Home Page Redesign

mike65

nesf wrote: »

Bear in mind, that link will stop working at some point.

This end of http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?do=getnew will be a disaster! The best link on the entire site.

Zulu

bluewolf wrote: »

In here I guess

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=228

Thanks, would you believe I couldn't navigate to that page with the new layout bug...

Zombienosh

Probably has been mentioned but my forums doesn't filter to subscribed forums anymore.

Masked Man

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

Yeah but the same action should have the same function across the site. It just gets confusing if clicking on the number of posts on the home page has a totally different function to the same action on a different page.

And it's obvious from this thread that a lot of people haven't even realised that clicking on the number of posts brings you to the last read point in a thread. The arrow made much more sense.

But it was always like that on the old front page and people never complained. It was "Thread Title (Number of Posts)" and clicking the number of posts sent you to the new post.

Toto Wolfcastle

Masked Man wrote: »

But it was always like that on the old front page and people never complained. It was "Thread Title (Number of Posts)" and clicking the number of posts sent you to the new post.

I stand corrected. I can't picture it on the old site now (how quickly we forget!) but you obviously can, so I take it back. I do think though that even if it wasn't an arrow it was in a more obvious place.

Edit: Yep, just looked at the old page and it was a number but it was in a much more obvious place.

Masked Man

Check it out here http://www.boards.ie/?

It was definitely more natural to have it next to the thread title. I'd say it took everybody a few minutes to figure out where to click. Saying that though, I don't think it will take long before the new one feels more natural, after a while you'll just keep the mouse further to the right.

wnolan1992

Just to reply to a few things:

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

We're not building a skin/style system for the new Boards UI I'm afraid.

This is fine, but it still doesn't mean that the entire vBulletin style has to be ditched. What I meant by "lame justification" is that saying ye have to redesign the entire site just because ye're moving from vBulletin is false. It is possible to recreate the vBulletin style in your new code, it's just ye're actively choosing not to. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad choice in some areas (the new skin is evidence of that), but I think a wholescale redesign is overkill.

Alvis spent time generating cosy mode stylesheet changes for the homepage two days ago, so it wasn't forgotten about and if it's not working please file a bug report in Site Development and we'll look in to it.

Danny

Sorry, this was my failure to clarify what I meant. Cosy mode "works", but the new design goes against the very point of Cosy Mode. Each thread now displays in a massive box, two lines of text, loads of whitespace, blocky, blocky design. Cosy mode, at least what I thought Cosy Mode was, was to make things more compact. This new design expands everything.

So TL;DR: Not a bug, just a fundamental problem with the design IMO.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

This is an idea of what I was talking about in my first post.

Before:


After:


This was done by chopping things up and moving them around so things are aligned properly but it's just a mock up.

You've got most of the information about the thread very close to the beginning of the thread title so makes it easier to scan over the list. To find the post count, thanks count, forum the thread was posted in and person who posted it don't result in your eyes darting all over the place.

Moving the tabs to the left gives us an extra row for threads. It also reduces the empty white space we had in the middle of the page. The tabs look crap because, like I said above, I was just chopping them and moving them about. Wouldn't be hard to make them look good though. The room below them could be used for other functionality as well. You could even move the all topics button above the latest posts tab. That may get confusing though as it refines what is showing in the existing tabs as opposed to being a tab it self. Any ways food for thought.

Promote this man.

That's a much better layout, except I would replace the Thanks column with the name of the forum the thread was in.

Boards.ie: Nicola wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback - we appreciate all of the input and will consider every suggestion. We're going to investigate the following changes today.

For all users we'll look into changing the line of text under the thread title to: "DD-MMM HH:MM | Forum Name | Latest post by Member Name".

We need to put the time stamp first in order to get the times and forum names to align correctly; putting the forum name first would mean that the time stamps would be misaligned as forum names have varying lengths.

We're also going to look into pulling 75 results on loading the page, rather than current 60, and to display these on three pages of 25 results per page.

We'll post updates here when we have them.

This is good I guess. At least the forum name would be in a unified spot.

Lou.m

I hate it i dont like the trending posts i want to see all forums easily. Thats just me.

syklops

I was on the old style. I have been on the old style for as long as I've been on boards. Its what Im used to. Now, the new homepage doesn't support the old style so some pages work but clicking on My Threads and My Forums brings me to Latests Posts in the new style, and I then have to click My threads or My Forums in the new style, select the thread I want, and then they open back in the old style. I've been told there is no way to fix this and i will have to change to the new style to prevent this from happening. Im not very happy about that.

phog

I don't know if it's me, my screen or the new layout but when I'm viewing threads in the new layout I cant see an option to join in at the last page, I have click on the thread title, that opens on page one then go to last page.

