HOL v3 Launch: Feedback

[CodyJarrett]

Please list any HOL feedback here.

[Seiya]

it works, very nice aspect, but game's manuals before i can read or download. Now when i click on manual i have only blank page

[RCK]

Awesome work Cody, thanks for all the time you put into this v3 project !

[Marcuz]

I wasn't aware that this was in the work, nice!
Generally it looks to me a very good job, the page look improved a lot, but some parts could use a bit of polish.

• the landing page is nice and warm, welcoming;

• the graphic icons for the game genres are imho too generic, I would substitute them with crops from well known Amiga games of each genre, arbitrarily, but that's a taste matter;

• the advance search page is a bit too scattered, considering this is heavily used by the niche of "guess the screenshot" EAB game, but one can get used to it; there is a regression of function in the search result list, in list mode, as clicking on a game small screenshot in the list directly opens its page, instead of a popup of that particular screenshot;

• you can no more save images from the screenshot popup; I get that it is a choice to protect the content, but it's a pity for the aforementioned "Guess the Screenshot" game

• the "information" page for a game is not very readable, compared to the previous iteration:

• the underscored subtitles (Genre, Relationship, etc) compete with the non underscored items (Year, Amiga Original, etc);

• lacking any grid, the information pertaining each item seems floating;

• the separation between the first part of the information panel, and the one that starts with the hardware info makes no sense, specially since, then, the latter part is mixed with more general information, of which, the hardware one is just a small part, and with a section, "Releases", that could instead be happily separated from the two above, just because of its particular data presentation.

[grafpatrick]

Dear Cody, great work, but isn't it possible anymore to download all manuals for a certain game as a zip? Or am I just blind and/or too stupid to find that function?

[CodyJarrett]

Not at the moment but it's a feature that I can add.

[grafpatrick]

Yes, Cody, please do so. It was one of my favourite features of the site (and I am sure also for many other fans!). Again thank you so much for the great work!!!

[Aulapatchuc]

@grafpatrick You can download the manual with the right mouse button and choosing "Save link as". The PDF will be downloaded to your computer.

[grafpatrick]

Yes, that's true, Aulapatchuc. Thanks for pointing at this, but having all manuals in just one zip always was a very nice feature (no need to klick them all).

[Mr Creosote]

Currently unusable without Javascript. Any chance to have it gracefully degrade?

[Aardvark]

Any plans to make items under "Features" and "Hard Disk Installer" searchable?
edit: Ok, HD install is searchable but no longer a link on game page.

[dlfrsilver]

My personal opinion : it's pretty, but very messy. For me it's less intuitive to use than the previous version.

[Retro-Nerd]

While the actual website size is still narrow/center focused everthing else is too big. The fonts, the icons etc. There is a lot of unused space between some entries. Yes, it's an unoptimized mess..for now. Reminds me of gazillions of dull and bland looking smartphone websites. At least for an user with a 27 inch widescreen display.

[Hanzu]

I like the new comments and scores features. Stats on information page data is good too. Bigger screenshot tumbnails are welcome.

What I do not like is that so many thinks are not links anymore. Example:
https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/falcon

I remember you could click on "Multiplayer Support - Serial/Null-Modem" and old HOL showed all games with same feature.

or

in https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/z...-nth-dimension
Amiga Original? says Amiga Original but does not link to https://amiga.abime.net/games/list/?amigaoriginal=yes

[Marcuz]

Going back from the search result page clears the search terms, whereas the previous version retained them. Is it possible to reinstate that function, thanks!

[demoniac]

I'm still getting used to the new layout and will provide more feedback if I see other issues.

In the meantime, I like the new Screenshots tab. I think the Manuals layout should match Scans by providing margins between items.

[PixelsAtDawn]

I like the slick look but elements are now much too big. On a game page the heading screenshots take up 50% of the space and I have to scroll to get to information that was visible on the page before. In v2, 90% of the game info was visible without scrolling and now if feels much less 'immediate'.

I would also say that some elements of the information are less readable now. The personnel section in particular is messy as frequently names are breaking onto a second line.

I would also like an option to default to list view on search results. Big tiles are much less visually scannable, especially on desktop. That said, game pages look really nice on mobile now.

Seems pretty smooth running in general though, and suspect there's an element of 'getting used to it'. But I honestly have scale it in browser to about 75% to make it a good browsing experience at present.

[PixelsAtDawn]

Just to compare the scaling and visibility of information on the game pages:

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Hanzu

What I do not like is that so many thinks are not links anymore. Example:
https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/falcon

I remember you could click on "Multiplayer Support - Serial/Null-Modem" and old HOL showed all games with same feature.

I agree. That functionality would good to have again.

[CodyJarrett]

Originally Posted by PixelsAtDawn

I like the slick look but elements are now much too big. On a game page the heading screenshots take up 50% of the space and I have to scroll to get to information that was visible on the page before. In v2, 90% of the game info was visible without scrolling and now if feels much less 'immediate'.

We originally had the screenshots at a lower size but they looked quite narrow on a wider layout with a lot of empty space. Also, there was still a lot of information off screen even when the screens were smaller.

Originally Posted by PixelsAtDawn

I would also say that some elements of the information are less readable now. The personnel section in particular is messy as frequently names are breaking onto a second line.

The empty space next to the credits info is for specific roles, so this space will begin to be used more and more.