Homepage Redesign

I am genuinely confused as to how people can Not use the home page...  You have to have a page that you go to first, so what else other than the homepage?  All other pages are too specific and self-interested, ie, you go to the online chess page, and you dont get to know if there is anything interesting being talked about in the forums etc.  It's how it should be, and it's why I use the homepage, and kinda why all websites have them.  You get a nice overview, and it asks you the question "where to?".  What page do you guys use?  I still play all my chess games from the starting position too though, so maybe i'm odd!

Also... do you rip the covers off your books?

 The only thing I cant see at the moment on the homepage is alerts, so I have to go to another random page like the forums to see those which is a little awkward.   Also the option to see more forum topics, but maybe that would be difficult to implement without messing up the layout. 

 no, but i don't re-read the cover every time i pick up the book :) i open the book to where i left off....

These - particularly the game of the day and the opening of the day - would keep bringing me back to the home page, for sure.  I already use the home page from time to time to quickly hit the daily puzzle or just get a quick view of recent blogs, forum posts & news.  I enjoy the polls also.

When I first visited the site, I thought the member map was pretty neat, so if there's a plan to show "# of members" stats or anything like that, it might be good include a link to that as well.

Please move the login/password fields to the top of the page, above the advertising banner .

It is annoying that these fields are below the fold, and that you have to scroll down to login.

(Especially when it's that particularly invasive "Economist" ad which dwarfs everything on the home page with its aggressive solid red skyscraper).

And before anyone responds saying "buy a membership", I am a paid-up member. This is about the presentation of the home page *before* I have logged in.

I like white.  It's clean, crisp, and clear.  Colour can be annoying (and to my knowledge has absolutely nothing to do with depth of field), and as far as artistic goes, I wouldnt compromise even one iota of usability just for the sake of having something that 'leads the eye'.  Nothing worse than hunting for a link, especially if you're new and that link is the 'sign up' option.  I dont think most users would give it more than a couple of seconds before moving on.

The design of the site you mention, I really dont like.  It gives much more of an impression of having 'dead space', with the small font, and lots of text, and many links in a big block.  Also, I find their colour scheme cheapens it somehow (perhaps reminding me of general purpose game sites like yahoo), and I see nothing on their page that would make me want to sign up.  It looks slightly better once i enable scripts, but there is still a lot of space on there where i assume there are blocked adverts.   Most good websites i know of use white as a main background, and it makes it easier to read the text.  If anything, I would say subtle, moderate, shading, rather than colour.  It looks far more professional imo.  A very good example is the bbc news website.  There's a ton of stuff on there but you are rarely hunting for anything (I only have one or two gripes about things they have altered), and there is certainly no problem with it not being artistic enough.  It's just not a problem.  Imagine how awful it would look with colour, or with less organisation to make it more asymmetric. 

I agree with resizing and possible rearranging though, to tidy it up a bit.   It's not possible to do this though until you have worked out exactly what is going to be on there.  

torqamada> 2. In art, any good art, the object of a good painting is to have the eye move. Most good art is constructed around a triangle to keep your eye moving.

In the photo above (not great art), the roads are lines intended to draw the reader's eyes from the fireworks above to the buildings below (and vice-versa).

torqamada> "The biggest point about the home page is the background, White. The white on the Home Page makes the page look like a bunch of post-it-notes tacked to a board. White is the dominant color of most chess sites... White has no depth of field and the eye cannot find a resting place..."

White and very subtle shadings are the dominant background colours, not just on chess websites, but on most major websites. The reason for that is because they're what most website usability experts recommend is best.

I take advantage of my monitor's MagicBrite feature to make the contrast slightly easier on the eyes during web browsing. As far as a resting place for the eyes, the grey background visible on either side of the page works for me.

Well, I've already said I'd like a daily chess quote, but member of the day is a great idea! It would keep everybody on their toes wondering if it's their turn, and keep them coming back every day, even if just for a minute.

'Game of the Day' should include some examples of 'worst blunders'. That way, there's a good chance of one of my games showing up.