Updated look for the site.

hellboy99

I like it

Kur4mA

I don't get this. You guys already have (IMO) a really great beta. Why don't you work on improving that instead of starting again? It's much nicer than this new one.

miralize

I think spacing at the top more like this would be perfect

Boards.ie: Tony

Sharrow wrote: »

Because I want to know.



What services?





Glad to hear it that would be one of the sections of the user base to have a fair ammount of experience both in terms of years and in terms of hours spent on the site per week.





More usable by whom?

I honestly worry when I look at it, and see less information/content on my screen and less functionality that the site is being dumbed down to be less bewildering to the likes of facebook users, that only use the internet for that and very little else.

I dislike the over simplifaction of sites which equals to the hiding away of functionality ( or worse removing it) as to not bewilder new users, which only irks the current user base.



Which standards are these?
Can you link to them or is it a case of this is just what everyone is doing now?

Just to clarify, I updated the original reply as I wasn't here when the original testing was done, so I can't comment any further on that. Apologies for any confusion.

As for the rest. We are not forcing this skin on any members. Everyone is free to move back to the old look should they so wish.

While I appreciate, and note that I'm speaking for myself and not for the broader Boards team, that you dislike the over simplification of sites, and the last thing that we want is to irk the current member (hence this thread and getting feedback), some of these changes are needed to encourage new users to join and increase the user base.

The truth of things is, we get people all the time telling us they don't know how the site works / how to navigate / where they are / what button to press, and well we're trying to rectify that.

Morag

Boards.ie: Tony wrote: »

Just to clarify, I updated the original reply as I wasn't here when the original testing was done, so I can't comment any further on that. Apologies for any confusion.

I had a tab open to reply to you with the original post, If you can't comment then you can't comment. Is there anyone on the team who pre dates you who cares to comment or better yet answer the question?

Boards.ie: Tony wrote: »

As for the rest. We are not forcing this skin on any members. Everyone is free to move back to the old look should they so wish.

For now, it has been stated previously in this forum that the older skins will eventually gotten rid off or at least go so unsupported that they become unusable.

Boards.ie: Tony wrote: »

some of these changes are needed to encourage new users to join and increase the user base.

And a better how do guide, or short vids on this wouldn't have been an option?

Boards.ie: Tony wrote: »

The truth of things is, we get people all the time telling us they don't know how the site works / how to navigate / where they are / what button to press, and well we're trying to rectify that.

So it is being dumbed down, rather then take the time to explain.
I really don't see it as being that big a barrier, I've seen 7 year old manage to
navigate around forums, I guess I saw it as an idiot filter and as such I find it disconcerting that the standard is being lowered.

And speaking of standards you didn't answer my question on the standards you mentioned.

Which standards are these?
Can you link to them or is it a case of this is just what everyone is doing now?

Hannibal Smith

Love the new look. As you're making changes though, could I make a suggestion. When you access a sub forum from your mobile, there's no option to go to the parent forum from where you are. You have to go to the list of forums and scroll down through to get to the one you want.

Say for example, I'm in the newborns and toddlers forum a lot and my phone's history brings me straight into it, but sometimes I like to read the rest of the parenting forum, in order to do that I have to click 'forums' and scroll down to parenting. Would be great if there was like a trail at the top of the sub forum that leads you to the parent forum.

I'm not very technical minded, so I hope that makes sense to some one

N64

Going to be reverting to the previous beta theme. Horrible design.

Boards.ie: Danny

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

Love the new look. As you're making changes though, could I make a suggestion. When you access a sub forum from your mobile, there's no option to go to the parent forum from where you are. You have to go to the list of forums and scroll down through to get to the one you want.

Not quite the place for suggestions for our Touch website, but I'm sure you'll be happy to know this feature request is in our queue for the touch site

Danny

x Purple Pawprints x

Like it a lot but would love if things were a bit smaller and come colour schemes would also be great.

Morbert

Very cool.

My only criticism would be the horizontal upper frame. It Letterboxes the main frame which, unlike TV, doesn't really suit websites.

Though this could just be personal taste.

4zn76tysfajdxp

I've had the skin for a few weeks and I haven't noticed any reduced functionality.

Boards.ie: Paddy

kyub wrote: »

I don't get this. You guys already have (IMO) a really great beta. Why don't you work on improving that instead of starting again? It's much nicer than this new one.