Czarcasm

phog wrote: »

I don't know if it's me, my screen or the new layout but when I'm viewing threads in the new layout I cant see an option to join in at the last page, I have click on the thread title, that opens on page one then go to last page.

If you click on the thread replies number over to the right of the thread title, it'll bring you to the last unread post in a thread. I'm posting this from mobile at the moment so I can't remember if there was a "Last Page" link somewhere like there used be before.

hardCopy

phog wrote: »

I don't know if it's me, my screen or the new layout but when I'm viewing threads in the new layout I cant see an option to join in at the last page, I have click on the thread title, that opens on page one then go to last page.

Clicking the number of posts will do this for you

Slattsy

I see nothing on the new homepage other than the headers.

When i click on 'My Threads' nothing happens?

Chucken

I fail to see the logic of not displaying new threads!

Time and again its pointed out that Boards is a discussion site...how can we discuss anything if we cant find new threads? (As i said already...without going into every single forum)

It just doesnt make sense.

Ken.

Chucken wrote: »

I fail to see the logic of not displaying new threads!

Time and again its pointed out that Boards is a discussion site...how can we discuss anything if we cant find new threads? (As i said already...without going into every single forum)

It just doesnt make sense.

The more forums you click into the more ads you see.

Javan

Under the 'My Threads' tab can you add a 'First Unread' button, like the one you see when you hit 'Followed Threads' on the Notifications menu?

The_Morrigan

Considering the amount of times the point of not being able to go to the last read post has been raised maybe a 'dummies guide" to the new layout should be done by the Boards team?

Gordon

Slattsy wrote: »

I see nothing on the new homepage other than the headers.

When i click on 'My Threads' nothing happens?

What browser are you using? And what version?

Boards.ie: Nicola

Hi folks,

As promised a quick update on the changes I mentioned earlier;

-We have changed the line of text under the thread title to: "DD-MMM HH:MM | Forum Name | Latest post by Member Name".

-We have increased the posts per page from 12 posts to 25 over 3 pages.

-The padding has also been reduced and the 'Announcements' widget has been aligned with 'Latest Posts'.

As always, if you notice any bugs please report them over in Site Development and feedback will be reviewed.

KeithM89

Since you insist on keeping this overwhelmingly disappointing redesign, any chance of moving the page navigation to the top? Or even make the table scrollable?

Slattsy

Gordon wrote: »

What browser are you using? And what version?

Its IE (unsure of version)

Now im in work, its not my home computer but i've never had any issues before.
As i said, i cant go directly into anything from the headers, they're all blank once i click.
But if i go into the categories at the top i can get into various threads.

super_furry

On my iPhone and Nexus 7 there's just no thread titles on the home pages. Is this a bug or is it intended?

wnolan1992

The new update is a major improvement.

Taltos

Strange how the little changes can make us happy

spix

I'm on the home page and would like to view a list of all forums/subforums similar to the home page of most other forums. How do I do this? I've scoured the page but can't find any link. Lets say I want to create a thread in a particular forum, how do I find the one I'm looking for (without a headache) if there's no way to browse them easily? Do I just have to hope it shows up under latest posts?

WIZE

Taltos wrote: »

Strange how the little changes can make us happy

I would still like the forum to have its own Column

coffee_cake

It's a bit better. The alternating colours would be a big help also
And the size of the font. If I zoom out twice on the homepage that would be the ideal size for me, but then it leaves all other pages too small if I left it zoomed out

username123

spix wrote: »

I'm on the home page and would like to view a list of all forums/subforums similar to the home page of most other forums. How do I do this? I've scoured the page but can't find any link. Lets say I want to create a thread in a particular forum, how do I find the one I'm looking for (without a headache) if there's no way to browse them easily? Do I just have to hope it shows up under latest posts?

If you hover over All Topics (just to the left of announcements) you get a drop down list, but then you have to mouse over to the side scroll bar to scroll down, at which point the drop down list disappears and you cant get it back again because now All Topics is no longer in view. So you can only get a list of the first 8 or so.

Oh hang on, thats just to filter the latest posts threads - forget it.

wnolan1992

WIZE wrote: »

I would still like the forum to have its own Column

Same.

Remove the redundant Thanks column and put the forum in it's own column to the left of the thread title. Leave the timestamp and posted by the way they are now.

Seriously, that minor-ish tweak and I'd be more or less fully on board with the new style.

Boards.ie: Nicola

spix wrote: »

I'm on the home page and would like to view a list of all forums/subforums similar to the home page of most other forums. How do I do this? I've scoured the page but can't find any link. Lets say I want to create a thread in a particular forum, how do I find the one I'm looking for (without a headache) if there's no way to browse them easily? Do I just have to hope it shows up under latest posts?

This is the full list of all forums and sub forums on Boards