Hey, Why is the PlayStation.Blog White?

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Unless this is the first time you’ve ever visited this site* – you probably noticed that we’ve inverted the color palette on the Blog. The aim wasn’t to save your eyesight (though this configuration apparently is easier on your eyes), and we didn’t just make a change for change’s sake.

Rather, we “bleached” the Blog to match our big brother, us.PlayStation.com. In case you haven’t clicked over to the homepage (and you should right now), we’ve redesigned the site to make it easier for you to use.

There are lots of changes – this isn’t just a re-skinning:

  • New navigation makes it easy to find games, TV series, movies, and original shows from any page and browse the entire site from one interface.
  • New search is powered by Google and lets you find what you’re looking for, instantly.
  • Interactive marquees give you video, screenshots and more info about our most exciting content.
  • You can easily share anything from videos and screenshots to whole pages with your friends using the “Share” icons on each page.
  • Our new Web platform is keeping everything running fast and smooth.
  • Finally, and most importantly :-), the PlayStation.Blog is more prominent. You’ll spot new posts on the homepage and throughout the site.

This is our baby, so obviously we think it’s beautiful and perfect, but there might be some hiccups as we get everything up and running. Please be patient while we iron out the inevitable kinks.

Please note that this is just the first phase of improvements we’re planning to make the site easier to navigate, faster to use, and more interesting to visit. And right now we want your input – what do you love? What do you hate? What suggestions do you have?

As far as the Blog is concerned, we’re currently gathering ideas for a full-on redesign, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy the lighter, more readable PSB.

*If this is indeed the first time you’re visiting the PlayStation.Blog, welcome! We’re not always this self-referential.

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416 Comments

7 Author Replies

  • I’m surprised we havn’t seen a God of War PS3 bundle announced yet.

    Kratos Skin white maybe?

    *Cant help but fan the flames*

  • Why not just give people the option? It really isn’t that hard to include that feature.

  • If you want my two cents:

    I don’t like the white. I’m going to agree with the others who have said it’s too white. It’s making my eyes strain to read it.

    Also, I don’t like the white websites or the new white controller, because, at least for the current generation of consoles, I think of white and I think Xbox and black makes me think of the PS3. A friend of mine has the white controller and at a glance I think of xbox. I like the black controller. I like the black PS3. I liked the blog and the website to match the color scheme.

    It could just be me, but the website feels a little foreign now.

    Not trying to complain, just giving my input.

  • It looks like Destructoid and the PlayStation Blog think alike :P

  • So what about sister Playstation.Blog.Europe? She’s still black :P Well the background is. Is that gonna change too?

  • Much better, nice

  • one thing that is needed for a long time: make the videos posted on the blog work on he ps3 browser!!!!!!! it used to work before, then you changed the codecs or something and now, nothing. it is a ps3 blog, make it work for the ps3!!!! i don’t want to go to my computer to watch them, and i dont think i shpuld have to!!

  • Its a miracle!

    I can finally log into the blog again. For a few months now I havent been able to log in at home or work (IE or Firefox or Chrome).

  • I’ll agree with other posters here, in terms of brand marketing this was a bad move. Black=PS3, White=360.

    But this makes it much ‘safer’ to read the blog at work so I wont complain.

  • The forum is now useless on a iPhone. Thanks a lot for nothing.

  • i don’t like it, try again!!

  • The Europe blog is still far superior.

  • Where’s monday polls Jeff??

    Redesigning is nice for a change and I don’t know about the studies but personally I always try to lower the brightness of my monitor to read pages with white back. (It was very rude on your side to tell that poor guy to show studies, even if he invented such, it’s important to read between the lines: “I don’t like my eyes crying after reading the blog and if you don’t change it by tomorrow I’ll purchase a 360 and a DS”).

    In really don’t think this new design drives readers away, but the layout colors can be found all over the internet!

    I mean branding, lets supose someone is searching for PS news and comes accross serveral articles of the old psblog, this person has now been branded with the unique style of the old psblog and know this is “THE source” for PS news. If someone comes accross articles of the new psblog, he won’t be branded, he’s thinking it’s just another blog for each article.

  • @post 43

    I like your idea of the tag color.

    @post 50

    I agree, it would be nice to have the option to send/receive messages from the website – especially in the traumatic event that we would have to be without our beloved PS3 for any amount of time.

