Chess.com Site Redesign - Coming Soon!

I wanted to let the Chess.com community know that we are working on a site-wide design overhaul. What does this mean? 

1. The site will have a more updated, modern look (example: http://i.imgur.com/sJjhk.png )
2. The site will be internationalized (you will be able to use it in your native language!)
3. The site will be faster as we have upgraded the code and templates. 

I just wanted to give you a headsup on it so you can start complaining about the change :P

Enjoy!

ha ha. Let the complaining begin, just like when Facebook changes things around.

What?!!!  After a year, I was finally starting to figure out the old site.  Will that do for a start?  I know I haven't set the bar very high, but it was the best I could come up with.

... let me be the first to start complaining about the CHANGE! cos soon there will be little or no CHANGE in my pocket! How much do we have to pay for these CHANGES!

This looks awful. Step backwards. A slap in the face of your longtime supporters.

etc. etc.

I certainly hope chess.com does a better job of upgrading than GMail did, but I'm very optimistic not least of all because GMail did such a crappy job of "upgrading" which included replacing words with confusing icons I guess for the benefit of illiterate users.

Settle down platolag, no one said anything about a price increase. You pay money for the awesome videos and unlimited access to the world's best training tools ... remember???

Danny

I like how there is a share drop down menu. :)

I look forward to it. Hm maybe add a like button too! :-) Mahalo!

I have a few questions.

1. When will the changes take effect?
2. Will it stop us from creating our own backgrounds?
3. Why does it look like something from "Live" chess?

I like the threads in the "More Recent Posts" section in that screenshot.

I'm pleased with several of the changes:

• The ability to decide which direction the knights face depending on the situation,
• The person playing White decides what music will be played. I'm not sure about the rationale for banning Celine Dion though.
• I think the standardization of chess.com terminology will be welcomed, e.g. "gg."
• Naming a Chess Player of the Past Eight Days seems like a great idea but it's unclear why you decided on an eight day period.
• Animated pawns seems like fun but may prove too distracting. Their smile seems a bit artificial and the hopping and spinning maybe a bit much. I do like the morphing into a Queen though.
• I like the idea that the sound effect for a piece move is determined by your opponent. I'm sure you will add to the selection of sounds. I would like to see a "flush" sound.

1. Very soon! (Not 100% sure.)

2. No, you can still create your own themes.

3. Because Live Chess has already been updated to accord with the new overall look!

ouch that looks terrible.. oh no wait, it actually looks rather nice, well done 

Nice, design for the website. Can't wait for the changes!

-BlueGator456

Looks good from the screenshot.

What I didn't like about the new screenshot is the all-white look with no alternating colours to make 1) boxes 2) list items (the forum sections) more easily seperated.

in the current design, we have white and beige for every other line in the forum page (General Chess Discussion is white, Chess Openings is beige, so on), and a beige window background for most recent posts.

It's quicker to distinguish everything with mildly alternating colours. And white is a tiresome colour for the eye when you look at it for a long time. For example I work on gray page backgrounds in my word processors, as I have positively realized I can work much shorter non-stop with white backgrounds. Of course, this is a relatively less popular forum page in the site. The forum threads themselves and probably the "new unread" page will be used much more frequently, so maybe they are more eye friendly. (For instance, in the current design, what I have typed right now is above a beige background and it's easy to read. I would prefer even slightly a darker beige tone.)

I liked the softer corners of windows (alerts) and button (post new forum topic) and boxes (search).

I liked the lighter green of the menu bar.

Having the site motto Play & Learn & Share in the bar is a nice idea, but I hope the "more" button won't be overwhelming in content.

I also like the new facebook-like small icons for messages and friend requests (I guess?), however, if that is in fact for friend requests, it seems a little unnecessary for such a precious spot. Maybe "tracked activity," or "new comment" or more importantly, a sand clock showing the time to move for the most urgent game would be better use of space.

just my 2 sents :)

Oh, I forgot to add: I think having a "Help" item in the green menu bar would be nice, I think lots of people don't look below the white main frame to see the Help & Support link.

FINALLY!!! This site has need an updating when I joined it three years ago. While I love the features offered and the openness and availability of management, I was never impressed with the layout and look of the site. Can't wait to see it up and running!