Home Page Redesign

the_syco

How about you do the major suck version for everyone, and allow subscribers to use the original look?

9 billions subscribers overnight :P

the_barfly1

the new home page is awful. Expect the hosting costs to fall considerably because people are going to stop visiting the site in large numbers if it isn't fixed.
Twelve topics on the home page doesn't work for a site with so many forums covering so many topics.

Can't believe somebody gave this the green light to be honest.

Queen-Mise

Where are My Forums :eek::eek:
I don't care about the latest threads in those forums -I just want a list of the forums I follow so I can go wandering.

And the Home Page is a horrible change - having to scroll through five pages to see what I can I could see before on one page is time wasting.

partyatmygaff

I don't understand why moving off vBulletin means the site has to move off to an inferior and less user-friendly layout.

You have the data, surely emulating vBulletin's old table isn't that unworkable?

RoundyMooney

It strikes me as ironic that the same people giving out about the last homepage "designed by developers" were the same people telling us how great it was last time...

Having said all that-the one constant around here is that when something is changed, there will be an avalanche of complaints and bug reports, and after a week, once the wrinkles are ironed out, it is as if nothing ever happened. In this case though, and I don't use it that often, the home page is awful-it does not intuitively link to places you may have not seen before, it doesn't show enought threads-and as for thanks and trending? Really? They are to boards.ie what Poochy was to Itchy and Scratchy.

On another note-I know they represented the original five admins, and about three were never there at any given time, but does anyone else mourn the loss of the five boards characters, each initially linked with a different section of the site? I came along around the time that they appeared on the front page, and to me they are still inextricably linked with the site-nostalgia maybe, but the only remnant of their existence is the boards goggle eyed logo thing, and I miss 'em!

Lyrical

There was always going to be problems with it the first day of implementing the new layout I remember another feedback thread a poster was asking,was there going to be any change to the "old" skin and didn't get a reply so I knew changes were afoot.

I agree with what the majority are saying I don't really like how it looks.I just bookmarked www.boards.ie/? as it brings up the old page for me and I can see the latest 50 posts I'm sure after a few days ye will find a happy medium .

sentient_6

Just to say from the outset i don't really care about the homepage either way as i simply dont use it at all, now or before. But anyway, might as well bring up a clitch. I browse the full boards site, not touch, on my galaxy s3 through firefox a fair bit. All of a sudden the formatting of the homepage has gone all screw ball scramble. I just click away from it anyway but still, looks in bad shape.

MadsL

RoundyMooney wrote: »

It strikes me as ironic that the same people giving out about the last homepage "designed by developers" were the same people telling us how great it was last time...

Having said all that-the one constant around here is that when something is changed, there will be an avalanche of complaints and bug reports, and after a week, once the wrinkles are ironed out, it is as if nothing ever happened. In this case though, and I don't use it that often, the home page is awful-it does not intuitively link to places you may have not seen before, it doesn't show enought threads-and as for thanks and trending? Really? They are to boards.ie what Poochy was to Itchy and Scratchy.

On another note-I know they represented the original five admins, and about three were never there at any given time, but does anyone else mourn the loss of the five boards characters, each initially linked with a different section of the site? I came along around the time that they appeared on the front page, and to me they are still inextricably linked with the site-nostalgia maybe, but the only remnant of their existence is the boards goggle eyed logo thing, and I miss 'em!

I too, remember when it was all fields round here...

nesf

RoundyMooney wrote: »

On another note-I know they represented the original five admins, and about three were never there at any given time, but does anyone else mourn the loss of the five boards characters, each initially linked with a different section of the site? I came along around the time that they appeared on the front page, and to me they are still inextricably linked with the site-nostalgia maybe, but the only remnant of their existence is the boards goggle eyed logo thing, and I miss 'em!

The little guys were there when I joined in 2001 and I don't remember there being five admins back then, though I may be wrong.

Rabies

This thread was active since the end of April. Yesterday was the first time I seen it. Probably not the only person.
Hence all the feedback is only coming in now.

I think 9 weeks of an active Homepage feedback thread with only 15 replies until some actual changes get implemented really shows the majority of the Boards community didn't know about the work going on.

Rabies

nesf wrote: »

The little guys were there when I joined in 2001 and I don't remember there being five admins back then, though I may be wrong.

