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Vyshnia's avatar

What is going on with site design?

Hello! Can anyone tell what is going on with site design? Why is it constantly changing? Is Jeffrey trying to find the best design or is it some kind of experiment?

For example I find this aquamarine color in menu pretty annoying. Also I think there is really a bunch of work to do with videos section.

Video block is changing its height 2 times while preloading / starting to play, (it you try to click refs in the bottom of the page during this process, you will probably miss, and I think it annoys users overall). Sliding volume level (with expanding width, pushing video progess bar) is also bad idea. It would be great if volume level would be remembered! Pop up "to continue" should be rethinked, it appears even on videos that were watched to the end. These left and right buttons might not be that useful at all. If mouse pointer is on video they won't disappear.

No offense, I really love what Jeffrey is doing, he is exceptional teacher. But there is a possibility that design should be done in other way.

0 likes
31 replies
joedawson's avatar

I don't understand why changing colors affect people so much.

Content is king, which Jeffrey has created plenty of here on Laracasts. Getting kind of sick (and I know Jeffrey for sure is) seeing people cry about some colors lol. I understand your reasoning behind volume levels regarding the player - but don't forget you have your system volume too :D

Jeffrey is of course free to change the design as much as he likes, you can't please everyone. You unfortunately seem to fit into that category :)

6 likes
Vyshnia's avatar

Taking into consideration that desing matters I don't think that Jeffrey is 100% free to do whatever he wants. In case he is really interested in good design. Quite obvious?

I can't undertand what is going on?

If it is some kind of experiment, then there should be a voting system, of even may be options in personal cabinet (more scientific approach). If it is attempt to find the best design, as a user I should say, that from my point of view this is wrong approach. If this is some kind of allegory of everchanging world of WEB I should admit once again, it seems like bad approach.

joedawson's avatar

Of course Jeffrey is free to do as he likes, it's his website lol. Exactly the same way places like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are free to do as they like because it's theirs.

Those sites don't have a "voting system", I'd quite confidently say that 99.999999% of all sites do not have a voting system for users/members/visitors to choose how they want the site to look. Why should Laracasts be any different?

Vyshnia's avatar

Because they don't change their design drastically every 3-4 months, and there is a huge web design group stanging behing fb.com, vk.com, youtube.com and all the testing and monitoring is pre arranged. They have such D. that would please the majority of the audience and doesn't annoy the least part. So I'm not gonna argue about the web design and what Jeffrey can do with his own site. Also not "crying" about new design. Don't get me wrong! Just curious to know "Why is it constantly changing?" Anyone?

zachleigh's avatar

Ive grown to like the constant design changes. Its part of the experience.

SaeedPrez's avatar

Laracasts is very popular and it goes without saying that you can't please everyone. Some people like the design variations, most people probably don't care that much and some people don't like it. We are strong because of our diversity.

I enjoy the changes mainly because @JeffreyWay listens to our feedback and tries his best to improve this site for us, the users.

My suggestion is to add an option to the settings page where those who are interested can beta test all new design variations, give feedback and so on and once a design is ready, it can be applied for everyone to enjoy :) This should keep most people happy.

ohffs's avatar

I think it changes so often partly as Jeffrey gets people complaining all the time, and partly (I suspect) as it's like programmers fiddling about with their text editor themes/fonts - something to distract you :-)

I spent about 30 minutes last week getting an animated Hello Kitty dancing on a 404-not-found error page - so I am entirely happy with that kind of thing ;-)

ohffs's avatar

@Prez

This should keep most people happy.

You're new to the internet, right? ;-p

1 like
SaeedPrez's avatar

@ohffs you can't mention a dancing hello kitty and not show us :)

Haha, I am forever optimist, but I do have my pessimist days too.

