Updated look for the site (part2)

[Boards.ie: Tony]

Hi All,

For those that haven’t already experienced it, We’d like to introduce you to the Boards.ie new Beta Skin (This link switches the skin on for you). – Should you wish to revert to the old look Boards.ie, you can do that by clicking HERE.


We’ve gathered to all the feedback to date and this version now features:

- An updated header > Slightly tweaked layout and altered the colours slightly to make it easier on the eye

- Appearance Settings > Hover over your name, and you’ll now see a link to ‘Appearance Settings’. Here you can change how the Notification Badge works, Unstick the Header, Enable Cozy Mode and Full Width Mode. NOTE: The last 2 are EXPERIMENTAL. They may be buggy. We’re also, right now, not committing to fixing any bugs related to these to switches.

We are also hard working on ‘Themes’. As previously mentioned, it will initially be a Dark Theme and a Grey Theme as well as this current default, White Theme. They will be added soon, so bear with us.

As before, we’re open to any / all feedback, good and bad. We are very aware that things being too white is an issue for some (and the themes will take care of this when they are added soon) and that some found there was too much space (cozy mode should address this as well).

Known, common issues

• iPad compatibility - We know there are issues with iPads. Full testing has not been done on any iPad. The skin was designed for full PCs like netbooks, laptops and desktops with the idea being the touch site may see improvements similar to the new skin in the future. This isn't to say we're leaving iPad users in the dark, but that they're not our target audience currently but we will improve things as we go along
• Jump to unread posts/spacebar/pgdn/pgup scrolling can get blocked by the sticky header - We are aware of this

Finally, here is the original post from the first feedback thread for those who haven’t read it yet.

Originally Posted by Dav

I'd like to introduce you all to Tony who is our new Product Manager. Tony's been with us for 5 weeks now and this has been the first project he's been involved with. His work will focus on User Interface/User Experience so this was an ideal place for him to start.
There has been a lot of hard work going on the past number of months here in Boards.ie towers to improve the experience that is had by one and all on Boards.ie. With this new Beta skin, Boards.ie has been given a bit of a face lift and some new features added. Most, if not all, of what you’re used to on Boards.ie is still present and accounted for, though some of it may have gotten repositioned to make the over all experience more consistent with current standards out there.

On top of this, we've got a new Registration process which will be going live when we've finalised this skin (which will become the default for all visitors and members alike unless you've specified a different skin). The new Registration will hopefully cut out a lot of the spam we see as it will require the person registering to go look at a random post and submit an answer to a test question based on it.

Here are some of the Feature Highlights for the Boards.ie new Beta skin:

Omni-Search-Navigation - In the header you will now see the new search box. You can use this to search for anything across the site, navigate anywhere in the site or search for members. Just start typing the forum you want to go to, the user you’re looking for or the term you want to find, and the results will start appearing as you type. For example, if you type ‘Xbox’ in the search bar you will see the Xbox Forum, followed by the ability to search the site for the term ‘Xbox’ and then any members with ‘Xbox’ in their user name. Hitting Enter after typing your search term will bring you to a search results page as normal. Pressing the down arrow on your keyboard and hitting enter when selecting the forum will navigate you to that forum. When in a forum, you can start searching and this time you will have the option to search within that forum only, or the whole of Boards.ie. The other search result options are also present.

Breadcrumbs - Just below the Boards.ie logo we’ve placed the breadcrumb trail. Here you can see exactly where you are, and the ability to navigate up levels.

"Sticky" header - the menu and omni-search and breadcrumbs will remain floating over the content as you scroll up and down the page. This can be disabled by going here, scrolling to the bottom of the page, ticking the box beside "Disable sticky header" and clicking Save.

Category Navigation - The categories are all listed along the top of the site. By default, the header is in ‘Sticky’ mode (it can be unstuck if in the User Control Panel). Move your mouse over the category and the menu will expand. Click the expand icon to show the subcategories. When you find the one you’re looking for, click the text link to navigate.

Follow Forum / Thread - This feature is now more prominent on the site. You can go to any forum and ‘Follow’ it. This will then be added to the ‘My Forums’ dropdown in the upper right of the screen. If there is new content in the forum, there will be an ‘*’ at the end of the forum title.

When you follow a thread (either by clicking the ‘Follow Thread’ Button, or replying to the thread and subscribing to it, it will be added to the ‘Followed Threads’ list in the Member Dropdown. As threads get new content you will see the number increase. So, for example, if you’re following 10 threads and 9 of the threads have had new posts (there could be multiple posts in any given thread, but it will be counted as a single update), you will see a ‘9’ in the notification counter to signify that 9 of your threads have new content.

