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You could also add a tag for anonymous in the "search" section. It would make things much easier. And from the point of aesthetics, will this be the definitive color palette? And what will happen with the header of the site? I mean the letters in longhand and the girl drawn in golden lines. I liked it better before, with her arm flexed with a big bicep.
I actually prefer a defined grid layout for the index pages, myself. You lose some screen real estate, but it makes it easier to visually scan through a large amount of pictures. It would also be nice if the tags and such were a little more prominent and separated above the comments in the new design. Looks pretty nice otherwise, though!
The problem with a grid layout is that all the extra whitespace is very punishing on mobile.
The site name may be in a more distinctive font and a logo would be nice, but I don't have the artistic skills to make one myself.
GWM is about to turn 9 years old this week. I'm thrilled that the site has remained thriving and successful for so long.
However, 9 years is a very long time when it comes to web technologies. Over the site's lifetime, the following has happened:
- Smartphones and tablets started being widely used
- Internet Explorer went from being used by the majority of site visitors to only 5% of users
- UIs across many websites started adopting a simpler, "flatter" look
... among many others. Over the past few years it has become clear that GWM is in need of an update, especially when it comes to usage on mobile devices.
Some time ago I began a project to rewrite GWM from scratch into what I've been calling GWM2. I am not just updating the UI; I am rewriting the backend as well. The reason for this is that in the current codebase, the UI code is so intertwined with the backend code that untangling this would've been a major task in and of itself. Instead, seeing how the backend code is in many ways just as outdated as the UI, I opted for a clean start.
I am now far enough along on GWM2 to feel confident in announcing it, as well as to give a preview.
The main goal of the project is to create a site that's more friendly toward smartphones and tablets, but as you'll see in the following screenshots I'm also taking this opportunity to get some things right that I missed out on the first time around. Note that the goal is not to add new features; I'll be happy if I can manage to port over the most important existing functionality, as over the course of its life the site has gained a lot of bells and whistles here and there.
With that said... Here is the new home page (with placeholder text on the right for now):
This page, along with all the other thumbnail pages, makes use of the entire browser screen. Here it is on a phone, where the sidebar doesn't appear, and instead can be expanded by clicking on the news item at the top:
This is the image index page:
One improvement in GWM2 over the current site is that the search page and image index pages are combined into one. This lets you search for a name while filtering by tags and other options:
Here it is on mobile:
The updated image page on desktop, which is very similar to the current version:
And on mobile:
The chat on desktop, again making better use of the screen space:
And on mobile:
Of course this is still a work in progress, and a lot of what you see above will change.
At the very minimum, the horizontal layout for the pictures needs to be constrained so that it doesn't fill out the entire screen. Image-based websites do this for a reason. It's a chore to browse through photos constantly darting your eyes around the screen left and right.
However, 9 years is a very long time when it comes to web technologies. Over the site's lifetime, the following has happened:
... among many others. Over the past few years it has become clear that GWM is in need of an update, especially when it comes to usage on mobile devices.
Some time ago I began a project to rewrite GWM from scratch into what I've been calling GWM2. I am not just updating the UI; I am rewriting the backend as well. The reason for this is that in the current codebase, the UI code is so intertwined with the backend code that untangling this would've been a major task in and of itself. Instead, seeing how the backend code is in many ways just as outdated as the UI, I opted for a clean start.
I am now far enough along on GWM2 to feel confident in announcing it, as well as to give a preview.
The main goal of the project is to create a site that's more friendly toward smartphones and tablets, but as you'll see in the following screenshots I'm also taking this opportunity to get some things right that I missed out on the first time around. Note that the goal is not to add new features; I'll be happy if I can manage to port over the most important existing functionality, as over the course of its life the site has gained a lot of bells and whistles here and there.
With that said... Here is the new home page (with placeholder text on the right for now):
This page, along with all the other thumbnail pages, makes use of the entire browser screen. Here it is on a phone, where the sidebar doesn't appear, and instead can be expanded by clicking on the news item at the top:
This is the image index page:
One improvement in GWM2 over the current site is that the search page and image index pages are combined into one. This lets you search for a name while filtering by tags and other options:
Here it is on mobile:
The updated image page on desktop, which is very similar to the current version:
And on mobile:
The chat on desktop, again making better use of the screen space:
And on mobile:
Of course this is still a work in progress, and a lot of what you see above will change.