is a further redesign planned, or did we just get the yellow friends names back and you guys are going to call it a day? Because the nameplates still look awful.

This was one of the first things I noticed in the Beta.

Either establish the new standard sizes showing people where the cut offs are to design around. Or fit the existing dimensions in the banner that works with all nameplate sizes from small to big.

Aside from the group banners barely being visible now, and no standardized sizing, I dislike how indicator icons are overlaid on top of the group banner (Avatar Rating, Safety Rating, etc, etc.), so this is related to the banner visibility.

I get it saves space and makes things less cluttered, but I'd prefer some different solution to this. Especially considering that a specifically colored group banner might interfere with the icon colors. So it just hurts visibility for both icons and banners at a glance.

Made a quick mockup of a UI that keeps every element separate to not overlay things. In no way a final solution either, but I just wanna give thought on not having the icons overlap the other elements.

Width and height should be standardized and not dependent on username length. Just a fixed length that holds any username size, in tandem with the banner size. The pills for status and pronouns would expand up to the same length of the username/banner. The icons on the left would hide/show depending on what's applicable. Has room for more icons like mute/deafen, vrc+, interactions, and could for example show a different icon for an incoming friend request.

Most importantly I agree with the main post, the sizing should have a standard that we can stick to and work with, so we won't have to guess, or find out it looks different for a person with a shorter/longer name. In a perfect world we'd get a web UI when uploading or choosing a banner, that shows what will be visible/cropped. But even a written size guide would be big deal.

nothing to add, agree. backwards step in functionality.

Not only do the new nameplates ignores the way the userbase uses group banners, they also have a myriad of issues such as barely noticeable yellow outline for friends, massive amount of unused white space, small text that does not play nice with low resolution headsets and oddly cropped pronoun sections. All in all, I see this update as a downgrade.

the new banner template doesn't reflect reality, sadly. I remade my group banner using the template provided and it doesn't scale like the template would imply at all, the group name being in the safe area in the new banner, but not showing up in-game at all.

edit: this quick mockup I attached I completed in photoshop in about 30 minutes. You can't convince me you can't do better, I'm not a professional designer. I looked at comparisons of old vs. new people have been sharing, and let's just say the UI team made some... choices. Yes, it is less cluttered in some ways, but in others... the group banner should not be covered with any information. Even if it's the group name. People more often than not spend time making sure their cover art is perfect and the nameplate is already a small space to showcase it. Centering the avatar in the middle of the nameplate sounds like a good idea, until it isn't when you realize the current design always had a pfp that is slightly superimposed over the plate itself. This is the element that breaks familiarity once you're in-game. Finally, there are clever ways you can move information on the bigger plate with the menu open, by adding a second smaller bar on the bottom and dropping some of the info there.

Many others have said the comments I would make about the banners so I shall spare becoming a parrot, but also, please undo the change of when friends names stop being yellow. My headset is hard to read text on at times, and spotting friends out of a crowd is a MASSIVE help because of the yellow nameplates... Please don't touch this.

The new nameplates are AWFUL. This is constructive criticism, mind you. They are too rounded, too big, and the banner portion is worse than it was before, it was already scaling poorly but now it's just a thin stripe. What's the point? Make the banner portion bigger and the name portion more focused and smaller, and standardize the banners so they scale exactly the same regardless of the username length. While at it, revert to having big action buttons in the new profiles page, that update is also awful and breaks muscle memory and user habits. Idk who is in charge of the visual / UI department but as of late this is a particularly bad job. Also only just noticed, the transparency is waaaay too low and breaks legibility, and bring back piss coloured names, the yellow frame around friends while keeping the username white is just way too disrtacting and way too confusing. Bad, bad, bad.

I like seeing all the funny banners and communities people like to showcase and it kind of is that little extra flair for someone to enjoy. The current UI change feels too messy and less easy to quickly pick up a persons quick information. The icons in the group banner spot is also very bad and should, if it needs to stay, be under the under the users profile icon itself along with the group name under there too, while the banner stays up top and large for easier viewing.