Hello everybody and welcome to the new Twitch! As you can see, we've undergone a major redesign and I hope you all like it! The goal going in was to find a way to present information in a way that makes it easier to find and easier to navigate while also building a stack of new features into the mix. Hopefully you'll also find that the site loads a lot faster now. This incarnation is only phase one of the changes - phase two is a few months away and will introduce a host of new community features - and I hope you'll bear with us as we work out the bugs and kinks associated with a change on this scale. We've all got a brand new publishing system to learn in the coming days ...
Now that we're a few days into this incarnation of the site I'd like to say, first of thanks to all of you for bearing with us while we got the internal messaging system sorted out so that we could send out email instructions on how to reset your passwords. That took longer than intended and hopefully all of our earlier users are now getting settled in to the new digs.
Second, we've had a couple comments from people wondering where the old blog format went. Answer: It's still here! Just click the News or Reviews buttons and you'll get dedicated News and Reviews blogs in the formats that you're used to.
We've still got some bugs and kinks to work out but things are mostly rolling now and we appreciate your feedback. If there's something that doesn't appear to be working correctly, please let us know along with giving us your thoughts in general.
Now that we're a few days into this incarnation of the site I'd like to say, first of thanks to all of you for bearing with us while we got the internal messaging system sorted out so that we could send out email instructions on how to reset your passwords. That took longer than intended and hopefully all of our earlier users are now getting settled in to the new digs.
Second, we've had a couple comments from people wondering where the old blog format went. Answer: It's still here! Just click the News or Reviews buttons and you'll get dedicated News and Reviews blogs in the formats that you're used to.
We've still got some bugs and kinks to work out but things are mostly rolling now and we appreciate your feedback. If there's something that doesn't appear to be working correctly, please let us know along with giving us your thoughts in general.
congratulations to the twitch team!
a hearty congratulations indeed!
bravo Twitchers! this is really looking good.
I can't find the user control panel setting to fix the color scheme back to how it's supposed to look. The redesign is otherwise not a catastrophe, which is pretty impressive considering what most websites manage to do when they "improve" themselves. Kudos on not befouling the front page with a Twitter app.
getting around is much easier, the search feature still doesn't work very well. Agree with X, I would like the option to have the old color scheme back. Other than that looks good!
Two other thoughts/questions:
Recent comments is gone? Hopefully a temporary oversight.
Is the video player still unsearchable?
Congratulations. I know it's a lot of work but it's a lot of fun too.
I like the readable text, thank you.
Might want to post right up front regarding the password reset. A little frustrating until I got the email (don't know if you are actually sending that to everyone or if it came as a response).
:(
It's taken me far too long today to get onto an account. I just had to create a new one. I hate to be the guy that moans about liking the other layout.
like the new menue, dont like the colorscheme, my twitch account is gone but i can login via google......hmm, frontpage is confusing imo, i liked when it was just a chronological ribbon of posts.....
now the new sections have no clear distinction/borders and "recent" and "latest" news is the same imo, just too much stuff in too many sections in different ways to organized (columns, grids, horizontal/vertical)....but in the end all unimportant as long as the content is right and the speed (which did improve).
I'll vote twice for the new readable text because it looks like I'm alone so far, but really want to add that the two column home page does seem a bit crowded, especially compared to the single column you get when visiting "All News", for instance. It's gorgeous!
Keep this post at the top of the homepage for a while, or at least a link to it that is easily spotted. It was already off the home page when I first visited and I suggest, again, that you make it quick and easy for folks to know about resetting passwords.
Love the new layout. Easier to navigate the top stories on the front page. Also the color scheme is much better and easier to read.
The text was perfectly readable before, some of you need your eyes checked.
Yeah? Well, recent comments can be found on your "Edit profile" page.
;)
dissapointed. is it possible to make it black again? all this boring and common white hurts my eyes. i suppose its more practical but the old design was great.
It'd be great if there was a view option that presented content like on the old site. I much preferred that as you could see everything that had updated over 24 hours on a single page, and you could read most of the posts in whole without clicking "more". It looks like it'll be alot easier to miss something with all the category divisions on the front page now
Thanks everyone for the comments so far.
We'll be concentrating first on getting all the kinks out (we are aware there are some...), but note that anything you say here will be taken into account.
Remember that last time we had a big change like this, we changed font size at your request within days after we went live with the new site. So don't get the impression we don't listen!
Like most people, I prefer the old color scheme. It's not resistance to change or sth, I just prefer a design which separates Twitch from all the.. whities on the net :p
And perhaps you should make it more clear that people with a Twitch account have to reset their passwords in order to sign in again. It cost me a lot of failed login attempts to discover that, and I'm supposed to be a tech guy :p
Hey everybody ... thanks for the feedback! On the login front, you _should_ have all received an email informing you about the password reset. We were hoping to keep everybody's info with the change but we've moved to a completely new publishing system and while it was possible to port the old accounts over we were not able to bring the passwords with them, unfortunately.
