Top Page Redesign

I think having both top bar and the tab bar makes it a bit too cluttered. There are few things that I would think are more sub-set of other items, for instance, 'Videos' would be a subset of 'Member News' and 'Mascot' would be under 'About'.

Also there are duplicates of the top bar with the sub tabs. So what I mean to say is that there are too many tabs and a consolidation of topics would be good :)

Oh just one question Danny, right at the bottom of the page there's a 10 digit number in parentheses, on the frontage it is next to "Since 2000" just wondering what that is?

I seriously love the current design... And when it comes to parts I don't really care about (Sorry, it's the truth), I just skip them.
Of course, if it's about images here and there, that may take some time and bandwidth for people who have low-speed connections... But myself am fine.
Yes, this option would be welcome!
And finally as for this private messenging service, why not, if it doesn't use too much of your server's capacity. By the way, if people wish to contact me directly (e-mail, MSN), they can (Can I ask you to be an intermediate person then, Danny? Thanks, lol), just no spam, no scam, no virus. ^^; Thanks!

3 tabbars + sidebar + image menu is indeed too much. ^^

I think 1 image menu and 1 tabbar is sufficient.

Well, not only that, but visitors in the screenshot you added see no content whatsoever but 500 headlines until they start scrolling. As a blog, I guess the most interesting thing is always the new post's content. The rest of the things… not really interested.

Anyway, I follow you through RSS, so the design of your webpage is not so much of an issue.

To be honest, the google ad-bar on the top is really ruining things... but no other complaints from me. As long as the good stuff keeps coming, that is. ;)

hmmmm. how about adding a chat box in the dannychoo page, that way we would be able to talk to eachother whenever we are online lol ^^;;

Sry danny, but I think the current site is perfect.

A personalized top page would be great but I think the current site show the perfekt numbers article und news.

I only discovered your site a few months ago, and my initial impression was something along the lines of "that was a really interesting article.. but wtf are all of these options and htf can I find more interesting articles". It really does feel like you're swimming through a sea of possible tabs and options which make it easy for a new user to feel completely lost.

The image nav-bar at the top + 3 tab bars is definitely over kill and really leads to confusion at first as to which one you should even be looking at for whatever you want from the site.

Of course, that is also because there's a lot of things that the site offers so such options are necessary to be shown somewhere.. just having it all on the front page your first time is totally overwhelming. Hiding most of it from new visitors is probably a good idea, but I would also suggest adding some kind of "tutorial" which shows for newly registered users which gives an overview of all these hidden options.. just so people are aware of what's there as if it's hidden there can well be features people would love to use but just don't know about.

Yeah, two menu bars (the image one at the very top and the text one above "Articles being read right now") is rather repetitive.

Perhaps you can gather some of the boxes (such as the Latest News Items or Puchi Burbs) under a menu. This would probably help to make the front page look less cluttered.

anyway of moving the ads by google down? way down? hah

the links on top are getting duplicated three times.
Just move the Latest news, settings box and the articles being read right now, etc tab box to end of the column.

rest is alright.

this might sound abit challenging but anyway...
i would suggest total custom-ability to the regular reader. have a page where they get to tick/untick which segment they want on their landing page.
one good example of this is My Yahoo! (http://my.yahoo.com) - u need a yahoo account for this.
Try visiting My Yahoo! to understand what i mean. they allow the users to select what type of news, articles and even allow them to drag and rearrange where those articles should appear.
happy coding!!

Perhaps consolidating features into specific sub pages (eg. a "member communication page set", an "article viewing/nav page set") would work well for reducing the UI clutter you have. I think the ideal is for a user to be on any arbitrary page/function, with the content they desire, in 1-3 clicks, clearly not possible for a novice user of this site.
Page layout has also come to lack consistency, and in particular there are pages with a variety of different sidebar layouts and even page widths (shouldn't you have all content in a fixed width central column - long lines are thought to be difficult to read) - a similar look and feel, as well as a more logical arrangement would help matters, for example primary/active content in the middle, supplementary/navigable content in the wide sidebar, and site and nav features in the narrow bar. Saves scanning the page each time you need a particular function.
Finally, some sort of content introduction feature is essential on the top - I'm not sure what is possible so I'll refrain from suggestions, but having as much of the site visible from the initial landing page is desirable as you doubtless understand better than I.

