A big "Hello" to the Community
If you’re reading this and you're wondering who I am then you might want to check out Robin's news post that briefly introduces me. But let me explain a little more about myself. Firstly, a big hello!
Okay, so my name is Paul and I go under the forum name BlindJudge - which comes from one of my favourite looking wakeboard tricks and no, I can’t do it - yet!
I’m a passionate gamer who enjoys pretty much any game going, my Steam collection is pretty vast (1100+ games at present) and contains everything from the latest blockbusters through to some lesser known but amazing gems of indie titles. Currently I’m playing games such as Battleblock Theatre, retreading my way through Skyrim (this time modded to the brim) and some of the old school games like the Homeworld remake.
I've been brought in alongside Robin to work in a Content Director role. It's a wide and very varied role but will initially focus on improving how the staff work behind the scenes and working on a complete redesign of the Nexus Mods site. That might be a little worrying, for a new guy to come in and tell you he's heading up a redesign of the sites, but let me try and put your fears to rest.
The Nexus site design is now a good 4-5 years old and it's starting to show its age. Not only that, but it's also splitting at the seams due to all the functionality that's been "tacked on" since the last site redesign was done. The current design wasn't developed with a lot of the new functionality that's been added since in mind, hence why some places can seem a bit cramped and it's often hard to find exactly what you want.
As has always been the Nexus way, we want this process to be as transparent and open to the community as possible and we would love people to come forward every step of the way to offer their suggestions, thoughts and any input you deem could help us deliver to you the site that you deserve. We're not keeping this a secret and just springing it on you once it's ready. We're not working in private with a couple of "respected users". We want to get everyone's opinion every step of the way through to completion. This is your site and your community and you guys are best placed to tell us what you think is best for it - not us and not a few "carefully selected" individuals. We would like it to not only look nice but be exceptionally easy to navigate and easy to find exactly what you're looking for while highlighting not only the bigger mods but also the hidden gems people may have discovered. Importantly we'd also like to to be future proof for any new functionality we add to the sites in the future to avoid that "tacked on" look.
We’ve already started collecting lots of behind the scenes data over the last month. Heatmaps have shown us where people are clicking and how many people scroll up and down the pages. Analytics are showing us where people are arriving from and which pages they are entering and how they're browsing between the various pages on the site. The next logical step for us is to get some really important information from you guys, the people who use the sites the most, on what you'd like to see from a new Nexus site design. To that end I've set up a quick survey, it only has 15 questions, which are mostly multiple choice and should (honestly!) only take 5 minutes to complete, unless you want to give us really detailed information (which we'd really like to read!).
So if you don’t mind, please take our survey, the information you submit will be used to make the site better for you, after all! As an added incentive we’re going to pick 5 names at random from the completed surveys and each of those people will receive a $50 Steam Gift Card.
I know, they are annoying and no one likes to fill in surveys - but the information that we can capture from you guys would be highly advantageous to all of us when it comes to a site wide redesign. We don’t want to just change things over and spring it on you in a “TA DA” kind of way, we would like it to be user driven and because of this, my posts will more than often be asking for help, input, or informing you where we are in the process - and it’s going to be a long process!
So what is our timeline and when do we start?
Well, as mentioned we’ve already started to collect important data behind the scenes and hope this will give us a good insight into what is currently working and not working on the site. There will be a few more bouts of research, such as the survey, so we predict this could last anywhere up to around 8 weeks. We’ll try and get wireframes drawn up and put out in the public eye to gauge reaction and see if anyone has anything they strongly agree or disagree with. Heck, if you feel that you can come up with any ideas or wireframes or even designs yourself then we would love to see them.
Following the research and initial planning stages we’ll jump into the initial design stages which we will announce on the site. This is where we will be consulting the community and UI/UX experts to come up with design mockups for the site, using wireframes and feedback for the designs. These will once again be scrutinised and discussed, shown to the community and your comments will help further these. This should last around 8-10 weeks.
We would love for the new site (the moment it reaches Beta) to be released alongside the current one like the Nexus did with the previous design. This means that people will be able to switch between the two designs, old and new, finding out what they like about the new site, but more importantly what they don’t. There will be a feedback form for you to report back anything straight to us. Every single one of these will be read by me and put into metrics to facilitate changes to the more disliked features or a bug tracker to get things fixed.
It will be exciting times for us over the next few months as the site is developed and coded. It will be done in parallel with the existing site, so nothing will change on the existing NexusMods.com site and, as we said, we'll consult you guys, the users, throughout the entire process.
Site launch day will be exciting, this will be the day when the site swaps over from what it is now to the new one. It will have been a long labour of love from not only the staff here, but also the community as a whole and something I am exceptionally excited to see happen.
Once the new design is rolled out we are going to make sure that site updates and features are then released quickly, no getting stagnant as we want to evolve at the same pace as (or ahead of!) the gaming industry, quick to react to changes taking place in the gaming world. It will be a part of my job to move the site forward quickly ensuring that we stay ahead of the pack. Through listening to the wants and needs of the community I believe this is very possible.
It’s nice to finally say hello and I’m looking forward to working with each and every one of you.
