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GWM2 preview

Chainer
Oct 30, 2017 - permalink
GWM is about to turn 9 years old this week. I'm thrilled that the site has remained thriving and successful for so long.

However, 9 years is a very long time when it comes to web technologies. Over the site's lifetime, the following has happened:
  • Smartphones and tablets started being widely used
  • Internet Explorer went from being used by the majority of site visitors to only 5% of users
  • UIs across many websites started adopting a simpler, "flatter" look

... among many others. Over the past few years it has become clear that GWM is in need of an update, especially when it comes to usage on mobile devices.

Some time ago I began a project to rewrite GWM from scratch into what I've been calling GWM2. I am not just updating the UI; I am rewriting the backend as well. The reason for this is that in the current codebase, the UI code is so intertwined with the backend code that untangling this would've been a major task in and of itself. Instead, seeing how the backend code is in many ways just as outdated as the UI, I opted for a clean start.

I am now far enough along on GWM2 to feel confident in announcing it, as well as to give a preview.

The main goal of the project is to create a site that's more friendly toward smartphones and tablets, but as you'll see in the following screenshots I'm also taking this opportunity to get some things right that I missed out on the first time around. Note that the goal is not to add new features; I'll be happy if I can manage to port over the most important existing functionality, as over the course of its life the site has gained a lot of bells and whistles here and there.

With that said... Here is the new home page (with placeholder text on the right for now):


This page, along with all the other thumbnail pages, makes use of the entire browser screen. Here it is on a phone, where the sidebar doesn't appear, and instead can be expanded by clicking on the news item at the top:


This is the image index page:


One improvement in GWM2 over the current site is that the search page and image index pages are combined into one. This lets you search for a name while filtering by tags and other options:


Here it is on mobile:


The updated image page on desktop, which is very similar to the current version:


And on mobile:


The chat on desktop, again making better use of the screen space:


And on mobile:


Of course this is still a work in progress, and a lot of what you see above will change.
Oct 30, 2017 - permalink
Great news. With all my respect, but GWM looked like a web from the 90s.
The occasion could be used to make some other changes. One of the things upgradeable as GWM is the way it treats models. When you click on a name it's just a script that shows you a matching search. I think it would be better if the models had a profile, something similar to deviantart: https://rentb.deviantart.com/

The home template could be used. The most recent, most favorite and highest score photos of that particular model. You only have to choose a photo for the profile (the highest score) and some links to her social networks. Sometimes it's a pain in the ass to find the instagram of a girl: Margie V. Martin = msmelanite ... or something like that.

You could also add a tag for anonymous in the "search" section. It would make things much easier. And from the point of aesthetics, will this be the definitive color palette? And what will happen with the header of the site? I mean the letters in longhand and the girl drawn in golden lines. I liked it better before, with her arm flexed with a big bicep.
Nov 01, 2017 - permalink
I actually prefer a defined grid layout for the index pages, myself.  You lose some screen real estate, but it makes it easier to visually scan through a large amount of pictures.  It would also be nice if the tags and such were a little more prominent and separated above the comments in the new design.  Looks pretty nice otherwise, though!
Chainer
Nov 01, 2017 - permalink
You could also add a tag for anonymous in the "search" section. It would make things much easier. And from the point of aesthetics, will this be the definitive color palette? And what will happen with the header of the site? I mean the letters in longhand and the girl drawn in golden lines. I liked it better before, with her arm flexed with a big bicep.

I am indeed planning on having an option to filter for pics with no name. The colors may change a bit; I'm considering having the buttons be gray rather than blue. There will be no banner on the new site. The site name may be in a more distinctive font and a logo would be nice, but I don't have the artistic skills to make one myself.

I actually prefer a defined grid layout for the index pages, myself.  You lose some screen real estate, but it makes it easier to visually scan through a large amount of pictures.  It would also be nice if the tags and such were a little more prominent and separated above the comments in the new design.  Looks pretty nice otherwise, though!

The problem with a grid layout is that all the extra whitespace is very punishing on mobile. The solution to that could be to have thumbnails that are always square (like what instagram does) which lets you have both a grid layout and not much whitespace in between the thumbs, but then the thumbnails that aren't perfectly square already would need to be cropped.
Nov 04, 2017 - permalink
The problem with a grid layout is that all the extra whitespace is very punishing on mobile.

