Forum ergonomics
Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)
Posts: 23,514
I know this is way down the list of critical issues; but, OTOH, it's low-hanging fruit, so here goes...
The old forum had good ergonomics. The screen was filled edge-to-edge with useful stuff, without a lot of wasted space, and the number mouse of clicks required to navigate its functions was minimal. The new forum needs some help in this regard. On the home page, the logos in the lefthand column are too big and force the row heights to be taller than they need to be. Here's a side-by-side comparison of our forum with another vBulletin forum at FutureQuest.net:
Notice how many more rows are packed into the same vertical space.
The individual forums don't suffer the "tall row" issue, but there's a tremendous amount of space wasted in the heading, as the following illustrates:
I would also suggest moving the "Mark Forum Read" selection from the drop-down box to its own button, if possible. The number of extraneous mouse clicks this could eliminate in one day is enormous! If it could redirect back to the forum main page, like the old one did, that would be nice as well.
Others have noted that the colors are a bit jarring and uninviting. I have to agree. The forum isn't a fashion plate, but a place where we go to exchange ideas. The more neutral the color scheme, the better.
Finally (for now), when we do get avatars, it will be necessary to return the user data in each post to the sidebar, as it was in the old forum, rather than in the row above the post. Otherwise too much verttical space will be wasted. I would not object, however, to a smaller size limit on avatars.
Thanks,
-Phil
The old forum had good ergonomics. The screen was filled edge-to-edge with useful stuff, without a lot of wasted space, and the number mouse of clicks required to navigate its functions was minimal. The new forum needs some help in this regard. On the home page, the logos in the lefthand column are too big and force the row heights to be taller than they need to be. Here's a side-by-side comparison of our forum with another vBulletin forum at FutureQuest.net:
Notice how many more rows are packed into the same vertical space.
The individual forums don't suffer the "tall row" issue, but there's a tremendous amount of space wasted in the heading, as the following illustrates:
I would also suggest moving the "Mark Forum Read" selection from the drop-down box to its own button, if possible. The number of extraneous mouse clicks this could eliminate in one day is enormous! If it could redirect back to the forum main page, like the old one did, that would be nice as well.
Others have noted that the colors are a bit jarring and uninviting. I have to agree. The forum isn't a fashion plate, but a place where we go to exchange ideas. The more neutral the color scheme, the better.
Finally (for now), when we do get avatars, it will be necessary to return the user data in each post to the sidebar, as it was in the old forum, rather than in the row above the post. Otherwise too much verttical space will be wasted. I would not object, however, to a smaller size limit on avatars.
Thanks,
-Phil
Comments
IMHO, the saturation and intensity levels are in the middle of the range, and that limits contrast for the common text colors; namely, black, blue and red.
Also, the editor screen color is different from the forum color, in both intensity and hue. IMHO, WYSIWYG really works well when this isn't the case.
The larger, bolder look costs more screen real-estate, and I would prefer smaller, however I see that as just an adjustment more than anything else. Those, who want to, can always choose the next smaller sized font and roll that way with no worries, other than being a bit out of place.
The overall scheme is coherent, but not optimal for the task of reading and writing.
Ideally, fairly bright (recommended), or fairly dark background colors, with a very low, or no saturation level, are best for text.
Strange, but when I'm in the editor, I feel like I'm on a Sun workstation... Always preferred the SGI machines, because they got that right :-)