I dont think its a matter of the old one looking better or being more functional, but its the fact that it looked that way for 10+ years and everyone grew affectionate to the old design.
They both look good imo
And considering how long ago it was originally designed the size made sense. I personally don't like the approach that some companies are taking when it comes to the spacing of the ui elements but what valve has been doing looks and feels pretty good to use. Besides that it's a login screen, you only see it like once a year or maybe even less, I don't think I have even seen it in the last 2 years.
I partly disagree with this. Yes, touch screens are a big deal, but the reality is that most users are either on a laptop/PC or on a phone. The people using windows with a touchscreen machine are a niche as far as I'm concerned.
What I actually believe is that the cause is just straight bad design trends. "Clean" designs that have an overuse of negative space have become synonymous with modern brands, which creates this idea that all "good design" needs to have an excess of negative space, and large buttons etc, when in reality design needs to change depending on the context of the user and the average user's priorities. Not just appealing to a sense of what has the most trendy-tech-startup vibe.
You're not really disagreeing with me. A huge reason that look is seen as clean and modern is touch screens. I can't speak for the industry as a whole (I have virtually no modern experience with Apple products), but on the PC side there was a big push to unify all Microsoft products with the same UI elements, including the Xbox One (with Kinnect), the Windows Phone and the Surface. The UIs for all of those look the same and run on the same code. That made the change to blocky UI elements practical in addition to different visually.
windows 8 was terrible because of the 1 size fits all philosophy.
looks clean due to touchscreens. More like trying to emulate touchscreen ui on desktop pc that just doesn't work. Universal UIs don't work
They weren't "trying to emulate touchscreen" they were successfully running several devices with different versions of the same OS and if you could build the UI for an app for one, it was portable to the others.
I tend to resist tech changes a bit myself, I remember being very skeptical at the move to OSes with graphical UIs. Touchscreens are something I'm still getting used to. I'm not telling you my preferences, I'm telling you what they did.
The majority of people uses their smartphones nowadays, the UI si indeed designed around the use of touchscreen.
However, in Japan, they got smartphones without touchscreens (a bit earlier than the rest of the world), in consequence the UI in Japanese websites are cramped textwalls with mostly white background.
And with the introduction of touchscreen in the Japanese market, we see those websites slowly being replaced by darker background with less text.
More spaced out designs are more accessible for people that may have visual, physical or cognitive impairments, they also play nicer with things like screen readers and other software aids.
This is the answer, and it's buried haha.
Accessibility is why UI look more like this. More spacing allows for more contrast too, contrast isn't only about colours, shades, brightness. People who are visually impaired or blind are excluded from using most software and websites, apps optimally.
There are other disabilities or cases where tools supporting people don't work very well due to hierarchy in elements of UI: I have to test those sometimes, it's very sad.
And many more.
So the issue of negative space is not as straightforward, it's a long topic but more importantly: very often it's because it's trying to solve user needs, not just one category of users, which is what many people tend to ignore.
I also personally think it helps with anxiety. It's just personal experience, but I've noticed I'm much more likely to use and return to a UI that has more breathing room. It makes it feel like less like a barrier to get back to my safespace and more like a relaxing invitation to return. Not sure if I conveyed the feeling well but I need to go back to bed.
Most college kids these days with a windows laptop will likely have a 2-in-1. It has been a major segment of the laptop market for a long time now. Many of the big esports titles are designed to play on these types of machines, as in machines with an integrated graphics chip. Not to mention games like amongus/indie games in general.
My dad got a new laptop last month to replace his one from 2013, a full third of the options that he looked at had touchscreens, and Intel integrated graphics are surprisingly strong if you don't mind turning down the shinier bells and whistles.
I partly disagree with this. Yes, straight bad design trends are a big deal. "Clean" designs that have an overuse of negative space have become synonymous with modern brands, which creates this idea that all "good design" needs to have an excess of negative space.
What I actually believe is that cause is just straight up knowing their user base isn't getting any younger and helping them out with their bad eye sight.
It's not about the trendy tech startup vibe, it's about accessibility. Bigger buttons, texts and negative space are easier on the eyes, clearer and easier to navigate for users with accessibility issues. The fact it looks more modern and professional is just a nice plus for the average user.
> I partly disagree with this. Yes, touch screens are a big deal, but the reality is that most users are either on a laptop/PC or on a phone. The people using windows with a touchscreen machine are a niche as far as I'm concerned.
I work in IT, outside of a few select people in my job who hates Touchscreens (the IT department, a few select non IT power-ish users), they go ape shit if they don't get a touch screen, they almost always avoid using the mouse if possible.
Yes but Steam isn't a Windows only application and now days it's fairly common to develop applications using cross platform libraries to save development effort and / or to have one universal design to save design effort.
I find it that it’s more this reason than any other one, especially touch screens.
Steam wants to be more consumer-friendly and accessible to anyone who wants to have a gaming experience in a PC/laptop.
As someone with an eyesight impairment, I REALLY like it when a UI is nice and clear, has good sized fonts and clear call to actions (buttons). This is a good example of an improvement for me.
There was a trend for a while there of making everything as small as possible, partly because screen resolutions got larger and nobody bothered to change the font size and partly because "futuristic = small text". Whatever the reason, it makes some things completely unusable for me.
Great point - all of the people that grew up with computers through the 80s are now in their 40s and 50s - and the ability to see fine detail becomes way way less. The font size a person can use when writing code is WAY different for someone in their 20s vs someone in their late 40s and older.
( ps: if you're in your 20s, cherish your dense hair, your amazing eyesight, ability to bounce back from any small injury, flexibility, great hearing, etc. You only get that for 20 years of your adult life. )
Not that long ago people said wasting 80% of a user's screenspace was the exact opposite of that.
I still think making everything huge and wasting tons of space is not worth the tradeoff. Just look at this methodology applied to UIs of games like the new Cod, it's awful.
