things here and there. Just bear in mind that it's impossible to make everyone happy (You can quite clearly see some love it and some don't) and people naturally oppose change, even though they would like to think otherwise. If there's anything I've learned after releasing so many sites, it's that after 2 weeks, most of the folks who don't like the new site will love it and probably tell me off if I change it again LOL!

Some key points that I like so far that I will probably look in to:

A small delay on the category browser before it rolls up when the mouse cursor hovers off.

Better ad identification among the tutorials

I've also thought up a couple of ideas based on your feedback that I'll explore that I think ppl will like But like I said, use the site for a couple of weeks and I think you'll find that you'll become very comfortable with the flow of the site and the overall look.

Thanks again and everyone and thanks for the feedback, good or bad The majority is obviously good, so I'm a happy camper.

Dan

[Av-]

Alright, after having played with the category browser for a little while, I pretty much got used it. Regardless it's a hell of a lot faster than the old 'expanding / collapsing' menu's. One thing that does bother me are the colors used in the browser. White fonts on a dark-grey background? I can't seem to find such colors anywhere else on the site and it does not fit with the overall style of the site at all imo. Not to interfere myself too much with the staffs decisions, but here's something I mocked up in Photoshop real quick.



As you can see, I changed them colors that blend a little more with the overall colors. Light-grey from the body background and the new bar above the browser that holds the links to reviews, interviews etc. Green for the rollovers. Still needs some tweaking, but this should get you an idea of what I mean.

Just my two cents

[Faken]

It was done intentionally to contrast heavily with the site so it's easier to see and use. Like I find your example difficult to see actualy We will be tweaking it though in the coming days/weeks anyhow so we'll see what we can cook up

Dan

[drcrazy4]

Maybe if you darken that green bar a tiny bit and make the text white. I think the bar needs to be changed to a different colour because as other people have said it just makes the page look a bit dull. Maybe nothing or bright blue, maybe green.

[SebLev]

Well I love it... personnaly I find it much easier to navigate and much more clean... might take a bit of time to get used to but I'm already getting aorund pretty well

[sp0173d_24]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like it.....

[ChuckDraws]

Okay, I don't have enough time to go through and read all the post's, but I'll write my suggestions anyway:

I've always been a user of the site, and I've only used p2l ever since I've found it. I came in during v2, and I went through the failure of v3, and felt more at home when v3.5 came out. I love the colors you chose, so that's fine. But one suggestion, you need to make the category browser up at the top left of the page more noticable. It took me about a minute to find it, and I'm sure new users may have trouble too. I'm on this site a lot, but I don't really post that much, just when I see major news, or other things that I believe need commented on. I don't mind the ads being on the right side and blending in, because every current user, and even new users know that tutorials are on the left, not the right. I love what you did with the site, but you just need to make the category browser a bit bigger. Oh, and I love how you made it so I don't have to click until I choose my program. Thanks again for looking guys.

-Chuck

[Doppelganger]

feedback from me...
the new des are a big sh!t
what bring many user the search funktion to search on 50sites to dont finde this one what the are want? to see 1000times the indent tutorial on differenz searchwords?
the old menu was 10000times better thats this one
p2l was on of my favorit search engine for tuts but not more
on the old was be better for all search funktion and the dropdown menu
a site for tuts or some information mus be have a structure and mus be usable not what it is at the moment

[Dance]

Im gone for a few days and look what happens.. And i quite like it to!

[Demonslay]

feedback from me...
the new des are a big sh!t
what bring many user the search funktion to search on 50sites to dont finde this one what the are want? to see 1000times the indent tutorial on differenz searchwords?
the old menu was 10000times better thats this one
p2l was on of my favorit search engine for tuts but not more
on the old was be better for all search funktion and the dropdown menu
a site for tuts or some information mus be have a structure and mus be usable not what it is at the moment

Did anyone else understand that?

I like all of the 'Im gone for a week and this happens??' posts.

Edited by Demonslay, 15 July 2007 - 05:05 PM.

[bay]

feedback from me...
the new des are a big sh!t
what bring many user the search funktion to search on 50sites to dont finde this one what the are want? to see 1000times the indent tutorial on differenz searchwords?
the old menu was 10000times better thats this one
p2l was on of my favorit search engine for tuts but not more
on the old was be better for all search funktion and the dropdown menu
a site for tuts or some information mus be have a structure and mus be usable not what it is at the moment

Did anyone else understand that?

Yes, I understood it.

[BradyValentino]

feedback from me...
the new des are a big sh!t
what bring many user the search funktion to search on 50sites to dont finde this one what the are want? to see 1000times the indent tutorial on differenz searchwords?
the old menu was 10000times better thats this one
p2l was on of my favorit search engine for tuts but not more
on the old was be better for all search funktion and the dropdown menu
a site for tuts or some information mus be have a structure and mus be usable not what it is at the moment

Did anyone else understand that?

Yes, I understood it.

Me too

Theres only 2 things I don't like about V4. How the featured tutorial is displayed, I always see it and think that no new tutorials have been added. :/
And the ads in the tutorial listings, I always click them by mistake. Like others have said I think the background should be slightly different, maybe a watermark that says Ads?

[Faken]

Oh dear.. as good as the new look is (and I love it) I just tried it out to find a tut on modeling and apple with Max.
I got ONE result relevant to the search and a shitload of adds. I think some more work is needed.

This is EXACTLY what the previous version did as well, this is nothing new.