No, not an experiment. it’s the new look and here to stay. The old new look was only temporary after the backend update. We’ve put a lot of work and consideration into the new look. what about it don’t you like? It was designed to be easier to use, more consistent and cleaner visually as well as more consistent with the core77 look.
R
It’s definately a better system than the phpbb default, it gets even worse when you have bookmarks or followed threads and and and…
I’ve been playing around with the stylesheets clientside, now it looks a bit like this. A little more going on visually, but I tried to make it match what you were doing.
huh, not sure what’s going on there. The general convention we have (though there are a few things that don’t fit) is that the red color indicates a link, not a link you’ve already followed. rollover states are indicated by going from a lighter grey to a darker one or underlining on text. the modification to that is that some lower level navigation links are shown in grey not red, such as page numbers. not sure what your thing is trying to show or what problem it’s trying to overcome…
R
As a reader more than a contributor I feel a little bashful giving my 2 cents here. But since I’m mainly a web / graphic designer I thought it could be appropriate. I think the overall look and feel is great. Definitely easy to use for me. ( I’m a casual user, mainly just surf through the most active topics) So hats off there. Good web design is not easy.
My one issue is with all of the discussion bubbles in the main topic pages. They seem way to big, or bold/dark, and maybe not even needed at all.What about just having the star for new topics, and just getting rid of the discussion bubble. Or maybe knocking the color back even further for more of a tone on tone look.
It just seems that at this point, we’ve clicked on the discussion tab to get here. Nothing in this area is anything but a discussion (right?) and to me being able to view the topic titles should be #1 priority…which seems to be distracted by the big line of discussion icons all the way down the page.
Ok thats it! thanks for the great effort and my apologies in advance if i assumed wrong about any functional aspects.
We always appreciate feedback. As the designer of the new look, I can respond. The oversized discussion bubbles were a graphic choice. The idea is to make it stand out as a feature graphically and not make the forum so utilitarian in look.
most forums (like the old look and this http://www.productdesignforums.com/ ) are just all text with no graphic interest, and since we are a design site the idea was to have a more graphic approach. plus, you’ll see on the main core77 site the same speech bubble used for the discussion on the right side so it all ties together.
I’ll do my best to reply to any questions/comments, we appreciate all both positive and constructive.
R
The image of the corner is there just so I don’t post my whole screen 
I’m not always the best at explaining things, my changes were the white/red border for current page, and red as normal links were. Maybe I need to recalibrate since sometimes it’s hard for me to distinguish the various lighter greys, so the sublinks were almost hiding - my change was meant to bring them back out.
I don’t want to be That Guy that keeps suggesting changes to things without being asked either, I just like the site and want to feel I’m adding something more than just post counts.
I got the corner thing. now that you explain it, it makes more sense. yes, I suppose the page links could be red, but we chose grey as it matches with the other nav elements which we considered different than a normal link (with the exception of the NEXT PAGE text link, which was red as it is on the main core site) and wanted to visually balance the amount of solid red for aesthetic reasons. The red outlined “current” page I suppose makes some sense, though we don’t use that convention elsewhere (rather different greys).
You might want to re-calibrate, yes as the greys should be all visible. They are not that light.
Anyhow, we don’t mind any feedback and understand that my replies to explain the thought process is not to say I’m right and you are wrong, rather just to show what we were thinking. Of course in a complex UI like this there is always a lot of rules and exceptions to rules and some of it just comes down to personal preference, visual design, etc.
Thanks again,
R
Ok, I’ve had a chance to poke around a bit and here’s my thoughts, for what it’s worth.
I really enjoy the subtlety of the color palette, I think it blends well with the existing site design. Much more so than the previous version. When reading a forum thread, I like how well spaced and clear all the information is; poster, quote, reply, space between poster’s info and their replies, etc. Info on the left is great to have back, too. Much easier to see who posted what.
What I dislike so far (and it’s something I will likely get used to over time) is that some things just seem out of scale to the rest of the site. It’s like I accidentally hit zoom on my browser. In the Discussion Index, I understand your point with the icon selection, but I feel like the icons are a bit too large in my opinion. As is the text next to it. If it were 10% smaller it would probably be a little less bold and overpowering. To that end, that section of the forum just doesn’t seem to blend in with the feel of the rest of the site. I know you designed with mobile devices in mind, so if the trade off is large icons/text for legibility on iPhone, so be it. I’ll just have to get an iPhone.
I know we all have opinions and we’ll never, ever all agree on one thing. Hats off to Richard, Will, and other moderators who made this design change possible, and make the site a pleasure to visit on a daily basis. I really think this site is in the upper echelon of design sites and you guys make it great. Thanks.
One more UI thing… right now when you click “Discussions” on the menu header from within the Discussions Forum, it opens a new Tab/Window. No other menu items do that.
can you clarify what you mean? I don’t follow…
R
I see it, if you click on the Discussions button up above while already in the Discussions section, rather than do nothing or reload, it opens a new tab/window with the link. Check it out in the source, it’s the only time target=“_blank” is specified for a nav link.
Also, is the appearance of the search page intentional? Right now the results kind of run together with no separation.
That’s it.
I still don’t follow and/or it isn’t doing that for me. What button? There is no “discussions button”. Are you talking about a Discussions Index text link someplace, The Design Discussion category, or the General Design Discussions forum??? Either take a screen grab of the link you mean, or copy and paste the code and I can forward it on to the admin to check out.
R
Click this Link while reading this post. I’m using Firefox.
Ah, OK, that’s very helpful. Now I see. To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever used any of those links so it never occurred to me.
Thanks, I’ll pass it on.
R
Did it always repeat the topic title in every post before, I don’t remember? Something about the new large bold text repeating the post title before every reply does not seem visually appealing, as I scroll down It echos in my head as I read “Re: Board re-design, Re: Board re-design, Re: Board re-design”. Everything else looks great, I like the new look… keep up the good work!
ya I think it was always like that, but it’s for a reason. Just think if you have several tabs open with different threads and are scrolled down to the last post in each, if you switched back an forth, you’d have no idea what the topic was.
R
I do this as well and would like to point out a couple of things. As everyone repeatedly apologizes for giving feedback and improvement solutions, I will post my problems instead. Solve them or ignore them, your choice.
In the index of threads I have multiple times clicked on the poster’s profile, which is right under the title. Quite annoying, and I can’t think of a single time I would need to access someone’s profile from there.
The big icons signal me that I’m probably able to click them. Nope, need to click title. (See #1)
In long threads, 99% of the time I want to access the last page. This could be easier.
When reading a thread I double tap the text to maximize it. Every time I get to next post I need to scroll left or zoom out to see who made that post. This is time-consuming, ie annoying.
For web view I have no issues with the re-design. The big icons and bold text felt a bit weird first, but I’m fine now.
Note that the problems above are not limited to this design, but rather a general problem with this format. It could be a chance to improve the experience and not just graphics, this being a design site and all.
Fixed
I’ll be working on more things soon. I appreciate all your feedback.
I’ve made some updates/changes/fixes
Do a hard refresh to reload the style.
I also made the topic icons clickable.