Cloud, Trinity, Eksor, DeVore and?

Goodshape

I don't hate it but

1) difficult to scan for forum titles. Could simply change from "Latest post 13 mins ago by Esel in After Hours" to "In After Hours. Latest post 13 mins ago by Esel." – Then they'd all be in the same space.

2) not enough threads listed on the page ("Next" arrow doesn't cut it). Should be a setting somewhere?

3) the old homepage had alternating background shades for each row. Easier to scan that way.


Seems like good work apart from that. I like the 'Topic' filtering options.

nesf

Rabies wrote: »

Cloud, Trinity, Eksor, DeVore and?

Regi.

Goodshape

I still had the old version open in a tab, so here's a screenshot of both.

I'm sure technically this new one is an improvement, and I do like that 'Topics' thing, but really... much easier to scan the old version. The forum title needs to be out front.

And the post display limit needs to be increased.

Layinghen

Zaph wrote: »

Having the current home page with 50 threads visible is far more convenient than having to scroll through 5 pages. Certainly as an admin I, and presumably the other admins too, spot a lot of spam and other stuff that requires attention on the home page that will probably be missed because it's buried several pages down. But even as a regular poster, anything that forces me to scroll through pages rather than having them instantly visible is less convenient and attractive to me. I often wander into threads that I see on the home page that I would never have come across otherwise, and that random aspect of Boards use will be lost. Other than for presumably technical reasons, I honestly can't see how pagination is better than what we currently have.

Zaph says exactly what I was trying to come up with to post here. I loved coming on Boards and with a nice list of threads I often wandered to places where an oulwan and her dog don't normally go. I know that going back doesn't appear to be an option but the new layout has my head spinning. Is there anyway of upping the technology which is what I think the technical people are trying to do but yet keep the home page simple for those Luddites like me who are out there. Scrolling through pages to see what is bugging Boardsies isn't a user friendly thing to have to do.

Cienciano

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

In a previous post I explained that due to technical changes we couldn't keep the old home page. wnolan1992 believes it's a lame excuse so I elaborated by explaining why sticking with vBulletin styles or even offering more than one style on the new platform is not a runner. This isn't me defending the current iteration of the homepage design, not in the slightest.

Danny

Surely its not rocket science to change the home page to 50 posts instead of the current 12??

Sofiztikated

Just so you know, full site is hideously unusable on a HTC One.

Nonoperational

Preferred it the way it was. Much quicker to scan before.

Cienciano

Subject of latest post not coming up on the home page for me now. I just get a list of these:
Latest post a moment ago by discostu232 in Motors

Tallon

Threads I've read are not showing as read on the 'My Forums' page

With all these changes, I really hope the team can just leave the old style skins in place.. If there comes a day where I lose my old green theme, it will be the end of boards for me.

The frame? at the top of the page doesn't work on mobile browsers in desktop mode. I hate mobile site versions and the old skins are the only way I can use the site on my phone enjoyably.

_Kaiser_

I'm not a fan I'm afraid - like others have said there's far too much wasted space, less information visible, less opportunity to hit a random thread/forum you mightn't otherwise normally visit, and less desktop friendly (see attached a copy of what it looks like here)

However, on a more general point, I have to say that I'm becoming increasingly disappointed with the "tone" that accompanies all of these changes in the last few months/year - this "you'll take what you're given cause we won't be changing it back" attitude that seems prevalent in several of the staffers posts.

Look, I realise Boards.ie has expanded into a commercial entity over the last few years and as such is out to make money and that's fine, but the approach lately seems to be that changes are being made solely to suit the sponsors/paying customers on the site rather than the users which to me is a mistake, as without users where would this site be?

This is just my 2c of course but I think it needs to be said

rossy1044

Please change it back or at least add a lot more threads to the main page. I liked how previously you could view loads of threads on the main page without having to go to the next page.

GoodBridge

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

In a previous post I explained that due to technical changes we couldn't keep the old home page. wnolan1992 believes it's a lame excuse so I elaborated by explaining why sticking with vBulletin styles or even offering more than one style on the new platform is not a runner. This isn't me defending the current iteration of the homepage design, not in the slightest.

Danny

I think one of the main criticisms is about the "latest posts".

