New Forum Design: Official Feedback Thread

[meyerweb#CB]

Sorry I'm referencing an earlier post above from the moderator team leader that indicated the devs had said that the style picker was there by mistake and would be going away rather than being made functional.

Thanks, but I still don't see the 'x' to use space better.

 

[Almeuit]

Wrong answer. Don't get rid of it, make it work. Doesn't appear MoNa is really listening.




Don't see an x in the top right? Can you be more descriptive, please?

They're listening but as I said previously they don't want to support two themes due to manpower. The previous theme at one point had issues as well.. they built and fixed it over time to get it to where it is / was today.

 

[Snareman]

I have the same problem with the quick reply thing. Nothing registers when I try and type in the box. I thought it was just me.

I don't have an X in the corner either.

 

[mogelijk]

I have the same problem with the quick reply thing. Nothing registers when I try and type in the box. I thought it was just me.

I don't have an X in the corner either.

I think what was referred to is not an "X" but a caret. I had a ">" instead of an "x" that, when I hit it, made the posts fill most of the horizontal space, and the > changed to "Reveal News."

 

[Snareman]

I think what was referred to is not an "X" but a caret. I had a ">" instead of an "x" that, when I hit it, made the posts fill most of the horizontal space, and the > changed to "Reveal News."

Ah, yes. Thanks. That's a little better. I guess you can't expect it to fill up too much of the screen with a 27" monitor.

 

[Kage_]

I really disklike the new forum layout. The color scheme is distracting and it's difficult to distinguish the forums. Also, the spacing had made it where I have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the content I want. The old layout was a bit like this, but everything was a lot more compact so it didnt as long.

If we could change the color scheme and have a compact version that would be great.

 

[bjrosen]

New Forum Format Sucks

I hate this new low density forum format, please go back to the old UI.

 

[Aquila]

Re: New Forum Format Sucks

I hate this new low density forum format, please go back to the old UI.

That's not going to happen, but do you have any constructive feedback for ways to improve the new UI?

 

[bjrosen]

Re: New Forum Format Sucks

Make it wider and narrower. The font is way too big and the width is too small. Titles should be able to fit on one line.

 

[Aquila]

If you see this icon out here:



Clicking on that expands it to take up more of the screen.

 

[Almeuit]

Cleaned up some posts. Let's keep it on topic and provide helpful feedback to make the forums better and not bicker with each other -- that isn't what this thread is for .

Thanks.

 

[Mooncatt]

While not feedback on the design, this is intended to be constructive criticism of the process.

"If it ain't broke, why fix it?"

That's been the sentiment from a lot of members here. We didn't see any reason to change the forums and they operated pretty well. There wasn't much reason to change.

Obviously those in charge think otherwise, and to the users (especially those vocal against this), it's coming off as if the site is being changed simply for the sake of change. That's not really a good reason in my book, and a very bad one when said changes are hindering the user experience.

So my suggestion is for some transparency. Why the change? What are the intended goals? I may not agree with the reasoning behind this, but I'm better able to at least accept it if i understand it. Right now the impression I'm getting is the developers and such are going to do what they want and anyone that disagrees may as well keep quiet and go sit in the corner.

I'm not saying this is intentional, but it's how things are coming off from what I'm reading. I've been mostly ambivalent to the new design since I rarely access the site from a browser, but the attitudes expressed here are making me hate how it's being handled.

 

[Aquila]

While not feedback on the design, this is intended to be constructive criticism of the process.

"If it ain't broke, why fix it?"

That's been the sentiment from a lot of members here. We didn't see any reason to change the forums and they operated pretty well. There wasn't much reason to change.

Obviously those in charge think otherwise, and to the users (especially those vocal against this), it's coming off as if the site is being changed simply for the sake of change. That's not really a good reason in my book, and a very bad one when said changes are hindering the user experience.

So my suggestion is for some transparency. Why the change? What are the intended goals? I may not agree with the reasoning behind this, but I'm better able to at least accept it if i understand it. Right now the impression I'm getting is the developers and such are going to do what they want and anyone that disagrees may as well keep quiet and go sit in the corner.

I'm not saying this is intentional, but it's how things are coming off from what I'm reading. I've been mostly ambivalent to the new design since I rarely access the site from a browser, but the attitudes expressed here are making me hate how it's being handled.

Agree 100% on the transparency. I'd love to know the thought process behind it. It's obvious they wanted to standardize the look and feel across multiple device types and to bring it up to modern design standards - both if those things have to happen in order to compete. But it'd be great to have a better understanding of the thought process for how that idea translates into what we see.

I disagree that they are going to do what they want without considering user feedback. This thread and the public and private betas all exist(ed) for the express purpose of showing off the UI and getting user input on how to improve it. I'm also in disagreement that they're telling everyone to accept it and shut up. The devs have hardly said anything directly, they're working in the background and it's more the silence that frustrates me - I haven't seen anyone being told to keep their thoughts to themselves.

 

[Aquila]

Amend the above to say I'd rather have the shot callers telling us the vision, rather than the devs. Devs have work to do

 

[Mooncatt]

It's obvious they wanted to standardize the look and feel across multiple device types and to bring it up to modern design standards

And what are these "modern design standards?" If it's creating a layout that's more compatible with multiple display formats, OK fine. That's understandable. If it's to use flat, poorly contrasting colors that make it hard to read, then I say the heck with the standards and whoever decided them. I think a lot of improvement could be made simply by revamping the color palette. Had I known a public beta was up before it went fully live, I would have voiced this concern then when it could have been more easily addressed.

