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.

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

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

Myrddin

Much, much better...sort of a hybrid of old & new. Never let it be said that feedback isn't listened to!

Boards.ie: Niamh

Thanks for the feedback guys, we genuinely appreciate you taking the time to give it. And we are reading it all

GLaDOS

Forum column certainly makes things better.

I echo previous posts regarding the thanks column and too much padding.

Still annoyed that it forces me to use the new skin, but I'm aware that's fighting a losing battle.

I find myself refreshing the page instead of using pagination. Would be in favour of increasing the amount of threads displayed further.

Thanks for listening to all the feedback.

Boards.ie: Nicola

With regards to having all the content on one line, when the team were working on this they went through all possible iterations of the forum/thread view; we've a huge variation in platform and screen resolution and we have to try and cater for everyone.

Implementing the current layout on one line isn't possible for smaller viewports; it would end up being far too cluttered. Having two lines of info is also consistent with the standard layout as well as Talk To forum view.

Mothman

Boards.ie: Nicola wrote: »

Having two lines of info is also consistent with the standard layout as well as Talk To forum view.

Then make the lower line as compact as possible. It doesn't contain much info though it does contain the down arrows which do need to stay at a reasonable size.

Dades

Mothman wrote: »

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

Agreed.

The pagination is really annoying if you have to scroll back up to the top either before you click "next page", or after you click it.

IMO the pagination at the bottom should be more pronounced (I only just noticed it) and send you to the top of the next page.

Boards.ie: Rónán

Dades wrote: »

The pagination is really annoying if you have to scroll back up to the top either before you click "next page", or after you click it.

We've been playing about with a scroll to top once the new page has been rendered, doesn't quite feel right yet. It's being actively worked on at the moment though, we'll get it sorted as soon as possible.

hullaballoo

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.

For me, it's not an aversion to scrolling. It's a matter of getting more threads onto the first page. If I'm scanning through thread titles, I now find I've only opened 3-4 of interest before I get to the bottom. Previously, by the time I'd reached the bottom of the homepage, I would have 15+ tabs open and that would keep me going for a while before I'd return to the homepage.

Now, when I've read the 4, go back to the homepage (instinct is to refresh), the most recent threads have changed. I'm essentially reading the same 5 threads and not progressing beyond that. It minimises my contribution and means I'm missing a lot of new posts in the forum I moderate.

But scrolling unnecessarily is also annoying.

Slutmonkey57b

Boards.ie: Nicola wrote: »

With regards to having all the content on one line, when the team were working on this they went through all possible iterations of the forum/thread view; we've a huge variation in platform and screen resolution and we have to try and cater for everyone.

Implementing the current layout on one line isn't possible for smaller viewports; it would end up being far too cluttered. Having two lines of info is also consistent with the standard layout as well as Talk To forum view.

This is a sensible point, but the standard layout does not have this extreme level of padding between entries, so if the concern was consistency, then.... well you can guess my point.

As to the "talk to" forums, these are places which are philosophically distinct from the rest of boards, and therefore they should look different from the homepage and forums. Extra padding makes sense in those forums because it's less of a communal discussion, and posts are distinct requests.

With regard to different resolutions and platforms, if boards can automatically redirect my phone to touch.boards.ie, can't similar information be used to redirect people to youneedabettermonitor.boards.ie which features more padding or pagination?

Slutmonkey57b

hullaballoo wrote: »

Now, when I've read the 4, go back to the homepage (instinct is to refresh), the most recent threads have changed. I'm essentially reading the same 5 threads and not progressing beyond that. It minimises my contribution and means I'm missing a lot of new posts in the forum I moderate.

But scrolling unnecessarily is also annoying.

I've found this on the touch layout too. If I go to page 2, most of the posts from page 1 are now on page 2 because page 1 has refilled with newer updated posts in the time it takes me to scan, decide I'm not interested, and move on. So what you end up with is a rolling race between me and the "status quo when I first started looking" where I'm trying to get ahead of the updates. It's frustrating and it can go on for 5 pages or so before I "beat the system" and see new content. If the new homepage is limited to 3 pages of 25 threads, then either I'm never going to beat the system, or I'm going to miss lots of potentially great threads.