It looks like all the necessary data is being loaded, e.g. 60 of the latest posts are fetched when the page initially loads.

It's just the new way of displaying that data that people have a problem with.

There's no technical reason why that data cannot be displayed like it used to be.

It's possible to completely replace the site but still have the site visually identical. Once the data is there, 'tis but html, css and javascript!

seamus

Being a UX/UI designer for a popular site must be one of the most soul-crushing things you can be. You spend a long time working on stuff, bringing in new designs and new looks, popular features from other sites, and overall you're quite happy with yourself. It is after all an artistic exercise in part, so some of your own expressiveness goes in it, and you take it quite personally.

Then as soon as you go live all you get is noise about how the previous incarnation is better and this new one is ****.

Then a week later everyone has gotten used to it and has stopped complaining, but for the designer the criticism must still burn just a little bit.

FWIW, I rarely use the front page. It has never had enough posts for me. I browse the listing of new posts across the whole site and I always have. I like this design. It has pretty much the same number of posts as the old front page used to have (plus pagination, woo!), and it's nice and clean and easy to see what's going on.

The front page should never be the portal for experienced users. It needs to be clean and simple. If you like a wall of text, then use the new posts listing: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?do=getnew

The aim of this redesign is clearly to make boards easier to navigate for the new and casual users, not the experienced users. "Trending" is a fantastic idea. The "thanks" tab is also a great idea IMO, it serves the purposes of showing what are the most popular posts on the site over the last X time. The same as "Post of the Day", but showing the top 15 posts of the day, great idea.

I'm not sure what purposes the "Thanks" column serves on the main tab. It's a nice curio, but doesn't really add much to the detail because thanks don't really work like karma.

Good job overall. The aim was to create an easily navigable, clear front page, and you've well achieved that. I know boards has struggled for years with the issue that less tech savvy visitors got ridiculously confused about what was going on and just left the site. The last layout was pretty good for that, but I think this layout has gotten to the "friendly" place where new visitors won't be intimidated.

Also, I would have to agree with Rabies in that the reason there's so much noise now is most likely because nobody saw this thread. For the next iteration perhaps it's worth noting that you should attract more attention to the pre-consultation thread with an announcement. And then just release the new homepage without drawing attention to it. You never see any other company say, "Hey! We've changed our homepage, please tell us what you think!". Instead they just release, say nothing, watch for bugs, and sit on the complaints for about two weeks.

?Cee?view

I'm sorry.

I really don't like it. It seems to be change for the sake of change.

I generally use the latest threads screen and this is now far less easy to use. It's harder the see the thread names (which are far more important than who's posted which is not prominent) and there's significantly less content on the screen, although there is more clutter.

Sorry again to be so negative...

heroics

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

The homepage is designed for a desktop machine. We're aware there are some minor issues with mobile devices but I assure you the thread title is meant to be there.

Hi Danny

If the homepage is designed for a desktop machine why is there so much wasted white space between the posts. It looks to me more like it was designed for a touch device and the desktop users would just have to live with it. As a lot of people have said already I go to the homepage to see what is being discussed in topics that I would not normally go into.

I could not be bothered to click between pages just to see another 12 posts.

hoodwinked

honestly, i don't like it, BUT in saying that i haven't liked any of the new changes either, and then i get used to them and they aren't so bad anymore,


and i am still here, (as long as i can use the dark theme the main one hurts my eyes)


chances are most of the complaints you get are as above just not being familiar with the layout,

give it a week or so and see what complaints are coming in then,
i get you are trying to do technical stuff that means you have to change and update, so good luck with it, and thanks for your work on this.

vandriver

Thanks Seamus!I now have your link as my boards bookmark.Problem solved.

Cienciano

I don't get peoples problem with the trending and most liked tabs. These are tiny little tab buttons, if you don't like them, don't click them.
As for getting used to the new page, the thing is, it loses functionality and is harder to read. I doubt anyone will ever say 12 topics is better than 50. Would anyone use the option of 12 posts per page, or 12 topics per forum? I doubt it, it's just not enough.
It's just a bad layout, I know it's hard for the developers to hear a constant line of criticism, but this is the feedback forum and we're just giving feedback. I haven't seen one post since it went live saying "i love it" or "i prefer it to the old layout"
We understand vbulletin is going soon, but that doesn't excuse the current layout.