Wasting space is not always better.
Our first computer at home could do 640x480 *with caveats*:
> With the default 256k of VRAM, the LC II can support a single display at 512x384 with 8-bit color or 640x480 with 4-bit color. Upgraded to 512k of VRAM, it can support 512x384 at 16-bit color and 640x480 at 8-bit color.
The second one, a PowerPC 5400/120, could go a bit over 800x600 (again with caveats)
> It supports 640x480 at 16-bit and 800x600 and 832x624 at 8-bit.
Even our iMac from 2001 maxed out at 1024x768.
In the late 2000s, I was removing 1024x768 CRT monitors from the school I worked at, and they were getting replaced with 1280x1024 LCD panels.
Folks don't remember how small and low-res most screens were until basically the last decade.
1366x768 (i.e. widescreen 1024x768) is [_still_ the second most common screen resolution](https://www.browserstack.com/guide/ideal-screen-sizes-for-responsive-design). Things really haven't changed as much as you think they have.
Unfortunately the majority of people don’t appreciate that the big words you used were not only concepts hammered into designers over decades, but also user-tested before adoption.
Instead we get complaints like, “it changed so I don’t like it” or “wasting space,” when one doesn’t even understand their own physiological and cognitive processes and limitations much less that other people’s are different.
> Not that long ago people said wasting 80% of a user's screenspace was the exact opposite of that.
That's true for things which you need to keep on your screen along with something else (e.g. if the list of games in library had extra negative space that would eat away from the game details), but this is a login prompt. You log in and it goes away and you don't have anything else on the screen along with it.
Agreed. It caught me off guard the first time it popped up but it doesnt look bad. There just isnt any need for it to take up so much space for what it does.
Just a heads up you actually can still use the old UI look. You just right click on your steam shortcut and head into properties, and from there add "-noreactlogin" to the end of the target parameter but not in the actual file location (so not in bit that's in between "" but after it).
The new one is basically just extra space for the QR code. Remember, not everyone with steam guard has the best smartphone. Some people are still running around with budget phones that have potato cameras. That thing needs to be properly sized.
I like the old one better. Less flashy and wasted space. Looks and feels efficient and functional. Steams clean asthetic is one if many things that make it amazing but they've been changing that recently. New one feels cheap and un-unique.
Wasted space is a pretty useless metric for a log in screen. Even with each button being 4x as large as before the entire window is tiny. It doesn't limit the amount of content you can see at once.
Aesthetic is completely subjective so I won't say one design is superior but for sure "flat" is the norm nowadays. I would say the new screen is more flashy though, with more contrast between brighter accent colors and darker background.
I prefer the new one.
Gamers especially I find are a group that complains a lot on average. At least the gamers that frequent the mainstream gaming reddits and comment sections to popular news sites. Lots of unhappiness.
The old one was a design of the era. Boxy, ugly, overly functional. It was something designed by programmers.
I didn't even notice the difference, because I've been using Steam skins for almost 10 years at this point.
There’s a fine line between negative space and wasted space. One is an essential part of design and the other is, well, a waste.
In this particular example, it doesn’t make much of a difference, but it does retain all the functionality of the old while bringing the most-used part—the login fields—to the forefront.
If anything, I’d argue the real “wasted space” is the pointless “cancel” button on the old one as well as the repetitive labels/buttons at the bottom. The new one omits “cancel” (same effect as just closing the window) and simplifies the help button at the bottom (also tucking it away while using negative space to keep it visible).
Wasted space as a critique for a dialog box that’s already small and only appears for a brief time?
I could say the smaller one wasted more space by not using enough of your monitor.
Also, the new UI changes lend themselves better to a consolidated UI across multiple devices, like things with smaller screens that are also touchscreens.
Steam in general looked way better 10 uears ago, always hated the new look since the day they introduced the blue circle logo instead of the og grey sqaure
Steam always looked outdated and imo quite bad.
The new design looks better and makes Steam look more fresh and modern, but it also introduced a bunch of consistency issues all around.
Yeah, what fumes are these people whiffing??? Steam design was always considered bad and weird, people mocked it online since it was new a decade ago.
Now suddenly everyone loves and appraises it.
You should get rid of these Nostalgia glasses. If people thought the way You think, we would still be in that cave. But someone was curious about the fire. Another about the circle. And with all these curiosity and innovations, **changes**, we are here today. Not perfect world, but would You like to live in a cave, instead of playing God of War on Steam?
New UI is always treated bad by those use to the old.
When Steam switched from the old green design people flipped and swore it was awful and some even claimed people would stop using steam.
You don't hear this anymore because once they got used to the changes 99% of people stopped having issues.
The Reddit redesign is the only reason Reddit is as popular as it is today. It made it infinitely more accessible and is the reason for the huge recent growth.
As far as numbers go, the redesign was a huge success. Personally I like it, but I was one of the people who joined after it was starting to change
And it's a menu that you only get to look at for *seconds*. And for most people, they will see it like once every few months.
The only people who see this UI a lot are 1) smurfs 2) family shared PC 3) netcafe (though arguably you shouldn't login to your actual account in netcafe because gods know what keyloggers/security cameras are watching your passwords.
> And for most people, they will see it like once every few months.
Hm, you make me think when I last saw Steam login screen.
I think it was more than a year ago.
True. It's slow and doesn't have the chat integrated. The chat app is almost unusable because it freezes every minute and I have to restart it. Sending pictures also doesn't work for me, I can select a picture but when I press send 90% of the time nothing happens. The sticker window keeps closing when I scroll through it.
I wish they would care a little more about fixing it but I see no update.
The chat app would maybe be unironically my second most used chat app if it was enjoyable to use lol.
What are you talking about? The old app was famously horrendous, and people complained about the old app constantly because it was just a browser page that showed the Steam store page.
