<<<Ω>>> Site Design Issues! Post Them Here!

[SIG_Fiend]

First I want to thank you all for sticking with us through this rough patch! Any major site migration is always a big pain, with plenty of potential for LOTS to break. That being said, all we can do is look ahead and attack the problems in a ruthless manner!

The purpose of this thread is for anyone to chime in and detail any site design issues they see. This could be for desktop, tablets, mobile, or anything! I will be actively working on many of these issues, so your feedback can help directly improve the site in fairly short order!

The name of the game these days is what's called "responsive design". In essence, a website should be built well enough for that design to be able to self-adjust to various browser sizes and device types. The days of separate mobile websites and requiring an app just to browse a fairly standard website are quickly coming to an end.

It's for this reason, for those of you regularly on your mobile devices, I'd recommend giving the standard site a try a bit more. Who knows, you may even end up wanting to ditch Tapatalk after awhile! An app is one more barrier between you and the content. Ain't nobody got time 'fo that! If we can help you make that transition by improving the site itself, let's do it!

Responsive Design

What you'll notice with this site and many others built on modern frameworks, is that components of the site will move around to conform to your browser size. For example, the sidebar. On mobile, it shifts to below the main content area, for convenience, since content is the focus.

What we need to figure out is, where are there issues in how the site is responding, that might make for a poor experience for many of you under different circumstances. Mobile navigation and mobile readability are two pain points I know we'll need work on. Color and contrast are some other big ones, that can really make or break the experience.

Design Issues To Check

What we could really use help with is letting us know any weird, glitchy, or generally poor site design behavior you're experiencing. The input helps us immensely! Please don't feel like it's a bother, as we appreciate the feedback. Also, if you have a condition or disability and are using a screen reader, browser magnification device, or browser configuration that's a bit different, we'd REALLY be curious to hear about any issues you may have. Here are some key areas we'd love to know about:

• What type of device and browser you're using?
• What area or component of the site do you notice a particular problem?
• Are there colors or poor contrast of colors that you dislike?
• Have any problems with font size, color, or readability of text? If so, what area/component?
• Does the site look "squished" and hard to read or navigate on your mobile device? If so, what part of the site? (Please don't say "ALL OF IT" )

User Experience Issues

Things may look relatively fine, but how's the experience when interacting with them? With this site software, there's a LOT of added functionality and interactive components in comparison to the last version of the site. You'll notice a lot of components that expand or change merely by hovering over them, such as the activity / communications bar on the top right of the site. This is great, but we have to make sure it works for YOU and isn't a pain to deal with! Areas to look at:

• Is there a site component you're looking for but can't find? (PM's, certain menus, etc.)
• Are there site components or navigation items you feel are redundant or unnecessary?
• Are there any components or tools (post editor, private message menus, etc.) that aren't working properly for you?

Areas I've Started Attacking

I'm definitely on to the color/contrast issues at the moment. This evening, I just darkened the background color of the main content area. Let me know if you all like or hate it! Some of the other areas I'm actively working on:

• Hiding unnecessary / unwanted elements on mobile, to streamline the appearance
• Removing unnecessary styling for all browser sizes, for more of a minimalist experience (unnecessary borders, padding, margins, spacing, etc).
• Other stuff I can't remember at the moment.

 

[Dawico]

So will you be ditching the mobile browser and just sticking to the desktop view? Is that the goal here?

 

[Dawico]

On my phone the mobile browser puts the ads at the bottom. If I click into the desktop view the ads are a sidebar again.

I can actually read the posts now without having to zoom in though. That is a big improvement.

Honestly I have never liked the mobile browser.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

By "mobile browser", are you referring to Tapatalk?

As far as mobile, that's the typical behavior of most sites to shift the sidebar below the main content area, as it's less important. Only so much room on mobile. I'll be tweaking some spacing for the main content area (posts, post list, etc.) for mobile here in a bit, as I'm still not happy with it. It's better, but still too squished in my opinion.

*UPDATE*

Making some mobile tweaks. Removed a bit of padding and some unnecessary borders for some of the main areas of the site (forum category pages, thread listings, etc.).

@ZX9RCAM, you asked, so here it is! Changed the quoted user's name in post quotes to be a bit more bold and easy to distinguish.

Also, as has been mentioned before, would it be possible to make the name of persons quoted to be changed to a more visible color?

Also, one big change is, for mobile devices 480px or below, I hid the gray thread status column that's on the left of forum thread listing pages. This will hopefully eliminate some wasted space and make it a bit easier to browse thread listings. Please let me know if you like or dislike this change, as we can always change it back if enough of you don't like it. For reference, this is the column I'm talking about:

 

[AustinN4]

As a desktop PC user, I am liking the current tweaked version of the SW a lot. It is so much easier to read than the old SW.

It isn't a big deal to me, but the only thing I am noticing now is that the sidebar seems too large (wide) to me and I rarely use it for anything anyway. For others it might matter, but for me I would like to see it less wide with the gain in screen real estate give to the posts making them wider.

