New Look MSE Forum Sneaky Peek Feeback

Important Update:

Thanks for all the great feedback in the now closed new MSE forum thread. I'm glad the vast majority of you like it according to the poll.

• Don't know about this: Read my intro directly underneath which explains what's happened.

• Already seen it: I've started a new thread to help me really. I've been through and collated all the feedback - and responded to it. So I wanted to start a new thread to check anything I've missed rather than seeing lots of duplicates - see the text in this colour below for the collated list.

Original Post

Hi folks,

We're working on a new look for the forum - and the first ALPHA draft is done - we'd like your feedback (please read the notes below first though)

Change to the new look

Change back to the old look (if you want to feel free to stick with the new one - providing you're aware its not 100% finished)

You can switch the looks as often as you like, its no problem

Note the switch is done via a cookie - so if you clear cookies you'll revert to the old look automatically

Notes on the new look

The idea is to brush up the visuals, so they're a little more modern, its been three to four years since we last changed it

We've focused on the colours and lines of the forum rather than the overall design - as we know many forumers don't like too much change (do remember though different monitors view colours different ways).

Once this is done we plan to look at the resource bars and the right hand side too (one step at a time though) - hopefully by the time we go properly live we'll have tidied the resource bars up a bit (see the credit card board for how the tidy up will look - compare it to the debt-free board for the old one) but then we have plans to make the content more relevant to the individual post - but that's a way off.




Feedback we'd like from you?

• What do you think of it?
• Do you prefer it to what we have now (please remember all change takes some getting used to)
• Are there any glitches?
• Is there anything missing?
• Any suggestions for change?
• NOTE: We know the thread stats box isn't fully functioning at the moment - its there so you can see the look

We know we can't please everyone all of the time, but we will do our best to listen to sensible or technically achievable suggestions and promise to incorporate them if we can.

Please try it for a few days before making your mind up

While we welcome glitch feedback and suggestions immediately - in terms of whether you like it, if you instinctively don't please stick with it for a a few days. I've been using it for a week now, and at first it felt very strange and a little uncomfortable - however now if i click back to the old look that looks strange and I much prefer this.

We really want to improve the forum but we're aiming to do it with you - as we know how important it working smoothly is.

Also we may have moved and shifted some functionality (either deliberately or unwittingly) so if there are any negative changes you spot please tell us (or ones you like too)

The Roll Out Plan

This is the testing stage - so expect changes to be made live if you're in the test forum look.

Once we're happy with it we will then turn it on so all members will automatically get this view - however we will then add an option in the user CP so you can turn it back to the old look if you prefer.

Thanks so much for your time - and big plaudits to Ian, Neil, Brendan, Darren, and the others who've been working on this trying to balance a new look with sensitivity to not changing too far.

Martin

Update - My responses to your suggestions.


Hi folks, I've personally been through all your feedback and collated a list of it. If I've missed anything please report it below - though do help me by not re-reporting any of these (though you can discuss my responses).

However I should note, I need to talk to my team about what can and what can't be implemented (and always rememer you can always select the old look if you really hate it).




I've done this in note form - so do forgive any scrappiness.

• Bolding the usernames on the left: Yep we can do that.

• The thanks buttong: Lots of posts about this and how it operates, the fact that its tough to keep track off - yep we can sort that like it used to be – it wasn’t a designed change - we just need to fix it.

• Sub Forums difficulty seeing them in the main menu: We may consider bolding them it should help.

• New Smilies: We can look at that, though its not a priority in the redesign.

• Spam Button: Yes we’ll ensure that’s there as it is now (Im not quite sure how it is now – as I have a slightly different user panel on buttons as I’ve got more options )

• Like it button: The aim is the like it button will be disappearing at some stage soon and we plan to use the 'thanks' for the original post in a thread to be the new marker for the 'wow factor' which will replace the likeability rating we currently have (the factor element will ensure its relevant to the rest of that board - not just absolute thanks). However if we haven’t done that by the time we launch the redesign the like it button will be back as currently.

• Ratings in the grabbit board: Yes they’ll be there one way or another – see the above.

• Mulit-Quote: While there’ve been a few requests to make this button bigger – my view is we already have a lot of buttons and this is an advanced option. So those regular users who need it will know what it is and can use it.

• Avatars: Hopefully they're all now working (let us know below) – if not we’ll ensure you can. I know some don’t like the auto-avatar 'shadowy man' put on for those who don’t have them. Im not wedded to it either way so will chat with the team about whether we can turn it off (think its probably part of the template software).

