Homepage Redesign

So... I'm thinking of re-designing the homepage just a little bit. Any ideas of things to include or remove? For example, we're going to get rid of the calendar. Maybe we should have a featured opening? Maybe more about tactics? A better introduction on how to use the site? Site stats?

I'm all ears! :)

It definatley needs some re-design but i just dont know what exactly! I will have a think about it.

Anyone else have ideas? This should be interesting.

#1 Don't go crazy! The design is actually quite good. I play and study on various sites and chess.com is one of my favorites.

 #2 The idea of a featured opening is a good one. Start with an description of the overall strategy of the opening (quick development, pawn structure, etc). Followup with the main variations of an opening. Finish with quality examples and include a link to an interactive board to play out the game.

 #3 Perhaps a more vertical layout would be a good change of pace. The homepage would be longer with prominet content at the top, news stories, training exercises etc towards the bottom.

 I'll keep thinking about this.

Brian 

I have an idea...

Maybe you can put FLASH on it, and the recent topics, recent articles, recent blogs, recent news can be on Tab or you could do frameset. The idea is just putting all the recents into one side, and when clicked, it will show (your still on same page).  

Some good animation using flash or any equivalent will make your site more attractive (in my opinion).

Someone will say "the simple the better" but in time it will be boring to look at.

 Go CRAZY!!!   ^_^

I'll second the motion, Go CRAZY!!!

 peace  v^_^

This is more for the profile section than the homepage, but I would like to see a move total indicating how many moves I have made in a month and how many total moves I have made in my chess.com life.

It's a nice way to monitor my obsession. When I hit 1 million I should get something cool like a beer mug or tee shirt to celebrate my geekness.

 BTW, I got the tee shirt for buying a membership and its very nice. The wife won't let me wear it to dinner for some reason though.

Removing the calendar is probably a good idea. I can't speak for others, but I personally never refer to it.

I like the "Forum Topics" section, but would like to see the "Current Topics" option expanded to include at least the most recent 10 posts. As it is now, only the most recent 5 posts are included.

Other than the two items mentioned, I like the site the way it's currently set up.

I think the home page is great as it is. The outline/design makes sense, to me at least. When one gets to the home page, one sees that it is a chess site (or what Chess is) from looking at the daily puzzle and vote chess. The daily puzzle tells one that they can come here and find a new puzzle every day. The forums tell a person that there is a community here and one can participate that way. The blogs tell a person that some people have made this site a home, not just to play chess, but to express themselves etc. Then there is new and upcoming events - what's out there beyond chess.com. So, the content is great. I thought about the outline, and it seems at least okay to me. I don't see or think that moving things around would necessarily improve user-friendliness or the look of the site. I cannot say much about the colors (other than that the contrast is great, and I find that green is calming/welcoming).

Oh, is there a way to make the links "live" so that when you bring your cursor over a blog, you can see it or the first couple of sentences to decide/see if you want to go there? Hopefully, this does not require much programming or use of too many resources. (Let me know if this last point doesn't make sense and I can clarify or send you examples of what I mean.)

I find the "Upcoming Events" feature useless. Here's what it shows me:

Here's what I would want to know:

1. What chess clubs or tournaments are meeting near me this month?

2. What national events are happening in the next few months? (This could be further subdiveded into SCHOLASTIC vs ADULT categories).

* I think the home page is quite functional and attractive as it is. Please do not go too crazy with changes or animations. :)

* If you are already playing in one or more vote chess games, it would be nice if the Vote Chess tab gave you quick access to them. Right now I have to click on the "Vote Chess" heading, then on the next page select "Sort by Games I Am Playing", and then click on the actual game. Quicker access to our current games would be nice.

* I also like the idea of increasing the number of forum topics displayed.

* The top news item is already in large print with a photo at the top of the page, so I'm not sure why it needs to be repeated in such a way in the recent news tab--it feels redundant. Having it repeated in recent news in the small type section is enough.

* Visually, the "Recent Blogs" and "Vote Chess" tabs do not line up although all the other tabs do, so perhaps this is a small bug in the page design.

* The subtle spreadsheet-like shading you do for every other cell in many of the lists (topics, etc.) is slick. I really like that.

* Your webpage (horizontally) only fills up 40% of my screen. Your website stats reveal what your minimum and most popular resolutions are--perhaps there is a way to serve up a 'wide' version of the page for those who have larger monitors?

Go Crazy!!! ^_^, but not too much. Do the right moves, let us see some tactics and put on some strategy on what you want to do.

Weeee.... I'm getting excited. 

I BET for the changes (Go Crazy!!!).

Wanna BET?