Lichess homepage redesign proposal

[steve01101]

Hello everyone, I'm here to propose a change to the lichess.org site, I haven't found any bugs or problems, but I just thought that the graphics of lichess could be reviewed, giving it a rejuvenation. I would like to propose some ideas that I tried to do quickly, of course they are modifiable and perfectable, but it was my idea. I was thinking of reviewing the site's graphics, making it more interesting, cleaner, more "Chess", elegant, captivating. This is my opinion, feel free to do what you want. I would be happy though if the graphics could be improved. Give lichess a look, also to get more people involved. Surely these two images can be improved, I could still work on them, but I wanted an opinion and also hear what the developers were saying.

[rmarquis]

You might want to also look at prettierlichess that does an excellent job in providing a moderner look at lichess UI. It's also my biased opinion that lichess UI could really profit from a graphical overhaul.

[shermansiu]

There have been many requests to redesign Lichess over the years. I'm linking them all here, to make them easier to find.

Website Redesign

Prettier Lichess Browser Extension (February 25, 2021)

• Started by noahsemus and Durush; maintained by kieferro since August 1, 2022
• Website: https://prettierlichess.github.io/
• Repo: https://github.com/prettierlichess/prettierlichess

Default Theme

OG v2 Theme

Gazorp's Website Mockup (March 6, 2021)

• Original Discord Message: https://discord.com/channels/280713822073913354/693123651272179793/817801948954099733
• Mockup Link: https://framer.com/share/lichess-org--zNLBTetUifqRTYht5mxo/TQ0_2TM05

Zero/ariskofrain's Website Mockup (October 23, 2022)

• Original Discord Message: https://discord.com/channels/280713822073913354/1033613064769122364/1033613066857885766
• Mockup Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_Z9FR9DS389srgbAXsacVxVL4sm3vgSO?usp=share_link

Original image mockups

Zero's in-browser CSS design

rsbkk's Website Mockup (May 3, 2023)

• Original Discord Message: https://discord.com/channels/280713822073913354/1103221926937243689/1103221926937243689
• Mockup Link: https://www.figma.com/proto/y1cFwlZOXd6SoJJexthx62/Prospective-Lichess-redesign-(Dark-theme)?type=design&node-id=1-2&scaling=min-zoom&page-id=0%3A1

steve01101's Website Mockup (May 12, 2023)

• See above

Icon Redesign

Tobaloidlee's Lichess Logo (May 4, 2018)

• GitHub Issue: https://github.com/lichess-org/lila/issues/4326

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And of course, there's Lichess' v2 redesign in May 7, 2019, which is the current GUI as of the time of this post. https://lichess.org/blog/XMvcJSwAADkA0hPE/lichess-v2-is-here

[shermansiu]

For comparison, here are some screenshots from v2 of the Lichess mobile app.

[shermansiu]

Did I mention I'm a huge fan of simplicity? :D 

Originally posted by @ornicar in https://github.com/lichess-org/lila/issues/4326#issuecomment-386827835 (May 5, 2018)

[shermansiu]

Seems like we can close this issue as not planned.

[rmarquis]

Is there any mentionned reason as to why a more modern design would not be accepted? I personally really like lichess in terms of features, but I find the interface really off-putting with its dated look, to a point I would not use lichess without prettierlichess.

In short, I don't really understand why an attempt of getting prettierlichess integrated is a non starter. If the mobile app is reworked for a better design, why the same couldn't be done for the website too?

[shermansiu]

I think if

1. We demonstrate that there is a lot of public support to modernize the GUI for all users (and not just through an extension like Prettier Lichess),
2. We show that most Lichess users prefer the new design over the old, and
3. The new design is easy to maintain, code-wise

it would be more likely to get approved.

I would prefer it if a more modern design was used, but we'd probably need approvals from Thibault for such a major redesign.

[rmarquis]

All right, so how do we concretely proceed to make it happen? For 1/ and 2/, we might prepare a screenshots comparison and prepare a vote on reddit for example. For 3/, I guess we'll need more technical insight. Let's embark @kieferro (prettierlichess maintainer) in the loop too.

[shermansiu]

Rémy, your suggestions for 1. and 2. seem like a good idea.

By 3., I meant that we aren't adding too many features that most users won't use. We probably want to keep the Sass conventions, etc. that were introduced in the v2 Lichess GUI refactor.

Also, I talked to Kieferro about half a year ago. I'm linking the discussion here for reference: https://github.com/prettierlichess/prettierlichess/issues/184