Yes, the top page is getting rather busy.. Being able to customize what loads (not just what appears) would be great.

My biggest complaint however, is the way the member news is displayed. If member news were displayed more like standard news items (with a bit of description text as well as a picture), I would read far more of it. It is hard to guess what a news item is about based solely on a picture and category.

Of course, displaying member news with text descriptions would take up a great deal of space. Perhaps make a "detailed description" display mode an option, and allow members to filter news by category...

danny as for your question, i seldom (or never) check out the "currently read articles and japan news"

the one i read most of the time are news items, main articles and member news.

i actually rather like the current layout of the site frontpage

everything is easily accessible (yeah, duplicates can/should be removed), organised into main catergories, and split where nessesary

i can understand where a first timer would have hell trying to figure out what's going on here so i'd suggest you leave it as-is for 'members' (with a few adjustments. i'm sure there are going to be great suggestions) and create a slightly simillar layout for guests with simplifications.

That way, guests who become members, feel kinda special when they get to see the 'full treatment' when they become a member. I guess this would reduce your workload (abit) and give you a chance to do a complete overhaul without affecting too many existing users who already like the current frontpage.

ps: a simplified guest frontpage should NOT have what would be considered NSFW.
This should/could hopefully lessen the 'shock' effect on new 'japanophiles' and possibly allow your site to recategorised away from 'pornography' as we saw in the Germany posts

Personally, I never use the top menu. I mean, I just read the new things via RSS, and thats it.

I think the confusing part is the TONS of image everywhere. There are 100+ images on the main page? Or more?

Hmm, the design is nice, no doubt.
As for what i use and what not...
I mainly view the News and Articles, then the Puchiblurbs and once in a while the member news as sometimes a pearl is inside of them. ^^;
Other then that i harldy use anything else, though to prepare for my japan adventure in a few years i might will need you articles about japan.
Then again, even though i don't really use the image navigation on the top, it's a nice optical feature and the space is thus that well used imo.
What i have noticed is, that sometimes people tend to ask in the blurbs about the "search" function, seems they don't see it in the image navigation... maybe just move that to the sidebar or so. o.o

I don't remember the last time I've seen a website display more than 4 columns at once.
Do you mean choosing content from a pool of 5, but keeping the 3-column layout?

I do use the Japan News links when I find myself refreshing dc.com too often out of addiction.

I rarely use the navigation tabs because I much prefer navigating by wandering around, especially for member news because the thumbnail is the important first impression.
Because of this, member news has reconditioned my behavior somewhat.

The thing that gets on my nut about the header sections that you last made "square," is that I recently have wanted to view the specific item represented by that thumbnail, rather than going to that section.
I also had an idea for the header thumbnails: would it problematic that you exclude thumbnails from the rotation once you have interacted with their respective article?

I can totally see what you mean about regular readers vs newbies when it comes to content and friendly userability and design of your site's front page, Danny.

As a regular reader (I browse very quickly at work once or twice and read fully when I get home) I always read the Articles and the News posts. I also read as much of the Member News posts as I can but don't worry as much if I missed a few. The hero pic usually decides whether I click through or not.

I hardly ever click the "Articles being read right now..." or the "This time last year..." posts (btw, that Hide this widget didn't work the last 2 times I tried it) unless I see something that I haven't seen before.

Don't think I've ever clicked any of the Japan News links yet.

I've found recently that I use the search page a few times because I'd remember reading an old article previously and wanted to read it again.

Hope my feedback helps.

All rightie then, here goes Danny.

First of all, I don't think the top page is that much of a mess, but it is true that since you introduced all the new features, things have gotten somewhat muddled.

What I always use/read:
-Main news
-Member news
-Articles read right now
-Puchi blurbs

What I (almost) never use
-Japan news
-This time last year

What bugs me
-Google ads at the top. But maybe this is required if you incorporate google ads, I don't know, but anyway, its like 3 cm wasted space. So maybe but it at the bottom/right side?