Regards
Paul
333 comments
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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingWelcome! :-)
Is there any way that you can improve the search function. What I mean is, when I do a search for a mod it takes me to the link where that mod is. When I want to go back to see my search results again, it takes me to the Nexus main site page again, then I have to re-enter my search criteria all over again and do another search. It would be helpful to be able to return to my original search results.
Thanks
FalloutAddict 111
I’m a passionate gamer who enjoys pretty much any game going, my Steam collection is pretty vast (1100+ games at present) and contains everything from the latest blockbusters through to some lesser known but amazing gems of i ...
WOW 1100+ Steam Games WOW I wished I had the money to buy that many games.
I have only one and that is New Vegas.. Ulitamate with all the addons and I installed it
on my PC once, and after about 20 minutes I deinstalled it.
Now I play Fallout3. I have the German NO Gore, The Fallout3 International English, the UK English version and last I have the North Amerian ver. I also have the North American Fallout3 GODY Edition which I have been playing since 2010. and after spending a lot of time on each one of these games I find that the Gody is the best. I just dont have the time for any other games..
I wish you all the best here.
Jinn
Allow the user to see a list of ALL posts they've made on a mod page and whether there's been a direct reply.
2.
Load faster on mobile / cellular devices by having leaner interface.
3.
Some categories are useless / vague - eg "Overhauls" and "Immersion"
You should have categories / subcategories THAT AVOID OVERLAPPING to work your way toward the IDEAL mods you like, while filtering out/avoiding the ones you wouldn't. For Example:
PLAYER HOMES
- Large & Wealthy - Castles/Mansions/Villas
- Farms, Ranches & Productive Estates
- Moderate Size, Neat Homes
- Small Shacks
- Natural, Impoverished & Cave Type Homes
COMBAT
- New Attack/Defend/Move Animations
- Enemy Tactics & AI
- New Enemy Types
WEAPONS
- Single Weapon Mods - Melee
- Single Weapon Mods - Ranged
- Weapon Packs - Melee
- Weapon Packs - Ranged
- Weapons & Armor Packs
ANIMALS & CREATURES
- Horses
- Wild Animals
- Farm Animals
- Enemy Beasts
- Bugs & Birds
ARMOR
- Natural Appearance
- High Fantasy Appearance
- Clothing - Non/Weak Armor
- Skimpy, Revealing Armors
NEW LANDS & LOCATIONS (NOT Quest-centric)
- New Buildings & Rooms
- New Villages Towns & Cities
- New Islands, Provinces & Lands
- New Worlds, Realms & Dimensions
QUESTS & ADVENTURES
- All levels - Easy Challenge
- Moderate Levels - Some Challenge
- High levels - Hard Challenge
Note how this approach of Broad Category to SubCategory without Overlapping allows people to move from the GENERAL ---> TO THE PARTICULAR to zero in on the game they want to build.
Skimpy armor is not lore? They forgot to tell Beth who put the skimpy LORE armor on their Forsworn. Nudity is not Lore? Again Beth had nudity in Daggerfall - so how is nudity not lore? I remember that according to the loremongers, crossbows were not strictly LORE - until Beth added them in Dawnguard.
Now please specify exactly what your criteria are for a mod to be 'Lore friendly' And please don't be vague - we need specifics, and be prepared to back it up with logic not the typical "Well, I don't think that is lore - so it's not. "
Then, just how many categories should we have? 20? 50? 100? 300? the more there are the harder it is to work with the categories. Personally, I think we already have too many and they should be cut to around 25 to 30 at the most. Different things are important to different players. And many categories can be combined. Your tree structure is a valid idea though.
Even for the purists. I mean. Everyone is naked without clothing, and that is definately in Skyrim lore. Only because the models don't allow to remove the underwear....
But I agree, his structure idea could be useful. Especially with the amount of mods available.
Maybe something along the lines of a brief description for each category for newer users that may or may not be familiar with certain things that clearly illustrate the difference between for example for Skyrim, the "Magic - Gameplay" category, and "Magic - Spells & Enchantments" category. Just something small, unobtrusive, and simple to briefly explain what it will contain. As most people that have been using the site for a while probably are aware of the difference between each category is, it probably would be a nice addition for newer members, both users and mod creators, who aren't sure what category their mod falls best under.
"Very Lore Friendly"
(disciplined purist mods that'd be at home in core game)
"Vaguely Lore Friendly"
(stretches game lore but acceptable in the genre - eg LOTR, Witcher, Game of Thrones - common to all medieval fantasy etc.)
"Not Lore Friendly - Sexy"
(baby-face girls, skimpy armors, boobs/adult mods)
"Not Lore Friendly - Funny"
(dildo swords, swearing mudcrabs, thomas tank engine)
Then if a mod gets ENOUGH votes in one direction (not just a few votes, needs to be like over 80% of votes to qualify), its TAGGED as such and the user can filter out anything tagged "Not Lore Friendly" or they can filter their session to show ONLY Funny mods or filter out the sexy japanese armors/doll mods.
This will GREATLY enable the user to find/filter mods they do/dont want in their game, will reduce traffic by cutting out half of all content from the users session and will self-regulate thanks to the community.
Who's with me??