Quazzie

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

I've found this on the touch layout too. If I go to page 2, most of the posts from page 1 are now on page 2 because page 1 has refilled with newer updated posts in the time it takes me to scan, decide I'm not interested, and move on. So what you end up with is a rolling race between me and the "status quo when I first started looking" where I'm trying to get ahead of the updates. It's frustrating and it can go on for 5 pages or so before I "beat the system" and see new content. If the new homepage is limited to 3 pages of 25 threads, then either I'm never going to beat the system, or I'm going to miss lots of potentially great threads.

Why not just stay on the first page so and refresh?

Boards.ie: Danny

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

I've found this on the touch layout too. If I go to page 2, most of the posts from page 1 are now on page 2 because page 1 has refilled with newer updated posts in the time it takes me to scan, decide I'm not interested, and move on. So what you end up with is a rolling race between me and the "status quo when I first started looking" where I'm trying to get ahead of the updates. It's frustrating and it can go on for 5 pages or so before I "beat the system" and see new content. If the new homepage is limited to 3 pages of 25 threads, then either I'm never going to beat the system, or I'm going to miss lots of potentially great threads.

I covered this in the initial launch of the home page - the desktop latest posts page does not operate like the touch site home page.

Flicking between pages on the desktop tabs will not show you the same thread that was on page 1 on page 2 or 3. This is because all three pages are stored in your browser when you initially load the page or tab. Your point of reference for latest posts is always the time you loaded the page/tab.

On the touch site when you change page you are asking the server for page 2 of the latest posts at the time of refresh (not initial page load) by which time what you had on page 1 may very well have been pushed onto page 2 or page 3 or even further down

Danny

Slutmonkey57b

Quazzie wrote: »

Why not just stay on the first page so and refresh?

Because then you're only seeing the threads which get updated every few seconds.

Dav

I just want to talk about this issue people keep reporting about "wasted space." First of all, I have a graph...



That's a breakdown of the screen resolutions that hit the site according to Google Analytics. You'll see that the overwhelming majority is 1366 X 768, but there are plenty lower as well as larger resolutions too. The page is designed to be viewed in a width of 960px. The page will stretch a certain amount if you've got a wider screen, that's to avoid excessive white space on the left and right of the content at high resolutions.

But keeping that in mind, the content looks good in those lower screen resolutions and that's the way we'd prefer to keep it.

So I hope that clears some of the reasoning for that particular decision up - we don't just decide on these things out of thin air

Newaglish

I have to ask, this thread is clearly being read and responded to: what's the story with the Thanks column? Forgive me if I've missed where someone has explained why it's there but I really don't get it.

Dav

Thanks column - pretty simple really, it's another visible element of how popular a given thread is and it's not entirely unreasonable to suggest that it being a "Thumbs Up" icon reminds people of another hugely popular site that uses a thumbs up icon for something similar

WIZE

Dav wrote: »

Thanks column - pretty simple really, it's another visible element of how popular a given thread is and it's not entirely unreasonable to suggest that it being a "Thumbs Up" icon reminds people of another hugely popular site that uses a thumbs up icon for something similar

I dont kow how this works.

1 post could have 200 thanks due to a single Smart ass comment.

or

You could have a Thread with 200 single thanks.

Would it not be a better Idea to use the Viewed count rather then Thanks count?

Boards.ie: Danny

WIZE wrote: »

I dont kow how this works.

1 post could have 200 thanks due to a single Smart ass comment.

or

You could have a Thread with 200 single thanks.

Would it not be a better Idea to use the Viewed count rather then Thanks count?

Views update once per hour, it's not live data.

Danny

Quazzie

Dav wrote: »

Thanks column - pretty simple really, it's another visible element of how popular a given thread is and it's not entirely unreasonable to suggest that it being a "Thumbs Up" icon reminds people of another hugely popular site that uses a thumbs up icon for something similar

Remember that time when ye all played an April's fool trick on us, and released FaceBoards. Is this another one of those things?

WIZE

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

Views update once per hour, it's not live data.

Danny

But "Thanks" does not make a Thread popular as I listed above.
Can you not set the View count to update every 30 sec as an example?

Thread views would be alot more acurate to guage the quality of a thread.