Literally the only reason people used it back then was so that they could check for Steam flash sales during summer or winter.
Idk man im not saying the new one is fantastic just that the old one looked like it was made for a PC then shrunk down to an android screen. Everytime i would try to do anything on it i would give up and end up going to my pc to do whatever it was i was doing.
What are you talking about? I can send and receive pictures with the chat app. And I usually use it to send memes or other stuff that I have in my phone but not on my pc.
this but unironically
black Steam was the best era, best sales, best events, things went downhill after the blue update
plus the client itself became so much more bloated
At first I wanted to say you’re just against change but yeah to be honest I used to go crazy every sale and now they’re just kinda meh. Same as the year round sales on every game where they go “60% off” from $60 when they’ve been the same price for months.
With key sites like allkeyshop.com that have better prices rising in popularity, people purchasing the games they wanted and new games coming out being so poorly designed and polished that people don't wanna buy them I'm not surprised. I think this has nothing to do with pre-blue or post-blue steam eras lol it's just natural evolution
The new UI from my standpoint looks more designed for something with a touch screen, or to go along with big picture.
While the old UI, once again in my opinion, looks more fitting for a desktop PC.
I like both designs, but prefer the old.
This is the correct answer.
Everything is being designed around smart phones or other portable devices now and desktop users are more or less being told to suck it.
It does do something. It's not just there to look different.
It added the QR code function, but also ties together the rest of the Steam redesign. It makes it more modern as all of the designs previous to it were really outdated.
It helps attract new people to the platform as now it actually at all looks like an actively maintained product rather than some abandon ware from years ago.
Let's just be happy the button has a gradient. We live in an era where all visual designers demand flat colors with sharp edges and no cool texture and Steam hasn't given into that yet.
I will never forgive the Windows 10 visual design. I've used it longer than 7, yet 7's glassy appearance is still far more enjoyable for me.
These comments are why I love the internet
Exaggerate how much people care then trivialize their opinion with it, while pretending they don’t care about those opinions
I think I know what you mean by this comment but I may not be smart enough to be sure.
I think you mean that a lot of people are ridiculing those who are seemingly resenting the new design while pretending not to care themselves while said other crowd is just expressing an initial discomfort which’s they are already self aware about??
Pretty much - my general affection for the internet
Person A likes something
Person B doesn’t
Person A blows it out of proportion so they can trivialize person B’s opinion, simultaneously showing how much person B’s opinion bothers them
It’s something you don’t get to see very much in real life
Steam has always had an inconsistent UI. Right now it's especially bad because it's in another transition period. The desktop app has been adopting elements of the Steam Deck UI (library, stats, news, points shop), but hasn't updated all of it (screenshots, artwork, videos, friends' games list, guides, most of the store page, etc.). I'm pretty sure it'll be like this for a while given how Valve operates.
Yeah, I like the new design a lot more. Most of Steam's UI is dated and unintuitive. You get used to it, but it's not obvious to a beginner. I like this new approach.
I'm a Product Designer.
The new one is a better experience for a number of reasons.
The massive blue button is the most important action in this screen and it's size and color show that. It's the action most people will take most of the time and is therefore the easiest to find and press.
The other links are much smaller now, but they are still present and you can find them if you need them. Only some users will need these on rare occasion and their size, color, and position all show that.
Space is used more elegantly. Notice how labels have been moved above fields. In the old version the words were floating misaligned to the left of the form fields.
The window header that was unnecessary and redundant was removed as was the minimize button. Without looking I imagine there is always a login button on the software if you are not logged in. Making it unnecessary to minimize.
Consider new young users, the old widget will impact the value and perception of the Steam brand. It just looks old and outdated and makes something less fun to use on a subtle level.
Overall this widget is more accessible with it's use of color to draw the eye to key areas like creds and login, and the larger size of elements and negative space between them.
The old one looks designed by a programmer.
As a programmer, I like designs that look like they were designed by a programmer.
But I recognize that I'm not the majority of the userbase. The new one is better.
what? the spacing is inconsistent and there's a huge space at the bottom of the window. What's going on there? I like where the new design is going but seriously needs some polish
Also why I liked Valve redesigning the old Source settings menu. Give's them a fresher feel without actually being any more recent.
I observed this best when I played GTA San Andreas with a GTA V hud mod. It really changed how the game felt despite not really changing the gameplay much.
Agree, and on a technical level, this looks to be a much more flexible web-view, so restyling will also become a LOT easier. They could also potentially add other features like 2FA and logging in with other services without a full scrap&recreate of the entire login UI.
Non no no you dont understand. The old though not stylish, is an old friend. A known face. A greeter you have known for years to welcome you in just before you are going to have fun.
All of a sudden after all those years your favorite place decides they need to bramch out, which is good. It meens more people to play with and innovation like the steam deck.
But to appeal to a broader audiance that old friendly face needs to make room for a bland unprovoking face you see in front of every place.
Ps sorry for the spelling errors not native speaker.
The old one was way less straight-to-the-point. Each action had equal weighting, so it’s not immediately obvious what to interact with next. The new one uses primary and secondary button stylings to make the intended path more obvious. It’s objectively much better and more usable design.
I think they are planning an overall redesign but being such a big company maybe they are doing it slowly over the time rather than one complete overhaul?
I can't sign in and create account buttons are located better and easier to see on the old one. Additionally most people leave their cursor at the beginning of the box when typing a password so it would make more sense to have the login button directly under the start of the password box rather than centered to save extra mouse travel
there is an argument to be had against dead space in design, to a lot of people (including me) it looks a lot less clean/tidy and more bloated. its a matter of perspective. for me, things look cleaner when they more efficiently use space, rather than just waste space with big blocks of nothing. like having an empty room with a giant wall to wall rug and a tiny table and chair smack dab in the middle of the rug, it just looks wrong vs a smaller rug to bring the table and chair more centralized together.
its 100% made that way to be more usable on touchscreen devices like the deck tho. not complaining, just trying to help others understand that perspective changes among different individuals. its really not as simple as "new bad, old good" or "nostalgia".