I'd be fine with it if it were just on the mobile version, it seemed like you were saying the change would be universal?
Chainer
Nov 04, 2017 - permalink
I'd like the same layout on mobile and desktop (with the one difference being that more whitespace between pics is OK on desktop)

With the square thumbs we'd have to truncate some pictures, which for most pics works OK.
Nov 04, 2017 - permalink
The site name may be in a more distinctive font and a logo would be nice, but I don't have the artistic skills to make one myself.

You could do a contest for a new logo for the site. GWM has thousands of users, there are probably several with graphic design knowledge. You could also take the opportunity to change the icons to edit, report and delete comments. They are pretty outdated.
Chainer
Nov 04, 2017 - permalink
Yeah the new site will use different icons for sure, not the current ones.

There will not be room in the new design for a full banner. Maybe once the site is live I can run a contest or something to have someone design a logo.
wihs2006
Nov 08, 2017 - permalink
I like the new layout and design Chainer!
Nov 29, 2017 - permalink
Already there is a possible release date of the new design?
Chainer
Dec 02, 2017 - permalink
Currently aiming for February 2018.
Feb 01, 2018 - permalink
GWM is about to turn 9 years old this week. I'm thrilled that the site has remained thriving and successful for so long.

However, 9 years is a very long time when it comes to web technologies. Over the site's lifetime, the following has happened:
  • Smartphones and tablets started being widely used
  • Internet Explorer went from being used by the majority of site visitors to only 5% of users
  • UIs across many websites started adopting a simpler, "flatter" look

... among many others. Over the past few years it has become clear that GWM is in need of an update, especially when it comes to usage on mobile devices.

Some time ago I began a project to rewrite GWM from scratch into what I've been calling GWM2. I am not just updating the UI; I am rewriting the backend as well. The reason for this is that in the current codebase, the UI code is so intertwined with the backend code that untangling this would've been a major task in and of itself. Instead, seeing how the backend code is in many ways just as outdated as the UI, I opted for a clean start.

I am now far enough along on GWM2 to feel confident in announcing it, as well as to give a preview.

The main goal of the project is to create a site that's more friendly toward smartphones and tablets, but as you'll see in the following screenshots I'm also taking this opportunity to get some things right that I missed out on the first time around. Note that the goal is not to add new features; I'll be happy if I can manage to port over the most important existing functionality, as over the course of its life the site has gained a lot of bells and whistles here and there.

With that said... Here is the new home page (with placeholder text on the right for now):


This page, along with all the other thumbnail pages, makes use of the entire browser screen. Here it is on a phone, where the sidebar doesn't appear, and instead can be expanded by clicking on the news item at the top:


This is the image index page:


One improvement in GWM2 over the current site is that the search page and image index pages are combined into one. This lets you search for a name while filtering by tags and other options:


Here it is on mobile:


The updated image page on desktop, which is very similar to the current version:


And on mobile:


The chat on desktop, again making better use of the screen space:


And on mobile:


Of course this is still a work in progress, and a lot of what you see above will change.

Hyped to see major updates in the works for my favorite site  ^-^
Feb 02, 2018 - permalink
Maybe it's too late, but I insist that GWM needs a section where the social networks of the models are shown. For me that I upload images, many times it is an authentic pain in the ass to find the Instagram of the models. For example, Margie V. Martin's Instagram is called marvelousv, and before it was called differently.
An isolated section is not necessary, it could be a simple folding menu under the photos, like "Original Filename", but it will show the links to Faceobook or Instagram.
Chainer
Feb 03, 2018 - permalink
Yeah, I have considered that idea as well. Someplace where model instagrams can be edited/updated (maybe only by a set of trusted users, maybe by everyone) and then it shows up under all pictures for that person.

It won't be in GWM2 when it launches but it's on my list of things to add in later.
Feb 04, 2018 - permalink
I think the best option would be to add an extra option in the "reason" menu of the report image button. In this way it would be easier for administrators to check if the URL is correct.
tamarok
Feb 13, 2018 - permalink
One site that I visit often is ArsTechnica and they introduced some view options because some people preferred a different layout. Do you think this could be an option here, if there is a demand for the ‘classic’ grid layout?
Mar 12, 2018 - permalink
I think all this looks awesome, thanks for the 'sample' usage there.  As long as all this will still be usable on the good old desktop format its all good for me.  I just enjoy the site in general.  I did have one idea I had mentioned years back....

What about a way to tag someone when posting comments or pictures?  Such as on social media when you want to show someone a picture or have them reply to your comment.  An addition of that would increase the social aspect of the site greatly.  Even a 'ping' when you get a notification when you are online?  Things like that.  Just my thoughts.

