Why is the new Unity Learn page so terrible?

How is it possible that the new page somehow misses all the good things about the old one and is an absolute nightmare to navigate?

https://web.archive.org/web/20190115090420/unity3d.com/learn/tutorials
Where has this page gone? It had everything laid out perfectly. Each thing in its own category. Easy to use. Easy to navigate. Easy to find what you were looking for.

Also why do you have to log in to see the tutorials? Sure it's nice to have tracking for what you have watched but why is it MANDATORY to log in? How did this get past any kind of testing.

 

The log-in thing is probably not that big a deal. Anyone using Unity, even for free, has an account already(?) and is probably still logged-in, since they last for weeks. In practice you'll almost never need to stop to do it. It's probably for paid content, to avoid people complaining they can't see what they bought, when they really just need to log in.

 

The web design feels like it was contracted to lowest bidder. It needs improvement. One thing that I cannot understand: you reset your password, it does not have you type it in twice.

How can that be? I've never filled out a password anywhere else EVER without typing it in twice. Everybody on planet earth understands why this is the correct way to do it, right? How is the biggest game platform missing that? How?!?

Btw, this is like, a weekly thread that comes up. But I always jump in to complain, because 1. I like bitching and 2. it's actually a pretty legit complaint. Unitys subpar web design doesn't necessarily throw a big wrench in my lifestyle but it definitely harms the image of Unity in my eyes.

 

Web Design seems to consistently be a sore spot for Unity, It's pretty bizarre.

 

They are adapting the learn site to small touch screens leaving us, pc users, with that mess.

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I had created a thread about how ugly it all looks like but I don't know where it is.

 

You don’t have to log in to work through the tutorials.

Click on the title of the tutorial rather than the ‘Start now’ or ‘Start tutorial’ buttons.

You then have the option to ‘Sign in to track your progress’, if you so wish.

 

Yeah, I was pointing on that as well before.

 

For me it looks okay

 

Well, that cements it. I can no longer link people to the learn page.

If a long term Unity user like me can't figure out which tutorial I want, what hope does a new user have?

 

Yep, I stopped that too few months back already

 

Realistically, I think that they are focusing in on the wrong things. They should be focusing in on role based tutorial pipelines (gameplay programmer, etc...) as opposed to just smashing a ton of tutorials onto the main page with where you get to look through a needle in a haystack in order to find what you're looking for. YouTube University has better formatting... haha.

 

If they're going to do it like that, I think a branching structure might help, that way it's possible to include fundamentals as well as the more specialized roles. I've run into a lot of people who can write almost unfathomably performant code who don't know how to use a List<T>.

 

"It's important that our web design is aimed at mobile users, because developers mostly use the mobile version of Unity to do their work, and nobody uses desktops or laptops anymore for that." - Unity, apparently.

 

Or Unity Troll apparently ?

 

IDK what you're talking about.

--
sent from my Android

 

sent from PC

That what I am referring to.

Of course it matters, how much quotation is genuine.

 

I know, I'm just trolling from my PC.

 

I thought you may have been sarcastic. But I couldn't read it through bits and bytes

 

I just assume everyone is always sarcastic, until they start making sense, at which point I eye them with suspicion.

 

This is what happens when your web developers used a smart phone before they used a keyboard.

 

I think the Unity website is generic tat driven purely by analytics for money. It's basically garbage but that's OK because the engine is brilliant.

I mean, I'm never going to sugar coat things for Unity, but I couldn't care less for how they do business. The best part for me is the staff who work on the software.

 

Not really.

The quote is totally fabricated. But it does seem to reflect the design principles in some of Unity's web pages. Many are designed for mobile or tablet use first, despite the fact that Unity's users are primarily on desktop or laptops.

 

"With responsive web design, you can write it once and it runs anywhere! And it just works and looks great for mobile and desktop users" - Unity Tech

 

Seriously though, I don't think it's that bad.

What bugs me is the user journey, it isn't as clear cut as the older version and that's a problem. I also don't like the sign in to track your progress

 

"With responsive design, we can make everything look and perform exactly like everything else, because what's better than everything looking and performing exactly like everything else? Nothing! So, let's all get together and make everything look and perform like everything else." - Modern Tech

 

Seriously, who in the world would do tutorials and download stuff from the asset store on a phone? You kind of need to be running Unity for it to make sense.

It's almost as if someone just looked at the statistics of what device people mostly use during the day, and built the website for that.

