The site design has gotten a bit much.

ATS has always had a 'unique' look but visiting after a long time i find the new design changes have made it worse to navigate among other issues, theres something to be said for a more simple design, as it is i find the site too distracting and chaotic, there's too much going on with each page and a lot of unnecessary space so you need to scroll all the time, also when not signed in you can't view the forms in the normal way (at least from what i can tell).

I don't know when it got this bad but it puts me off ever visiting again, it needs compacting and simplifying, don't put so much on any one page and keep it easy on the eyes, anyone else agree?

reply to post by Just Theory


Whats all the fuss about? I have to say, theres alot more going on with your average myspace page than there is going on with ATS pages. Plus they dont take a year to load up ! I tried to use myspace and hotmail the other day and I thought I had gotten stuck in a paradox or something.

reply to post by TrueBrit


The style isn't too bad but theres too much going on and it could use simplifying and compacting a bit.

reply to post by just theory


I hear what you are saying, but I dont understand how the site could be simpler! Care to explain a little bit more about your thoughts on this ?

Originally posted by Just Theory
ATS has always had a 'unique' look but visiting after a long time i find the new design changes have made it worse to navigate among other issues, theres something to be said for a more simple design,

In reality, there are fewer navigational links per page than on any other previous design of ATS... and much less "clutter" in threads for logged-in members.

anyone else agree?

Since the site redesign, the overall trends we're seeing in our analytics indicates most users appreciate the new design.

Overall views of threads (as a percentage of total page views) is up considerably, on average about 40% more than under the previous design(s). This would indicate that more people are finding actual content.

Bounce-rate (the function of visitors who view one page, then leave) is down to slightly less than 10% as a site-wide average, as compared to about 42% before the redesign. This would indicate that only a very small percentage of users aren't interested in additional content.

Average pages viewed per visitor is up to 5.5, as compared to 4.1 under the previous site design. Combined with the above and higher daily average traffic (190,000+ visits), this indicates more people are looking at more content.

If the numbers were anything else, we'd be refining the interface and design, trust me.

Lidicrous. LOL.

It looks great, the dark and green. You can select the My Posts and My Threads options directly from the ribbon below.. and the My Posts goes directly to your posts, not just the thread in which they were put.

Great work ATS!

reply to post by Just Theory


I personally love the new design, but I'll admit that when I first came back t ATS, after a fairly long hiatus, I wasn't crazy over it. Now that I've gotten used to it, I love it! I think it's far simpler now than it was before. Just takes some time to get used to it.

Myself, i find the new adaption very smooth and ease of navigation in comparison to the prior version. All in all, keep up the good work and lets not forget the personal time put in by moderators and super moderators and uber moderators and who else is behind the scenes.


In short


Keep up the good work.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


do you think you would gotten less then 190,000+ visits today if you didn't change the theme ?

and i agree with you 'Just Theory"

reply to post by MrAnnunaki


Probably not. Since total visits to the site home, as the first hit for a new session, have gone up in proportion to the average daily visits... while percentage of total traffic from search has also slightly fallen in proportion to the number of visits beginning with the site home.

It's way better than it used to be. Love the ribbon at the bottom and would like to see something like that at the top too (a hide it it you don't need it kind of thing).

Search could use some work...it seems to get "stuck" on the results page and there's no ATS navigation there, which makes from some unnatural clicking to get out of there.

ATS Pros:

1. Dark background
2. User friendly to read and post
3. Many bells and whistles (if you're into those things)
4. Staff appears to be cutting back on the previously overbearing excessive censorship
5. Most importantly, information on site is indexed by Google rather quickly

ATS Cons:

1. No ignore button (more members means more useless time wasting information being posted)
2. Mods need to be more active in deleting numerous idiotic threads
3. Bells and whistles are too involved and time wasting to use
4. You have to jump through hoops to display an image, which many times does not display fully
5. No exterior links to pages with images allowed
6. Too many different fonts and character styles being used on each ATS page
7. Each page needs direct link to U2U internal messaging
8. Smileys getting old and boring
9. Round thumbnail category images in urgent need of redesign
10. Home page and category heading pages are a complete mess - way too many things going on
11. Too many pages on the site which serve no purpose other than to stuff the search engines
12. Top member picks are absurd and/or for marketing purposes (two of three currently on Alex Jones hogwash)

Not bad, it's getting there, although several more redesigns of the site are in order to completely modernize it. In all fairness, simplicity is one of the most difficult achievements to attain. This is especially the case when you're dealing with web design where you have to take multiple issues into account such as User Functionality, Site Design/Layout, Load Times and Search Engine Optimization.

Overall I like the look and feel of the new ATS...but I agree with ~Lucidity that the Search function has a problem...generally when I search it is to see if there's an existing thread so I don't post a duplicate item. Once the search comes up negative, I can't navigate anywhere. My only choice is to hit the bookmark button on my browser to the forum page, or home, or something. A navigate bar on the Search page would make it much easier to move on.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


is it a possibility that you can choose your own theme ? or is this the default theme everyone has to use ?

reply to post by Just Theory


I agree that the way it is now is hard on the eyes.....I think it's the green...

I couldn't disagree more with the OP. Out of all the sites in my bookmark-bar, ATS has the best design by far.

I like it so much even that I went out of my way to learn how to navigate pages in fullscreen mode (removed the sidescrolling bar, installed mouse-gestures add-on and memorized the gestures) because I just like looking at this site so much.

The only minor thing I would change is the black lines under the emoticons on the reply page that overlap with the emoticons beneath it. Oh, and the wall-o-text under 'before you reply' that makes me have to scroll to get to the reply box. Would be nice if that was only visible to the newbies. I've been here long enough to know that txting shorthand and 1-liners aren't appreciated.

I am very glad the "sidebars" that appeared after the first round of changes have been removed.

Overall, I am satisfied with the look and feel of the site these days. I will note that when viewing it on my iPhone, the "ribbon" at the bottom tends to stick in the middle of the page rather than scroll down, and it can sometimes block the content and get in the way, which is a little annoying. But overall its not bad.

I've always wished ATS would make a stripped-down, simplified "worksafe" version with fewer images and a less cartoon-y feel to it, but this is not a major issue IMHO.

do you guys got the old theme stored somewhere ?

Originally posted by MrAnnunaki
do you guys got the old theme stored somewhere ?

I think we should get copyright clearance Clarence and go with an LCARS theme fom Trek!
Just my two cents.

Originally posted by MrAnnunaki
do you guys got the old theme stored somewhere ?

Originally posted by MrAnnunaki
do you guys got the old theme stored somewhere ?

edit on 11-2-2011 by MrAnnunaki because: (no reason given)

No. This is the only design of ATS.