So, it's difficult to know where to start here. Maybe I'm in a minority of one, but this new menu redesign is dreadful for me. It actively makes me work harder to access the things I most often access. It's a downgrade.
I can see that there was an attempt at logic here, but fear it's been done ignorant of data on which areas of the site people most frequently travel to.
For example, the forums are one of the places I most frequently access. Well, now it's a click, move, and click to do what once was accomplished by a single click. This is what I mean by poor user experience. When redesigning, no good UI or UX designer should be increasing the time and activities to get to a commonly used area of the thing being designed. My very first business was Web Design and Development, so I have some experience in this area.
Similarly, the new 'Library' menu item has no drop-down like the old 'Sources' item has, meaning more time spent, and more work on the part of the user to get to the books they want to access. This is dreadful design.
The logic of the new 'Rules' menu item is dubious at best considering what is contained within it's dropdown.
So I guess, I'm giving feedback that the Menu of the site now needs rethinking - preferably with some reference to users and their thoughts. Not solely the brainstorming of what I can only assume is a group of designers who are detached from the day-to-day use of the site ('cause that's what it feels like happened).
Honestly though the entire top bar of the site being waster to telling me about a shipping discount is awful. I pay a subscription, get that junk out of my face. Leave it where it belongs; the marketplace.
So, it's difficult to know where to start here. Maybe I'm in a minority of one, but this new menu redesign is dreadful for me. It actively makes me work harder to access the things I most often access. It's a downgrade.
I can see that there was an attempt at logic here, but fear it's been done ignorant of data on which areas of the site people most frequently travel to.
For example, the forums are one of the places I most frequently access. Well, now it's a click, move, and click to do what once was accomplished by a single click. This is what I mean by poor user experience. When redesigning, no good UI or UX designer should be increasing the time and activities to get to a commonly used area of the thing being designed. My very first business was Web Design and Development, so I have some experience in this area.
Similarly, the new 'Library' menu item has no drop-down like the old 'Sources' item has, meaning more time spent, and more work on the part of the user to get to the books they want to access. This is dreadful design.
The logic of the new 'Rules' menu item is dubious at best considering what is contained within it's dropdown.
So I guess, I'm giving feedback that the Menu of the site now needs rethinking - preferably with some reference to users and their thoughts. Not solely the brainstorming of what I can only assume is a group of designers who are detached from the day-to-day use of the site ('cause that's what it feels like happened).
I feel the same, I spend a lot of time on here and its just a hassle now.
The entirety of this update is absolute shite.. wtf are they on ? Whoever designed this bland, ugly and ultimately worse on every point UI should never again be given such a job. This is simply atrocious. The illustrations and fluid menu was both WAY COOLER / BETTER LOOKING, AND MORE PRACTICAL.
Library should remain a dropdown with the core books, sage advice, and unearthed arcana directly linked, then links to 'expanded rules' and 'adventures' for the rest. Given the relabeling, these sub-pages should show what you own by default. The Marketplace is where you go for stuff you don't own, there's no need to wedge advertising in functional tools.
How can I double-like this ? No seriously, I discovered the change right as it got applied on my new tabs, I honestly thought I somehow got to an obsolete version of the website so much this feels like a drawback worth 10 years of development and user feedback. This is dreadful design. The only people who might think this version to be more user friendly are 70 year old boomers with sight problems and difficulties with technology who shouldn't be anymore in position to take such decisions, cause this isn't even a more practical design.
Just a far less good looking, less fluid, less efficient, stale and outdated style of UI absolutely no company lead by competent designers would consider more efficient than the previous one.
The best way I can describe it is "corporate" and that does not make it a particularly welcoming experience. It's copied the marketplace design (which was already fairly unpopular) but it's left feeling cold and functional like something for a law firm.
Also bring back the party wizard, we all like colour
I am extremely disappointed with the redesign as well. From pointless animations for the opening and closing of menus, to information once readily accessible being buried in a more inconvenient manner, this was a big miss for me.
