This new format is lousy! I thought ipc didn't have money to burn?

snooks said:
Baby asleep, wife in shower, kitchen tidy :)
Click to expand...

She tidied the kitchen before putting the baby to bed and having a shower? She's a keeper ;)

I think you are doing a great job btw - most companies have a whole IT department doing this sort of thing. Pat yourself on the back from me...my arms don't stretch that far!
 
Snooks,

IPC Blue is a big improvement.

Some points that need work:
1) Signature occupies too much vertical space.
2) Text of signature in different and smaller font to differentiate it from the main post text.
3) Posters name is more pastel than the text immediately below ("snooks / I just work here", in your post). Should be the other way around. The posters name should be the more visible of the two.
4) The same applies to the page numbers and the quick-navigation elements immediately below, at the bottom of the page.
5) Text in the header line of each post, showing time of post etc could now be black, with switch to white when the post is highlighted for quick replying.
6) Texts of "view first unread", etc selectors could be a 'harder' colour to improve contrast against background.
7) Move "View first unread" across to the left of the screen to minimise cursor movement when entering a thread. My screen is very wide, and the mouse movement required to get to the selector is a pain.
8) Move "join date", "location" and "Posts" header texts maybe 2 cm to the left so that longish location texts don't wrap onto a new line. Very long texts maybe could be cropped, and/or ellipsis added to show cropping has occurred. If not possible, then wrap very long texts by all means, but do allow more than 18 chars to not wrap !!! ("Me: London, Pixie: Solent" wraps following "Pixie:").
9) Post ID (Forum -> Forum -> Yachting Monthly's Scuttlebutt . . . . ) has "Forum" repeated. By clicking on the second "Forum" one reaches the Forum List. Second "Forum" should then be "Forum List", not "Forum". Have just noticed that clicking on the first "Forum" also reaches the list, so why two ??? Delete one and rename the other as indicated.

All in my most humble opinion, of course, and in the interests of getting forum useability back on track as soon as possible.

If I think or notice other items over the next few days I'll post them.

Plomong
 
All good, valid points.

What a shame these weren't addressed by a Beta testing version before going live.
It shouldn't be up to Snooks to do this, but I really think the techies don't notice the interface.

If they could make the Jump drop-down box a bit deeper then Lounge would be available without having to scroll which may be a small improvement if the old forum direct "Jump" is no longer available.
 
Plomong said:
Snooks,

IPC Blue is a big improvement.
Click to expand...

Thanks. While your other points are valid, they are well outside my jurisdiction...I just stuck my oar in (with Natalie's permission) to make it more readable. The rest is up to people that know what they are doing and get paid for doing it :)
 
pvb said:
Sadly, if you can't see that the user name is in larger text, you perhaps need help with accessibility. Had you thought of increasing the size of all the text by holding down "Ctrl" on your keyboard and using the scroll wheel on your mouse to get the text bigger?
Click to expand...

It is now - it wasn't - thanks snooks
 
Plomong said:
Snooks,

IPC Blue is a big improvement.

Some points that need work:
1) Signature occupies too much vertical space.
2) Text of signature in different and smaller font to differentiate it from the main post text.
3) Posters name is more pastel than the text immediately below ("snooks / I just work here", in your post). Should be the other way around. The posters name should be the more visible of the two.
4) The same applies to the page numbers and the quick-navigation elements immediately below, at the bottom of the page.
5) Text in the header line of each post, showing time of post etc could now be black, with switch to white when the post is highlighted for quick replying.
6) Texts of "view first unread", etc selectors could be a 'harder' colour to improve contrast against background.
7) Move "View first unread" across to the left of the screen to minimise cursor movement when entering a thread. My screen is very wide, and the mouse movement required to get to the selector is a pain.
8) Move "join date", "location" and "Posts" header texts maybe 2 cm to the left so that longish location texts don't wrap onto a new line. Very long texts maybe could be cropped, and/or ellipsis added to show cropping has occurred. If not possible, then wrap very long texts by all means, but do allow more than 18 chars to not wrap !!! ("Me: London, Pixie: Solent" wraps following "Pixie:").
9) Post ID (Forum -> Forum -> Yachting Monthly's Scuttlebutt . . . . ) has "Forum" repeated. By clicking on the second "Forum" one reaches the Forum List. Second "Forum" should then be "Forum List", not "Forum". Have just noticed that clicking on the first "Forum" also reaches the list, so why two ??? Delete one and rename the other as indicated.

