A New Look for TSSZ – Finally
Your wishes have finally been granted. Well, not all of them–I’m still here.
The new look for TSSZ, which I’ve had in planning for over a year, is now active, but still in beta. I’ve kept things pretty simple and things may appear rough around the edges–especially for older stories on our site–but we’ve done all we can to bring you a better, brighter, and faster site.
We’ve already addressed concerns with comments getting eaten by our Spam filter by overhauling how aggressive it is, saving us from having to go to Disqus for our comments, and saving all of you the hard work of having to re-register and losing all of your remarks.
We’ve also addressed how galleries work. We are adding a lightbox format to all posts with media going forward, allowing easier access to screenshots, comic covers, and other media.
The site content itself should be easier to read for you, too. It’s clean, clear, and most of all–responsive. You can view TSSZ on your mobile device or tablet without trouble. And while we are a news site, we don’t want to forget our Sonic attitude, and hopefully some of the accents, textures, and fonts you see now and in the future reflect that.
The new look is better for us, too. We can now present you information in ways we couldn’t imagine when we implemented the previous design four years ago. We’re still figuring it all out, but be assured we’re capable of bringing you the news better than ever.
Still, it is a work in progress. I’ll be tweaking it from time to time. Let us know what you think of it below, and how we can improve.
I really like it ^^
Wow, very awesome. What impresses me the most about the site is how professional you guys are. Keep it up
Really like it. I’ve already gotten used to the lack of a search bar. I also like the archive.
Oh the search bar still exists–it’s on the menu now!
-T
Search button doesn’t appear on resolutions less than 1152×864
Hm. I will investigate. Search is borked on mobile too.
-T
Great redesign, very modern. Glad to hear that galleries will now be using a lightbox format– the old format was a PITA! Glad it’s fixed going forward, and awesome job on the design. Give yourself a pat on the back, and squash the nasty bugs when they appear. 🙂
This site is now 25th Anniversary READY! I say you make Sonic fans very proud. Kinda reminds me of the new look on the Sonic Channel too =D Well done either way its gorgeous.
✔ Cleaner look
✔ Better on mobile
✘ Round avatars
Overall: ✔
Errggg, not so much a fan of the whole iOS simplistic style honestly. A lot of things just seem too oversized.
I have to scroll down a full page height in order to see what the latest news posts are on the front page. That’s not good.
Otherwise it looks okay. Comments are a bit tall maybe.
Actually you can look at a handy little scroller at the top that cycles through the latest news posts.
That scrollybar thing is a bit more convoluted than the list below it, making it not immediately clear which articles are the latest, and in what order. I think I miss that the most.
I wouldn’t be mad at some color splashes on the sidebar either. Site’s so bright it hurts my eyes D:
Just use the screen brightness control on your monitor or device, then. Frankly, it isn’t any brighter than most other widely popular sites that also implement white backgrounds including The Wall Street Journal, Amazon and Google.
Ah. Sorry to hear that. =(
I am offering my feedback on the design. If I wanted to turn my brightness down, I would have just done so.
I visit a couple of other sites with white backgrounds, but those often use bolder, darker text or feature additional images/headers to offset the white space to varying degrees.
Really? Amazon/Google? Take 3 seconds and realize why those comparisons aren’t even remotely relevant. Go on. I’ll wait.
I really don’t like this new setup. Not one bit.
Very sexy setup!
That “toggle menu” animation on mobile is really friggin cool. Awesome redesign!
Love the new look and the new font! And from all the new features the Gallery-er one is my favorite^^
Also this is kind of Off-Topic but Blaze the cat beat Metal Sonic at the Sonic Showdown!
Sleek and sexy. I like it.
My favorite thing about this is moving my mouse to the logo and that slick transition to “Home page”. That’s nice.
I honestly don’t like the new set up. It looks less pretty, the new organization of menus makes it harder to find stuff, and the pure white background makes everything looked mashed together like one big puddle.
Hmm. It seems a bit wide, and the grey text doesn’t contrast well with the white background. The background to the sides should have a different color, blue perhaps. Otherwise, this is a good layout. Mace Rabbit can see the improvement.
Well this is interesting.
Gonna be awkward to get used to it but it’s about time.
I like it, but a completely white background is a little harsh on the eyes. With a few more improvements it could be perfect.
It’s fine, a little bright for my taste (I really liked the dark, soothing blue from the previous version), a dark mode would be extremely welcome.
The only other problems I have are that scrolling is sluggish and the back-swipe (on a Mac) are broken. The scrolling is more important to fix.
I wonder if i’lll finaly be able to comment, because that has a been a problem lately
Hey, It works!
Looks really good. But i was confused at first because of the changes.
duh… did da sanic stadium hack tssznews or somethin?
Huh, pretty modern. I like it. Could use a bit more Sonic-y stuff everywhere tho. :3
Loving this new version of the site, it doesn’t seem to want to remember me though, forcing me to retype all my info whenever I open up a new story.