But my big problem with this? It feels a bit like a slap in the face to the many players who have been begging for basic features on this site - 2024 difficulty calculations added to the encounter builder, features of the character sheet actually functioning, etc. No one, as far as I am aware, was raising any concerns about the website’s UI, certainly not to the extent as core functionality. It does not feel particularly great to see Wizards spent development time throwing an unnecessary coat of paint on their website, when some structural issues need to be addressed.
But my big problem with this? It feels a bit like a slap in the face to the many players who have been begging for basic features on this site - 2024 difficulty calculations added to the encounter builder, features of the character sheet actually functioning, etc. No one, as far as I am aware, was raising any concerns about the website’s UI, certainly not to the extent as core functionality. It does not feel particularly great to see Wizards spent development time throwing an unnecessary coat of paint on their website, when some structural issues need to be addressed.
This. Just this.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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OP, You beat me to the punch on this one. Thank you for putting it much more tactfully than I would have.
Seriously, who saw the draft layout and said "yea, this is fine."
Roll that crap back please. It may have been a bit clunky before, but at least it was intuitive and mildly artistic. this new layout just screams "corporate mundacity"
When I click My Homebrew in the drop down, after clicking my name in the upper right hand corner, it now takes me to the menu to navigate ALL homebrew?! Why would I want that? I specifically clicked "My" Homebrew. If you are going to make me navigate half the site, for everything except Characters and Campaigns, just to get where I need to go then why wouldn't it be easier to do all this on Roll20 and some google docs?
Also, the sorting functions no longer works?! I've got 12 pages of homebrew that I've made for several campaigns over the course of half a decade DMing and using this site. I cant find everything alphabetically every time.
They've made the site less convenient and that is literally the only reason to use it.
I am extremely disappointed with the redesign as well. From pointless animations for the opening and closing of menus, to information once readily accessible being buried in a more inconvenient manner, this was a big miss for me.
But my big problem with this? It feels a bit like a slap in the face to the many players who have been begging for basic features on this site - 2024 difficulty calculations added to the encounter builder, features of the character sheet actually functioning, etc. No one, as far as I am aware, was raising any concerns about the website’s UI, certainly not to the extent as core functionality. It does not feel particularly great to see Wizards spent development time throwing an unnecessary coat of paint on their website, when some structural issues need to be addressed.
Yup. And then it rolled out incomplete stating that it still needed work on the library menu. Funny how quickly it was roleld back.
I do prefer they just keep the UI as it is. I understand the intention - especially the menus trying to list all the books was getting cluttered and such. But the execution really missed the mark. I also agree with Caerwyn_Glyndwr - there was no need for this UI change but there's a lot of stuff in this site that desperately needs more attention and updating. The time, effort and money spent on a needless UI change could have been far better spent on improving things that need improving. Pretty much every official book with character options and such has something that doesn't work right or hasn't been fully implemented.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Instead fix the things that are still broken.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Sheesh, didn't experience it on desktop and was busy when it first came up. But were there even easy links to races/classes/monsters/spells/etc? Since on desktop I use the current Game Rules dropdown A LOT. And it's convenient. (Was a little more convenient back in the Old Old UI when there were direct links to the classes or sorting spells by class/school. But I understand the sheer number of classes that have been added since make that somewhat impractical these days.) And the moving gif they preview the new design with doesn't give me enough time to actually digest what it was supposed to look like.
were there even easy links to races/classes/monsters/spells/etc?
It looked like it was similar to the current site. Actually, the new design might be better since those links are all in one column once you open the Rules menu:
were there even easy links to races/classes/monsters/spells/etc?
It looked like it was similar to the current site. Actually, the new design might be better since those links are all in one column once you open the Rules menu:
COMPENDIUM
Classes
Backgrounds
Species
Feats
Spells
Equipment
Magic Items
Monsters
It's already all in the same "folder", it simply looks much sleeker and cooler because of the illustrations, I don't see how taking these away and making it some rigid bland column as they tried to do is any improvement.
Honestly the necessity of keeping the illustrations isn't just a matter of aesthetic, it also creates visual cues which highly helps finding your way around. It's like city architecture, if every streets look the exact same bland, sterile, corporate ; it just becomes a maze. Visual cues and specific looking places help quickly find your marks and navigate yourself, it's the same for UI, as for character sheets...
