New Topics/Category Organisation Update 20:45 - Post 100

humanji

Dravokivich wrote: »

All you had to do before was highlight a category. Now you've to select it. Bit of a difference. Especially in how people have been using menus on websites lately. You highlight to browse through the options and then click/select what you want to use.

Yeah, but that's not really that different. It involves clicking instead of hovering, and that's about it. The forums are still there and now in more logical places. A new user wouldn't have used the hovering menus before, so if they have to start clicking menus, they'll continue clicking menus. They'll find it easier to navigate than the rest of us who are stuck in our ways.

How users interact with the menu is a problem, I think (less clicking, more hovering needed, for example). I mentioned before about having the menu spread across the top of the screen, and Grand_Rajnah did a little mock up:

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/180445/346304.jpg

Personally, what I think would work is if when a user logs into Boards, the Topics menu (which needs to be renamed, I think) is already open, and highlighted like it is when you mouseover it (white background and blue text). The menu options are spread out like the image above and you mouse over the categories to view those forums.

Mousing over the other Talk to, Boards.ie etc forums brings up their menus. I'm not a web developer, though I assume that takes a fair bit of work to do. But it seems only logical to me. It would solve a lot of issues that people currently have and makes it similar to the old style.

It does have issues itself though, such as taking up more space at the top of the screen, which can be an issue for mobile devices using the desktop view. And I also don't know what the plan for the site is with regards the new version that's to be rolled out. There may be a brilliant, user friendly UI ready to roll out with the site that replaces this menu system.

my3cents

Dravokivich wrote: »

Right click on Topics, Open in new tab/window.

Thanks I'll be using that, but as you might have realised part of my point is there is no direct link (that I can find) from the home page to an obviously useful feature.

hullaballoo

Am I the only person who expects a menu to be on the left hand side of the screen? Usually under the heading "Menu" with various sites allowing for this to expand/collapse either with a click or a hover?

Personally, I don't like menus that expand when you hover over them, especially bulky menus because you can accidentally move your mouse over them easily and end up totally lost.

Lovely Bloke

hullaballoo wrote: »

Personally, I don't like menus that expand when you hover over them, especially bulky menus because you can accidentally move your mouse over them easily and end up totally lost.

Like the way the current Adverts.ie link top right totally covers the username and My Forums menus if you accidentally move the mouse a fraction too high on the screen.

Annoying.

MrWalsh

hullaballoo wrote: »

Personally, I don't like menus that expand when you hover over them, especially bulky menus because you can accidentally move your mouse over them easily and end up totally lost.

Yeah bit of a Windows 8 Hot Corners level of annoyance alright.

Dav

OK, I've re-jigged the TV section by adding a new TV forum to contain everything and "General TV" (I've renamed the existing Television so followed forums won't break) being the first forum on the list. I think that should make things clearer.

Lovely Bloke

Dav wrote: »

OK, I've re-jigged the TV section by adding a new TV forum to contain everything and "General TV" (I've renamed the existing Television so followed forums won't break) being the first forum on the list. I think that should make things clearer.

Just came to post a thanks for doing this, it's back to normal now!

Excellent work guys!

Mr E

Thanks Dav! Much better.

Kiith

Not a fan of the "General" titles (General Gaming, General TV), but the layout is grand.

MrWalsh

If I expand a "Topic" using the small arrow on the right hand side of it, there is no distinction between the end of the expanded list and the next "Topic". The font and colour is the same so I dont know if I am then clicking on a something below a Topic or a new Topic - if you know what I mean?

mirrorwall14

Just to comment that I apparently don't use the menu at all since despite spending hours on boards over the last few days (I'm on maternity leave) I never even noticed....
My forums, latest and my threads is obviously all I need!

KomradeBishop

Dravokivich wrote: »

Here's your site map:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1671

It's basically the forum tree from the topics category.

Think it's what I'll be using as a work around until the headers/layout is sorted.

Here's a better link, listing all forums (don't think there has been a link to this in a long time, on the main site layout, but I remember the page URL):
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/index.php

EDIT: Personally, I have never used the drop-down menu, I have only ever used the above link to find forums, because it's what I'm used to from other VBulletin forums - maybe users would be happy with just having that as a link, on the top bar, to bypass all the fancy-UI stuff.

my3cents

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Just to comment that I apparently don't use the menu at all since despite spending hours on boards over the last few days (I'm on maternity leave) I never even noticed....
My forums, latest and my threads is obviously all I need!