On the layout issue, for those who preferred the old all-in-one system, visiting the News page essentially gives you exactly that. The goal with the front page was to highlight longer form work as well - such as the Reviews, which are now MUCH more prominent and will stick around for longer - without authors having to see their work driven off the front page whenever other writers got busy with a bunch of news posts.
Glad to see the comment about the improved speed, though I'm honestly a little puzzled by the search comment. I find the current search engine is working really well - worlds better than anything we've EVER had.
I just prefer a design which separates Twitch from all the.. whities on the net
Never trust whitey.
Yeah? Well, recent comments can be found on your "Edit profile" page.
That's an... interesting place to stash that feature.
I see the list of recent comments also pops up on the screen that you get as a reward for successfully posting a comment.
Recent comments comments noted, guys ... working on it ...
Recent Comments for each user are on each user's page.
Well I think the new layout is miles better than what it was, especially the search function.
Like the others, I did prefer the black background. Would be nice if we could eventually choose the color scheme.
Oh and the trailer boxes seem a bit small, but that might just be my own settings.
Otherwise great job!
Trailer boxes are the same size they always were, it's just that the space they're in is bigger. It could make sense to up the default, though. We'll add it to the list!
Much more handy now! Great
I think the site design is much improved, especially over the last overhaul—I couldn't get over some clumsy ad placement and column width.
Anyhow, I'm fine with the white background and subtle brights. Let the vampires whimper like gremlins!
Overall, thanks for never letting Twitch look like a lot of other film geek blogs out there. You know, that whole ADD-plagued monstrosity that looks like a Pokemon!!!!!!!!!!!!! movie directed by Michael Bay. I always appreciated that sophistication.
It would be nice to have linkage from a photo gallery to the article that it pertains to, if there is one ... if that's possible. Breezing thru the galleries I noticed "Living Death" but can't ... oh wait, there's that bitchin' new search!
Any way to "Get More ..." comments, upon reaching the end of the recent list? (In case you get behind)
On the "Reviews" page there is a right column of 'Recently Reviewed', which, under most circumstances, would seem redundant. Except now, it just has four random entries (as far as I can tell). On the "News" page the right column does just seem redundant, maybe there's a reason ... but here's where I'm going:
On the "Twitch-o-Meter" page, the right column is a special 'Recent Comments' that seems to include only comments made to T-o-M entries. That's what I'd like to see on the "News" & "Reviews" pages ... if possible or desirable.
This place is deep, now.
This long over due redesign of the site is a breath of fresh air. Enhance user functionability via google account log in is a nice touch. Love the layout, kudos to the new team. Ps keep an eye out for my new film "the live affair of Kim Philby; Britains greatest spy and traitor"
ps - an "Edit" button when previewing your pending comment would be nice. "Back to Original Entry" loses the work.
Personally, I find the black background more straining on my old eyes than the current white background. I think if you have a background switch option to change voluntarilly from a black or white font option would be good idea. Didn't you have that switching option before in the old Twitch website???
@TheDoug, we did have that option, two site designs ago, I believe.
whereswallace, I like the black background, not for being no vampire, it's simply easier on my eyes, uses less electricity, and is different from most pale websites I have to gather my work from.
So is black coming back? Optional background would be optimal.
Congratulations to the Twitch team for the roll out!
I'm a new user of the site and have been trying to find an easy to way to traverse the large number of past reviews you have. It doesn't seem possible without some kind of archive feature. I'm mainly interested in the reviews with the "asia" tag but cannot seem to get a good listing of just those - especially with trailers and other news actually added to that mix.
@fhoom
Black text on a white background actually causes far less eyestrain, but the electricity usage is certainly a solid hoorah for a black background. It's certainly hard to argue against sustainability!
I like the new design. Is this designed using an enhanced joomla or a similar content management system?
I have only one problem with the new Twitch, it's too bright.
Please give us an option.
Uhm, background color has no bearing on energy consumption. Ard is right, it could take a tiny bit more with a darker background since the default state is to show all the backlight on LCD's. Possibly OLED (LED works like any other LCD but with more efficient backlight) and anyone using CRT's should not be arguing about energy use to begin with. :)
I have a small suggestion to make it more readable. Get rid of Helvetica Nue. It looks really cramped (on OS X anyway). Stick with Helvetica and fallback to Arial. They are better screen fonts.
Another thing about dark backgrounds is that text tends to be chunkier on OS X. Please, keep it white as the default. Better readability.
Overall I like the new look.
Thanks for the comments guys, particularly the notes on usability and navigation. Believe me, we're reading them and will do what we can to implement where possible, but it may take a while! The current tweak and fix list is a long one!
I mostly read Twitch via RSS, and love the new feed's layout. Only thing I miss is the ability to view the author's name, would it be possible to bring this back?
I kind of miss being able to scroll through one page and see everything I've missed the past few days. Now I need to open multiple tabs to stay updated!
But I am not really complaining; just a minor inconvenience. Great job guys