2010 brings the hopes up for many people for new things, and a new year means news ways of going about things then to what we’ve been used to. Well last week was the release of the new design, in which a lot of good feedback was received. To help understand the true purpose of this design, I thought it’d be a good idea to write up on all the new features and aspects of it.
The Purpose
You probably remember the old design, right? It took up a lot of space with the logo, navigation, and other feature-rich things. The thing is, space was being surrendered just so the site looked more abstract, but it took away from the content. I’m sure you’ve asked yourselves a couple times, “what’s UE about anyways?”
In the new design, I tried to think of a way to simplify the template, so the content was looked at the same way as the design. This equality was important, as to prove that peace between the two could exist. Now, the design is not right in your face and subtle, and the site is able to tell you what’s available right away. Another big thing that I wanted to fix was the illusion of stuff that wasn’t available, meaning the 404 error pages. There was no gaming or support sections, so it didn’t make sense to show that.
Out With The Old, In With The New
The old design was great, I have to admit. It was just over the top though, and I wanted to simplify it as to not give such a headache. After visiting the site a couple times, the design got boring and simply took up a lot of space which should be for the content.
(Screenshot of the old design)
The new design, at first, I thought would be a complete disaster. I couldn’t figure out a way to make it look nice and simplistic at the same time. In the end I think it turned out really great though. The top header part and footer now display pages that actually exist, and there is a nice background with a luminescent glow.
(Screenshot of the new design)
The Changes
A lot has changed, and one big thing was the logo. Before the text only said “Unveiled” and the entertainment part was left out. I felt like to better establish the site as a brand, I needed to have the full “Unveiled Entertainment” in the logo as it makes sense. Also, I highlighted the first letters so “UE” stood out. Hopefully, this will let new visitors figure out why I name sections as such (ex: UE Music).
Another big change was the navigation. Not as styled as the old “tab” look, but takes up a lot less space and let’s me change it accordingly to the content. As you see, I left out sections that are not yet available and also added inMix, which I think is important enough to be its own section of the site.
The footer looks a bit different too, okay it’s a lot different. It fits in with the whole design, and shows extra links such as about, newsletter (which is new, by the way), and others including the site’s various social profiles.
Design wise, I removed the ability to be able to change themes. It was just a service I did not want maintain, and it didn’t make much difference if you were on a smaller resolution screen. The new background does fit the site’s color scheme though, and there’s a cool purplish glow on the site container.
Lastly, there are some tad improvements. My favorite one is search auto-complete, which gives suggestions or hints when you type something in the search bar. The user menu also gives a bit more emphasis, and also the site should load a lot faster with the simplistic look.
Your Feedback
If you haven’t given your opinion on the new look yet, please do so in the comments. I received lots of good ones such as “it’s a lot cleaner” and “I like the new design.”