Given how poorly designed the official ones tend to be, to the point there's whole websites dedicated to redesigning Dnd sheets... Without mentioning the hell it is for multiclassing... Yeah... Makes sense they'd have a hard time designing a practical user friendly interface with identity and artistry, they do already struggle to do so with character sheets..
What I'd actually want is a direct access to the basic 2024 rules from the Player's Handbook, such as the compact basic Adventuring Gear and Tools list, Multiclassing details etc... And not a link to a messy marketplace where the only way to actually quickly find what you're looking for is to know its name and type it in a search bar... A different configuration which I may be the only one to prefer, maybe not...
So, here's an idea, since we create accounts and profiles and such to keep track of our campaigns, characters etc... Why not doing so regarding UI too ? Let's have a way to customise our UI, like we do with widgets on smartphones :
Rearrange and sort out categories (each with illustration covers to pick from or upload to serve as visual cues, so to look similarly as how it is now).
Choose individual links' thumbnail sizes, like bricks. (For exemple : 1x1 = Sourcebooks thumbnail sizes | 5x4 = Classes, Species and Background thumbnail's size | 1x4 = Feats, Spells etc's size and so on...)
Create our own folders, make it possible to bookmark the rulesets, pages and infos we actually need and want, in order to fit the way we play and wanna use the website...
Let's just create a tool to organise our UI and save our personalised "Presets" on our profile. Wouldn't that be the best way to please everybody ?
So, it's difficult to know where to start here. Maybe I'm in a minority of one, but this new menu redesign is dreadful for me. It actively makes me work harder to access the things I most often access. It's a downgrade.
I can see that there was an attempt at logic here, but fear it's been done ignorant of data on which areas of the site people most frequently travel to.
For example, the forums are one of the places I most frequently access. Well, now it's a click, move, and click to do what once was accomplished by a single click. This is what I mean by poor user experience. When redesigning, no good UI or UX designer should be increasing the time and activities to get to a commonly used area of the thing being designed. My very first business was Web Design and Development, so I have some experience in this area.
Similarly, the new 'Library' menu item has no drop-down like the old 'Sources' item has, meaning more time spent, and more work on the part of the user to get to the books they want to access. This is dreadful design.
The logic of the new 'Rules' menu item is dubious at best considering what is contained within it's dropdown.
So I guess, I'm giving feedback that the Menu of the site now needs rethinking - preferably with some reference to users and their thoughts. Not solely the brainstorming of what I can only assume is a group of designers who are detached from the day-to-day use of the site ('cause that's what it feels like happened).
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Agreed.
Honestly though the entire top bar of the site being waster to telling me about a shipping discount is awful. I pay a subscription, get that junk out of my face. Leave it where it belongs; the marketplace.
If you click Rules -> Core Rulesbooks under Learn to Play, it takes you to the marketplace>_<. I already own this content.
Christ is King
I feel the same, I spend a lot of time on here and its just a hassle now.
The entirety of this update is absolute shite.. wtf are they on ?
Whoever designed this bland, ugly and ultimately worse on every point UI should never again be given such a job. This is simply atrocious.
The illustrations and fluid menu was both WAY COOLER / BETTER LOOKING, AND MORE PRACTICAL.
Library should remain a dropdown with the core books, sage advice, and unearthed arcana directly linked, then links to 'expanded rules' and 'adventures' for the rest. Given the relabeling, these sub-pages should show what you own by default. The Marketplace is where you go for stuff you don't own, there's no need to wedge advertising in functional tools.
How can I double-like this ?
No seriously, I discovered the change right as it got applied on my new tabs, I honestly thought I somehow got to an obsolete version of the website so much this feels like a drawback worth 10 years of development and user feedback. This is dreadful design.
The only people who might think this version to be more user friendly are 70 year old boomers with sight problems and difficulties with technology who shouldn't be anymore in position to take such decisions, cause this isn't even a more practical design.
Just a far less good looking, less fluid, less efficient, stale and outdated style of UI absolutely no company lead by competent designers would consider more efficient than the previous one.