My opinions/suggestions:
-Keep uppermost top bar as-is; the figure/japan/gundam links are handy. This also goes for the tabs right under the google ads. This makes for good navigation and is not overwhelming to new visitors imo.
-Working with columns is a great idea, but be sure to give your own news the best place. After all, it's your site and personally I think your articles are always the best read
-Don't work with 'toggling' certain features on/off. If possible, you should encorporate this in the account control panel, so that people can make things the way they want in one location
-Finally, the ultimate gizmo would of course be the possibility to place categories whereever you want to make a custom page. Again this could be incorporated in the account control panel, but I don't know how difficult it is.

Anyways, that's about it. I hope it's useful and I think its great that you take that much care of your reader's whishes. Good luck with the inevitable coding. Can't wait for member-member messaging and of course the figure contest ^^

Hi danny...was wondering the widgets contain new news right? I mean the middle column with the larger pictures? I dunno but I find the widget kind obtrusive at times as I couldn't figure whether to look over at the member features or scrutinize over DC news so here goes mine (This is probably a result of me being a former lay-out ed):

1. Place DC news on one column with the newest features on top and the member news on the side? The load of random text kind of scares me off not that i'm a newbie

2. Add a search function to past archives? It kind of sucks for me when I want to show friends very old news and I have to pile out all news items before spotting them

3. Maybe moving the pucchi blurbs under the profile so it kind of makes sense. You know grouping? The pucchi text entry area is on the right but we see it on the left...somewhat defeating the purpose of leisurely eye eposure

4. The topmost navigation is okay, I guess

5. The Menu. Maybe put it in a separate page? While putting it in the main page reduces the clicks needed to edit profile, etc...I don't find it most necessary unless you make this the place to customize the planned "hiding" of content.

Well that's it and I hope it...er..helps even a little?

Upon thinking more about it, I feel that would be nice to remove the links and pictures of the main banner and put a lying down picture of Mirai-chan, such as the one chun did (yoko pai Mirai? Yeah, the very one of her with yoko pai)

For me as a reg. member, I skip the google ads and head straight to the members news, DC news, latest articles and puchi blurbs ^^;;

I have not customised anything yet.

The messaging, PM system sounds nice, forums tend to have them. I think its a good way to communicate with each other . :D

Indication on how many users online feature? (Its a bit redundant but I have my shot in giving ideas HAHA).

As a regular I have a rutine (spelling?) I run through everytime I visit. I check all new articles and new items from danny and then check the member news for anything that catches my eye, usually 2d girls.

My gripe is the way member news categories are organized. Categories like 'games' or 'tech' don't get any face time on the front page and therefore may or may not be read, which is disappointing if you've written an article and can't figure out if everyone hates it or never saw it. Easily fixed though, just adding tiles for those unrepresented categories. Besides that, I don't see much use for puchi blurbs, though they are neat sometimes.

Looking forward to my inbox and a custom front page!

Realized at one time I was spending WAY too much time on your site, so now I only use:
-Main news
-Latest News Items
Used to use puchi blurbs too. As for member news, I don't read that at all.

One tab bar of choices might be a nice idea, instead of the two that now appear on the main page. (So you'd have banner, ads, tab bar and under that side by side news, articles and left vertical bar.)

I haven't felt the 'This time last year' feature on the article section contributed much for me persoanlly when reading the site, I found it a bit distracting even.
But that's a personal experience.

I use the main, otaku.fm, member news.
Yesterday for the first time I used the option on top.

Maybe is time for a little clean up, because the newbies (no offense) could be really lost. I know what I´m looking for. ;)

It sure is a bit messy, and hard to find for a newcomer, but I love it.

I'm using the main, otaku.fm and figure.fm most of the time. Looking into members new and puchi sometime.

About the banner, I would probably remove the tabs there, and put (as some already comment) Mirai-chan there, probably. ^^,

Though, I can't see where the tabs should go at the moment.

danny, i'm going to post a screen shot that i edited using photoshop.
hope it be helpful to you
not very good with photoshop software though and some of my views on top page.
fellow member are wellcome to add comments too.

One of my concern is the member's profile section (where you can easily edit , check , etc your profile). Guess you can just simplify it like have the avatar or a simple text link where it could lead them to another page wherein they can do all the editing / checking of their account. I believe once a member does have its account accessed they don't usually go edit it except when they wanted to change pic.

