I’ve been sort of digging into what this forum software is like and there are a lot of things that are potentially likeable but they’re mired behind some annoying ‘suggestive’ pop-ups that continue to tell me what I should do, how my topic is similar to something else, or just showing me some irrelevant nonsense that I would rather not deal with.
Now if you go into readability that is also, at least in the current state, poor. I am not sure if this is more of a functionality test than visual right now but all of the font sizes, colors, and handling is nearly the same so all text seems to blend together (see http://usabilitygeek.com/typography-matters-better-visibility/ for some helpful guidelines).
If you take some of this into consideration and make a few seemingly minor changes I think your overall functionality and usability will increase exponentially and you won’t get so much harsh feedback from people who don’t like it but simply can’t explain why appropriately.
…also, some of your category choices are confusing and the category display in general is very boringly linear. You’ve resurrected dead forums and even split them off (WTB/Trade forums for example). You’ve removed meaningful forum sections that encourage people to share and be creative, like the Crime & Punishment section, and the display for categories shares the same problems I mentioned above about typography.
One final gripe: The recruiting forum. I would like to see a tag that would allow us to see at a glance if it is a corporation, alliance, coalition or individual pilot looking. Tags in general would be nice as they’re the new “in” with forums and very useful.
I hope you find the feedback useful and seriously consider what I’ve brought forward. Have a good night, CCP!
Also it’s got an unreasonable amount of client side scripting.
This is quite the battery killer on mobile and completely unneeded for a forum type thing…
So… would you rather see smaller text with serifs or how can we interpret that statement about typography?
I agree that a good font decides the most over readability but I actually like this one. I can read it quite well.
Architecturally, It’s not that simple. Discourse is unique as it’s forum software that mostly runs in the browser - it is a React.js application with a Rails server backend.
Not sure that it will actually prove to be as much of a battery killer as you expect though, the devs have had mobile in mind for a while, and it’s fairly well behaved as far as resource usage. It’s more demanding of the browser in some ways, less in others - it doesn’t load things you probably won’t see, such as parts of a thread that are far away from your current screen position, therefore potentially saving battery life via less radio usage.
This architecture also means being able to do proper push notifications, which should more that make up for that in lowered resource usage. (there’s even a Discourse app for this, if you want to get those notifications without keeping a browser open).
So over the last 24 hours I had discourse open on my phone, both in Google and I used the application as well to receive push notifications. It used less than 5% of my battery
and now please discover media-queries and make 2 designs, please don’t repeat Microsofts errors in pushing a PHONE design onto a desktop that has the exact reversed dimensions … Microsoft failed hard …And had to redo it to become at least usable
So… would you rather see smaller text with serifs or how can we interpret that statement about typography?
You could start by reading the article that I linked. The response you gave shows that you didn’t read it - maybe didn’t even click on it - and then just decided to assume what it was that I intended.
The problem that I have with this layout is that the font sizes and colors are all the same, or so subtly different that it doesn’t matter. From titles to the descriptions beneath the colors blend together. It isn’t that the font isn’t readable in and of itself, it’s that it’s white text, white text, and more white text with no color change to differentiate sections or types of information. That causes it to take longer to pick out specific information you’re looking for such as descriptions of the forum, who posted last, what they posted, etc.
Typography doesn’t cover font type alone but color, sizing, positioning, and other elements such as styling (bold, italics, etc).
I red it.
But it looks to me like most which that article covered was actually considered here.
There are different colors, names e.g are bold, you have different sized textes for subforums…
That’s why I was asking you for an example what you would have changed.
You say minor changes to improve usability. What should those changes be?
Do you want the names bigger? Maybe a different color for closed topics?
I just think it’s very difficult for the responsible people to get what they should change when you give a very general feedback.
well apart from what you tell… the ONLY different colour I see is “blue reply” button - but as I already wrote in another thread … as ccp managed / or discourse has … there are unfortunately 3 different style templates used - which make the “ONE” reply appear in 3 different sizes … which is not good from a design perspective …
on the other hand that is about the only different colour I can detect - except you mean the slightly different coloured ISD / CCPDEV tags ??..
everything else IS indeed light gray or even white … which may improve reading on smartphone displays … but is not eye-friendly on large screens … and you should consider your community plays a game on PC or similar plattforms - and many are using large screens - or more than one to help with immersion …
Some suggestions …
Use media-queries in css - and at least on wide-screen - move the name of the poster together with corp / alliance tag below the pic - this not only saves vertical space for each message but takes VITAL information out of the giant wall of text in larger threads - now ONLY the pic stands a bit out
use alternating background colours (as you seem to like them … different shades of grey) to make it easier to divide large threads into single messages
If you dont move the names … at least make them appear center-aligned with the player picture . it looks unprofessional to have them top-aligned … at least to me
Not at the time of the post it hadn’t been. This was posted before the slight tweaks that changed colors at least a little bit, though I don’t think it’s quite enough.
I did point out what I would like changed, only I didn’t give specific font sizes or colors. I mean I suppose that I could get that detailed but the point should be easily understood without those specifics. [quote=“Mintaki, post:1, topic:4698”]
I am not sure if this is more of a functionality test than visual right now but all of the font sizes, colors, and handling is nearly the same so all text seems to blend together (see Why Typography Matters For Better Visibility - Usability Geek for some helpful guidelines).
[/quote]
(there’s even a Discourse app for this, if you want to get those notifications without keeping a browser open).