    Points of my own:

    1. I would really like to see an in-game voice chat option for friends who are not in a game/match together that does not require a camera. For example, two friends playing FFXIII who want to talk while experiencing the masterpiece I anticipate…or perhaps only one is playing FFXIII and the other GOWIII. This is a feature available on xbox live. I understand that the PS Network is free and that means that features may be fewer, and slower to show up. I’m okay with that, but I do feel that this is a fairly important feature to be working on.

    2. I surely hope that FFXIII and GOWIII themes are in the works

    3. The news about a new browser is great to hear!

    4. I am a newcomer to this blog in the past week and a half. I have noticed some trouble logging into the site with Firefox but not IE. Is this the result of something I’ve done or is it simply the browser and, if it is the browser, is there a fix in the works?

  • IM SUPER OLD TO THIS SITE AND STILL AIN’T SPOTTED A COLOR PALLET?!?!?
    WHAT GIVES?!?

  • Hey does the “REFRESH” button by the gamer cards mean you guys aren’t planning a auto-refresh feature? :(

  • Woo, love it. I’ve always preferred white backgrounds. Thanks for the update Jeff.

  • And awesome design!
    Although I don’t see how white is a PlayStation colour :p but it looks nice!

  • How the heck do I get to the “My account” bit from here now ?? where I can see what friends are online. Used to be a link at the top of blog and now nowt. :(

  • The Playstation forums are slow and they don’t work on the PS3 browser. This doesn’t work too much on there either.

    The PS3 browser always freezes and I have to turn it off.

    I hate the white. I want the old or at least fresh redesign.

    Bring back the old or go to a drawing broad at least once and do something.At least bring some theme options ;)

    Do different themes for games.

  • I MUCH preferred the old white on BLACK! These “studies” are a farce. I find light text on a black background to be far easier to read! And the official Playstation color is black, always has been. Are we that desperate to be like the Wii?

  • This looks and works out just fine but the Playstation forums are just not the same as before. The forums are harder to go through and the pages just don’t fit my PC screen anymore like it did before. This part of PS is fine just do something with the PS forums.

  • Hmmm…I think I liked the black better, but who cares. People that get up in arms over things like this really need a life.

    It’ll take a few days for me to get used to it, but I may end up liking it better.

  • I think you should get rid of the part that still remains from before… so the part that is gray which says playstation blog and beside it says where you log in should change it doesn’t fit the rest of the blog

  • And come on white is too plain put some style into it… look at the EU blog they have block with triangle, O, X and square. try to surpass them

  • I guess it looks fine and the improvements are welcome. But just in terms of looks, I actually prefer the european version of the PS blog. The european site has a prettier top and a more balanced color scheme.

  • Very nice, i like it!
    Jeff change the header too,
    a xml swf will be nice with the latest post showcasing
    and add a favicon

  • Wow this SUCKS. The black blog was MUCH better.

    =(

  • Jeff,

    You’ve taken some nice steps to unify the user experience between the PlayStation landing page at us.playstation.com and blog.us.playstation.com. Keep up the great work!

    Here are a couple more items that may or may not be on your todo list:
    • Unify the PSN login between the main site and the blog. If I login with my PSN ID on the main page I expect to also be logged in when I get to the blog.
    • Put a more prominent link to the blog on us.playstation.com. I love that news articles now link directly to the blog, but I feel that the blog is an important enough part of the PlayStation community that it should be linked in the main header along with the boxes for the PlayStation Network, Games & Media, PlayStation 3, PSP, and PlayStation 2.

    Again, keep up the great work.

    Best,
    Michael

  • Overall I like the new look. Great job. One suggestion I have is to improve the PSN gamer card. I love that it includes the trophy information but a column of recently played games would be nice. Also, it needs to be widened or have the fonts made smaller because I am level 13 and that overlaps the trophy icon next to it on my card. In other words it looks like it was originally designed with only 1 number in mind for the trophy level. Thanks!

  • Just because some test has shown this to be easier on the eyes doesn’t mean EVERYBODY agrees. Frankly, this all-white background is a strain on my eyes.

    How about giving us the option of using what background color we want, even if the choices are limited to black and white? Might be better than deciding for us, you know. ;)

    Again, frankly, this redesign –in terms of color– kills my eyes.

  • Do you guys think you will change the banner any time soon? It doesn’t really fit with the new theme.

