Homepage Redesign v3

Dav

Hello all.

I mentioned yesterday that I was hoping to get some screenshots of what the Dev Team was working on for the home page and here they are (click the thumbnail for full size). These screen shots were taken in Firefox (maximised) on Windows 7 on a 1080p screen just to give you an idea of the scale.

Logged in:




Logged out:



The main obvious change is that it's back to a more table like format with the Forum Name getting it's own column.

Any thread link you've clicked will no longer remain bold

You'll see a little down arrow beside a name to indicate a new post and bring you to it.

You can also click the little right arrow beside the "last poster" member name to bring you to the last post on the thread (as opposed to the last unread).

The number of posts on a thread are no longer a link to the latest post - it's hoped the arrows will make these functions more visible and obvious as to their use.

So this will likely roll out tomorrow morning, please keep the feedback coming, it's been a big help to us in getting this right (but it should go without saying that the "it's crap" nonsense does no one any favours - you're better than that folks).

Toto Wolfcastle

I think that's much better. Much easier to read. Fair play to you all for listening to the feedback and putting some of it into practice.

I think the arrows doing different things will cause a bit of confusion. Also still don't see the point in the Thanks column. Can I ask if there is a reason you continue to include it?

Boards.ie: Danny

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

I think the arrows doing different things will cause a bit of confusion.

This is the same as the current vBulletin arrows on any forum page - the down arrow (when visible) brings you to the oldest unread post, the right facing arrow in the last poster column brings you to the actual last post. It's a consolidation of behaviour and won't be nearly as confusing as having the # of posts link to the oldest unread post.

Insect Overlord

Oooohhh, now that looks good!

Masked Man

looks good.

Think it would look better without the thanks column, looks a bit cramped. Was the reasoning for that column ever explained? I'm surprised it lasted two updates.

Would also prefer if the post count still linked to the newest posts, but that's just personal preference.

L5

Much much better!

championc

So for My Subscriptions, will I be able to identify which threads have had updates to them and read all new posts starting at the oldest unread post ?

Dades

Definitely looks better - much easier to read.

Still a fair bit of padding in those rows, it has to be said!

wnolan1992

Oh sweet baby Jesus thank you!

That is literally 100 times better than the current version. Well done to the Dev team.


Question: Is the screenshot using Cosy Mode? And if not, could we get a shot of what it looks like?

hullaballoo

Dades wrote: »

Definitely looks better - much easier to read.

Still a fair bit of padding in those rows, it has to be said!

I agree. Is there any chance some of it could be gotten rid of in order to facilitate an extra thread/post or two on each screen?

Other than the padding, I think the new layout looks good and will be user-friendly for old and new users.

coffee_cake

Oh that's much better, good work guys

blockedPaT

Looks much better now, especially with the forum column.

kaimera

Quite similar to the old one no?

The people have spoken tho.

Q - is it possible to not have the pages on the home page? I for one wouldn't click on next page, I'd rather f5 the page I'm on for new content.

But but but, would it be possible to have the other pages of content load below the first page when I reach the bottom of the homepage?

I might suck at explaining but I scroll to the bottom of the first page on the homepage, the second page then loads below that and I continue scrolling and the same for page 3.

RES addon for reddit does it quite well.

Perhaps it's daft. Proceed with the cats.

WIZE

Yes. Spreadsheets are victorious

Spear

Might it be worth adding a small note to the unlogged in version telling people that more will be displayed if they register and log in? It may help convert some lurkers.

Zaph

That looks good, definitely easier to read. I agree that there's still far too much vertical padding however, there really isn't any need for the rows to be that far apart and the relatively small number of visible threads is a big disincentive to using the page. I also still don't see the point in pagination, but I suppose it's easy enough to ignore and not bother with. I'll wait to see how the new screen looks before commenting any further.

Like Masked Man, I'd also love to know how the thanks column has survived. Its existence has been questioned repeatedly, but there still hasn't been an answer as to why it's even there in the first place. As I stated on the last thread, it serves no useful purpose. It doesn't provide any meaningful statistics, nor does it link to anything. Adding a random number generator to the field would make as much sense.

However, these few things aside (I'm giving up on ever getting My Forums moved back to where it should be, I think I'm fighting a lonely losing battle on that one ) the new screen is a vast improvement on the first version. Huge credit and thanks to all involved in Boards Towers for taking on board people's concerns and making changes accordingly.

Quazzie

The talk to and the Boards.ie tabs on the top are still in the wrong positions. This is Boards.ie not TalkTo.ie

Cookie_Monster

the lines are still way to high, nedd to be about half what they are to allow a usable amount of data to be display without scrolling.

As it is now on this PC I can only see 8 threads before having to scroll down

P_1

Looks much better now I have to say, much easier to quickly scan. I'd echo Zaph in wondering where the need for a thanks column came from though

Boards.ie: Rónán

Dades wrote: »

Definitely looks better - much easier to read.

Still a fair bit of padding in those rows, it has to be said!

hullaballoo wrote: »

I agree. Is there any chance some of it could be gotten rid of in order to facilitate an extra thread/post or two on each screen?

Other than the padding, I think the new layout looks good and will be user-friendly for old and new users.

