Maintenance 14/10/2013

edited in Association News
As you can see we have a new look-and-feel!

A big thank you to @Nitrogen for putting it together with help from @Tuism and everybody else who provided feedback and comment.

There might still be a few tweaks here and there but otherwise please report any problems here (ideally with a screenshot) so it can be fixed.

Comments

  • Awesome! Thanks @Fengol, @Nitrogen, @Tuism, and everybody.
  • Aww, yeah. So much better. ^_^
  • Awwww yiss. So much of clean :) Favicon! :D
  • so go to that page upstairs, force refresh (control F5 on PC, shift command R on mac chrome)
    and then come back to this page and forch refresh
    just force refresh everything forever.
    Took me a couple of tries but it does change :P
  • edited
    Ah, had to clear my cache completely, but the favicon looks good now!

    There are still a few bugs in the design here and there, I'll probably send @Fengol an update in a day or two.
  • Looking GOOOOOOD guys
  • I REALLY wish the notifications thing would go away once you have read an incoming message...
  • There is no pleasing the Tu. :P

    But yeah the more I poke around Vanilla, the more it doesnt seem mature enough solution for a large forum yet... I think it should be sufficient for our uses for the next long while though.
  • edited
    Yeah, I'm a critic :P When they say everyone, they actually mean me :P

    But seriously, what is the point of the notifications thing even? The inbox gets a little bubble, cool, I go read it. Then the bubble still hangs around notifications. Why not just switch it off @_@
  • edited
    The notification popup thing is designed for when you stay on one page for a long time without refreshing.
    The inbox bubble only happens when you refresh.

    So that was the logic behind it, but they didnt make the two systems work in sync with each other.

    EDIT: Oh you mean the notifications area of your dashboard - yeah that is very bizzare.
  • OK just to add to the voices of the people...

    Yeah I think the "1NEW" thing should be red too :P
  • can we do a 'mark all selected as read'?
  • edited
    There is actually a mark all read button that Fengol can enable, but its indiscriminate, removing all new notifications.

    For the latest on the restyle, have a look at the other thread, ive made red notifications.
  • Actually that mark all read indiscriminately removing all notifications is one better than right now where I have to go and put pointless notifications off under that button with my username on :P
  • Sorry, I'm not using the proper terms here - it removes only the "1 New" thing next to each discussion on the discussions page - not the notifications in your inbox or your notifications area.
  • Well this is nice :D

    Why don't you clean up your front page a bit? It looks a bit cluttered. Maybe make it splash-style, saving the header for the other pages, kinda like this: ...*procrastinates*

    Think big logo :P
  • The front page is going to need a completely new design - it's not even stylable at the moment - and I should be working on my competition entry :P
  • Exxxxactly, we'll work on the front page later, right now we all have games to make with the time we have! :P
  • @Nitrogen @Tuism While I can't actually make games (lack of resources and language speed while I learn C++) I could work on the front page, maybe, if I may. :3
  • I especially want an indiscriminate 'mark all read' button. I tend to read threads I'm interested in then open-and-close all the others on the front page just so that the notifications go away.
  • I especially want an indiscriminate 'mark all read' button. I tend to read threads I'm interested in then open-and-close all the others on the front page just so that the notifications go away.
    Yup, thats pretty much what I would do if I wasnt too lazy to open all the other threads :P

  • Sorry @GraviPy but I'm putting a veto on any homepage updates until we get the theme locked down and figure out from our chairman everything that is required by law (we're officially an NPO) to put on there. Plus I have a tonne of ideas myself as well as our social manager @Bensonance churning out content at a rate of knots.
  • Are we still holding on the latest round of changes to update? :)
  • Fengol said:
    Sorry @GraviPy but I'm putting a veto on any homepage updates until we get the theme locked down and figure out from our chairman everything that is required by law (we're officially an NPO) to put on there. Plus I have a tonne of ideas myself as well as our social manager @Bensonance churning out content at a rate of knots.
    Ah, okay. :)

  • Tuism said:
    Are we still holding on the latest round of changes to update? :)
    No I'll be sending those to Fengol shortly.
  • Ahhhh! Something I've noticed - can we put the latest poster in the thread NEXT TO the (NEW 1) thing as it should? It makes perfect sense - I see there's a new post or 10 or whatever, then the next thing I see should be that new poster's name, not the original starter.

    So just swap the two right now so that the original poster is to the right and the lastest poster is next to NEW 1 :)
    Thanked by 1creative630
  • edited
    Okay, and then what about the date - which is the date that the last person commented? That's okay to be left next to the "Started By"?
  • @Tuism basically what Nitrogen said.

    But to add my extra 2c, moving the newest post to the left (and thus the date of the post) will make the left rather text heavy and possibly clutter.

    Also we read chronologically from left to right, so having OP on the left, and the newest on the right makes sense.