 

Maybe some people work on Unity on their laptop or desktop computer but read the tutorials on their phones. They still need to download stuff on their computer though, not on their phone, unless they have a way to transfer the downloaded files from their phone to their computer.

None of this makes sense to me.

 

Have you ever tried connecting 10 iphone / android screens in SLI? It makes for a very pleasant unity dev experience IMHO of course.

Using only the thumb / index finger to code can be somewhat cumbersome though, which is why a state of the art neural connector to said 'mobile device(s)' is needed to transmit your thoughts into code.

It's the future!

-Elon Musk

 

In all seriousness though, it makes sense to do a responsive web site, obviously it reduces the amount of work. It's just the user journey / sorting, top level tutorials are completely whack and make no sense.

 

Ya know, I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if the entire world communicated with just one language and one currency and one religion. As I was brought up using English and GBP and Christianity I propose using this. Anyone else who disagrees can speak to my lawyer /attorney!

 

wouldn't it be great if the entire world communicated with just one language and one currency and no religion? Completely off topic, but I couldn't help.

 

C# and BTC?
Let us just connect to iMatrix.

 

Esperanto and bartering.

 

I don't believe in using currency as its nature is too volatile. That's why I just stockpile gold bars under my bed in case we have another 'Wall Street Crash.'

Additionally C# just sounds better than C natural, especially on the piano.

And yes iMatrix all the way!

 

Surely this must be a typo, next you're going to tell me Christianity and all its constituent denominations have just been complete fabrications of the truth!

Spoiler: spoiler

Getting this in before the thread lock.

 

No typo there and I'm not going to tell you anything about any religion since it's completely, not only off topic but also, forbidden.

 

I'm going to pray for you, failing that I hope you watch the video

 

Shame on you, bringing forbidden topics. It was purposely avoided to the point.

I wonder if bartering could work in programing languages world. Not like github for example, where everyone share their works. In such case some can get code, without giving anything back. Which is fine. But purely bartering in programming? Could it work somehow?

 

Well, aren't we somehow sharing our code here? It could be one code for another?

 

I think so. Watch a tutorial while you're on the bus. At some point, when you have time, you might try it out.

The thing is, Unity became popular without Learn. It had the User Manual, the scripting reference, later Unity Answers did a great job of creating searchable answers to technical Q's. That was enough so people were able to learn Unity and make successful games. Learn was created later, for, as best I can tell, the casual users who came then.

 

Yeah I see your point. Which works indeed. Maybe going purely by 'bartering' term isn't right in this context? 'sharing' seams more fit for that purpose. Any one can can get, but don't have to share.

Isn't bartering meant to exchange of some value, for equivalent value in goods. Where in sharing word, I can get something and nothing giving back. At least not necessarily immediately.

 

Just looked some tutorial, from other thread.
Was looking for scroll bar.

Spoiler

Good job, we still can use PagUp/Down (on Dekt/Lap atleast)

 

You looked it on your phone?

I rarely use the "lift", I scroll up and down using the mouse middle button.

 

Yeah, there's that. Here I am commenting on something I've never actually even used. "Unity Learn" wasn't a thing when a lot of us learned Unity.

I need some coffee. And we're having BLTs, so why I am still here in this thread? I've also got a game to finish. Responsive design is boring, and I'm guilty of using it myself (on my own damned web site!!) but moving forwards I will host all of my web sites on GeoCities. Because that, my friends, is the way to the future.

 

Nope. I don't bother scrolling up/down 50 times on the phone, just to get to next section.
In fact, I just tried using windows phone (yeah, this dinosaur), and to my surprise (?) none of buttons responds on learn.unity.com. So is either way, no use for me, even if I would need it. More just for my curiosity.

I personally like scrollbar. Is for me like aiming in FPS, vs gamepad (middle mouse-hold)
But yes, middle-hold mouse is good option. I just don't use it much to be honest.

 

I never use middle hold button, I scroll the wheel up and down.

 

Ah I miss understood you then
Yes I do use scroll too. But if there is many pages, I then use scroll bar for initial faster navigation. I tend often to memorize bar position and associated relevant content. Having bar I can jump fast. That is why, lack of it, hurts me so much. I just hope, I am not alone with that

 

Same here. After using the web I noticed that the idea is that you search what you want: Select category, difficulty level, type, etc. and you get that type of content. The problem with someone learning is that searching is not an option, they don't know what they want to search, so having everything visible and categorized like before is better.

 

Time is a flat circle.

 

Honestly, any form of structure would be preferred to what is currently on offer.