how important is good style sheet design to you?

i've talked about starting my own tracker before, but that was just an idea to gauge the interest of the niche i was pursuing. anyways, i would have to build this tracker from a template and from what i've seen, these templates require hours of customization in order for them to look half-decent. part of what i do for a living is elevating user experiences to increase user trials/sales, either via static or interactive designs, so this would be a fun way for me to contribute to this community

how does good style sheet design impact your user experience? call me picky, but i won't use a tracker at all if i don't like its design; imo, it ruins my user experience immediately because i'm forced to look at the (lack of) design before and after i see the torrents/forum

is good style sheet design a contributor to a successful tracker (i.e. if a better style sheet design was used, do you think a tracker would gain more traffic)?

do you use one tracker, over another, simply because of its style sheet design?

i'd love to get some deep, non-trolling conversations about this going, so feel free to add to the discussion, even if you're not familiar w/ design

It’s not the be all and end all,..... but a good appealing design can only be a benefit! Apart from looks more important for me is, user “usability”! If it looks good and you can navigate with ease you have a winning formula I find.

It's very important for me, as a good design can be used to gauge the mentality of the staff/their interest in professionalism and/or maturity. A tracker overladen with skull renders cannot be compared with a tracker designed with proper shade lines, an effective background, lax yet defined borders and a good color scheme with proper gradients; and the former provides a rather preemptive notion to the user, of how the staff would prefer to be perceived. At least when it comes to me, that is. Design isn't a way to use the tracker, but it is a way to know how to expect the community to behave. I can provide a few offensive examples, if needed.

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Originally Posted by th0r

i've talked about starting my own tracker before, but that was just an idea to gauge the interest of the niche i was pursuing. anyways, i would have to build this tracker from a template and from what i've seen, these templates require hours of customization in order for them to look half-decent. part of what i do for a living is elevating user experiences to increase user trials/sales, either via static or interactive designs, so this would be a fun way for me to contribute to this community

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You generally seem like a level-headed dude, so it stands to reason that you wouldn't think this post of mine is deterrent from what you think you should do, but rather my opinion on the matter. Starting a tracker up for the sake of doing so is pointless. Unless the tracker part is very significant to you, you're much better creating a BT discussion forum/help with this one here. Hosting a tracker opens you up to a world of problems that can't be addressed with simple design paint jobs.

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Originally Posted by th0r

how does good style sheet design impact your user experience?

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As a user experience, it definitely helps when the design is well thought out. Trackers like BG/PTN/CN/CE etc. are just too busy with buttons and "options" that frankly a majority of users that torrent for the actual content (which is the point of the protocol) couldn't care less about. A simple tracker, that is well thought out with where the buttons/options should be placed works best for everyone. Good examples of how it should be done are SCC/BCG, for example. "Less is more".

I don't think people would necessarily favor one tracker over another simply based on designs, as that is not the sole determining factor of the quality of a tracker; however, a hideous design would surely have some effect on the usability/activity/priority. I'd much rather use CN's search for a movie, as opposed to PTN's for example, simply because the former is usually more accessible, and more quickly customizable with filters than the latter.

If you're making a tracker, amke sure the search works for gods sake. a certain game stracker gives the most irrelevant results to everything, whereas its counterpart gives exactly what I'm using, so I'm more likely to use the latter. as for templates, if it's easy to navigate then I'll use it. At my connection speed, most sites are gonna max it out on a new torrent, and if it doesn't then it's not worth having as a site. so I go with whatever I find m,yself able to look at.

If it pisses me off, I code my own or modify an existing one (assuming it's gazelle). If it's not gazelle... it should be decent but really, content trumps all unless the only stylesheet available is some terribly garish thing.

I used to use Bitsoup a lot back in the day and it had one of the worst designs I've ever seen. Content trumps design any day of the week. Then again, a shitty tracker with a shitty design is just bad. That's why I won't consider signing up for most of the new trackers that are popping up all the time because their stylesheets just reek of amateurism.

Content comes first but the design isn't unimportant. When talking about design I don't mean that pretty omg colors, but the way features of the page are spread across it. It must be easy to use. Oh And I like darker stuff. Staring at white pagges doesn't make me fell all that good...

I'd think design for ease of use would be almost critical to success or failure. But still less important than a good upload team, fair staff, and an economic model that are not too ridiculous. If you start adding random superficial 'bonus' shit into the mix, you'll build hype, but with all the wrong sorts of 'users'. aka people like amiriji who join trackers to appreciate their artistic merit.

A stylesheet like 'proton' on whatcd is incredibly well designed because it has function to satisfy most hardcore users, all the while having little to no filler for casual users.

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Originally Posted by Fishy2

If it looks good and you can navigate with ease you have a winning formula I find.

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indeed, but i've found that not 1 tracker out there, at least those i've been a member of, solves both of those challenges successfully

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

Design isn't a way to use the tracker, but it is a way to know how to expect the community to behave. I can provide a few offensive examples, if needed.

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i'm sure you can and i probably could, too, but i believe good design in general, whether it be determining design elements or creating features to better help members navigate through the tracker, does play a crucial role in how to use a tracker, or any kind of website: it creates that warm and fuzzy feeling as well as an open environment where its members can get what they need but faster, etc. similar to what the_martinator said:

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Originally Posted by The_Martinator

When talking about design I don't mean that pretty omg colors, but the way features of the page are spread across it.

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since most private trackers use practically the same style sheet templates, the location of its features and their hierarchy (or importance) remains a huge challenge regarding how to give its members the most streamlined user experience possible

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

Hosting a tracker opens you up to a world of problems that can't be addressed with simple design paint jobs.

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i think that part of my post is unclear: i wanted to start a tracker years ago and recently the idea popped back into my head again, but instead of discussing the usual pitfalls of new trackers first (how to recruit members, getting donations, choosing the right staff members, etc.), i wanted to use this thread to address something that is rarely spoken of here in regards to trackers old-and-new: good tracker style sheet design

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

Good examples of how it should be done are SCC/BCG, for example. "Less is more".

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imo, this manifesto is such a great pillar of design thinking when creating anything that is content-based where one of your objectives is to help members better understand where to go to get such-and-such. i agree w/ you that a lot of added features on some trackers are superfluous and actually lessen the quality of a good user experience

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Originally Posted by ringhunter

I don't think people would necessarily favor one tracker over another simply based on designs, as that is not the sole determining factor of the quality of a tracker; however, a hideous design would surely have some effect on the usability/activity/priority.

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i also agree w/ you that design isn't a sole determining factor of whether or not to use a tracker for most members, but it is for me; it's an extremely important hurdle that, a lot of times, i have trouble getting over

I like simple User Interfaces like those of Bitme and TT,stylesheets which dosent hurt my eye (I like KG's design and color combination) with whacked weird designs and colors,and organized content (collages,packs etc).Also a good logo :P.