I've completely recreated the header area of the site based on feedback that I've received from various users and various threads (this one for example). The goal was to have it take up less space, look more organized, easier to use and increase ad revenue by pushing the ads higher up on the page. I'm not done and there's more than likely things throughout the site not working properly. I also haven't really begun the enhancements for mobile devices yet.


Bye Bye Message Center
The message center, which a lot of users hated, is gone. It took up a lot of space, was ugly and was just out of place. The link to your private messages and notifications is now at the top left and staff inboxes are in the left Navigation panel. I plan to at some point make it so that users get alerts when new announcements are made since currently users don't get an alert like before.


Main Menu Drop Down Links?
It was a requested feature and while I didn't exactly make it a drop down, when you hover over a main menu link at the very top, the sub menu shows the exact sub menu for that page. Hovering also shows the banner for that page, which is a great way to attract users to various sections of the site.


Other Things I've Done
-The banner is vertically smaller, taking up far less space
-Moved site related stuff to the top right box
-Patrons and users with ad block item from the marketplace no longer see an empty black box
-Various other little things (been working on this 30+ hours in 2 days, too tired to think of everything lol)


Things That Need Fixing
-Sub Menu Links on some pages need adjusting
-Currently no link in the header to the music room
-Need to find a better place for the 'Users on Page' section (currently in left Nav panel)
-Will most likely make the top left and top right box show more info when hovering over them
-Show announcements somewhere on the page
-Find a spot for the donation button
-Adjust the banners for some pages


Overall I think this is for the best but I'm definitely open to rearranging anything that might need adjustment. It's crazy how much space the old header area was taking up, this new one takes up so much less space. If you see anything not working properly because of this update, let me know asap.

I was kind of shocked when I first entered the site today because I couldn't find anything on the usual place. Glad it's because you implemented these changes.

While the changes are good, I preferred when you were shown the number of notifications you had as well as why you had the latest of them before needing to click the link. This is because sometimes you might find yourself clicking the NEW Notifications just to see that you have only one for visiting Vizzed for the day, and that's something I used to skip. I also didn't click the notifications if I knew what caused them, but with these changes I'll have to check them to know what has caused them. I'm also missing the Staff page, though since it's basically a variation of the Memberlist I can understand it being scrapped for taking up space.

You say that some Sub Menu links need adjusting. Not sure what you mean by that, but I've noticed two similar sub menus for Video Game Room: Game Screenshots and Game Screenshot. The first one works properly, but the second one redirects to a blank page. Is it some page you want to create, or is it that you want a link for the graphics (boxart and all that stuff)?

The new Phone view layout is kinda trippy, i can't find the pm and notification links that's used to be under the vizzed logo, other than that, it is looking hella good, hopefully I'll get used to the new layout thingy

The header reverts back to the old one on some pages. The only ones I've noticed this so far is for the notifications and the newreply page.

This will make it much easier to click on forums on the Vizzed Board page since the header takes up a significantly lower amount of space!

Even though I can't see how many notifications I have, I can see the NEW blinking next to it so I'll still know when I should check those.

I really like all these changes. All I can say is nice job and keep it up

I agree on the phone layout, earlier today I logged in and just logged out and left because it's a mess with different sizes of everything. I do like the computer version though, but it will take some time to get used to.

Besides the phone view being squished over to the left, I just noticed I am getting this:


edit:
My post is like that too.
It seems that (at least for me) if someone doesn't have a layout, it squishes their post to the left, kinda like the phone view.

Thank you very much for updating and upgrading the site/site header! =)

I've put the message center back but this time it's a lot smaller and only appears if you have New Messages, New Notifications or Unread Announcements. I'll eventually make it so that you can just close out of it as a way to mark it all as read so that it wont show up again until new messages appear again.


EX Palen : I found a good compromise. Read above.

The Game Screenshot page is an unfinished page. Thanks for letting me know. I removed it from the sub menu.


Verkudara : Should be fixed now.


King Sull : Some pages of the site haven't been migrated to the new site code yet.


zanderlex : Is it fixed now?


Vanelan : I've fixed a bunch of little things over the past few days including that issue.

Aria and I are getting "New Messages" in the new header even though we don't have any.
Not sure if anyone else is experiencing this either.

Vanelan : How about now?

Looks good for me now. 
I'll ask Aria later if it's still an issue for her. 

I like the new message center, I personally think it's a lot more organized this way and of course the streamline look gives it a modern touch. The number of new announcements or notifications or PMs isn't shown, but I think I'll have to bear with it and check in more often to see what I missed.

Can't wait to see how everything looks when it's finished!

EX Palen : That was something I was meaning to do yesterday but never got around to it. Done.

I think this has been changed for a while but I just realized the post radar isn't on most pages. The link to the page is also hidden and I can't add or remove people when I go to it.

earthwarrior : Yeah I'm pretty sure that has been missing for well over a year now. I'll see about getting it added back at some point.

Thank you, Sir David. Glad to see some progress here. 

It's weird but when I load any vizzed page, the message box appears but then disappears. I still pretty much have to really on manually looking up messages and notifications via bookmarked tabs.

As much as I like the new layout it just seems, a little hard to navigate. Since I got used to the old one I sometimes find myself clicking and searching for things like my profile and notifications, etc. I still like this one though, it has a cleaner look to it than the old one. What would actually be a cool change though, is if the pins at the sides of the pages could become movable, like windows on a desktop (and with adjustable sizes too). That would be a cool change so that the site would be more like a hub for games on the internet (similar to the AOL client). Though it is just an idea I had I think its pretty cool. 

WandererExiled : How long is it shown before it disappears? Could you take a screenshot? Does this happen on every page for you?

DragonSlayer22 : That's an interesting idea regarding the the boxes in the user hud. It's something I'll consider or at least a variation of it at some point.