Hey everyone, playing with a new design idea! Looksie!

I dunno, I like the blue background thingy...

I like it. It looks like a much easier to use interface.

DD has been needing an over haul for a while now. This is awesome.

The images from the comics are more eye catching but its a bit overwhelming visually.

I agree with TheMidge. It's very crowded! Having some kind of border or deliniation between the various comic stuffs and the adverts would be nice. Other than that, I think it has the look of awesome about it.

I think I agree with Midge here.
Perhaps the lists could be dropdown menus...
I hope these changes'll fix some bugs.
(P.S, disregard that PQ I sent you, I was mistaken ;_

Wow, that will be a fun change! I like the ideas, but I agree that there should be some sort of border around the sections.

It's like being assaulted with images. I think it's a bit overwhelming and not nearly as friendly as what you have right now.

No sir. I don't like it.

Meh, I don't like all the whiteness and adds.

Looks wicked, but I think the ads are a bit much.

Will the trophy situation be taken care of, too? -Cough-

It's an improvement, and I think a change would be good for the site...but the white is blinding and the ads seems a bit much. Having a choice between thumbnails and a list would be good!

i'd perfer bug fixes

I think it looks awesome, though some borders between the sections would be nice. Maybe blue borders in one of the shades on the current homepage.

Judging from the first image, it looks like the hovering comic description is being brought back and improved upon, which is awesome. The filtering looks like a cool addition too.

It looks bad all compressed like that but I'm sure the final would be more spaced, right? Maybe the thumbnails should be part of the rollover description.

i reiterate what others say about the spacing...

Agreed.

But if it'll be like it's shown, then no, I don't like it. Too much, with the images and all.

Looks a little cluttered, but I don't mind. Reminds me of a mac, kinda... And I don't know why...

Oh I really like the favorites thing by the way.

The sidebar, with your faves and links to your own comics etc., is collapsed by default into just the grey bays with the names on "My Comics" "My Favourites" "My Comic News". When you visit the front page you can click them to expand them down. You have to do that each time. In the faves list you have choices of viewing only those updated this week, in the last 30 days, or all of them. ^_^

Heh, well news is pretty much absent from the current version of that design- you have a link to it in your sidebar.

You have three lists of ten comic thumbnails- the most viewed, Newest updated, and a random list drawn from ALL comics at DD. On a mouse-over the comic's full author description is displayed. You can filter them ALL to show only the types of comic you like to see- as long as they've been given the right categories by their creators.
That system works well, but border lines between the lists WOULD be a great idea, because they do tend to look merged.

The white is mostly really nice, brighter and friendlier than the dark blue and red, but again, something to separate and delineate the front page content block from the outside of the page would be good visually.

Now that you have given more detail, I say full steam ahead. This looks pretty amazing. Sounds like it's a lot easier to use.

I like the basic idea/design. It seems like there's just a wall of same-dimension images, though, which isn't all that visually appealing. Borders would help for sure, and I'm not too keen on the white. It's too... blah/generic. Even a light gray or other really subtle light neutral would probably look a little better. Or having different shades of gray or some other color for the backgrounds for the different sections would take care of the cluttered feel and the white blah.

I wonder if "The Rack" could be a text link list with the thumbnail and description on the mouse-over... That might help break up the "wall o' thumbnails" effect. *Shrugs*

(I'm all for brightening up the color scheme, but plain white all over just doesn't look that great, imo.)

The hover stuff is cool. I really like the favorites list too. As for as all the concepts and stuff, it's really great. (It's kinda sad to not have the news on the front page, but I could live with that. )

I find placing a thick black border around an image really sets it off and in the menagerie of images shown would help a great deal. the practical aspects which Ozone outline sound great I guess it needs fine tuning in its aesthetics.

I agree that there needs to be some sort of background color. I don't like the white as it makes the page look really unfinished and unpolished. I had figured it was an in-progress thing but maybe that's the way it had been planned?

The admins have been able to mess with this layout for a week or so. I didn't like the thumbnails at first, but now I really like them. I've found a bunch of interesting comics this way.

I love the thumbnails, but agree that everything looks kind of cramped right now. A colored background (or at least some color separators between the rows of thumbnails) would really help to space things out, I think. Maybe even a grey line the same color as the one that says "the rack" extending down between each section would help to separate them a little bit?

I dunno. Did I mention I love the thumbnails, though? :D

That screen shot looks very very busy....

Seriously, it's not as bad as it looks in that regard. The pic Volte's got there is just cropped too close. It's actually ok and pretty compact. All it lacks is some good delineation between the 3 list really.

Plus: White template makes it look more professional. The use of images gives you a good hint as to what a comic will be like, and opening up that ability to everyone is a major plus. The scroll over for descriptions is nice too, gives more room for images, which this template seems heavy on.

Cons: If the image server messes up or loads slowly, it can really bone a user. The use of images will push other information down from the looks of things. The ads are poorly placed, having two above your user bar is frankly just silly, why not put the two under?

It's good, but also bad. A nice mix of the two. I'm sure you can make it look amazing by the time you're done though. The templates so far have been nothing short of great.

I agree with lefarce about the ads.
I think they should be under the side bar, because that could get VERY annoying.

I kind of like seeing admin descriptions of featured comics. I disagree with Farce about the white. Almost every pro website I've see has a color scheme. I have a feeling this isn't the whole page, could I see a full screenshot?

noticed Volte favorites!
also noticed Volte filters out sprite, sketch, experimental, photographic, and stick figure comics.