RaceDepartment New Website Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

RaceDepartment.com will be down on Wednesday 30th October, as we look to bring a fresh new image to the largest sim racing website in the world.

Having undergone considerable growth and change in the last decade and a bit, we feel the time is right to take our website to the next level of presentation and functionality. On the evening of Wednesday 30th October (approx 22:00 UTC) we will close access to www.racedepartment.com for much of the night, as we upload and launch our brand new website!

We anticipate access will be restricted for around 12 hours, but if you still need that essential sim racing fix, take the opportunity to check us out on our various Social Media platforms, which can be accessed via the below links.

See you all on the other side!

 

[FeltHat]

 

[Mascot]

Hate this new layout. I don't think I'll be visiting RD as much as I used to, especially on mobile.

 

[Asena6]

Just terrible.
Horrible to navigate on small monitors and so much wasted space on big monitors.

 

[AyrtJ97]

I really liked the version prior to this one... maybe it's just that I need to get used to this new one, but I don't know... The Downloads section, for example, I think it is unnecesary to have to menus on the side, one for RaceDepartment's different sections, and one for the Downloads categories, it takes twice the space on the screen, which didn't happen before, making the downloads themselves too narrow, to the point you can't see to which category they belong.

 

[antirussia81]

Wow, it looks bad. And grey. Have you considered changing the site's name to GreyDepartment?
(edit: changing the style from "RD 2020 Light" to "RD 2020 Dark" helps a little bit but it still isn't pretty)

 

[krissboo]

So not only has the site changed for the worse, they've removed the ability to quickly see what each download is from the list of files. Before the new update I could glance at the downloads list and see if it was a skin or a track or a car.....now it's a guess and I have to open the file in a new tab to see what it is. Yes I know there's a filter down the side but it was far quicker and easier before.

 

[DX-Pig]

WTH is this unnecessary sidebar stuff?

At least make it collapsible

 

[DrPenguin87]

This new format is terrible. Wasted space with the sidebar, can't see authors on the downloads lists, can't see who started a thread, etc, etc. I hate complaining about changes and rarely ever do, but all I see here is wasted space and less accessibility all around.

 

[aphidgod]

why

 

[aphidgod]

For those who clearly don't cope with change well, I recommend reading this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0091816...qmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8q2hfsugw7_e

Change happens, the end.

I'm a graphic designer. I get paid to make change. I like change.

I don't like your new forum. I'm still a graphic designer. You figure it out.

 

[Stereo]

Am I getting the mobile layout on desktop or something? The site's missing all words in the top bar, it's just icons and a searchbar the entire width, and the forum itself only uses 2/3 of the available space.

My usual flow for interacting with the site is
1) go to homepage and scan news headlines
2) click "watched forums" to go to the forums of the 4 games I ever play
this makes that less convenient, and the previous design had already made it worse than the pre-2019 layout where "watched forums" was a direct link on the front page. I understand moving away from hover-interactions is good for mobile, but moving away from having any usable links is bad for everyone.

Found another problem.

The checkbox on the watched forums list is unusable because when you click it, it goes to that forum.

 

[tahzib]

this is not what i would like to see from a website.....the left and right section is so exaggeratedly extended there aint enough space to even read properly....

 

[Tassos]

fully agree, worse readability, all squeezed out...., worse fonts, I dont like it at all

 

[Mikko Martikainen]

Can handle layouts and fonts No more downloads size, Why?

 

[Fat-Alfie]

What happened to 'new posts' at the top, next to 'alerts'?

 

[Seelenkrank]

Overview on the smartphone is good but the download section is useless. Before you can see in the list for which sim/game the stuff is and now nothing....(?)

 

[Rory Wetherington]

I liked the previous version,I think we should do a poll.
I can't even figure out how to enable the dark mode.

 

[Mascot]

I love the way the RD home screen is effectively a full-page advert for some irrelevant product or service whenever I visit on mobile. It's a feature I've always felt was missing. Thank you very much for introducing this wonderful improvement.

(hot garbage)

 

[shadow118]

I liked the previous version,I think we should do a poll.
I can't even figure out how to enable the dark mode.

Just had a stumble at that myself. Go to Settings > Preferences > Style

 

[Please Stop This]

You can do that at the bottom too:
(btw, why is the link to "Paid Registr. by ..." a white font?)