Welcome to the new look TheSixthAxis homepage, just in time for Eurogamer Expo. Never before have we so rigorously tested, changed and rebuilt a modification to the site, but finally, after about a month, we’re happy with it.
It’s a little different, but allow us to assure you that everything’s still there, it’s all just moved around a little to make reading the homepage, which was previously nothing more than a vertical list of posts, a bit more interesting.
It’s also much more tablet friendly – the visitor numbers of readers reaching the site on iPads and other tablets have shown that there’s a real requirement to change the way our stories are displayed, and although it now fits perfectly onto most tablets, it still fits within the standard 960px width so laptops and desktops should be absolutely fine.
Posts are arranged into sections, largely chronologically, with breaks every now and again where we highlight our featured articles, like reviews, previews, features and our community posts. When a post is something we really want you to read, it’ll be subtly labelled ‘hot’ and will feature red visuals. Otherwise, posts are blue.
You’ll be able to see what each post is about directly from the homepage – that means you can see if it’s a review, or news, or a feature, and you’ll also be able to see who’s written it, when, and which formats it’s for. So if it says [PS3], it’s about a game or service on the PS3. Multiple formats just say ‘multi’, though, for clarity.
You’ll also see an image for every post, something we’ve not done for a while, and hopefully that’ll make picking out the stories you want to read all the easier.
We truly hope you like what we’ve done, but if you don’t that’s fine and we’re not bigheaded enough to force it on you – the ‘blog’ style version will still be accessible at this alternative homepage – https://www.thesixthaxis.com/vertical – so feel free to jump between the two, at least at first, and pick your favourite.
We’ve also made a couple of smaller changes around the site – the homepage should now load much faster (the loading of images is delayed until the browser window reaches them, for example) – and there’s a few minor cosmetic changes to the story pages.
Naturally, with things like this, there’ll be elements we’ve missed and that’s where you (hopefully) come in. Let us know in the comments and we’ll pick up any issues over the next few days.
And remember that our super-light mobile site is still the same.
A gentle reminder that we’re (almost) all down at Eurogamer Expo this week and weekend, so whilst the numbers of posts might not be quite as high for a few days we’re available for chats and a beer or two if anyone fancies it. The easiest way is to ping us on Twitter at @thesixthaxis and we’ll respond if we can.
Finally, thanks once again to everyone that visits, posts and spreads the word, and to those that helped test the new homepage. We truly appreciate it, and more than you might think.
<3
Taylor Made
I like the layout but its a bit confusing well for me anyway. Lets see how the day goes then I will expand on my confusion lol
Taylor Made
Ok this is it my confusion, you should highlight what’s yesterday’s news & today’s. I know each article has a date but still.
Bilbo_bobbins
I agree with this. I like the new layout, its easy to read, but with the articles swapping sides and things, its a little bit confusing.
I think a line to show yesterdays news would be best. I love the speed on the homepage now, that was getting on my nerves a little.
haz360
I like it. It might take a bit of getting used to, but I like it. Viewing it on the “new” iPad by the way, it looks great :)
Youles
I’ve really settled into the new site, it’s great – well done to all! I hope my feedback wasn’t too critical! Loading times are much better on my iPhone too, thanks!
GhostViper
Wow, nice. I like it.
Sympozium
The new layout is great very different from the other homepages and bit of a good change.
Mick939
Layout looks ace on iPhone 5, buy i need a ‘new article’ section. Perhaps that top bit it is but i just wanna make sure.
freezebug2
First and foremost the page update seems to be far quicker to me. Going from the forums to the front page and back again used to take a playthrough, but it seems to have been speeded up considerably!!
For me, that matters more than anything else after months of “I can’t hack this” watching pages being slowly drawn on screen, otherwise yeah the site does look fresher than than the last refresher, and it shouldn’t take long to navigate.
Good stuff chaps ;)
doomsday619
Same as above.
cam the man
The only thing I didn’t like about the site was the speed of loading, especially the home page. I used to click on the bookmark, then change tabs to view another page while it loaded. It’s a lot better now.
Like the new layout too.
XisTG
Really like it, and at last the text doesn’t flicker on Chrome! :D
I’ll try it out on the iPad latter.
Quick note: scrolling down I saw a separator saying “Hands-ons”; shouldn’t it be “hand-ons”?
Youles
Or “Hands-on” even? ;)
Alex C
Let’s take a vote.
Youles
Or as my wife says “Hands-off”!
McProley
Haha! yeah, only when you reach for the Dualshock
Youles
Too true!
XisTG
And yes, homepage is lightning speed now :)
McProley
Like the speed of the new page as my work computer is pretty much ancient now. The reading of the page is a bit easier too especially with the picture for every article.
JesseDeya
How does that make any sense? If your work computer is old and slow how does having images instead of text make anything faster? Surely it has to make it more demanding on your PC?
McProley
They were 2 seperate points. The page loads faster for me at work. The second point i was making was that i like the thumbnail pictures for every article.
McProley
I like words with pictures. Things like The Hungry Caterpillar etc