There is also lots of wasted space below the poster's avatar area on the left side of a post especially when it is a longer one. See your own post #4 above and all that wasted white space below your avatar box. Perhaps there is a way to make the text extend all the way left once it clears the avatar box?

Thanks for are the work you guys are putting in on this.

 

[Dawico]

By "mobile browser", are you referring to Tapatalk?

No. I have three versions. Tapatalk, mobile browser, and desktop.

 

[Dawico]

No. I have three versions. Tapatalk, mobile browser, and desktop.

TaT, mobile, and desktop.

And honestly, until the other versions make posting a picture as simple as TaT does, you won't get me away from it.

 

[Younggun]

Also a TaT junky, and the easy upload to off site media storage is a big part of that.


That being said, I'm scrolling around the mobile site using chrome on IOS right now and it's a major improvement on the old version.

One thing I found slightly inconvenient: after reading or posting I have to scroll back to the top to find the "new post" button again. A new post button near the reply box, or a "to the top" button would be nice if it's workable. Hitting the back button on the browser works but it doesn't remove the thread I just looked at from the listing.

Small potatos, just throwing it out there.

 

[Younggun]

Never mind, I just figured it out with the red arrows that appear on the left. Works perfectly.

 

[BRD@66]

​

First I want to thank you all for sticking with us through this rough patch! Any major site migration is always a big pain, with plenty of potential for LOTS to break. That being said, all we can do is look ahead and attack the problems in a ruthless manner!

Hang in there Bud. You're doing good.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

And honestly, until the other versions make posting a picture as simple as TaT does, you won't get me away from it.

Awesome. Thanks for the head's up on that, and I really appreciate the screenshots! I wasn't aware of that, so that's important to know, and something we may be able to find some options for improving the upload functionality.

Considering that, is there any other functionality about Tapatalk that you all prefer over the mobile version of the site currently. I know it's a bit soon and things are fluid, but if we can tweak something to make the site naturally reflect the way you prefer to use it, I'm more than happy to try.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

As a desktop PC user, I am liking the current tweaked version of the SW a lot. It is so much easier to read than the old SW.

It isn't a big deal to me, but the only thing I am noticing now is that the sidebar seems too large (wide) to me and I rarely use it for anything anyway. For others it might matter, but for me I would like to see it less wide with the gain in screen real estate give to the posts making them wider.

There is also lots of wasted space below the poster's avatar area on the left side of a post especially when it is a longer one. See your own post #4 above and all that wasted white space below your avatar box. Perhaps there is a way to make the text extend all the way left once it clears the avatar box?

Thanks for are the work you guys are putting in on this.

Hmm, I see what you mean about the empty space under the avatar. I'll see if there are some creative Xenforo designs out there, or some settings we can tweak to improve it.

One of the things I thought I should mention is, there's actually a ton of science behind content width and its effect on readability. I think that's one of the reasons the current version of the site (at least in my opinion) looks easier to read than the previous one. A lot of it comes from the print media world, and as far back as I think a good century or so.

In short, once you get past a certain width, each line tends to start bleeding together. In these circumstances, you'll notice that as you scan and move to the next line, often you'll end up starting back on the same line because it's really difficult to tell which line is the next one. So I want to make sure we don't negatively effect that.

That being said, maybe it might be beneficial if we add some more useful elements to the sidebar, that people might actually like. The banners are going nowhere, as the site needs to pay its bills. Though, what about something like a "Related Posts" widget, with posts from the particular category you're within? I can't think of any others at the moment, but I'm sure there's a number of other things that might be useful in that place.

 

[easy rider]

Hope you don't mind a compliment on this thread. At first I didn't like it much at all, but with the improvements and just getting used to it, I really do like this better. Keep up the good work SIG_Fiend.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

Thanks! I appreciate it. One of the things I quite like about this forum software is the "feedback" the system gives you. Things like the "activity" tabs at the top right of the screen. It's nice to have a simple and prominent display of messages you might have, feedback, quotes, and likes people are giving you, etc. It can really help drive the conversation so things don't get too stagnant, as they do on so many forums.

 

[majormadmax]

Concur with easy rider's compliment, any major change will have some growing pains; but it was pretty easy and quick to adjust to especially thanks to the efforts of the admins, and if these keeps us safe from another major hack like the one we had a few years back, then it's for the best!

 

[ROGER4314]

I had an album in my profile that was gobbled up in the changeover. It was fairly popular with over 20,000 views. I miss that album. Is it gone forever?

Flash

 

[majormadmax]

How do we report posts? There's a member on here advertising for TxGunRange in Midlothian who is not a vendor.

 

[Dawico]

How do we report posts? There's a member on here advertising for TxGunRange in Midlothian who is not a vendor.

I reported it via TaT but had to go to desktop view to see their status (member/ sponsor/ etc.).

I wish TaT would still show that information if I clicked on their profile.

 

[texcross]

How do we report posts? There's a member on here advertising for TxGunRange in Midlothian who is not a vendor.

have them PM me, to be on the range site is free...

 

[texcross]

I had an album in my profile that was gobbled up in the changeover. It was fairly popular with over 20,000 views. I miss that album. Is it gone forever?

Flash

still have them will get on that