If you ever used Xplayn back in the day, one or more of the above designs will probably envoke some kind of feelings in you. I randomly came across the images below: Xplayn v7.x mockups/sketches.
Personal note: this is a designer who was just 13 years old when I rescued him from a life of mediocrity and poor taste (he worked for thestrike.dk). He was one of my first hires for SteelSeries, for more than a decade he was one of my most trusted team members.
Frontpage mockup
We would discuss most of his work before it went live, over the years he delivered both awesome designs and mockups. But this.. He never showed me these mockups.. That’s because he is smart and instinctively knew that I would kill him slowly and painfully. Very painfully, as these designs lack both greatness and good taste. This is just broken. Doesn’t work. Take it out behind the barn and shoot it. No one deserves a life looking like this.
I think maybe Crash tried too hard to reinvent the site, he was too focused on trying to make it feel different and new. The ideal approach for both user experience and the brand, would have been a design that evolved the 2005 design and carried the best bits forward.
Profile mockup
It’s been 20 months since I decided to create a new version of Xplayn, a modern esports community for an internet audience that seems to have forgotten commmunity things in general.
Everything seems to be on track in development, New Xplayn enters beta in about a month. Soon, it’s your chance to judge me and all the decisions I’ve made for Xplayn.
I’ve been both looking forward to and dreading this moment in time.