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Latest Site Changes (Issue Reporting & Feedback Appreciated)


djpretzel
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We just uploaded a collection of tweaks to the site; you can think of this as OC ReMix 5.1 or 5.2 from a certain perspective. Many of these tweaks were back-ported from V6, which is still going to happen, but we're making the changes more incremental and thus more manageable...

Additional Content & Features

  1. Album pages now have track lists, in addition to modified layout w/ larger cover art & green download links for torrent AND http download (if free)
  2. "Latest ReMixes" and "Latest Albums" AJAX blocks added to ReMix pages, game pages, wiki...
  3. Artists list now includes convenient social media links - get to Uematsu's twiiter in a jiff, or check out zircon's soundcloud... having these in list view is really useful, in my opinion, and hopefully it will bring more traffic to artists and encourage visitors to explore!

Aesthetic & UI

  1. Background & general coloring is a bit grayer
  2. Subtle top gradient added to rounded white panels
  3. Fonts are spaced out a bit more
  4. Fonts are larger on ReMix listing sidebars
  5. ReMix listing sidebars now truncate text and are of uniform height
  6. ReMix listing sidebars are now clickable ANYWHERE - if you don't click an explicit link, it'll go to the mix, but if you click game or artist, those links still function
  7. For all table listings, spacing has been increased and a flatter look has been implemented
  8. For all table listings, as with ReMix sidebars, you can click the row anywhere and it'll take you to the main data item, but you can still click the secondary metadata links
  9. On ReMix pages, an actual sidebar is now used to contain the green download & preview buttons, ads, and new "Latest ReMixes" and "Latest Albums" blocks. One nice thing about this is that you can download a mix or view the lyrics while still watching the preview video.
  10. New favicon
  11. Minor footer revisions (still working on this)
  12. Homepage columns rearranged (makes more sense this way)
  13. Number of mixes displayed in various areas of the site has been increased
  14. "Latest Albums" block modified to do art only, hover for title & release date, display 4 instead of 2
  15. Formatting of "Previously on OverClocked ReMix" on homepage has been modified for readability (way too many orange links previously)
  16. We're now using asynchronous AdSense ads from Google, which in theory should speed things up a bit!
  17. Some general clean-up of various things!

That's about it; may have missed a couple things here and there, but those are the major changes. Feedback & reporting of any issues are appreciated as replies to this thread.

We've been working hard on posting more mixes, as well, and I'd like to emphasize that this set of changes is only another milestone, and that there will be many more changes this year.

Thanks,

- djp

Edited by djpretzel
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Something I've noticed a time or two recently in ReMix mixposts that some of the ads will overlap with the text.

However, it looks like this was fixed with this update. Awesome!

Also, I wasn't expecting the favicon update, but I like it! Nice work :nicework:

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Hey, it's awesome to see such a strong change but here's a few problem areas I think could be improved on...

u5dQlBn.png

Favicon -- why? :cry: The old one was good and definitive

Workshop -- with a zoom of 110%, this still overlaps the page.

Ad spot -- for people with Ad block, consider putting a normal image when no ad available that links to donate or ocr shoppe.

Artist text -- practically unreadable light-gray on white

A couple of these issues affect people with less than ideal eyesight and I really hope to see them addressed, as having bad eyesight is a fairly common issue :cry:

Also I'm not convinced having "quotation marks" around song titles is necessary... But if kept perhaps they could not be part of the hyperlink, since they're not part of the titles.

Edited by Brandon Strader
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Hey, it's awesome to see such a strong change but here's a few problem areas I think could be improved on...

Favicon -- why? :cry: The old one was good and definitive

I've never felt that our primary logo was discernible at 16x16 pixels - too much detail is lost to make out the gamepad/phone at that resolution.

Workshop -- with a zoom of 110%, this still overlaps the page.

I don't really test for different zoom levels atm. It's the type of thing that should be fixed in V6 w/ a responsive design.

Ad spot -- for people with Ad block, consider putting a normal image when no ad available that links to donate or ocr shoppe.

Yep, already planning on this. Potentially also an image ad for OC Records.

Artist text -- practically unreadable light-gray on white. A couple of these issues affect people with less than ideal eyesight and I really hope to see them addressed, as having bad eyesight is a fairly common issue :cry:

Disagree, but noted. We're conveying four pieces of information in a relatively small space, at the moment - I think the ultimate/eventual fix will be repositioning the remix list in the center column on most pages, including the homepage. At the same contrast level, it becomes too busy and hurts readability for EVERYONE. The contrast level is pretty decent but we might be able to tweak a bit more, however I feel like I've seen similar levels as common place on many sites.

Also I'm not convinced having "quotation marks" around song titles is necessary... But if kept perhaps they could not be part of the hyperlink, since they're not part of the titles.

Quotes help clearly indicate that the mix title is a proper noun that's not part of the game name. If they're not part of the link, the coloring/highlighting looks a little weird, imo.

Appreciate the feedback - some of this stuff is aesthetic opinion, some of it is potentially usability related, and some of it (ad block) we completely agree with & are working towards.

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The thing that bugs me about the new favicon is that it's not even the same font as the logo.

But that's just me.

It's actually only 16x16 pixels, so having it in the logo's font might be too blurry for that low-low-res quality. Maybe if the gradients were toned down, it could work, though the diagonals in the C and R may pose a problem.

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Perhaps.... maybe... if it's not too much to ask, could you experiment a little with maybe making that artist text just a couple shades of grey darker? If not no biggie, thanks for reading my thoughts and not being offended :-D I know how much work you've been putting into V6, and how long we've been waiting for it -- it's very much appreciated.

One last question... will the graphics in V6 be more similar to the new favicon? Is it going to match more stylistically with the orange and stuff?

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What's really interesting is that right now, I have several tabs that are using the old favicon, and several others using the new one in tandem with each other. I'm sure if I hit refresh it'll correct itself.

I wonder though, if the favicon update is any precursor to other aesthetic changes to OCR?

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Love the updates to how the latest albums are displayed, and how their pages show the album's tracklist. However, do you think the tracklists could also reflect the remixing artists' names?

Some day, yes. At the moment, the data is actually pulled from vgmdb, and they store this info down in the notes area.

For OCR albums, it's worth our extending the data model to cover individual tracks, but this currently ranks low relative to our other goals, and album sites already convey this info regardless. Nevertheless... one day, yes!

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The game images accompanying the remixes on the homepage, right, changes when you hover over the link from low-res to... a bit less low-res. Is that on purpose? If this is to block copy-leechers, one might want to think about toning down the colors a bit when un-hovered instead of the resolution. IMHO, it looks awkward :/

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