Button Positions - The buttons around the site have been repositioned to make them more consistent. When reply, the reply button will always be on the right, and have the primary action colour (in this case blue). Everywhere on the site, when there are multiple buttons, the primary action for the group is always the button in blue.

General Design - We’ve increased the amount of padding around elements around the site to make it easier on the eye and easier to read. Because we’ve tightened up the header, the amount of content that you see on screen is generally the same as the old version of Boards.ie.

Over the next few months we’ll be tweaking the various Boards.ie product (mobile site, website and any other Boards.ie products) to create a consistent experience across all facets of Boards.ie.

We’re looking for any / all feedback on the site, good and bad. Because this is ultimately still a beta, we are particularly interested in any bugs you might find, or if there is a feature that you have found to be missing. If you would like to leave feedback, it would be a big help to us if you could submit it like this:
Type: Bug / Design / Missing Feature / Feature Suggestion / Other
Issue: insert text here, screen shots are helpful if you can manage it
Browser & OS: What browser version you're using to help us replicate and track the issue more quickly
Screen Resolution: what res your screen's running at - can be quite important in design issues.

Thanks,
Tony and all the Boards.ie Team

[Frada]

How come the bar on top doesn't scroll down when I do? Was it too clunky or something? What if it's just the list of forums that follow you down? Eh? EH?

[Boards.ie: Tony]

Originally Posted by Frada

How come the bar on top doesn't scroll down when I do? Was it too clunky or something? What if it's just the list of forums that follow you down? Eh? EH?

It should. Try refreshing and see if that fixes it.

[Tallon]

Header bar is still too big

I have the header turned off, yet it's still follwing down the page

Also, while typing this, I cannot see the top of the text box because the header is blocking it

[Boards.ie: Tony]

Originally Posted by Tallon

Header bar is too still too big

*cough* try cozy mode *cough*

[Frada]

Originally Posted by Boards.ie: Tony

It should. Try refreshing and see if that fixes it.

It didn't until my girlfriend tried it there (didn't work for her either). Apparently you have to click on save changes in Appearance Settings, even if the Sticky Header box is already checked.

[Boards.ie: Tony]

Originally Posted by Frada

It didn't until my girlfriend tried it there (didn't work for her either). Apparently you have to click on save changes in Appearance Settings, even if the Sticky Header box is already checked.

It's just a little glitch with the rollout and what you've cached locally. Logging out and back in again should address that!

[Frada]

Originally Posted by Boards.ie: Tony

It's just a little glitch with the rollout and what you've cached locally. Logging out and back in again should address that!

No need, it's working grand for me now. Thanks anyway. Tell Nicola I said hello.

[Tallon]

Originally Posted by Boards.ie: Tony

*cough* try cozy mode *cough*

So the size of the lines on the Subscription page defaults to 'cozy mode' too?

[tommycahir]

Just noticed that the breadcrumbs images at the bottom on the page seem to have some darker\differing grey from the background.



OS: Windows XP SP3
Broswer Firefox 10.0.2

EDIT Just spotted you seem to be using the same image for the header and footer breadcrumbs -
Header - http://b-static.net/www/i/breadcrumb_divider.png
Footer - http://b-static.net/www/i/breadcrumb_divider.png

Also I have noticed a lot of bugs when viewing the site on an IPad, e.g

• My Forums drop down doesn't seem to work in a thread or forum but works from home page
• The view 1st unread post in a thread has to be pressed twice to work
• Youtube/embedded videos seem to overscroll the sticky header when scrolling.

Also is there a list of current open issues?

[tommycahir]

BTW somebody should update Dav's announcement Link to point to this new thread

[irish-stew]

I can find the 'New Posts' tab.



Only negitive is that for looks wise, I think I slightly prefered the last update from last week, appears to be more white space with this one. Although currently playing with the Cozy and Full width modes.

Otherwise its looking good.

[don ramo]

ah change for changes sake

the current menu navigation looks and works superbly, its neat and tidy, the only thing it doesnt do is follow you, now you have this stupid pre 1995 navigation bar following you everywhere, why not have the current bar follow you, just that little sliver of the page,

[Boards.ie: Paddy]

Originally Posted by tommycahir

BTW somebody should update Dav's announcement Link to point to this new thread

Done

[Boards.ie: Tony]

Originally Posted by don ramo

ah change for changes sake

the current menu navigation looks and works superbly, its neat and tidy, the only thing it doesnt do is follow you, now you have this stupid pre 1995 navigation bar following you everywhere, why not have the current bar follow you, just that little sliver of the page,

Try logging out and back in again.
There seems to be a conflict with the local cache on some people's computers.
The header, unless you've changed the setting to 'unstick it' should follow you.