Wow. Gotta say that the beta view is pretty bad IMHO.
That's a lot of background noise going on there. Doesn't help readability for me in the slightest.
All the space down the lefthand side, coupled with the below the like signatures that can be quite large leads to a lot of scrolling to read posts.
Also the
thread layout, being the same as the old one, makes it hard to follow the conversation. I would have thought this would be a thing to improve in the upgrade. Maybe using something
like geeklists on the boardgamegeek site. One header with conversations under that header, a new header for a different but related to the OP's topic.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/178180/what-are-best-gateway-games-and-what-category
Edit: For instance Evans
ant village thread would have benefited from this type of layout, with the ability to be able to just subscribe to his updates.
The buttons on the page look like they come from some 90's clip
art. The text on them has that funny backwards highlight shadow thing going on, which makes things unclear.
I'm not particularly bothered by the looks of websites. Usability and information density is what matters most to me, and any change in a site is disorientating, and therefore annoying in the short-term, but this look, I have to say I find quite off-putting.
I'd also like to say that it doesn't matter too much whether current users do or do not like the direction the beta is going in, it matters if it is changes your bounce rate. So until things are up and running, or you spend a small fortune on a focus group (yeah right) I guess no-one knows until it goes live.
I don't like knocking other people's work, but we all want feedback, right?