Boards Website Design; accessibility and practicality.

Oracle

The web site needs a serious revamp and re-design. Not just from an aesthetic appearance point of view, but also because of some important accessibility and practicality issues.

The first major issue is, the links to access the forums from the home page are far too small, and hard to navigate. For example, just think about people who are older, who have difficulty holding or using a mouse, or are new to computing. Here's what they have to do to get to a particular forum:

1) Hover on the tiny links at the top of the home page.
2) Know the category and name of the forum they're looking for.
3) Find the forum name on the menu list or on the fly out sub-menu.
4) Move precisely down the narrow menu list that appears.
5) Then click another tiny link.
6) While all the time being careful not to move their mouse too much, because if they do, all the menus will disappear and they'll have to start again from the beginning.

It would be difficult to think of a harder way to navigate to a forum. This issue should be tackled as a matter of urgency. Not only is it making life unnecessarily difficult for everyone, it's also effectively excluding many people from the forum.

Rabies

have you tried the new beta menu?

Overheal

Beta Menu rules.

On the drop menu go to Boards.ie>Change Styles>Boards.ie Beta

Dades

Holding down CTRL, and scrolling your mouse wheel up will enlarge any text/link on the site to whatever size people need.

billy the squid

The beta menu is not the default menu on the front page though. you have to go foustering about to look for it.

This version of boards is a lot clearer. and there isn't too much crap on the page either whichmakes it more accessible

http://m.boards.ie/

Overheal

billy the squid wrote: »

The beta menu is not the default menu on the front page though. you have to go foustering about to look for it.

The last time Ross attempted to implement a minor change to the front page/skin, he was eaten alive by an agry mob of Grue. All he did was swap out the logo with something with a bit of Clouds in it and people were in conniptions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av1JPq0Qmy4

GLaDOS

billy the squid wrote: »

The beta menu is not the default menu on the front page though.

It really should be, can't stand the old menu now

KoolKid

I agree the Beta menu is way better, but maybe it is still being tested & thats why its not set as default.

Fanny Cradock

It's probably very obvious, but how do you enable the beta version?

Jimbo

Bottom left of the screen. Choose it from the drop down menu.

Fanny Cradock

Much better. Thanks.

Nevyn

I can't stand the beta menu, the listings of the forums across several columns rather then down each column doesn't parse and I can't used it at all.

Daysha

Thaedydal wrote: »

I can't stand the beta menu, the listings of the forums across several columns rather then down each column doesn't parse and I can't used it at all.

Give it a solid few days testing and I promise you won't go back. Having it locked to the top of the screen is brilliant too. For the few day or two after I changed I found myself still automatically scrolling to the top of the screen to change the forum even though the links were there to me already, but now it's like second nature.

As for the several columns thing again it just takes a bit of getting used to. And having every forum and subforum available for me to see the moment I scroll over a category menu is far better than before when you had to manually check each one to find the one you're looking for.

Speaking of which, the find a forum feature is really well done too, as is the breadcrumbs list alongside it. Being honest, I don't use the quick links to PMs and subbed threads on the top right because invariably when I find out I got a new PM I've just clicked onto a new page anyway so I can just go to Private Messages above the log out button. But apart from that it's a much better change than the old one.

Nevyn

I tried, my brain just read columns down and then starts at the top of the next one and the forums being listed across them in alphabetical order means the whole thing becomes for me a disjointed jumble and simply mazes me.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Overheal

Thaedydal wrote: »

I tried, my brain just read columns down and then starts at the top of the next one and the forums being listed across them in alphabetical order means the whole thing becomes for me a disjointed jumble and simply mazes me.

Thats how they ARE listed. Go to Beta and look at the Games Category. Or the Rec or Soc.

I dont know if that was a change since the last time you may have used Beta but it is that way now. Forums with Sub-Forums are bold.

looksee

I just came on Feedback to complain that the new FETAC/PLC forum does not appear on the drop-down menu, but is on the full menu that you open. And Gardening is the opposite, its on the drop down but not on the full menu.

However I have just changed to Beta (I found it because I got distracted reading other threads) and they are both there! Great, I like the way the basic menu stays on screen, and the sub menus are easy to check through.

WanderingSoul

I also love the beta skin. The menu is a lot less cramped and I like that it scrolls with you. It did take me a couple of days to get used to it but I won't go back now, even when there's a small bug.

Amhran Nua

Beta is good although I now feel oddly compelled to Start typing a forum name for some reason. What would be handy would be to incorporate a forum page index up there as well, the 1 2 3 ... 8 stuff so I don't need to scroll down to the bottom or top to switch pages.

WanderingSoul

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Beta is good although I now feel oddly compelled to Start typing a forum name for some reason. What would be handy would be to incorporate a forum page index up there as well, the 1 2 3 ... 8 stuff so I don't need to scroll down to the bottom or top to switch pages.

I think that would clutter it a bit too much. What you can do to switch pages if you are on page 2 or more is you can go to the url and where it says "&page=2" replace the 2 with a 3 or whatever page you want to skip to.

Though, if you are on page 1 you can either type in "&page=3" etc. or scroll up or down.

Hopefully that made sense.

Amhran Nua

WanderingSoul wrote: »

I think that would clutter it a bit too much. What you can do to switch pages if you are on page 2 or more is you can go to the url and where it says "&page=2" replace the 2 with a 3 or whatever page you want to skip to.

Though, if you are on page 1 you can either type in "&page=3" etc. or scroll up or down.

Hopefully that made sense.

If I'm too lazy to work the wheel on the mouse, what you said is right out.

looksee

After using it for a while, I think that all the forum titles should be bold, and the subforums normal and indented. My eye skips from one bold to the next and I lose the ones inbetween.

popebenny16

just changed to the beta version - not changing back

Fanny Cradock

I can now actually visit other forums on my iTouch using the menu. Good work!

OldGoat

looksee wrote: »

After using it for a while, I think that all the forum titles should be bold, and the subforums normal and indented. My eye skips from one bold to the next and I lose the ones inbetween.

Yep, the highlighting needs a re-think.
At a glance it looks like Fashion & Apperance is a sub forum of Facial Hair & Hats. Not too misleading perhaps but others are just weird.
Tattoos & Piercings appear subbed to SciFi & Fantasy.
Mustard is in Motoring
Zombie Survival is in Travel.
Radio seems to be a sub forum of Photography.

If I were noobish, searching for somewhere to post a question, I'd head straight for the Help desk (right there, subbed in the Forum Requests forum) :rolleyes:

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Keano

popebenny16 wrote: »

just changed to the beta version - not changing back

Same. Being able to see more forums actually makes me want to visit more forums.