Also the model profile was also an idea of mine years back, but at the time was going to be included in the 'pay' or 'video' section only.  But it's a good thought.  The FB or IG link section could also be good for linking those interested to their favorite models. 
Kristi
Chainer
Mar 13, 2018 - permalink
Planning on launching GWM2 this weekend.

The site has changed a bit since the thumbnails earlier in this thread; one notable change is that the thumbnail layout is now a grid.
Mar 14, 2018 - permalink
Been too long since I've been on the board itself. Looking forward to the changes you have in store for GWM!
Mar 17, 2018 - permalink
 Did I miss something or have the notifications been deleted in the new format? If this is the case it is a real loss.
glassbeadcheese
Mar 17, 2018 - permalink
I'm open to change, but this 2.0 version is offensively bad. The layout is so barebones to the point where it looks like a backend graphical database for a business.

At the very minimum, the horizontal layout for the pictures needs to be constrained so that it doesn't fill out the entire screen. Image-based websites do this for a reason. It's a chore to browse through photos constantly darting your eyes around the screen left and right.

I'm happy there's an effort to improve the website, but this doesn't appear like a finished product to me.
Mar 17, 2018 - permalink
glassbeadcheese is correct. In this websites current form it actually hurts to look at. I do agree with the sentiment of needing to update from the old website as tech does change. Hopefully improvements are in store for visual usability.
Mar 17, 2018 - permalink
I really like some of the new search features, especially the ability to combine name and tag searches, and the video-only option.  I assume the High Score section on the front page is still high score (today), but it would be nice if it were labelled as such.

At the very minimum, the horizontal layout for the pictures needs to be constrained so that it doesn't fill out the entire screen. Image-based websites do this for a reason. It's a chore to browse through photos constantly darting your eyes around the screen left and right.

I agree, but I think that's an unfortunate result of trying to make the site more mobile-friendly and still have only one version.  The physical screen width on mobile devices is a lot smaller than that of widescreen desktop monitors, and they have different needs.

It could be worse, at least it's not using that horrible infinite scroll nonsense that so many mobile-oriented sites so.
Chainer
Mar 18, 2018 - permalink
It would be possible to constrain the width to a maximum, while having it still take up the entire width on mobile (when the actual width is smaller than the max-width). This is how the comments on the image pages work, for example. I made the thumbs always fill the entire width on purpose by design; I am open to this not being visually pleasing, though.
Mar 18, 2018 - permalink
Change is always difficult - and complaints are inevitable as we all get used to this new layout. That said, I agree with glassbeadcheese - the new version is not pretty to look at. I too appreciate the desire to update or modernize the look, but because everything is lined up, it all looks the same. There's nothing to guide the eye. All the buttons are lined up, and the same color, and the same size, which makes it hard to find the one to click. The web is visual, which means using visual cues other than words is what helps make it efficient.

The new site is also missing some of the economy of the old one too. For instance the password and username boxes used to be on the home page - now they're on their own page, which means, click, page loads, type, click, page loads again. And it takes you back to the home screen, not the page you were browsing before you logged in, so effectively starting your session over. Sometimes I forget to log in, and then realize that I should be logged in in order to favorite something, which on the old site logging in while viewing a photo brought me back to where I was with just a minimal interruption.

Another economy that's missing is the links that switched between uploader/date uploaded/original file name. This has been changed to a dropdown, which is great when filling out forms, but here is more effort than it used to be.

This leads me to think more about the area below the photo on the single image page. The information is spread further across the screen than the photo itself, which means scanning the whole screen back and forth in order to read the info and the title of the info. I want to look at the photo, not decipher the info. So why so much screen space between the info and the titles of the info?

The gallery page layout scales when the window is resized, which is ok in theory but I have to ask why? Usually when resizing a window, I want to see more of the page, not the page larger. I have tools to enlarge the page expecially on desktop.

Another thing that distracts from the new layout is that the whole images are displayed on the thumbnail pages, and it's distracting to the eye because there is a lot of white space created by all the different aspect ratios on the page. Cropped thumbnails actually make me want to click into the single image page, because I want to see the whole image.

The name of the person should be under the image. It's where we expect captions to be, not information. More importantly, it honors the subject of the photo.

That said, I'm off to try the new search capabilities.

Thanks for the great content - I hope the new layout improves.
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