Your thoughts on the new design...

[StanTom]

I was just looking at someones pictures, don't think it matters who or what category,

I wanted to send the poster a PM , as far as I can tell there is no way to do it ??

it's like the gallery and forum are not connected
just to send this I searched the forums for anything from Rolando

Am I missing something or does it need fixed yet?

[FrankParis]

I don't think there are a lot of things that needs fixing in here it's just us that hasn't learned yet. I haven't figured out how to post a picture yet or how to lay out my portfolio yet. I'm sure those that have figured it out will help us along.

[LifeIsGreatImages]

The speed of the new web site is great and there seems to be a huge amount of search capability.

However the navigation is, as others say, not intuitive.

Intuitive is good and should be a priority for improvement. Keep it simple for the casual or first time user; otherwise the user base will drop to only those few who master the intricacies.

For example, I see no way to locate a model in Maine or a photographer in Phoenix. That very simple "Find a model " must be here somewhere but I searched and did not see it. I suggest adding it to the Quick Menu. Maybe you want to leave that emphasis to ***, but if you want a large user base it would seem a simple thing to add.

Posting a reply was not as clear as on the old system. "First click on an above icon" was confusing because there was no icon appearing immediately above that message; it was not clear that one had to go to the selected message and find THE reply icon there.

Little things, but important if you want lots of people to use this site.

Steve

[Earl53]

Like any new change it takes time to learn all the new things and How-to's. I've done it a few times here before and this place just keeps getting better.

Paul

[Carpe Imago]

Hey RG,

I know that you have made a concentrated effort to keep nude shots in the "Nude critique" area. I'm not sure what the motivation was...probably just to keep groups pure to the topic. I just found it interesting that the random pics across the top of the forum section usually contains a handful of them.

I'm not saying that you should remove them from that area, but if keeping those images in the nude section was for "protection of minors" or whatever that you may wish to change that. Just a random thought.

[trwphoto]

FireFox works well. Feel sorry for folks that are trying to use Big Blue E.

I wish images were as simple to post as on the other one.

[GCook]

This is great. It takes a while to find your way in a site this big and complicated but it has been very user friendly to me. The back button problem is the only one I had.

[lobofw]

FireFox works well. Feel sorry for folks that are trying to use Big
Blue E.

My big blue E. works better than Firefox with my wireless setup.

[j4m3z]

I think the design is much cleaner which is good. GG had 23 options in the main bar alone! Now I think a large part of the motivation in moving away from the garage theme was to attract models. I think to really capitalize on this change you need some female friendly site design. Black and gray is great for neutral image viewing, but it's still a very masculine theme. If you want to make the site more female friendly things like light, airy, sophisticated, uncluttered, colorful, and color coordinated should be design goals.
In a previous job I had the company was writing document management software and one of their design goals was to have no more than four clicks between any two pages. They struggled with this for about a year until an outside consultant gave them the phone theory. "Phones today do alot, store contacts, take pictures, play music, browse the web, send/recieve email and text messages, etc. Yet 95% of the time 95% of the people pick up the phone they use it to call someone." Simply you can offer lots of stuff but the things most people do most of the time should be the easiest to access.

Again, this is all assuming that one of your primary goals is to attract more female models to your site. I think getting away from the garage theme was good. I think cleaning up the main title bar was good. I think the design is still cluttered. As I'm typing this post there are 33 links and 10 horizontal lines between the top of the page and the "reply" box. That's too much. I think you need a 2-4 color scheme that incudes some feminine colors and not black. I also think a title banner using one of your many excellent images would work well.

I'm sure you have some bigger fish to fry right now, but I hope when everything is straightened out you take a sec to compare your site's goals with its design goals. This might also be a point where you want to hire a professional accomplished designer if only to consult on color schemes and layout (I know a couple ) because, being completely honest, GG and G1 look like they were designed by programmers (I've also seen programmers design ) .

I'm not trying to bash G1 or anything, I do honestly want to see you succeed with this.

[jmarsh]

Like the new design, It was just what I needed to get me out of my shell! I've been a silent observer for years.Tnx