The best way I can describe it is "corporate" and that does not make it a particularly welcoming experience. It's copied the marketplace design (which was already fairly unpopular) but it's left feeling cold and functional like something for a law firm.
Also bring back the party wizard, we all like colour
I am extremely disappointed with the redesign as well. From pointless animations for the opening and closing of menus, to information once readily accessible being buried in a more inconvenient manner, this was a big miss for me.
But my big problem with this? It feels a bit like a slap in the face to the many players who have been begging for basic features on this site - 2024 difficulty calculations added to the encounter builder, features of the character sheet actually functioning, etc. No one, as far as I am aware, was raising any concerns about the website’s UI, certainly not to the extent as core functionality. It does not feel particularly great to see Wizards spent development time throwing an unnecessary coat of paint on their website, when some structural issues need to be addressed.
This. Just this.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
OP, You beat me to the punch on this one. Thank you for putting it much more tactfully than I would have.
Seriously, who saw the draft layout and said "yea, this is fine."
Roll that crap back please. It may have been a bit clunky before, but at least it was intuitive and mildly artistic. this new layout just screams "corporate mundacity"
When I click My Homebrew in the drop down, after clicking my name in the upper right hand corner, it now takes me to the menu to navigate ALL homebrew?! Why would I want that? I specifically clicked "My" Homebrew. If you are going to make me navigate half the site, for everything except Characters and Campaigns, just to get where I need to go then why wouldn't it be easier to do all this on Roll20 and some google docs?
Also, the sorting functions no longer works?! I've got 12 pages of homebrew that I've made for several campaigns over the course of half a decade DMing and using this site. I cant find everything alphabetically every time.
They've made the site less convenient and that is literally the only reason to use it.
I agree
Well, THAT was short-lived.
Glad they listened (or internally discovered their mistake) and rolled it back... now can we get the character generator working RAW please?
Yup. And then it rolled out incomplete stating that it still needed work on the library menu. Funny how quickly it was roleld back.
Christ is King
Unfortunately, if you look at the changelog page, it seems to be a temporary rollback.
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Sheesh, didn't experience it on desktop and was busy when it first came up. But were there even easy links to races/classes/monsters/spells/etc? Since on desktop I use the current Game Rules dropdown A LOT. And it's convenient. (Was a little more convenient back in the Old Old UI when there were direct links to the classes or sorting spells by class/school. But I understand the sheer number of classes that have been added since make that somewhat impractical these days.) And the moving gif they preview the new design with doesn't give me enough time to actually digest what it was supposed to look like.
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It looked like it was similar to the current site. Actually, the new design might be better since those links are all in one column once you open the Rules menu:
COMPENDIUM
It's already all in the same "folder", it simply looks much sleeker and cooler because of the illustrations, I don't see how taking these away and making it some rigid bland column as they tried to do is any improvement.
Honestly the necessity of keeping the illustrations isn't just a matter of aesthetic, it also creates visual cues which highly helps finding your way around.
It's like city architecture, if every streets look the exact same bland, sterile, corporate ; it just becomes a maze.
Visual cues and specific looking places help quickly find your marks and navigate yourself, it's the same for UI, as for character sheets...
Given how poorly designed the official ones tend to be, to the point there's whole websites dedicated to redesigning Dnd sheets... Without mentioning the hell it is for multiclassing... Yeah... Makes sense they'd have a hard time designing a practical user friendly interface with identity and artistry, they do already struggle to do so with character sheets..
What I'd actually want is a direct access to the basic 2024 rules from the Player's Handbook, such as the compact basic Adventuring Gear and Tools list, Multiclassing details etc... And not a link to a messy marketplace where the only way to actually quickly find what you're looking for is to know its name and type it in a search bar...
A different configuration which I may be the only one to prefer, maybe not...
So, here's an idea, since we create accounts and profiles and such to keep track of our campaigns, characters etc...
Why not doing so regarding UI too ?
Let's have a way to customise our UI, like we do with widgets on smartphones :
Let's just create a tool to organise our UI and save our personalised "Presets" on our profile.
Wouldn't that be the best way to please everybody ?