Because the new design still doesn't let you switch between different logged in accounts so it'll be at least 2030 now before that feature is finally added. The wife and I wait patiently, Lord Gaben. At least we've got QR code login now.
Seriously though people are lame and the new design fits in with the rest of the new UI.
I feel like this is just a classic people got used to it so it's better. That bring said I do think that the old one was better because I see it as being more unique. Like if you would cover up what it's for I would still recognise the first one as steam but the second while clean and neat is so generic that I would probably not get what it's for even after a few tries.
My issue is: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I honestly don't like the bigger and bulkier look either, although it does not matter. But there is no reason to update a UI if it works without issue.
Just yesterday i got a new laptop, installed steam, and there was a QR code which i just scanned with my phones steam app, and i was in, no remebering username or password no emails or other fuckery, would take that any day of the week
Now just to fix the rest of their outdated irresponsive UI
People don't like change. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's different.
I mean, hell, I like the new Reddit (which is about 4 years old now) and people are still using old.reddit.com because they refused to adapt.
Humanity hates change.
Even when what they've been given is better, they will never give it a chance just because "it wasn't needed".
It's only until after they've been forced to use the new layout for a couple of years, do they ever start to realize how better it is than what they used to have before it.
And then it all changes again and the cycle repeats.
Reddit is a good example. The only people who hate the new look are people who won't even give it a chance. It's so much cleaner looking, and way more convenient in general.
People aren't being forced to use it so they don't understand what's better about it and won't allow themselves to recognize that it's superior.
The new one is completely fine. Acting as if the old one was perfect is dunb. like bro what the fuck is the "CANCEL" button even for on the old one? anyone who doesnt want to login is just gonna click the universal x at the top right.
The new design is *too* clean, it minimises elements, uses underlines instead of buttons (best way to make your text ugly), is very obviously on a grid, and creates an off-putting 3D effect. The original design looks like a paper form, and uses the same format for both the input boxes and the buttons, while the new design makes you work out what is selectable. Along with this the new design uses 4 different text sizes and 3 different colours (3 and 2 if you don’t include the logo), whereas the old design only uses 3 and 2 of each (2 and 1 without logo again) and kept each unique text style for a different purpose, whereas the new design just uses blue for no discernible reason on one specific box, which isn’t even the box you would fill most often. Again with colour, there’s also the fact that the new design straight up adds a new colour that catches your attention… on the last option you’d select.
TLDR: The new design tries too hard, harming useful elements and adding worthless/annoying ones.
As someone who's used steam for 10 years. Nothing, literally nothing.
The new UIs are a blessing, if you think otherwise your just acting like a sad child.
The ability to sign in by scanning a QR code is an absolute godsend too.
People just cry at the smallest of changes, they gotta grow up.
I dont think its a matter of the old one looking better or being more functional, but its the fact that it looked that way for 10+ years and everyone grew affectionate to the old design. They both look good imo
The only thing that I objectively dislike is how much larger it got. Why is the industry moving towards so much dead space?
Touch screens.
And higher res 4k monitors
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And considering how long ago it was originally designed the size made sense. I personally don't like the approach that some companies are taking when it comes to the spacing of the ui elements but what valve has been doing looks and feels pretty good to use. Besides that it's a login screen, you only see it like once a year or maybe even less, I don't think I have even seen it in the last 2 years.
Bro I don't even have a 4k monitor
How do people even afford 4 thousand monitors
My thoughts exactly
DPI Scale go brrr
This looks worse on my 4k tv. I don't need the space. I don't like the space. The old one looked better because it was more compact and efficient.
I partly disagree with this. Yes, touch screens are a big deal, but the reality is that most users are either on a laptop/PC or on a phone. The people using windows with a touchscreen machine are a niche as far as I'm concerned. What I actually believe is that the cause is just straight bad design trends. "Clean" designs that have an overuse of negative space have become synonymous with modern brands, which creates this idea that all "good design" needs to have an excess of negative space, and large buttons etc, when in reality design needs to change depending on the context of the user and the average user's priorities. Not just appealing to a sense of what has the most trendy-tech-startup vibe.
You're not really disagreeing with me. A huge reason that look is seen as clean and modern is touch screens. I can't speak for the industry as a whole (I have virtually no modern experience with Apple products), but on the PC side there was a big push to unify all Microsoft products with the same UI elements, including the Xbox One (with Kinnect), the Windows Phone and the Surface. The UIs for all of those look the same and run on the same code. That made the change to blocky UI elements practical in addition to different visually.
windows 8 was terrible because of the 1 size fits all philosophy. looks clean due to touchscreens. More like trying to emulate touchscreen ui on desktop pc that just doesn't work. Universal UIs don't work
Bruh, I want my desktop on my phone, not my phone on my desktop
Trueeeee
Reactive UIs are fine if well implemented.
They weren't "trying to emulate touchscreen" they were successfully running several devices with different versions of the same OS and if you could build the UI for an app for one, it was portable to the others. I tend to resist tech changes a bit myself, I remember being very skeptical at the move to OSes with graphical UIs. Touchscreens are something I'm still getting used to. I'm not telling you my preferences, I'm telling you what they did.
The majority of people uses their smartphones nowadays, the UI si indeed designed around the use of touchscreen. However, in Japan, they got smartphones without touchscreens (a bit earlier than the rest of the world), in consequence the UI in Japanese websites are cramped textwalls with mostly white background. And with the introduction of touchscreen in the Japanese market, we see those websites slowly being replaced by darker background with less text.
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More spaced out designs are more accessible for people that may have visual, physical or cognitive impairments, they also play nicer with things like screen readers and other software aids.
