# Refined Site Design - Long Rollout



## ScottW (Oct 18, 2005)

Well, as I posted earlier, I was getting itchy on fine-tuning the site a little bit to give it a cleaner look. Because of the time involved in reworking everything, I have decided to just roll things out as I get done with them. So, right now, things are a little weird between different sections of the site.

Each area will go through a major overhaul, however at the very minimum I will work on getting the "wrapper" the same for the entire site, then go back and work out the details of each area.

Anyhow... for those who wonder what happened to the forums... this is what is going on.

Scott


----------



## powermac (Oct 18, 2005)

Looks great so far!!!


----------



## Lt Major Burns (Oct 18, 2005)

yes, love the wider use of space, i have a big monitor, and it never gets used on macosx forums....!


----------



## Cheryl (Oct 18, 2005)

I like it. Change is good.


----------



## Satcomer (Oct 18, 2005)

Well I have two things about this change that seems to bother me. The first is why am I seeing adds in registered (even Scott's) users posts when I am a registered, donating user?  The second is why is there no border after the last post before the reply button?


----------



## Mikuro (Oct 18, 2005)

I like it. The new header looks good. No more overlapping problems. And the wider display is nice, although it'd be nice if the width were dynamic instead of a fixed size. Anyway, it suits _me_ just fine, so I'm not complaining.

Those new thread icons look deformed, though. But that's hardly a major issue.

Thumbs-up!


----------



## ora (Oct 18, 2005)

Mikuro said:
			
		

> And the wider display is nice, although it'd be nice if the width were dynamic instead of a fixed size. Anyway, it suits _me_ just fine, so I'm not complaining.



I like the new look, but as Mikuro mentioned, the fixed width is a problem for me, i use my little 12" powerbook screen to view the board, and even on 1024x768, its a bit too wide unless i have it entirely full screen, and i liek to have a bit of space at the side.

Very pretty though


----------



## bobw (Oct 18, 2005)

Don't like the width. Have to keep a page wide on a 17" monitor.


----------



## fryke (Oct 18, 2005)

Like everything but the blue circle icons for "new posts" / "locked thread" etc. They're not clear on first view. You have to actually look at each and every one to see where there's new stuff. I'd choose a clear colour saturation difference, i.e. a light (almost like the background) for "no changes" and the full colour for changed threads. And their edges seem pixelated somehow. Other than that: Love the change. But I have to admit, it's a bit wide for a fixed table. Guess the header design doesn't let you make it more narrow...


----------



## senne (Oct 18, 2005)

I don't like this:


----------



## lbj (Oct 18, 2005)

To ditto what's above:
Overall, I like it.
But the arrow icons need some work and the fixed width is unfriendly.


----------



## fryke (Oct 18, 2005)

The wideness is also, from a designer's standpoint, too wide for the type. Too many words per line. With a flexible table width, I can choose the width of the lines, but with a fixed set, one should be chosen that is friendly for the reader in my opinion (and the one of those who created the books on type and design).


----------



## mdnky (Oct 18, 2005)

I have to agree on the width...it's a bit hard to use on the ibook at 1024x768.  I normally keep my browser around 700 to 800 pixels wide...just feels better to me that way.

Line length, as others have said, is also too long to comfortably read.  10 to 15 words per line on average is a good range for it.


----------



## ScottW (Oct 18, 2005)

Im not a fan of "expanding" sites... so to make up for those with small displays or using low resolutions on larger displays the "Small Width Style" is for you. Not much of a change, but needless to say, it is what we had previously.

Toward bottom of the page you will see a "drop down" and you will be able to select your style preference.


----------



## Satcomer (Oct 19, 2005)

On my previous grip, I have noticed one thing. The adds look like they are apart of a persons post because the post body color (I am not a web designer) is so similar to the white background of the add. The problem could be address by having a thin line bordering the post's box (of a person's post message).


----------



## Veljo (Oct 19, 2005)

I agree, looks alright, but I have to keep Safari maximized and I hate those blue circles.


----------



## pds (Oct 21, 2005)

I agree that the board is too wide and, as Fryke says, the lines are too long to read easily. I need to use the whole screen on my iBook and it feels Redmond-ish. 

The line missing at the end of the thread is bothersome too.


****
I found the small width style in the user control panel, so it's nicer. 

A little hard to find, it's in User CP under Edit Options, in the very last dialog.


----------



## Giaguara (Oct 21, 2005)

Mhhh thanks for the small width button Scottw  makes it nice when browsing on hte 12" ..


----------



## ora (Oct 21, 2005)

pds said:
			
		

> ****
> I found the small width style in the user control panel, so it's nicer.
> 
> A little hard to find, it's in User CP under Edit Options, in the very last dialog.



Its also right at the bottom of every page


----------



## pds (Oct 22, 2005)

yeah - I noticed that after I posted - and after crawling through the cp to find it.

:-\


----------



## bbloke (Oct 25, 2005)

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents after having used the new design for awhile. I'm afraid I preferred the old style overall, although I don't like sounding negative after someone has put hard work into making changes to the site, and so I'm a bit reluctant to say this!

I find the new circular icons look a bit odd as the lighting effect (at 1024x768 on Firefox on a PC at work) make the icons look less round, and I find them less friendly. With these new icons it can be seen which forums have new posts, but one has to look a little bit, whereas the old style icons jumped off the page more, because they were orange when there were new posts.

I don't know if this was a change or if I just never noticed it before, but the boxes seem "loose," as there are not always borders around them. In the forum listing, I find it looks fine, but when reading the actual posts it bugs me quite a lot! This might be more of a statement about my quirkiness, though... 

The ads can look a little confusing, when dotted amongst the posts. With the lack of borders, it can look a little messy to me, and look as though the ads are part of people's posts.

Actually, I quite prefer "liquid" layouts, rather than fixed-width layouts, but I know this is an area of debate for a lot of people. I was finding the new layout too wide, but the option to have the narrow width layout has helped a lot, so thanks for adding that.


----------

