New homepage

clearz

I dont like it. Deffently not an improvement. It looks more bland than the last one.

Karl Hungus

It's so bad I think it gave me cancer!

I'm sorry, but it just screams 'Horrible' at me!

Not very constructive but it seem very 'un-boards' to me at the moment.
The previous version seemed to fit in very nicely with the overall look of boards itself, but this one just doesn't fit.

It's nice that there's less load time, and great relief on the bandwidth, but I think another re-design could be something you might want to consider.

DMC

I like it! I hated the look of the old front page, so a pleasent change, although I yes the squiggily lines look like someone innards, and prehaps the turquoise reminds me of David Icke too much...

One other slight irk I see is the widths of the columns, latest post sections....

For instance, at the moment, there is this...

Thread Title 							Last Poster 	Last Post 
FS Computers / Hardware / Components: RAM - pc2100 DDR - 2 stic...  	azraelissime 	12-06 09:32

Where the thread title runs into the last poster....
Shouldnt it be more fixed ie....

Board 		Thread Title 					Last Poster 	Last Post 
FS Computers...	 RAM - pc2100 DDR - 2 sticks			azraelissime 	12-06 09:32

cos the widths just look mad, Ted.

On the whole, a good move.

CivilServant

Boooo!!!

Villain

Nice to see some change I just have 1 suggestion.

On the very top all you can see is grey, now I know having the forum icons small saves loading time but maybe a nice coloured Boards icon faded into the backround to cover that grey space would add some light.

Heres where I'm talking about

Crash

I like it, 'cept i think it'd fit with boards a lot more if the grey background was changed to white - it makes it look more vibrant and welcoming IMO with the blue/white. Layout is nice though, definitely like it

embee

What squiggly lines?

leeroybrown

Honestly ... I really dislike it.

Replacing the old front page was necessary for download size reasons alone, but apart from that this is a disimprovement.

It's too cold/monotone/unwelcoming. The old page had a lot more personality and colour. The only hint of any colour on this page is the avatars in the 'Latest News' section.

• Definitely get rid of the squiggles and the cyan.
• The big blue gap beside the main boards logo and the white beneath leave a big gap in the page. Move the category images up a bit filling the empty space and brighten them up a bit. Right now my eyes are automatically drawn to the bright gap.
• Perhaps removing the arched join between the header and content area could be removed.
• Put the login dialog back on the left making space to move the threads up the page.
• The cyan icons on the right (aside from the cyan issue) look a bit out of place, feel like duplication and take up a large area of instantly accessible space. A more compact text based menu would have more content on the page and would be less distracting.
• Center the list of categories at the top of 'latest posts'.
• Consider a small footer section with a tiny bit of whitespace underneath for the base of the page to terminate it so it doesn't look like it'll fall off the page.
• Try to introduce a little bit more colour. Right now it's just blue, cyan, white and grey.
• Try to perhaps change the bar background colour for the bars in the main area.
• I don't think the 'boird' bit looks all that good.
• Make the thread titles easier to pick out of the listing. The old ones were seperated, more colourful and in a bigger font.

RicardoSmith

It looks frumpy. Its looks like the dodgy jumper you get at christmas.

Theres a lot of space wasted on the page, for no good reason.

Gordon

Looks good imo except for the aforementioned multiple large intestines and the vomit enducing phrase "Get on".

Apart from that it's dead handy. Cool filters and IT HAS A SEARCH BUTTON ON THE FRONT PAGE! Halleluja.

Mind you 15 latest posts seems a bit small now... how about 20

Victor

Change http://www.boards.ie/images/sections/albums.gif to "photos".

Change http://www.boards.ie/images/sections/web.gif to "members"?

Is the [Show Subscribed] button missing?

Dr_Teeth

I'm not a fan of the new front page tbh.. the squiggly lines don't look right, and overall it seems too cluttered, and confusing. If I was someone coming to Boards for the first time, I don't think I'd get any further than that front page. More colour would be nice too.