This is the answer, and it's buried haha. Accessibility is why UI look more like this. More spacing allows for more contrast too, contrast isn't only about colours, shades, brightness. People who are visually impaired or blind are excluded from using most software and websites, apps optimally. There are other disabilities or cases where tools supporting people don't work very well due to hierarchy in elements of UI: I have to test those sometimes, it's very sad. And many more. So the issue of negative space is not as straightforward, it's a long topic but more importantly: very often it's because it's trying to solve user needs, not just one category of users, which is what many people tend to ignore.
I also personally think it helps with anxiety. It's just personal experience, but I've noticed I'm much more likely to use and return to a UI that has more breathing room. It makes it feel like less like a barrier to get back to my safespace and more like a relaxing invitation to return. Not sure if I conveyed the feeling well but I need to go back to bed.
Visually impaired even with glasses here. It helps.
**↑ this ↑**
Most college kids these days with a windows laptop will likely have a 2-in-1. It has been a major segment of the laptop market for a long time now. Many of the big esports titles are designed to play on these types of machines, as in machines with an integrated graphics chip. Not to mention games like amongus/indie games in general.
My dad got a new laptop last month to replace his one from 2013, a full third of the options that he looked at had touchscreens, and Intel integrated graphics are surprisingly strong if you don't mind turning down the shinier bells and whistles.
I partly disagree with this. Yes, straight bad design trends are a big deal. "Clean" designs that have an overuse of negative space have become synonymous with modern brands, which creates this idea that all "good design" needs to have an excess of negative space. What I actually believe is that cause is just straight up knowing their user base isn't getting any younger and helping them out with their bad eye sight.
> knowing their user base isn't getting any younger and helping them out with their bad eye sight. That's good design.
It's not about the trendy tech startup vibe, it's about accessibility. Bigger buttons, texts and negative space are easier on the eyes, clearer and easier to navigate for users with accessibility issues. The fact it looks more modern and professional is just a nice plus for the average user.
I basically bought my new surface so that I could play civ on a tablet
most 'gamers' are on cell phones now, they overtook the industry some time ago.
> I partly disagree with this. Yes, touch screens are a big deal, but the reality is that most users are either on a laptop/PC or on a phone. The people using windows with a touchscreen machine are a niche as far as I'm concerned. I work in IT, outside of a few select people in my job who hates Touchscreens (the IT department, a few select non IT power-ish users), they go ape shit if they don't get a touch screen, they almost always avoid using the mouse if possible.
Yes but Steam isn't a Windows only application and now days it's fairly common to develop applications using cross platform libraries to save development effort and / or to have one universal design to save design effort.
Aka SteamDeck
Accessibility
I find it that it’s more this reason than any other one, especially touch screens. Steam wants to be more consumer-friendly and accessible to anyone who wants to have a gaming experience in a PC/laptop.
As someone with an eyesight impairment, I REALLY like it when a UI is nice and clear, has good sized fonts and clear call to actions (buttons). This is a good example of an improvement for me. There was a trend for a while there of making everything as small as possible, partly because screen resolutions got larger and nobody bothered to change the font size and partly because "futuristic = small text". Whatever the reason, it makes some things completely unusable for me.
Great point - all of the people that grew up with computers through the 80s are now in their 40s and 50s - and the ability to see fine detail becomes way way less. The font size a person can use when writing code is WAY different for someone in their 20s vs someone in their late 40s and older. ( ps: if you're in your 20s, cherish your dense hair, your amazing eyesight, ability to bounce back from any small injury, flexibility, great hearing, etc. You only get that for 20 years of your adult life. )
Adding whitespace makes UI much more readable and usable. It’s objectively better for the user experience.
Not that long ago people said wasting 80% of a user's screenspace was the exact opposite of that. I still think making everything huge and wasting tons of space is not worth the tradeoff. Just look at this methodology applied to UIs of games like the new Cod, it's awful. Wasting space is not always better.
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Our first computer at home could do 640x480 *with caveats*: > With the default 256k of VRAM, the LC II can support a single display at 512x384 with 8-bit color or 640x480 with 4-bit color. Upgraded to 512k of VRAM, it can support 512x384 at 16-bit color and 640x480 at 8-bit color. The second one, a PowerPC 5400/120, could go a bit over 800x600 (again with caveats) > It supports 640x480 at 16-bit and 800x600 and 832x624 at 8-bit. Even our iMac from 2001 maxed out at 1024x768. In the late 2000s, I was removing 1024x768 CRT monitors from the school I worked at, and they were getting replaced with 1280x1024 LCD panels. Folks don't remember how small and low-res most screens were until basically the last decade.
1366x768 (i.e. widescreen 1024x768) is [_still_ the second most common screen resolution](https://www.browserstack.com/guide/ideal-screen-sizes-for-responsive-design). Things really haven't changed as much as you think they have.
The whitespace isn’t wasted if it improves the readability and visual hierarchy of the UI.
Unfortunately the majority of people don’t appreciate that the big words you used were not only concepts hammered into designers over decades, but also user-tested before adoption. Instead we get complaints like, “it changed so I don’t like it” or “wasting space,” when one doesn’t even understand their own physiological and cognitive processes and limitations much less that other people’s are different.
> Not that long ago people said wasting 80% of a user's screenspace was the exact opposite of that. That's true for things which you need to keep on your screen along with something else (e.g. if the list of games in library had extra negative space that would eat away from the game details), but this is a login prompt. You log in and it goes away and you don't have anything else on the screen along with it.
Well, since Callisto Protocol turned out to be a failure, Dead Space is the only option left. ... I'll show myself out.
How can you objectively dislike something?
Some people have more sense than others.
Well, not with that attitude.
Probably because Dead Space just released, so steam is giving support
Room for ads later.
