New Look Forum - Navigation Suggestions Thread

MSE_Martin

Hi folks

The new look forum has been in a couple of weeks now, and we're very pleased with the overall performance (less bounce rate so its definitely effective) and the enormous majority of people have stuck with it.

However I know there are a few glitches and niggles people don't like. So I'd like to ask for suggestions.

Note This is not about design changes, look, button sizes.

Its purely navigation changes, things that you do which were easier under the old forum, that we may be able to change without too much problem.

Do remember many things aren't easy to do as this is off the peg forum software. But I want to try and fix any annoying niggles if possible.

Martin

kermitfrog

To Forum Jump without having to press the 'Go' button would be nice, thanks.

MSE_Martin

kermitfrog wrote: »

To Forum Jump without having to press the 'Go' button would be nice, thanks.

Makes me laugh as thats what we did originally until we were swamped with objections

fire**fly

have to admit i'm loving the new one, had a few probs at first but thanks to all your team was soon sorted, thank you

morag1202

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Makes me laugh as thats what we did originally until we were swamped with objections

Martin, before the changes we were able to either hit the 'go' button and get back to the board we were viewing (useful if you had just read 6 pages and did not fancy hitting the back button 6 times) or select a new forum and be directed there without having to then press 'go'.

When you first introduced the changes you omitted the 'go' button and retained the 'instant jump' bit. I and many others objected because without the 'go' button, the only ways to get back to the board we were on was to hit the back button (repeatedly) or scroll up to the crumb trail.

Fine, you gave us back the 'go' button but you removed the instant 'jump to another forum' facility.

Sorry Martin, but we are a greedy lot, we want both just like it was before you made the changes!

I know you don't want discussion on size of buttons but for many of your older (and possibly disabled users) the little white arrows make navigation much more difficult and impossible if using an iphone. The old blue ones were fine and still appear in quoted posts (as above) so surely it can't be that hard to change?

I do like the way you have changed the look and will stick with it but these two things would make it so much better. Thanks for a great site.

espresso

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi folks, as you can probably see we've launched a major cosmetic revamp of the MSE forum, the first in four years.

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Its purely navigation changes, things that you do which were easier under the old forum, that we may be able to change without too much problem.

Do remember many things aren't easy to do as this is off the peg forum software. But I want to try and fix any annoying niggles if possible.

Martin

morag1202 wrote: »

Martin, before the changes we were able to either hit the 'go' button and get back to the board we were viewing (useful if you had just read 6 pages and did not fancy hitting the back button 6 times) or select a new forum and be directed there without having to then press 'go'.

As the recent changes are cosmetic, why was it necessary to change the functionality of the forum jump facility, which previously worked very well?

morag1202 has explained the current situation very well for those who don't make frequent use the forum jump facility, which is now very frustrating to use and effectively broken.

Surely common sense can prevail here and the previous easy to use implementation restored.

Lotus-eater

kermitfrog wrote: »

To Forum Jump without having to press the 'Go' button would be nice, thanks.

Agreed and also the annoyance of having to use the new subscription jump. It used to be a simple pull down menu to get to this, now if you are somewhere near the bottom of the forums, you click on the box and have to scroll all the way to the top before you then click go, which I always forget.
I also don't like where it is, too far up and too far to the right.

OK, you can ignore that, I've just found the quicklinks far to the right on my screen, the whole green bar has been moved right across on Firefox. The important message also runs down where the green bar should be and the "moneysavers" also falls down into that area. But to be fair it was already doing that before the change.

dunstonh

Sort of navigation.....

The forum has new posts/forum has no new posts Icons are not showing on the forums lists.

For example, click on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4 to get the pure money sections. At the bottom left (under the forum table) you have the two icons with explanation on whether there are no new forums posts or there are new forum posts. However, the forum list doesnt show either of those icons.

I used those icons originally and would not "navigate" to the forum if there were no new posts since last visit. (told you there was a navigate link - albeit tenuous). Now, you have to open every forum you want to visit to see if there are new posts or not. From my point of view it adds a bit of time but from your point of view it adds a load on the server.

marleyboy

Is there any chance of having a little tick mark or something to say whether you have posted in a thread or not?

Way back when, you used to offer this facility and it proved very useful when navigating the threads.

fermi

marleyboy wrote: »

Is there any chance of having a little tick mark or something to say whether you have posted in a thread or not?

Way back when, you used to offer this facility and it proved very useful when navigating the threads.

It is still there. The arrow in this icon on the left means that you have replied to that thread.

Or do you mean this one? ->

That one means you are subscribed to a thread, and has been replaced by this. ->

What you may have had, is your options set so that you automatically subscribe to all threads you reply to? Giving you that tick on all of them?

(FAO MSE: These icons are still pretty useless compared to the old ones. Please change them to something better.)

espresso

Many thanks for restoring the Forum Jump feature to as it was previously - not having to click the Go button each time.

:T