1 like
ohffs's avatar

@Prez sadly, my totes amazing hello kitty is on an internal server so the world at large will never get to see my masterpiece ;-) I was slightly tempted to use this bootstrap theme recently though - it's work of genius ;-)

http://code.divshot.com/geo-bootstrap/

I think if Laracasts adopted it we'd see 100% acceptance ;-)

SaeedPrez's avatar

@ohffs haha, that theme is awesome! It has something for everybody :D The good old 90s

ohffs's avatar

@Prez the dancing MC Hammer and burning flames on the error text input make me very happy :-D It's all gone downhill since we stopped using nested tables for layouts... ;-)

SaeedPrez's avatar

@ohffs indeed, lots of great ideas there... I was thinking MC hammer appears on a disabled HTML element.. can't touch this :)

@davestewart haha, that is one awesome cat and 404 page. I really like that you populated the search input with qwerty, very user friendly.

davestewart's avatar

@prez - how about MC Hammer PLAYS on a disabled button!

In a popup.

That moves each time your mouse rolls over the "close" button.

Then plays again.

CrucialDev's avatar

That bootstrap theme hurt my eyes. How did we ever think that looked good?

ohffs's avatar

@Prez what have I unleashed! ;-)

@sbcman74 I think it was maybe 'the teenage boy' phase of web design ;-)

1 like
JeffreyWay's avatar
Level 59

The design changes are because:

  1. I'm a constant fiddler. it's an illness that affects dozens of developers worldwide each year.
  2. It's kind of the charm of the site, I think. Partially meant to make you laugh.
  3. I'm not a designer, so things take me longer. I like to test them out in production. Laracasts isn't Amazon, so it's fine.
  4. I like to annoy people who are so offended and annoyed by turquoise and purple.

These "drastic changes" you refer to typically amount to a different background color and a bit of spacing. Everything is in exactly the same place as it was yesterday.

Taking into consideration that design matters I don't think that Jeffrey is 100% free to do whatever he wants.

Let me clarify for you that actually I am 100% free to do whatever I want. Anyways, sorry you're annoyed by turquoise.

7 likes
SaeedPrez's avatar

@JeffreyWay I give you permission to re-use my MC Hammer code freely anywhere on Laracasts.com :D

@ohffs if you only knew.. I might make a MC Hammer package for Laravel, as a boilerplate for all future projects :) t should make a pull request to Laravel repo, maybe even have artisan make:hammer command :)

5 likes
SaeedPrez's avatar

@davestewart I did make the deadline, thanks for remembering. I'm now working on refactoring some of the code and improving the design a little bit, getting it all ready for release (hopefully in the next few weeks). But you're right, I need to focus. Logging off.

Vyshnia's avatar

@JeffreyWay Thanks for your reply!

Taking into consideration that design matters I don't think that Jeffrey is 100% free to do whatever he wants.

It was used as a counter argument in that branch of discussion (Kind of elseif() ... )

Stay creative, strong and cheerful! Thanks!

1 like
DarkRoast's avatar

I think the new colors look great! Glad I'm not the only one who can't stop fiddling with things.

alenabdula's avatar

I am constantly baffled by the sense of entitlement people have. Who gives you the right to start bashing people's work and to start tagging them in random discussions... just because you don't like something aesthetically? Not only that, but to do it in HIS HOUSE!

I think it's great that Jeff is experimenting. While all of you are debating he's fine-tuning; running his business. While all of you are complaining; he's creating. Let's put some big boy pants on and give the man some respect.

Stop tagging and wasting peoples time, especially now since alien is about to be on the loose. :)

2 likes
Vyshnia's avatar

@alenabdula

English is not my native language, may be something that supposed just to be laconic sounded awkward or rough.

I consider Laracasts to be a community, so room for discussion of such things definitely exists.

alenabdula's avatar

@Vishnja English is my second language as well, that's not the issue. There's a huge difference between discussion and unsolicited critique, and/or flat out bashing. I don't like many things, about a lot of things, but I try to navigate in-between and extract as much valuable information.

Why is everyone so romantic about the design?

frezno's avatar

Why is everyone so romantic about the design?

because that's what you see, the very first impression you get - and that'll hit you, good or bad.

That's the very same with people you see on the street. Someone might be the nicest person of the world, but if he looks like the hunchback of Notre Dame your very first impression probably won't be the most sympathic.

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