Teeth.

Sleepy

Originally posted by leeroybrown
Honestly ... I really dislike it.

Replacing the old front page was necessary for download size reasons alone, but apart from that this is a disimprovement.

It's too cold/monotone/unwelcoming. The old page had a lot more personality and colour. The only hint of any colour on this page is the avatars in the 'Latest News' section.

• Definitely get rid of the squiggles and the cyan.
• The big blue gap beside the main boards logo and the white beneath leave a big gap in the page. Move the category images up a bit filling the empty space and brighten them up a bit. Right now my eyes are automatically drawn to the bright gap.
• Perhaps removing the arched join between the header and content area could be removed.
• Put the login dialog back on the left making space to move the threads up the page.
• The cyan icons on the right (aside from the cyan issue) look a bit out of place, feel like duplication and take up a large area of instantly accessible space. A more compact text based menu would have more content on the page and would be less distracting.
• Center the list of categories at the top of 'latest posts'.
• Consider a small footer section with a tiny bit of whitespace underneath for the base of the page to terminate it so it doesn't look like it'll fall off the page.
• Try to introduce a little bit more colour. Right now it's just blue, cyan, white and grey.
• Try to perhaps change the bar background colour for the bars in the main area.
• I don't think the 'boird' bit looks all that good.
• Make the thread titles easier to pick out of the listing. The old ones were seperated, more colourful and in a bigger font.

Seconded on all points!

Cloud

Originally posted by Victor
Change http://www.boards.ie/images/sections/albums.gif to "photos".

Change http://www.boards.ie/images/sections/web.gif to "members"?

Is the [Show Subscribed] button missing?

Goodness Victor, it almost sounds like a list of orders! In response:

1. No - because that word limits us to photos. An album can contain arts, scans, whatever.

2. No - because the link goes to web hosting, not a list of members which the name implies.

3. No - read up, and you'll see there's lots more filters besides "Subbed" under Latest Posts.

Okay, I think that's enough comments - because you're starting to repeat yourselves, and you're starting to repeat yourselves.

Slutmonkey57b

Leeroybrown has summed it up nicely.

The number of icons has actually increased, so I don't know how you've reduced load times (but well done anyway) and frankly it all ends up a bit redundant, doesn't it? On first look you've got forum lists up top, "group" icons below (whatever that means), and more random icons down the side. It's not obvious which icon is which or, indeed, *why* most of the icons are there at all.

The forum lists, surely, are the most important part of the page (as thats how you get around the "boards" part of boards), but they're shoved right up to top of the page, in a tiny font, "whitespace" and horrible squiggles get to hog most of the page, while the forums are demoted to "oh we also run a bulletin board".

And PLEASE replace the "boird" bit with one of the old boards dudes. It's rubbish, and one of the things I always liked about boards is that it doens't allow the hokey "ah sure isn't it only great being Irish, have a guinness yerself and isn't the pope only marvellous, and you've got to have the old 'cupla fuc.kall' sure don't you and arent the english horrible" mentality override things like it does everywhere else. The Irish speakers have their forum, leave them to it - you may have noticed it's not the busiest place in the world. If you wanted to reflect boards in that space, the word "troll" would be far more representative.

As to colour scheme, I much preferred the white/gray/bright green option - the layout wasn't great but the colour scheme was clean, unfussy, modern and easy on the eye. The blue/grey/cyan just looks dirty, messy and amateurish (ok we're amateurs but that's not the point.)

hostyle

I think its a step backwards, even the "new" version that never made was better than the current one IMHO. It looks old-school. Its hard to put a finger on it but I don't find it aesthetically pleasing at all. All IMO of course.

- Why so many icons? Text would serve better in many cases.
- The existing text is squashed together too much.
- Those grey "title" bars look awful in the current colour scheme.
- The squiggles background make me almost nauseous.
- Comp and Games icons have a little blue tail at the bottom? Rec has one on the side.
- Where are your ALT / TITLE attributes. Holding the mouse over Rec doesn't tell me what it is.