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

the lines are still way to high, nedd to be about half what they are to allow a usable amount of data to be display without scrolling.

As it is now on this PC I can only see 8 threads before having to scroll down

We're in the process of wrapping up the "Cosy Mode" display option, having it enabled will drastically reduce the overall padding of the page.

Out of genuine interest, why the aversion to scrolling? Not saying it's a non-issue, just looking for some further insight if possible.

Thanks again for the feedback, it's very much appreciated.

Zaph

Boards.ie: Rónán wrote: »

Out of genuine interest, why the aversion to scrolling? Not saying it's a non-issue, just looking for some further insight if possible.

I think there are two possible reasons:

1 - the old vbulletin page required minimal scrolling in order to see the last few threads at the bottom of the list that weren't already visible. Users were used to that and as you've seen people don't like change; and

2 - the amount of padding means you have to scroll a lot more to get to the end of what is a much shortened home page in comparison to the old one.

Out of curiosity Rónán, are there any stats on the number of people using the pagination? My gut feeling is that the vast majority are sticking to page 1 and possibly aren't even scrolling all the way down through it, a fairly small number are moving on to page 2, and a tiny minority make it all the way to page 3. I'd be interested to see if I'm in any way right or if I'm way off the mark.

Slutmonkey57b

Boards.ie: Rónán wrote: »

We're in the process of wrapping up the "Cosy Mode" display option, having it enabled will drastically reduce the overall padding of the page.

Out of genuine interest, why the aversion to scrolling? Not saying it's a non-issue, just looking for some further insight if possible.

Thanks again for the feedback, it's very much appreciated.

Fairly simple really: It shouldn't be necessary to have to scroll that much to see what really amounts to 20 odd lines of text, and all the while you're doing it, part of your brain is thinking "why am I being forced to scroll past all this blank space? Why is there so little information on this page?". While it makes sense for Facebook to have all this vertical scrolling (lots of structured content, with an expectation of a timeline view), it doesn't make sense for boards.

Cookie_Monster

Boards.ie: Rónán wrote: »

Out of genuine interest, why the aversion to scrolling? Not saying it's a non-issue, just looking for some further insight if possible.

no aversion if/when it's needed but I don't see the need for so much padding and empty space forcing you to.

nesf

Boards.ie: Rónán wrote: »

Out of genuine interest, why the aversion to scrolling? Not saying it's a non-issue, just looking for some further insight if possible.

There is scrolling and there is unnecessary scrolling. There is a very important distinction between the two that seems often lost on web designers. There is way too much padding on that page, the username should be in the same line as the thread title, knock out the Thanks column to make space. Ask yourself, why is someone looking at that page on a regular basis? They're looking for interesting threads. They will want to scan through a lot of threads quickly because due to the nature of boards for any one users most threads are dross. Less padding and much tighter spaced information aids this, scrolling hinders it. Scrolling is fine but I'll scan 30 lines on one page a lot faster than the same 30 lines spread across two page's worth of scrolling.

For an analogy think of a Kindle. Do you read it a size bigger than is comfortable because it's easier on the eyes or the size that is the best balance between comfortable reading and minimum page turning? Very few people do the former.

Overall a massive improvement and a big step in the right direction. Thank you for listening.

Rabies

Looking a lot better guys.
Thanks

Still miss the Boards mascots. They make it less cold

TherapyBoy

nesf wrote: »

..the username should be in the same line as the thread title, knock out the Thanks column to make space.

^^This. Placing the username on the same line would double the space available for post topics on the homepage. Having less information available on the new homepage is a step backwards.

nesf wrote: »

Overall a massive improvement and a big step in the right direction. Thank you for listening.

+1


I don't see the advantage to the user in the pagination feature. I'd rather have 30-40 posts listed on one tightly laid out page, than 75 over 3 pages.
Thanks again for the hard work & effort!!

Xavi6

A nice improvement, much appreciated.

Get rid of the unnecessary thanks column and make each row one line and it'll be sorted.

Mothman

My first contribution to the redesign feedback threads.
This is a big jump in right direction! Well done, and nearly there...

nesf wrote: »

the username should be in the same line as the thread title,......

......Overall a massive improvement and a big step in the right direction. Thank you for listening.

TherapyBoy wrote: »

^^This. Placing the username on the same line would double the space available for post topics on the homepage. Having less information available on the new homepage is a step backwards.

Xavi6 wrote: »

A nice improvement, much appreciated.

Get rid of the unnecessary thanks column and make each row one line and it'll be sorted.

All of the above, and it'll be fantastic

Newaglish

Two things:

Stick the number of posts in brackets beside the thread title (or maybe explain why that can't/shouldn't be done)

Drop the thanks column (it's completely unnecessary)

Otherwise, looking good.

Mothman

Forgot to mention, but if you make each row one line, then the amount of lines per page could be increased.

If sticking with the 25 per page then when you click to page 2 and 3 then it must bring one to top of page, not same position as the previous page which is usually bottom. I've been assuming that this "bug" is being dealt with but I haven't seen confirmation

coffee_cake

I do agree on moving the stuff to one line and that would cut out the blank space in the middle a bit too