A new layout for some sections of the site has been launched today. Most notably, we have a smaller header, new navigation menu, and a new front page layout. The shoutbox has also been updated to run on new, better code.
Let's have a look at each change in detail, starting with the header. The random Phantasy Star character feature has been replaced with a shortened version of the old welcome box (or log in form when you're logged out). This move shrinks the site header by a good 100 pixels that were devoted entirely to the welcome box/log in.
The new navigation menu automatically opens when you hover over a tab. The tabs provide a more clear separation between menu items. Each tab can be clicked as a link - clicking Community will take you to the forum index. Each drop down menu can have sub menus, which are noted by arrows and appear when hovering over an arrow item. This format allows us to have a more comprehensive menu.
On the site's front page, several of the old sidebar boxes, including the Daily Image and random site feature, have been combined into the new slideshow block. The slideshow provides a more spacious area to highlight some of the site's more interesting features, such as the great contributions by our outstanding community members.
As for the shoutbox, it has some slight appearance changes to reduce space used and move some labels out of the red star field background. However, most of the updates there are in the scripting backend. The Javascript used to operate the shoutbox has been completely replaced. The shoutbox now utilizes a library that is also used to power many of the other features across the site, such as our new menu and the features slideshow. This should generally improve performance in several ways.
I have also removed the old community icons. I previously mentioned that the old icons were still around and could be used by those interested. No one was using them, however, so now they're gone.
This is one big step in the continuing roll out of our new site designs. There is more to come, however!