    I believe that being unused to how it is right now is simply because the forum only had the most recent poster so we have an exposure bias to assume the left is the latest poster. In a week or so the new layout should be normal and easy to comprehend.
  • edited
    @Karuji I think its more natural to look at the closest thing to the "1 new" message. So seeing a name (and not necessarily the "started by") next to the "1 new", people automatically think they are linked. Though I agree that the date etc. on the left would be cluttered (and wrong), I think it would be far less disorienting than it is now (I keep looking for the wrong person at the bottom of the thread and get quite confused). Could we at least try a different mock-up to compare?
  • I also don't like the OP on the left because when I look at the info I want to know the latest post much more than who the OP was. Or at least more often I want to know who the latest was - I want to know the OP once or twice.

    The left would only get heavy if the date timestamp was left in the bold, bigger font. If the time/date changes to the same size and weight it wouldn't seem heavy. The overall effect is moving the gap further right.

    I think that's fine.
  • @creative630 and what if the "1New" was placed after the OP so the flow of reading would go

    Thread,
    by person, new post --- horizontal space --- by new person.

    I think keeping the new on the left is better*, but if it is found too confusing then I would suggest moving it to the right, because reorganizing how the poster of the thread are would honestly make things MORE confusing.

    And like I said any current discomfort is from exposure bias and will take time to get used to.

    *When I am talking about keeping the 1 new on the left I am referring to its general space not how it is in specificity to the OP
  • Hmm, I think they do have a point though, anything that is right aligned should be less important info because it's outside of your normal viewing pattern (down the left hand side of the page).

    I'll try just swapping the Started By and Most Recent By around, and see if it's not too bad.

    I think I'll put the date format back to how it was as well, but with a tooltip on rollover (like how Started By works now). That way, things are less cluttered.
  • The "new" element could be moved all the way to the right, maybe?
  • dislekcia said:
    The "new" element could be moved all the way to the right, maybe?
    Then you're removing a vital piece of info outside of the normal viewing pattern.

    No, I dont think it'll be a trainsmash to swap them around like @Tuism suggested.
  • edited
    I like @dislekcia's idea :)

    Edit: @Nitrogen Would it be that bad though?
  • edited
    @Nitrogen I guess I'll be happy to wait see what you come up with first, thanks
    Thanked by 1Nitrogen
  • If moving (NEW 1) to the right, you're now navigating the title on the left, then shifting to the right to see if there's sometihng new.

    Or you scan on the right for new stuff, the shift your eye back to the left to see the title is something you're interested in. For multiple items, that'd suck.

    So I don't think that's a good idea.
    Thanked by 1Nitrogen
  • edited
    @creative630, @dislekcia: exactly what @Tuism said. It's a bit of a pain to switch back and forth between title on the left and info on the right.

    In any case, I'll try both and try to persuade you why I think my/Tuisms way is better :)
  • edited
    Okay, 4 options:

    Option 1
    Thread author just after category label.
    image
    Cons: Potentially ambiguous thread author, lots of information packed onto the left side.



    Option 2
    Swap Most Recent and Started By
    image
    Pros: Most like the current design, related information grouped together (mostly), good balance.
    Cons: Most Recent date is all the way on the right side, Most recent author on the left.



    Option 3
    Move thread author to the top right.
    image
    Pros: Clean and balanced
    Cons: Potentially ambiguous, fights for space with the "Options" rollover box.



    Option 4
    Move "New" to the right
    image
    Pros: Very clean on the left side.
    Cons: Forces your eye to constantly shift between left and right side.



    option1.jpg
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    option2.jpg
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    option3.jpg
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    option4.jpg
    1055 x 372 - 115K
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • o_O So many choices :) I think I vote for number 3!
    Thanked by 1D3zmodos
  • I vote 3 as well
  • I like 2. I don't think either of those "cons" are really cons. :)
    • I do like option 1 although as you say, it's a bit cluttered on the left.
    • Option 2 is nice, but because it says "started by slaymantis 19:56 14 Oct 2013", it's kind of implies that the date is the start date, and not the most recent comment date.
    • I think Option 3 solves the problem of option 2.
    • I don't like option 4 at all.
    So my vote goes for option 3.
  • I think fighting for space with the Options rollover is a bigger problem than confusion over the meaning of the date.

    But I don't really mind either way.
  • edited
    2 for the most clarity!!
    3's post starter name next to the star is ambiguous. Star Hanli?

    But just move the timestamp of latest post to after most recent and change its font to the same as everything else. Why does it need to be in a higher weight?
  • If 3, then there should be a "by" in front of the original creator's name. And just make sure that if the thread name goes too long it doesn't break the formatting. The date to the right looks like when the thread's started though. Just make it smaller (same as the rest) font and put it after the most recent poster, which is in a diffent colour anyway.
  • Reporting in :)

    I assume the profile page isn't suppose to look like this :P

    image
    Screen Shot 2013-10-18 at 4.38.12 PM.png
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