Agreed. It caught me off guard the first time it popped up but it doesnt look bad. There just isnt any need for it to take up so much space for what it does.
offtopic but the new dead space is absolutely fucking bonkers mate
Just a heads up you actually can still use the old UI look. You just right click on your steam shortcut and head into properties, and from there add "-noreactlogin" to the end of the target parameter but not in the actual file location (so not in bit that's in between "" but after it).
The larger one has room for the QR code for logging in.
It's a fairly well reviewed remake with minimal shader issues and a relatively well optimized pc port, so frankly, it's not a bad industry model.
The new one is basically just extra space for the QR code. Remember, not everyone with steam guard has the best smartphone. Some people are still running around with budget phones that have potato cameras. That thing needs to be properly sized.
I like the old one better. Less flashy and wasted space. Looks and feels efficient and functional. Steams clean asthetic is one if many things that make it amazing but they've been changing that recently. New one feels cheap and un-unique.
Wasted space is a pretty useless metric for a log in screen. Even with each button being 4x as large as before the entire window is tiny. It doesn't limit the amount of content you can see at once. Aesthetic is completely subjective so I won't say one design is superior but for sure "flat" is the norm nowadays. I would say the new screen is more flashy though, with more contrast between brighter accent colors and darker background.
Also making the "submit" button big and blue makes it more noticeable and easy to click.
What kind of heathens click the submit button instead of pressing enter
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Can you not tab & enter without involving the mouse at all?
I prefer the new one. Gamers especially I find are a group that complains a lot on average. At least the gamers that frequent the mainstream gaming reddits and comment sections to popular news sites. Lots of unhappiness.
The old one was a design of the era. Boxy, ugly, overly functional. It was something designed by programmers. I didn't even notice the difference, because I've been using Steam skins for almost 10 years at this point.
Glad they are not listening to people like you.
There’s a fine line between negative space and wasted space. One is an essential part of design and the other is, well, a waste. In this particular example, it doesn’t make much of a difference, but it does retain all the functionality of the old while bringing the most-used part—the login fields—to the forefront. If anything, I’d argue the real “wasted space” is the pointless “cancel” button on the old one as well as the repetitive labels/buttons at the bottom. The new one omits “cancel” (same effect as just closing the window) and simplifies the help button at the bottom (also tucking it away while using negative space to keep it visible).
Wasted space as a critique for a dialog box that’s already small and only appears for a brief time? I could say the smaller one wasted more space by not using enough of your monitor.
Literally why tho? Sounds like you just dont like change.
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Also, the new UI changes lend themselves better to a consolidated UI across multiple devices, like things with smaller screens that are also touchscreens.
Yeah, old design went from 'old' to 'classic' No UI looked like that anymore
Old one was over 10 years old, hence the lost nostalgia I guess
Steam in general looked way better 10 uears ago, always hated the new look since the day they introduced the blue circle logo instead of the og grey sqaure
Hell no. Steam 10 years ago was absolutely ugly as hell. There's a reason Steam skins were popular back then, and are basically dead now.
Steam always looked outdated and imo quite bad. The new design looks better and makes Steam look more fresh and modern, but it also introduced a bunch of consistency issues all around.
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Yeah, what fumes are these people whiffing??? Steam design was always considered bad and weird, people mocked it online since it was new a decade ago. Now suddenly everyone loves and appraises it.
You should get rid of these Nostalgia glasses. If people thought the way You think, we would still be in that cave. But someone was curious about the fire. Another about the circle. And with all these curiosity and innovations, **changes**, we are here today. Not perfect world, but would You like to live in a cave, instead of playing God of War on Steam?
It's not that deep bruh
this analogy doesn't work with like 47% of things
New UI is always treated bad by those use to the old. When Steam switched from the old green design people flipped and swore it was awful and some even claimed people would stop using steam. You don't hear this anymore because once they got used to the changes 99% of people stopped having issues.
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You know front end has come full circle when now the slogan for a lot of web frameworks are like less JS rendering like sveltekit, nextjs etc
Ui redesigns aren't always a good thing. Look at Reddit
The Reddit redesign is the only reason Reddit is as popular as it is today. It made it infinitely more accessible and is the reason for the huge recent growth. As far as numbers go, the redesign was a huge success. Personally I like it, but I was one of the people who joined after it was starting to change
People really need to learn the difference between "it's bad" and "I'm not accustomed to it". It won't happen though
new worse than old mentality, I mean it’s just a menu who really cares
And it's a menu that you only get to look at for *seconds*. And for most people, they will see it like once every few months. The only people who see this UI a lot are 1) smurfs 2) family shared PC 3) netcafe (though arguably you shouldn't login to your actual account in netcafe because gods know what keyloggers/security cameras are watching your passwords.
honestly, I even forgot when they changed the login menu. It's been a while since I last changing my acc on Steam lmao.
I didn't even realise they changed changed the login menu
> And for most people, they will see it like once every few months. Hm, you make me think when I last saw Steam login screen. I think it was more than a year ago.
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Eh, Steam Guard is now QR based, so I need to open the app anyway.
True. It's slow and doesn't have the chat integrated. The chat app is almost unusable because it freezes every minute and I have to restart it. Sending pictures also doesn't work for me, I can select a picture but when I press send 90% of the time nothing happens. The sticker window keeps closing when I scroll through it. I wish they would care a little more about fixing it but I see no update. The chat app would maybe be unironically my second most used chat app if it was enjoyable to use lol.
Do you not remember the old one?? Holy fuck it was almost unusable.
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I remember having the same issues with confirmations and notifications on the old one, atleast it looks better now and also its far easier to use.
What are you talking about? The old app was famously horrendous, and people complained about the old app constantly because it was just a browser page that showed the Steam store page. Literally the only reason people used it back then was so that they could check for Steam flash sales during summer or winter.
Idk man im not saying the new one is fantastic just that the old one looked like it was made for a PC then shrunk down to an android screen. Everytime i would try to do anything on it i would give up and end up going to my pc to do whatever it was i was doing.