All in my most humble opinion, of course, and in the interests of getting forum useability back on track as soon as possible.

If I think or notice other items over the next few days I'll post them.

Plomong
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can you send a list to Rajoy and tell him whats not right!
 
Snooks,

I appreciate that web-site development is not your main focus and appreciate your doing what you could to assist. I do hope you, and Natalie, will review the design with the 'perpetrators' at the earliest oppurtunity. As others have pointed out, a preview, even just some hardcopies posted on a thread here, would have avoided so much negative comment. Too late for that now, so best take the steps to improve useability and not waste more time whinging about what went wrong or could have been done better.

Plomong

PS: I have noted the absence of comments from those forumites I would have thought were experienced in web-site design, Webcraft and others amongst them. Maybe they could give their professional opinions on the subject ??? FOC, of course, in benefit to all of us.
 
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snooks said:
I have increased the size of the font from 13 to 14, look at the default style and compare :)
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Some confusion here. Yes, you've changed the text size for the actual post, but reginaldon was complaining that the text sizes of the username and the "Registered User" label were wrong, but have now been increased. I've looked, and these seem absolutely identical in size to the original (vB4 default) format. Are they the same?
 
mogy,

Would gladly give Rajoy a blast if I thought he or his cohorts would listen, but as that is obviously not so, I won't waste my time on it. His arrogance and ability to cock up almost everything he touches (unnecessary Labour reform, disastrous handling of the banking system debilities, education reform, health-system "reform"/selloff, etc, etc) and now the obvious corruption, will make him and his party unelectable, unless the Spanish are as thick and blind as the Galicians who have reelected the morons headed by Feijoo.

Only time will tell.

Plomong
 
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Plomong,

Snooks has gone beyond the call of duty, so he should be spared;

when are you going to put the rest of IPC up against the wall then ? They had it coming to them for sure, what with inflicting the forums on us for free, vicious b*****ds !
 
Seajet said:
Plomong,

Snooks has gone beyond the call of duty, so he should be spared;

when are you going to put the rest of IPC up against the wall then ? They had it coming to them for sure, what with inflicting the forums on us for free, vicious b*****ds !
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Very definitely. Snooks has gone well outside his role, at least as I understand it, and I appreciate that, as posted above. He should be commended for his efforts, not criticised.

As for "putting the rest of IPC up against the wall", that was not the idea. It is usually better to state in detail what one finds wrong with a design, point by point, than to just say you find it hard to get used to, or it's just rubbish.

As a minor, but never unimportant function, I have designed screen and print layouts for over 40 years, have had them criticised, sometimes brutally and unfairly, and for over 30 years have also supervised those designing such layouts, and had to "defend" them in front of our customers in industry (utilities, steel industry, etc). So I'm aware of how easy it is to get things wrong, for whatever reason, and how much care and thought is required to get a very good design and not just a "'twill do" design, or worse.

Plomong
 
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Plomong said:
Snooks,

I appreciate that web-site development is not your main focus and appreciate your doing what you could to assist. I do hope you, and Natalie, will review the design with the 'perpetrators' at the earliest oppurtunity. As others have pointed out, a preview, even just some hardcopies posted on a thread here, would have avoided so much negative comment. Too late for that now, so best take the steps to improve useability and not waste more time whinging about what went wrong or could have been done better.

Plomong

PS: I have noted the absence of comments from those forumites I would have thought were experienced in web-site design, Webcraft and others amongst them. Maybe they could give their professional opinions on the subject ??? FOC, of course, in benefit to all of us.
Click to expand...

They did several day's ago :confused:
 
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One of the things that is done to help dyslexics read easier is to put black lettering on a feint coloured background.

Another way round this is to apply a thin pale coloured plastic film over the white written page.... helped my daughter a huge amount.

Perhaps that is why I find the present page easier to read now.... thanks Snooks.
 
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