RicardoSmith

I agree with Slutmonkey57b. Like I said earlier. It looks frumpy. Its looks like the dodgy jumper you get at christmas. The Daniel O'Donnell type.

From a technical point of view, theres a lot of space wasted on the page, for no good reason. Theres less threads shown now for example, but more empty space. Why? It definately doesn't look very slick. The icons/button are bland, too big and their meaning isn't very clear.

DeVore

ok... a couple of people seem to be under the impression that this is the final offering. We (Cloud and I, though mostly Cloud!) decided to just dump what we had as a rough cut, live because we thought it delivered more functionality then the home page and is a lot faster.

Beyond that we threw all the other bits that had to be there, onto the page somewhere to make it do what the last page did. Its not exactly a fait-accompli.

Victor... not only is there a "subscribed" filter, but theres a filter for ALL main navigation areas, polls and Journals now. How did you miss that?!

So we have a number of things to do to tidy things up so give us a week and we'll reconfigure it to suit as many peoples opinions here that we agree with

DeV.

Sleepy

DeVore, I think most people realise it's a work-in-progress. The layout is growing on me but, as Leeroybrown pointed out it definitely needs more colour. I'd agree with Slutmonkey57b on the "Boird" bit, it's paying lipservice to the idea that there should be an Irish language version of everything in this country and tbh, looks crap where it is.

Looking forward to seeing version 1.1!

bizmark

"Get on" is fairly sh*t to "now yer talking" was much better

Civilian_Target

TBH, I definitely prefered the old one, the new one just seems un-necessary, and it looks more geeky and cluttered. The old one was plain, simple, easy to use and unintimidating, and most importantly, cyan-free. Also, I agree, I don't like the word "boird" in the corner, it reminds me of sinn fein.

RicardoSmith

Can we pm you some ideas for layout improvements then (images etc)? At the moment it reminds as change for changes sake only.

dudara

too gloomy, and please increase the number of new posts given on the homepage

DeVore

Its definitely NOT change for changes sake. We need to give people a manner of controlling the increasingly fast flow of info on the site. The various filters allow you to reload the page with the top 15 threads from localised areas (such as Arts, Games etc)... thats part of the changes we want to make to the page (like a link to the search area and probably a search box later on).

It needs a good dash of colour to brighten it up but as Cloud says, he's no graphic designer. I'll try and give it a go myself but if anyone wants to make suggestions, please do it here and not in PM as it makes it easier for us to group ideas here rather then in multiple places.

DeV.

CuLT

ok, it's not all bad; COMPARISON, folks, this is what 'might have been' .


*cue wayne and garth waving their arms 'doodlidoo, doodlidoo, doodlidoo....'

ecksor

Which is an even rougher cut ...

(which means, if this thread becomes a criticism of the link that cult just posted I'll kill you all. For definitions of kill that really mean ban).

DeVore

Heres a possible replacement of the Boird bit... killing two birds with one stone by bringing back one of the Boards Men.

DeV.

Woden

that is better me thinks, i also agree with the return of now you're talking.

i seem to be the only one that doesn't have a big problem with the cyan though

jesus_thats_gre

I think these changes could address most peoples problems.


Remove the Cyan/Neon Blue from all the icons and replace it with white.

The grey background should be lightened, white may be best.

The horizontal bars above the recent posts should be changed to dark blue and keep the white text.




As for Boird.. Tragic

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by CuLT
ok, it's not all bad; COMPARISON, folks, this is what 'might have been' .


*cue wayne and garth waving their arms 'doodlidoo, doodlidoo, doodlidoo....'

Well as is that looks a bit cluttered but I think it looks a heck of a lot more modern than the current one. The Green is a bit too OYRISH though. Latest posts is still too small. Though a scroll bar I like. I would say the latest posts should be given the most priority on the homepage, since I'm guessing most people use the home page for that and for checking for PM's.