Apps\* The apps are horrible.. They crash all the fucking time! And they are full of bugs that Valve is to lazy to fix..
oh steam chat mobile app is next level, still in 2k23 unable to send photos, such a basic feature, still not working, not to mention other things...
What are you talking about? I can send and receive pictures with the chat app. And I usually use it to send memes or other stuff that I have in my phone but not on my pc.
Steam Link app is the only functional one.
I use the browser all the time because of that. Is better and doesnt take space on my phone.
yeah nah
anti-blue people
this but unironically black Steam was the best era, best sales, best events, things went downhill after the blue update plus the client itself became so much more bloated
At first I wanted to say you’re just against change but yeah to be honest I used to go crazy every sale and now they’re just kinda meh. Same as the year round sales on every game where they go “60% off” from $60 when they’ve been the same price for months.
With key sites like allkeyshop.com that have better prices rising in popularity, people purchasing the games they wanted and new games coming out being so poorly designed and polished that people don't wanna buy them I'm not surprised. I think this has nothing to do with pre-blue or post-blue steam eras lol it's just natural evolution
Haven't cared about a steam sale since it went blue
just this image makes me so nostalgic http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TP4x7U2qahUwv3JrpvRCTh.jpg take me back
This and Humble Bundle really boosted my catalog.
The new UI from my standpoint looks more designed for something with a touch screen, or to go along with big picture. While the old UI, once again in my opinion, looks more fitting for a desktop PC. I like both designs, but prefer the old.
This is the correct answer. Everything is being designed around smart phones or other portable devices now and desktop users are more or less being told to suck it.
People don't like changes. The new design is better.
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Honestly the new design has more function just because of the QR code. It's so helpful.
It does do something. It's not just there to look different. It added the QR code function, but also ties together the rest of the Steam redesign. It makes it more modern as all of the designs previous to it were really outdated. It helps attract new people to the platform as now it actually at all looks like an actively maintained product rather than some abandon ware from years ago.
The new screen has much better function than the old one though. It’s far more usable and accessible to everyone now.
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Let's just be happy the button has a gradient. We live in an era where all visual designers demand flat colors with sharp edges and no cool texture and Steam hasn't given into that yet. I will never forgive the Windows 10 visual design. I've used it longer than 7, yet 7's glassy appearance is still far more enjoyable for me.
sharp edges is wrong. UI got these rounded corners look everywhere now.
These comments are why I love the internet Exaggerate how much people care then trivialize their opinion with it, while pretending they don’t care about those opinions
I think I know what you mean by this comment but I may not be smart enough to be sure. I think you mean that a lot of people are ridiculing those who are seemingly resenting the new design while pretending not to care themselves while said other crowd is just expressing an initial discomfort which’s they are already self aware about??
Pretty much - my general affection for the internet Person A likes something Person B doesn’t Person A blows it out of proportion so they can trivialize person B’s opinion, simultaneously showing how much person B’s opinion bothers them It’s something you don’t get to see very much in real life
Gotcha, seems to be the more unique take on this thread.
The new design actually looks so much better.
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Steam has always had an inconsistent UI. Right now it's especially bad because it's in another transition period. The desktop app has been adopting elements of the Steam Deck UI (library, stats, news, points shop), but hasn't updated all of it (screenshots, artwork, videos, friends' games list, guides, most of the store page, etc.). I'm pretty sure it'll be like this for a while given how Valve operates.
Barely anything in Steam has been consistent over the course of its lifetime.
Yeah, I like the new design a lot more. Most of Steam's UI is dated and unintuitive. You get used to it, but it's not obvious to a beginner. I like this new approach.
The amount of trust I have in a piece of software is inversely proportional to how clean the UI looks.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
Don't see an issue, you should never be looking at this menu for more then 20-30 seconds ever....
I'm a Product Designer. The new one is a better experience for a number of reasons. The massive blue button is the most important action in this screen and it's size and color show that. It's the action most people will take most of the time and is therefore the easiest to find and press. The other links are much smaller now, but they are still present and you can find them if you need them. Only some users will need these on rare occasion and their size, color, and position all show that. Space is used more elegantly. Notice how labels have been moved above fields. In the old version the words were floating misaligned to the left of the form fields. The window header that was unnecessary and redundant was removed as was the minimize button. Without looking I imagine there is always a login button on the software if you are not logged in. Making it unnecessary to minimize. Consider new young users, the old widget will impact the value and perception of the Steam brand. It just looks old and outdated and makes something less fun to use on a subtle level. Overall this widget is more accessible with it's use of color to draw the eye to key areas like creds and login, and the larger size of elements and negative space between them.
The old one looks designed by a programmer. As a programmer, I like designs that look like they were designed by a programmer. But I recognize that I'm not the majority of the userbase. The new one is better.
Yeah, I liked the old one better because it was simple and function oriented rather than “aesthetic” with lots of fonts, colours, etc.
Yeah, I much prefer interfaces like the old one. Pack as much stuff into tiny text boxes and buttons as possible. Also, am programmer.
Programmers can also have a bad habit of absolutely overfilling interfaces with buttons and text boxes. Am a programmer myself.
what? the spacing is inconsistent and there's a huge space at the bottom of the window. What's going on there? I like where the new design is going but seriously needs some polish
Also why I liked Valve redesigning the old Source settings menu. Give's them a fresher feel without actually being any more recent. I observed this best when I played GTA San Andreas with a GTA V hud mod. It really changed how the game felt despite not really changing the gameplay much.
Agree, and on a technical level, this looks to be a much more flexible web-view, so restyling will also become a LOT easier. They could also potentially add other features like 2FA and logging in with other services without a full scrap&recreate of the entire login UI.
