Misc Novel Updates Fanmade Website Redesign (unofficial !)

Discussion in 'Community Creations' started by Xharyel, Apr 20, 2018.

  1. gauthamc

    gauthamc [Dao of the Lonely Island]

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    -Well like @LaDyViL said, this site is called Novel Updates and I think the design should complement that rather than stick to the "common" layout.

    - As you said, that's your preference. This site is being used by the majority for only the updates part of the page and occasionally the rankings. I think its important to have the new forum posts right at the top because that pushes people towards nuf. If not the forums would be in obscurity like WW forums (I didn't know they had forums for the longest time). I think that the "block order" should be implemented after thorough discussion and possibly (hopefully) after a poll from the community. After all the site is used by the community so getting input from the community is a wise idea regardless of what you choose to go with later.

    - I think you are mistaken about some things when it comes to NU and QI. QI is widely hated among the community for their anti consumer practises but NU doesn't descriminate against them because NU is a neutral party and for the site to function as it does, it needs to be neutral. When you make the NU look like QI rather than stay in the neutral layout it has now, many people are gonna feel betrayed. I think that's a landmine that you should actively avoid.
    For disclosure, I hate QI and what they are doing to the community. They are actively separating the translators from the readers and making it so that the scene is one of a corporation dealing with peasants and not translators having a close relationship with the readers, they are trying to split apart and taint the community so if I see NU changing to resemble QI I would be very upset because I love the community here.
    So no, its not just a case of "I don't like you because you like Taylor Swift and I hate her" And QI design does represent QI because that's its job. That's like saying QI symbol does not represent QI or the Pepsi symbol does not represent Pepsi.

    P.S: I love the design otherwise and I think you are very talented. I like the whole modernising NU part of your vision. Good job and Good luck.

    P.P.S Didn't notice this was my 1000th message. I don't know how to feel about this.
     
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  2. Xharyel

    Xharyel Well-Known Member

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    @kenar No worries, it's just that I didn't expect that half the feedback would be about QI.

    Well, keep in mind that this design is nothing serious as it won't be implemented or something. I just did it out of boredom and had fun doing it so I just decided to share it. :)

    It's nice to have opinions of others so I can change stuff according to feedback. And well... Talking about QI isn't helping me, haha.

    @gauthamc Of course I get that QI is widely hated, but as I said, this design is nothing serious. And I don't feel hatred towards QI although I admit that I didn't like some of the stuff they did.

    If this was a serious project, of course I would have taken much more time and things into consideration and do an actual benchmark of the "competitors" to see what I should do and shouldn't. And obviously ask the community how it feels about this or that. It's a very different process to redesign something existing than doing a branding from scratch. And obviously I didn't have the time to do all these things and it would have been meaningless, so I just did what I liked.

    But, I still think that QI's design, while it does represent QI, design-wise it doesn't reflect anything bad as it isn't something unique to them. I'm not talking about logo here, mostly about the colors, layout, etc.

    And thanks for the compliment !
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2018
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  3. LaDyViL

    LaDyViL New Member Staff Member

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    Here's the thing. You're still missing the point of the website, the essence that makes NU, NU. It's not just about the huge banner, NU does not advertise the novels it list or the group. The essence of NU, the core of what makes NU Novel Updates is the releases.

    From the page you're showing, what I'm seeing is not a site that dedicates its resources to releases. Translation releases are relegated to a second priority. What your design does is showcasing novels, not releases. More than half of the page layout is used for non-releases content. It would probably work if the site is a site that promotes novels, but what the site promotes is translations/releases. That, imo is what you should put your priority on instead of novels and reviews.

    If I am a client that wants you to improve/modernize my site, I would have rejected your proposal since it strays from the core objective of the site. Of course, that's just me :)
     
  4. Xharyel

    Xharyel Well-Known Member

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    @LaDyViL I see, thanks for the details. I guess I just had a different vision of NU. To me NU helped me find new novels to read. I often look at the ranking, reviews, etc. And it also serves me as a "panel" to list my favorite novels and keep track of where I am, most of the time, I do admit that I do not look at most of the releases as I only check what I'm reading and if I want to look for something I will just look at the rankings or filter things out. I do not even check the "Group News" part tbh.

    As I said, this work is just how I envision NU to be (to my taste and preferences), if I had a client, I would have definitely make things differently and ask about what he wants the website to be like. :)

    But it's true, I didn't get the essence of it. I'll try to improve this point. :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2018
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  5. Ddraig

    Ddraig Frostfire Dragon|Retired lurker|FFF|Loved by RNG

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    I cant get the pics to load......
     
  6. Xharyel

    Xharyel Well-Known Member

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    Okay guys, so I did another version while taking into account your feedbacks / suggestions.

    Here it is :

    New Version (after your feedbacks) :

    [​IMG]

    Mockup :

    [​IMG]

    I also updated the first post with some more comments about this version. And no more QI I hope ! Haha. :)
     
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  7. runsing

    runsing status : bleeding, health -10/s Novel Updates Staff

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    how's the site looks like on mobile?

    how long does it takes for an average mobile/tablet processor to load/process the page?

    let's say 1.5 ghz, quad-core, ancient-level internet

    vs current NU, of course.

    due to work time/space constraint, i handle most of my daily task (including those of NU) on a 1.8ghz, 4core, 4GB memory windows tablet, or else, phone. i only use pc when i'm at home. therefore, responsiveness/load times/memory usage are very important to me. looks are secondary.

    few months ago, there was a site being advertised as 'will have everything'. however, slow load times (among others), proved fatal to them. less than 3 months, they're OOB.
     
  8. Xharyel

    Xharyel Well-Known Member

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    Well, the site would look fairly similar. As I said, this kind of design is responsive friendly. It could look like this :

    [​IMG]

    Would just have to disable the scrolling within the blocs to avoid scrolling issues. I guess it's somewhat similar to what we currently have.

    As for the speed, etc. There should be no issue at all because there are no images, only a few icons. The design might look "flashy", but in fact those are just common CSS properties (box-shadow, etc.).

    Google uses this kind of stuff pretty often (look for Material Design) and it's smooth on both desktop and mobile.

    But in the end, the most important thing is how it's coded. If the code isn't clean and efficient, obviously it will affect the speed / performance. It also depends on the technology, would it use AngularJS / Node.js ? Depending on this fact, performance and speed would drastically improve.

    So yeah, at this point, it's mostly on the dev's side rather than the design's.
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2018
  9. karnanovel

    karnanovel Well-Known Member

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    that was cool
     
  10. judairu

    judairu Well-Known Member

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    i must say its reaaaally good
    but its probably my minimalistic side talking
    and just simple appreciation for art