So how would you know if there are not other forums that might interest you?

Spear

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Here's a better link, listing all forums (don't think there has been a link to this in a long time, on the main site layout, but I remember the page URL):
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/index.php

EDIT: Personally, I have never used the drop-down menu, I have only ever used the above link to find forums, because it's what I'm used to from other VBulletin forums - maybe users would be happy with just having that as a link, on the top bar, to bypass all the fancy-UI stuff.

That's the one I send new users to in the N&F stickies. But now that link is a massive morass.

KomradeBishop

Spear wrote: »

That's the one I send new users to in the N&F stickies. But now that link is a massive morass.

Is it just all the subfora being kludged into categories, under Topics, that makes it a morass? Maybe the script for that page can be changed, so you can click a '+' to expand the category so it lists all forums below it (as the 'Talk To' section lists them), and saves a cookie for the +/- status, so you don't have to do that every time you open the page.

Spear

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Is it just all the subfora being kludged into categories, under Topics, that makes it a morass? Maybe the script for that page can be changed, so you can click a '+' to expand the category so it lists all forums below it (as the 'Talk To' section lists them), and saves a cookie for the +/- status, so you don't have to do that every time you open the page.

Pretty much so. All the sub cats within topics aren't collapsible expandible.

KomradeBishop

Spear wrote: »

Pretty much so. All the sub cats within topics aren't collapsible expandible.

Ya okey - it should be relatively easy then, to make them collapsible/expandable, to sort that - but probably won't be able to get it to show up like it used to (same way the link to Politics Cafe in After Hours is just a redirect, not showing more information about the actual forum, just a stub/name).

I don't know what the old 'Topics' menu looked like (never used it), but maybe that could be made collapsible/expandable in the same manner, as it sounds like that's part of what people dislike about the new menu; that way, people could customize the menu to their liking as well, only expanding bits they are interested in.

ktulu123

Just adding my opinion in here too. Not a fan of the new layout, takes me ages to get anywhere with so many more clicks & having to scroll to find the "Rugby" forum is a pain in the arse. Why was there a need to change the layout? It was perfect imo

Mars Bar

I'm glad ye changed T.V. That was a head wrecker. I'm adapting to it now but I was trying to move a thread from TLL to Gifts and Festivities and boy was that a chore! Took me about 5 minutes to find it on that dropdown. Is there a better way to do that?

Spear

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Ya okey - it should be relatively easy then, to make them collapsible/expandable, to sort that - but probably won't be able to get it to show up like it used to (same way the link to Politics Cafe in After Hours is just a redirect, not showing more information about the actual forum, just a stub/name).

I don't know what the old 'Topics' menu looked like (never used it), but maybe that could be made collapsible/expandable in the same manner, as it sounds like that's part of what people dislike about the new menu; that way, people could customize the menu to their liking as well, only expanding bits they are interested in.

There was no Topics category before, it's a new addition. Boards.ie is the old sys cat renamed.

irishgeo

in the andorid app if you have more than 3 levels of forums to go through you get a balnk page.

topics>business & finance>consumer gives a plank page as does >personal

but taxation works at its a forum.

Dyr

Is there any way to go back to the old, non crap menu?

Could you change Gaming and Television to Gaming (General) and Television (General), so that it would be kept in the same order that it was originally on the My Forums section?

mariaalice

I don't like it because the way I use boards was to use the drop down menu to switch between forums I like it much more difficult to do this now.

Spear

I'm not sure how welcome or useful this may be, but you can switch the theme to the older style white one which has the older dropdown style menus still.

Dav

Deleted User wrote: »

Could you change Gaming and Television to Gaming (General) and Television (General), so that it would be kept in the same order that it was originally on the My Forums section?

Good idea, I'll do that now.

pH

it's awful

Wichita Lineman

Much harder to get around to the few forums I use and I think it will be more off putting to newbies who wont be able to browse easily.

Joe Doe

system Fail.





It breaks the basic UX 2 or 3 click navigation rule. 'Tis also hierarchically irrelevant navigation wise.
Run the rollback there Rosin (or whatever gaybyrne used to say to get things rolling).
Only thing good, is the 'My Forums' tab, other than that, is sick (in the non-yoof way).

catallus

He used to say "Roll it there Roisin please"

Wasn't the "my forums" tab always there?