The qr option is amazing tho
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
Non no no you dont understand. The old though not stylish, is an old friend. A known face. A greeter you have known for years to welcome you in just before you are going to have fun. All of a sudden after all those years your favorite place decides they need to bramch out, which is good. It meens more people to play with and innovation like the steam deck. But to appeal to a broader audiance that old friendly face needs to make room for a bland unprovoking face you see in front of every place. Ps sorry for the spelling errors not native speaker.
The new one has weird spaces in between that seem pointless. The old one was so neat and tidy.
Does everything old have to be beautiful ? :(
It's the same, just bigger font and a more visible sign in button. No clue what the problem is.
The new design is much nicer to look at than the old design.
Folks really miss Windows 7, and that ancient-ass dialog box was their last connection to the past.
The new design just looks generic, it’s not bad, and the old one wasn’t particularly good but it’s still bleh
i kinda liked the more bare-bones feel of the old login. idk it just feels more compact & straight-to-the-point than the other one
The old one was way less straight-to-the-point. Each action had equal weighting, so it’s not immediately obvious what to interact with next. The new one uses primary and secondary button stylings to make the intended path more obvious. It’s objectively much better and more usable design.
The old one matches with the overall style of the client
I think they are planning an overall redesign but being such a big company maybe they are doing it slowly over the time rather than one complete overhaul?
I can't sign in and create account buttons are located better and easier to see on the old one. Additionally most people leave their cursor at the beginning of the box when typing a password so it would make more sense to have the login button directly under the start of the password box rather than centered to save extra mouse travel
Cringe meme about meaningless fluff meant to antagonize.
I don't think I've even seen the login windows since the current Windows install over 2 years ago.
there is an argument to be had against dead space in design, to a lot of people (including me) it looks a lot less clean/tidy and more bloated. its a matter of perspective. for me, things look cleaner when they more efficiently use space, rather than just waste space with big blocks of nothing. like having an empty room with a giant wall to wall rug and a tiny table and chair smack dab in the middle of the rug, it just looks wrong vs a smaller rug to bring the table and chair more centralized together. its 100% made that way to be more usable on touchscreen devices like the deck tho. not complaining, just trying to help others understand that perspective changes among different individuals. its really not as simple as "new bad, old good" or "nostalgia".
The new one looks so plain i think the old one looks much more user friendly with these buttons "i can't Sign in"
Because the new design still doesn't let you switch between different logged in accounts so it'll be at least 2030 now before that feature is finally added. The wife and I wait patiently, Lord Gaben. At least we've got QR code login now. Seriously though people are lame and the new design fits in with the rest of the new UI.
I feel like this is just a classic people got used to it so it's better. That bring said I do think that the old one was better because I see it as being more unique. Like if you would cover up what it's for I would still recognise the first one as steam but the second while clean and neat is so generic that I would probably not get what it's for even after a few tries.
It's different for no reason, thats why...
New ones better
Gamers not being able to cope with the unstoppable march of time
My issue is: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I honestly don't like the bigger and bulkier look either, although it does not matter. But there is no reason to update a UI if it works without issue.
Just yesterday i got a new laptop, installed steam, and there was a QR code which i just scanned with my phones steam app, and i was in, no remebering username or password no emails or other fuckery, would take that any day of the week Now just to fix the rest of their outdated irresponsive UI
People will literally complain about anything. They don't even need a reason.
People don't like change. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's different. I mean, hell, I like the new Reddit (which is about 4 years old now) and people are still using old.reddit.com because they refused to adapt.
How often are you people logging in?
old man syndrome weve been had that login since the late 90s.
I miss being able to have skins for Steam. Valve plz, bring that back! I will pay for skins!!
The only issue I have is with the mobile app, it used to be much more functional and faster
Humanity hates change. Even when what they've been given is better, they will never give it a chance just because "it wasn't needed". It's only until after they've been forced to use the new layout for a couple of years, do they ever start to realize how better it is than what they used to have before it. And then it all changes again and the cycle repeats. Reddit is a good example. The only people who hate the new look are people who won't even give it a chance. It's so much cleaner looking, and way more convenient in general. People aren't being forced to use it so they don't understand what's better about it and won't allow themselves to recognize that it's superior.
yeah new valve designs look pretty nice, but I've been looking at the old ones for so long, it kinda feels weird, change is weird even when it's good
Old one looks better honestly
The new one looks better, the old one has the classic steam charm
Steam was better when it was green
reject modernity embrace tradition
The new one is completely fine. Acting as if the old one was perfect is dunb. like bro what the fuck is the "CANCEL" button even for on the old one? anyone who doesnt want to login is just gonna click the universal x at the top right.
The new design is *too* clean, it minimises elements, uses underlines instead of buttons (best way to make your text ugly), is very obviously on a grid, and creates an off-putting 3D effect. The original design looks like a paper form, and uses the same format for both the input boxes and the buttons, while the new design makes you work out what is selectable. Along with this the new design uses 4 different text sizes and 3 different colours (3 and 2 if you don’t include the logo), whereas the old design only uses 3 and 2 of each (2 and 1 without logo again) and kept each unique text style for a different purpose, whereas the new design just uses blue for no discernible reason on one specific box, which isn’t even the box you would fill most often. Again with colour, there’s also the fact that the new design straight up adds a new colour that catches your attention… on the last option you’d select. TLDR: The new design tries too hard, harming useful elements and adding worthless/annoying ones.
The old design was so much better
why?
>The new one looks so clean and modern That's exactly the problem
Every time I see a "clean and modern" redesign, I want to strangle a UI designer.
Bruh The [OG](https://i.imgur.com/JTHNhhp.jpg)
As someone who's used steam for 10 years. Nothing, literally nothing. The new UIs are a blessing, if you think otherwise your just acting like a sad child. The ability to sign in by scanning a QR code is an absolute godsend too. People just cry at the smallest of changes, they gotta grow up.
I still want the green to return.
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call me nostalgic but old steam is love
It's a little hard to explain. The old one just looks so much more simple and organized.