To be perfectly honest, I think most regular readers will be coming in via an RSS reader of some sort anyway, due to the nature of this site. Of course, you would have better numbers on that than my guess.

I don't even "see" the top and side bars anymore when I open the site, but to be sure, I think most people still do (otherwise Google wouldn't be able to sell any ads).

I don't really use the Members News section; I've overloaded on Twitter before and consciously avoid data floods now. I also found how the latest iteration of the left sidebar a bit too long, which makes it hard to easily tell where the main entry ends when scrolling down... but not enough of a bother for me to attempt customizations. So, I really can't complain about anything.

I like labyrinth pages, but I know I'm the only one. I feel like learning to navigate them is like acquiring a special skill or like getting used to a new RPG...
In this life everything is like video games, I think people who like RPG's like complicated pages too.

Make the latest, figures, gundam, etc the main bar and then put the larger articles, news, etc bar in the side bar or on top. You have way too many bars so it makes it difficult for newbies to jump right in. Just clean i up if you can.....

I really like the current front page. I think you should give memebers the option to turn the google adds off or on, I try to click them once in a while xD. I know it might be hard to do, but I think you should look into the possibility of adding a drag and drop type of interface for members to customize where they want to put different areas of the front page. Again, I don't know how hard it would be, I would imagine that could get a bit complicated.

But yeah, I like the current layout, though, maybe the tab bars at the top are a bit much, especially for new users.

better monitoring for Member news would be nice. I don't like browsing through most of the totally irrelevant stuff that most members post here (like personal artwork)

This is totally evolving into a social networking site.

though way different from facebook/myspace et al

It's one for the otakus and otaku-wannabes

btw danny may i suggest something for the members new section? i find that quite often some members create multiple posts of the same idol/figure/gundam. for example member A create 5 posts of the same idol in different poses because he doesn't have a blog.

so i was wondering should we impose a rule to limit members from doing so? maybe we can suggest to them to upload all of the images to a free image host like photobucket and post the link at the post.

I never pay attention to the top bar anymore, as well as the tabs that start from comments until ranking.

I'm surprised that there are four menu rows and two rows of tabs. What if the topmost bar with the icons is brought down to where the tinier tabs are? Then maybe you could bring up that set of tabs into a higher position in the hierarchy.

Also, your rss feed is tuned only for Japanese. It would be nice if I checked my rss feed and the articles linked to would be in English.

Since I myself only use the feeds to enter the site, it wouldn't made much difference ^^'
But the member messaging looks cool :3

Thanks all for the feedback. Will be working on the UI soon.

I fancy the current layout as well. I see all the necessary (for me ;) things right after the page loads. What I'm looking forward to is the inbox for member to member messages. I would also find useful here, an option which would be informing me, about responses on my comments, in your and member articles.

i don't use much of your japan news feature and your this-time-last-year post for it's really distracting for the reader especially the new ones. they don't know if the post is new or an old one.

and yeah, the top page is too cluttered with stuff that it distracts the users, visitors and newbies.

can't wait for your member-to-member private messaging ^^

I have a fairly limited web design background, but from looking at the site it seems like it wouldn't be an incredibly omgwtfhuge undertaking to do this:

You could consider making the site "scalable" to different resolutions. I run at 1920x1200 and there's plenty of space on the sides of the page, so, in combination with being able to select what things you want to see, you could set what resolution you're at (or the page could scale to the size of your browsing window) in order to be able to see more.
I may be completely underestimating the amount of work that would require, though.

i have a little suggestion it will be very useful. which is to create a search engine in your site to search for news items or stuff its really annoying to go through all the pages to find a old post

The two main things I check are the regular articles written by you(Danny), and the news articles written by you. Every now and then I check member news as well.

It does seem a bit messy lately. From the current design I'd remove the Japan News, the 9 tabs at the top and turn it to probably just a dropdownlist to save space.

I think the "articles currently being read" is good for the new visitors as they get to see what people are reading and they might find a thing or two there they might be interested in. I know I've clicked on that a couple times.

Basically its the tabs that makes it a bit messy for me. They take too much space and I don't use them a lot as well. Don't know for the other members though but that's just me. Whenever I come to this site I usually know what I'm looking for.