There's a few reasons why we took this approach:

a) We have a totally different dev team from when the original beta was developed. There was little knowledge in the team of the beta skin so we would have been starting from scratch anyway.
b) The new skin is the first time we've used the API based platform used on touch on the main site. It important for the future of boards that we begin the painful process of migrating away from vBulletin. With this redesign we have taken the first step in this process.
c) The old beta had plenty of problems of it's own. I'm genuinely fascinated by usability and interaction design and when I started to work on boards I was completely aghast at the state of the UI. It's hard for long time users to see how bad the current design is for someone coming to it fresh. We needed to address this while not "doing a facebook" and removing the skins that people have gotten used to over the last 10 years. By creating a new skin we leave the old skin intact.
d) We actually have taken influence from the beta skin. It's an evolution of what was done there, it was our starting point. We've just been far more agressive in redesigning the body of the page than we were when we did the original beta

As has already been said on the thread we won't be removing the old skins any time soon. If we haven't ticked all the boxes for you with this release, you're welcome to stay on your favourite skin until we do.

Holsten

How do I change back to the normal skin?

Don't like the new one at all due to the header which won't go away.

Found it, back to the good auld days! AWwwwwwwww YEAHHHHHHH!

Boards.ie: Danny

Morbert wrote: »

Very cool.

My only criticism would be the horizontal upper frame. It Letterboxes the main frame which, unlike TV, doesn't really suit websites.

Though this could just be personal taste.

If can be disabled if you prefer, at the end of this page

Holsten wrote: »

How do I change back to the normal skin?

Don't like the new one at all due to the header which won't go away.

See above on making the header unstuck if that's the only thing you don't like. If it isn't, don't forget to post up what else you don't like & why - can't make things better if we don't know your feelings on the skin. To change back, see the end of the first post or look just above where you can disable the sticky header to the Forum Skin option and change that to Default or Beta or whatever

Corkfeen

The new layout is lovely, initially thought that search was a bit slow but seemed to be a problem on my end, works perfectly now.

DrumSteve

Might have been mentioned already but are there going to be any changes to the mobile version of the site?

gripcasey

Impressive

galwaytt

Boards.ie: Tony wrote: »

The new skin hasn't been designed for touch screen devices. It will work, but we're not actively testing it on these devices. Have sub-categories auto expand on hover was discounted after testing showed it to be less intuitive than clicking to expand.

Have you tried using the Omni-Search bar to navigate. You can get directly to anywhere from it.

...not designing it for Touch devices now, means you'll be back changing it again, shortly.........no point in putting off the inevitable.

...I completely disagree about the auto-expand on hover, though. As for who tested it - I don't see anyone on this thread so far who far is of the same opinion as your 'testers', so I think the volume of users, i.e. not Mods/Admins, who prefer it, should be listened to on this. Apart from that, you're actually wrong - hover is fundamentally intuitive - clicking isn't.

Boards.ie: Danny

galwaytt wrote: »

...not designing it for Touch devices now, means you'll be back changing it again, shortly.........no point in putting off the inevitable.

No, it means we'll be reviewing our actual touch site - http://touch.boards.ie

DrumSteve wrote: »

Might have been mentioned already but are there going to be any changes to the mobile version of the site?

See above, but obviously the new site skin is the priority. Still some creases to iron out

Danny

ChewChew

Fao Paddy for Danny

Can a new skin colour change be an option. I like the new format but have already had to revert to the old because I need to use the black backround?

Sindri

It really hurts my eyes. I got a headache from looking at it for a few minutes.

miralize

I also think the forum nav at the top should be a variation of the blue. The contrast is overbearing.

Boards.ie: Danny

ChewChew wrote: »

Fao Paddy for Danny

Can a new skin colour change be an option. I like the new format but have already had to revert to the old because I need to use the black backround?

There's always options of new colours, yes. Can you let us get the white/blue one right first though? :pac:

Danny

daveharnett

The breadcrumb bar is a little too transparent for my liking.

DrumSteve

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

No, it means we'll be reviewing our actual touch site - http://touch.boards.ie




See above, but obviously the new site skin is the priority. Still some creases to iron out

Danny

Thanks Danny..

I usually access it through m.boards.ie... will there be any changes to that version as opposed to the touch site?

galwaytt

Sindri wrote: »

It really hurts my eyes. I got a headache from looking at it for a few minutes.

...I thought I'd give the new look another go: sorry, it's giving me a blinding headache with all that white.

In a not-daylight-lit environment (at night, indoors, etc) it's going to be blinding - can we get a comment from you Danny on this ?

Boards.ie: Paddy

ChewChew wrote: »

Fao Paddy for Danny

Can a new skin colour change be an option. I like the new format but have already had to revert to the old because I need to use the black backround?

Yeah, a black colour scheme is something we're considering. White will always be the default so it gets precedence.

CamperMan

prefer the existing format..

sudzs

I dislike change.....

My name is URL

I like it apart from the massive bar at the top. I know it's possible to unstick it but ideally it could just be made smaller, like the one on the old beta skin, or at least make it collapsible so that the search bar and notifications bit can be hidden.