  • At first glance I liked it. But then as scrolling down amongst the various blog posts, everything seemed kind of vanilla. Just a little boring like im browsing through a dictionary. The color palette works with the playstation.com page because it has that huge ever changing flash setup on the main page. This site seems more lacking in content now (even though it really isnt). Still love you guys though and youll get at least 2-3 hits a day from me :)

  • What do I love?
    Well, you’re still the same blog content wise (I hope) which keeps me coming back every day.

    What do I hate?
    This horrible new design change for all the same cons listed in other comments. Also, the !continued! inability to view videos on this blog via the PS3 browser.

  • i dont like it..its too bright and the icons dont look as good.The black background was alot better IMO. PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK :).Sony is always known for having thier products in black and i think this Blog site should be too.thank god this is only temporary ..hopefuly for just today:p

  • for those of us that DO visit often, is the main site (us.playstation) claim of “faster, smoother” in comparison to before the makeover or comparison to…. say yesterday?

    Thanks for working on it

  • I’d love to see the option to vote on reader’s comments. It would make it easier for you guys to get a feel on what the visitors are feeling and agreeing with. A thumb-up or down option. Even just a +/- option would be nice. Then I can thumb-down all the people that whine about stupid things.

  • Removing access to trophy data from third-party sites was a giant mistake. These sites essentially provide free advertising for your product and its features. No harm is being done; we are just making / visiting sites that contain information about your trophy feature, how to unlock said trophies and to discuss them with other people on the internet.

    Your competitor, Microsoft, has developed a system to allow third-party sites to access achievement data for the sake of strengthening their community — yet Sony, in their arrogance, decides to thumb their nose at the community, instead dangling this feature before us like a carrot on a stick, giving us the scent but denying us a bite. We are your customers, so why do this to us? Our enthusiasm for your product and our want to explore it with other people on the internet is a completely innocent activity that is only going to further your product’s success.

    We deserve better. Third-party sites will find a way around the barriers you put before them, but why not work with us? Why not strengthen the community in the way that MS has with theirs and strengthen the brand as a result? An answer to this question would be greatly appreciated by myself and the rest of the community.

  • lol i like it

  • For everybody who keeps mentioning that the videos on this site dont work properly, IT’S NOT THE SITE, IT’S YOUR PS3! Sony screwed up the internal flash with update 3.15. I know it, they know it, but since no one thinks its their ps3 and that its the site, Sony can sweep it under the rug. There was an old blog post where Jeff even mentioned that he realized this happened right after 3.15.

    Dont believe me try going to a site that uses Zshare as its streaming host, I GUARANTEE you wont be able to watch a single one. Sony needs to give us the ability to be able to update our browser and flash at will. How many of you have gotten this response when going to certain sites from the browser “IM SORRY WE NOTICED YOUR USING AN OLDER VERSION OF FLASH PLAYER PLEASE UPGRADE”. Some sites wont even work at all.

    Even Youtube tells me this sometimes. Another thing, everybody I want you to stop reading the replies for a sec and look at how terrible everybodys avatar looks against the white backdrop. Are you serious???? It looks like I’m browsing on Windows 95! Bring back the black.

  • Yikes, too bleached for my liking!

  • I wonder if the PS3 Browsers decrease in functioality had anything do with the allotment of memory moved from the OS, to the Game portion.

    Jeff, or anyone else at Sony, can you please comment on the functionality of the PS3 Browser, and plans to update it?

  • can you please make it so we can float boards on the forum.. i get tired of searching for something i look at every day

  • do you have any idea how hard on the eyes white is? especially with artificial lighting night??

    White based color scheme = typical amateurish web design

  • …and where is the edit function on posts?

  • Now YOU MUST CHANGE THE FONT…the whole text. You can’t read it well now, it’s too thin and small.

  • I’m sorry but both the Blog and website redesigns are just too white. Everything is white, light gray, or light blue. It’s blinding. At least add some dark accents in the side bars.

  • I think a darker font (perhaps bolder) or possible a bit less white.

    The issue for me is that the top of the page has a nicer gray border, but that shade gets lighter as you scroll down and it causes some irritation to my eyes. I know that science states otherwise, but the original look of the blog was aesthetically more pleasing to my eyes.

  • Black with white font. Easy on eyes.

    This new theme is burning my retina

    terrible…

  • @ Jeff,

    Please hurry with the full redesign… Note: I like the new features.

    **Runs to the EU PS BLOG**

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