• Thread stats box. Mixed comments on this – and in a way I knew this would be the most contentious. However this is an important box for the site – for people coming to see the strength and also to help people social network the content (which many have requested). We’ll take a look to see if we can streamline it to take up less space. Also I know someone mentioned difficulties it gave in cutting and pasting content – well I will ask the team to look at that, to make it easier.

• Issues about stickies etc: Sorry folks, for the moment I’m going to concentrate on the design rather than operations issues – one thing at a time

• The Thanks text at the bottom of each post: Some want it more prominent some less. While i think going quite as bold as before isn’t necessary – we can up the font size a touch.

• Option to change black text on white: Hmmm not really thought about this – the fact its too bright, we can look at an option – but probably no this design iterations, we may look at a customisable options going forward.

• Marker for subscribed threads being bigger: OK I must admit I don' t use this function and don’t know what it is – so I can’t comment on it – but we will look at it.

• Split username on posts: Yes I can see that for longer usernames that does happen, but then again making the left smaller has improved the overall dimensions. We will put our heads together about anthing we can do.

• The Traffic Light: Glad you like the traffic light which shows whether a poster is online or not it was quite deliberate (ok I admit i only noticed it when i read the feedback, don’t know if the team added it or it was just in the template J)

• Signatures and the spacing above it and making it a full line: Yes absolutely we’ve lost some space – i had already asked for that to be put back before we put it back for testing – its on the list to do we’ll put it back as was.

• Bigger font size of the links in the green bars: We’ll see if we can increase these slightly – though too much may look strange. We’ll have a play.

• Positioning of the spam button: Yes I think there’s an argument for separating it from the like and thanks as some have requested.

• Hover over of the first post in the main forum menu: Yes you can read that in the old forum not in this one – don’t know why its gone but will see if its possible to bring it back.

• Bigger page numbers: Yep we’re looking at the page number display

• Updating the start here button: Yes, we’re doing that (its actually in my notes introducing the forum about what we’re doing with the resource bar). To see the newer version see the resource bar on the credit card board. However further ahead of that we aim to make the content reflect the page content so the links are more relevant and helpful.

• View status box: Someone wrote this is too big – im afraid I wasn’t quite sure what this referred to – please do let me know.

• Abuse button web form: Thanks for all the notes requesting a web form rather than an email from - on this – though its not a part of this redesign but we are aware of it as an issue and its on the list. The problem is the abuse team management tool (many of the abuse team work outside the office) needs emails to feed it – so its a much bigger change than it seems. Plus the lack of a genuine email that its coming from can make things difficult (especially in contentious libel claims)

• Animated Avatars: Not looked at this at all – i’ll ask the techie team, but I’m not going to prioritise it if its tough.

• Broken missing images on user profiles page: Yep we’ll look at that.

• Justification of the left hand side: Yes I think it probably would be better with the left hand side stuff (user name stats etc) left justified.

• Overlap from the MSE news box: Someone (Triker) wrote “Obviously the 'overlap' from the latest MSE news box needs sorting, but probably been mentioned loads before me.” Acually I don’t know what this means – pls explain.

• Thread stats stats: As said that isn’t fully working yet – however the point about whether it should count the first threads thanks or entire threads thanks is one we will discuss.

• Subsribed thread button: We’ll have a look at whether we can add a button showing what thread’s you’ve subscribed to.

• Make OP look different in a thread: This isn’t a design issue but a technical issue, again its on the fabled list- as is considering auto installing the OP at the top of every subsequent page (either in full or as a drop down) but these are bigger changes than you’d think and therefore not priorities just yet.

• Change the green shading. Some say too dark – some to light – the problem is different monitors render colours a different way. Looking at different ones in the office – it can vary, this is just a classic problem when designing a website, we have to go for the mid-ground.

• Expired button on the comp board: Yes we will do that wasn’t deliberate – are we missing any other buttons – please tell us.

Thank you

I think thats it - thanks for all the feedback - we'll do our best to make it work (though of course there were oppossing views on a few things)

I was delighted to see some who reacted against (thankfully less than one in four) later came back to say after using it for a bit they'd changed their minds. Its really uplifting for us to know this is a popular improvement - with many saying its neater, cleaner and better for the visually impaired.

Do let me know if I've missed anything - or there are other things which people haven't reported.

Martin