 

[Aquila]

And what are these "modern design standards?" If it's creating a layout that's more compatible with multiple display formats, OK fine. That's understandable. If it's to use flat, poorly contrasting colors that make it hard to read, then I say the heck with the standards and whoever decided them. I think a lot of improvement could be made simply by revamping the color palette. Had I known a public beta was up before it went fully live, I would have voiced this concern then when it could have been more easily addressed.

Flat UI is part of it, but there's no requirement to use certain colors, fonts, etc. This thread here is a great place to add suggestions still. For the palettes, I'd recommend they take a page from MS Office 365 and other sites that have successfully gone flat without too much functional difference.

 

[Mooncatt]

I never thought the flat look was all that great, but I do like how it's done at http://www.helifreak.com where i used to participate. The colors are simple, yet effective.

 

[David Lundblad]

Hey everyone - let me try and respond to some of the recent questions.

This seems like change for the sake of change!
Not at all - we've planned this change for the last year with some very specific objectives in mind. We have a very limited dev team and over 10 full sites to manage so if something does not need change...it does not get changed. You can read some of our reasoning here: Our new forums are here! | Android Central

Our absolute main objective was to make the forums more accessible to users who are not used to VBulletin style forums - or more hardcore Forums in general - without loosing any core functionality. We particularly wanted to be more welcoming to traffic coming directly from Google (over 85% of our Forum traffic).

One week in we see that we have improved our Bounce Rate from 37% to 10% - this is a huge improvement and means that thousands more visitors are staying long enough to actually read the content of a Thread.

In addition our code foundation was very old and tough to work with so new features or big fixes were left on the back burner and never got done. A great example of this is the new Dark Theme - something we were able to turn around very quickly thanks to the new code base and style.

So two simple objectives - make Forums appeal to non-forum visitors and update an aging code base.

I hate how this is being handled - you are just doing what you want
We have run a closed Beta for 2 months and an open Beta people could access for the last month. We’ve gathered pages and pages of feedback. Some of it here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/si...ack-thread-new-forum-design-beta-version.html

We’ve also had a private Slack chat room with 40 moderators and ambassadors for the last 2 months where they have given their ideas and feedback

It’s so broken I cannot use it
This is categorically not true but we understand some things are still not working as they are supposed to. This is part of the pain of any launch. We had a perfect working Staging environment but when we pushed live we still saw many issues. This is an issue of course and our developers have worked long days for the last week to fix what is broken.

We also struggled to test everything - there are features some of you use that did not even come up in our 2 month beta testing - VB is pretty complex…we are tackling these as fast as we can.

Everything is too big
It appears as if most people complaining about this were actually using the full Desktop version of the old forums on the mobile. We did not expect this but are building a way for you to force the Desktop version whatever device you are on.

Too Long Did Not Read
The redesign had some very good reasons for happening or it would not have happened - we are working hard to deal with features that broke when we pushed live.

 

[Sam_Gs7]

Hi Friends = Amigos wanna hear the latest Sammy feedback about
what.? The new AC-GUI design! : They made some changes I see

the Front page, before you Sign In all the options of each SubForum
appears vertical now, easier to Read but still those black

tiny icons to signify links-But those black mini bubbles
why to keep it explain Please..

Still the Light blue backround on the AC-App new design
doesn't make contrast, with the blue colour of
the Text--is that difficult change to a more
blue like the desktop Microsoft light blue

To finish Yeah! Is time.!? Wanto give Kudos to whom
Almeuit + Aquila who have defended the Changes & listen
advice on How to improved,.and Here We're with an AC-GUI
almost the same as the former Style..Huhuu!

 

[nahoku]

I've been following this thread although I haven't posted anywhere on AC since they changed the style.

The problem isn't so much that no one likes the new style, it's the functionality of the style (to include the visual aspect). If AC just wanted to make it look nice, then I don't think anyone would have a problem with it. But to take away the functionality, make the lists take up more space (more scrolling), and basically break the site... that's a big problem. This site is following material design almost to a tee, and as Aquila stated in another thread...

I don't think the world is yet aware that material design is a failure. It seems to be the direction that the web is going almost across the board.

I happen to agree!

Many people who say they like the new layout, don't post to questions asked (going by post counts) and have probably not used the old layout as a result. The people who are regulars here want/need the functionality and that's why the complaints to allow AC 2012. It can't be that difficult to see from reading all the feedback threads. This just has to be obvious!

Things that are broken needs to get fixed, and why they even dropped them in the first place leads to speculation of an unknown agenda. Has anyone ever wondered why Google continually hide things with every update? Sorry, that was off topic, but it makes you wonder!

Truthfully, I would have "almost" no problem with the new layout if everything still worked.

Put "all" the functionality back in... and just give AC a facelift. By the way, "all" is inclusive, if you don't know what that means, run AC 2012.

As for feedback...

1) On the main page of each forum... change the font. It's difficult to read and looks raggedy on a desktop.
2) Actually use white or black fonts (maybe they are but can't tell on the style background). Whatever it is, get rid of the unsaturated colors.
3) I actually like "blue" fonts that were used throughout the AC 2012 style. It's easier to see and read.
4) Put a border around the quote box so it can be "easily" seen.

I can see they put the post number back into the threads so now we can post direct links. At least they fixed this, so maybe other things can get done soon.

I haven't seen anyone being told to keep their thoughts to themselves.

Really? Calling people jerks for expressing their opinion doesn't apply? I agree that pinging on the devs was underhanded (it was intentional), but so is taking a working/functional site and destroying it, leaving users with no recourse... I would call that being a jerk too! If you can't fathom people's dismay, then there's no way to explain it.