Feedback : New design for the Board

[Vaibhav]

Okay Friends,
After months of delay, We finally have the new design live for ExcelForum

I will like to have every ones feedback about the design and anything you think will make it look better can still be incorporated.

Thanks
Vaibhav Kakkar

[teylyn]

quoting zbor from this post http://www.excelforum.com/exceltip-c...me-banner.html

How to remove Welcome to our forums...

untitled.JPG

I know new members should have tips but what about us (a little older )

- This ain't my first visit
- I've check FAQ
- I am registered
- and it takes half of my monitor

[zbor]

I would also suggest a darker font or background for Forum Rules:

untitled2.JPG

[teylyn]

Vai!

Some first impressions off the top of my head:

- it's great that there are no advertisements. Hopefully it can stay this way

- I definitely like the Edit/Quote/Multiquote buttons at the bottom of a post. They look fresh and clean.

- I agree with zbor that the title section with the "Welcome to the forum" takes way too much space but does not add value for anyone but a first time visitor

- the old style icons now look quite dated. Especially the balance scales icon in the title bar of the post is hard to see and recognise for what it is, and the icons for the editor look positively DOS 3.0. PM me if you need suggestions for alternatives.

- links in signatures now appear grey, and are no longer recognizable as links unless manually formatted. Maybe there could be some clever CSS workaround?

- links in posts (see my previous post where I link to zbor's thread) are only recognisable as links when you hover over them, then they change to green. A permanent color or underline would be more obvious.

- I like the forum statistics on the left and hope that the information displayed there will soon be accurate.

- the button for closed threads is not as obvious as the previous version was. Maybe something more powerful might be in order.

- the regulars here have become used to the grey background of the old version, and now the bright white background seems to be too stark a contrast. But I think that we'll get used to that fairly quickly and that the b/w contrast is actually better than the grey background of old. Don't we all like Google for the clean white background?!

I'm sure more things will surface as we all get used to the new look and feel and I'm glad to hear that you are happy to implement changes.

[zbor]

I would also like to add one (less important) thing...

Instead of old style icon to write new! for new threads:

untitled4.JPG

[Vaibhav]

quoting zbor from this post http://www.excelforum.com/exceltip-c...me-banner.html

Will it be fine if this is only shown to the unregistered users ?

I would also suggest a darker font or background for Forum Rules:

Attachment 62316

Done !!

Design team is working on new Icons as well...

Please keep the feedback coming ...

[zbor]

Will it be fine if this is only shown to the unregistered users ?

How about less than 10 posts? IF that's option avilable...

[zbor]

- Also I had problem finding Edit options for username until contamined pointed me at Quick links...

I think should be available someowhere when you click on your own name too

[teylyn]

just noticed that if the navigation bar is forced onto two lines because of smaller screen size or resizing the window, the last few items roll over into a new line but lose the blue background ....

[Andy Pope]

You need to check the css in both IE and Firefox. Wrapping, formatting and resizing is different.

Also what size screen are you aiming at. I have a 22" monitor @1680 and I have to have the browser at least 2/3rds screen width.

Do you really need to login places on the main screen?

Unable to read "Welcome Guests" when you use yellow text on white/faint gray background.
Same for white text that wraps onto pale background.

[Andy Pope]

Why when registered and signed in does the register option appear in the blue menu bar at the top?

Why the mixture of drop down menus?
Compare 'Excel Tips' to 'Community'

"Latest Posts" and "Forum Statistics" should be moved from left hand side to right or bottom. Currently a great chunk of screen space is wasted for little useful information.

[Vaibhav]

Vai!

Some first impressions off the top of my head:

- it's great that there are no advertisements. Hopefully it can stay this way

I Wish it could remain ad free but sadly we will have to put some ads to keep things moving fine but as i said before we will try and make sure that user experience is not hampered.

- I definitely like the Edit/Quote/Multiquote buttons at the bottom of a post. They look fresh and clean.

Thanks

- I agree with zbor that the title section with the "Welcome to the forum" takes way too much space but does not add value for anyone but a first time visitor

Already being worked upon, for the time being we are removing it for the registered users and then later on will try and have it only for the users who have 10 or less posts or unregistered users.

- the old style icons now look quite dated. Especially the balance scales icon in the title bar of the post is hard to see and recognise for what it is, and the icons for the editor look positively DOS 3.0. PM me if you need suggestions for alternatives.

We are getting new icons done but might take a couple of days for them to completely go live..

- links in signatures now appear grey, and are no longer recognizable as links unless manually formatted. Maybe there could be some clever CSS workaround?

Will surely have a workaround for this implemented asap. Will blue be okay ?

- links in posts (see my previous post where I link to zbor's thread) are only recognisable as links when you hover over them, then they change to green. A permanent color or underline would be more obvious.

[QUOTE=teylyn;2231086]

Will get this corrected as well

- I like the forum statistics on the left and hope that the information displayed there will soon be accurate.

Corrected

- the button for closed threads is not as obvious as the previous version was. Maybe something more powerful might be in order.

Can you please point me to this button ?

- the regulars here have become used to the grey background of the old version, and now the bright white background seems to be too stark a contrast. But I think that we'll get used to that fairly quickly and that the b/w contrast is actually better than the grey background of old. Don't we all like Google for the clean white background?!

Yes i do agree with your words here but we are still open to all suggestions.

I'm sure more things will surface as we all get used to the new look and feel and I'm glad to hear that you are happy to implement changes.

I would also like to add one (less important) thing...

Instead of old style icon to write new! for new threads:

Attachment 62318

Already being worked upon ..

How about less than 10 posts? IF that's option avilable...

Should not be difficult but for now we are just removing them for registered users and working on other changes simultaneously

- Also I had problem finding Edit options for username until contamined pointed me at Quick links...

I think should be available someowhere when you click on your own name too

Can you please point me to it ?

just noticed that if the navigation bar is forced onto two lines because of smaller screen size or resizing the window, the last few items roll over into a new line but lose the blue background ....

Can you please take a screen shot for this ? What is the resolution of your screen ?

[teylyn]

Andy,

Why the mixture of drop down menus?
Compare 'Excel Tips' to 'Community'

I think this is due to "Excel Tips" being a custom menu and "Community" being a standard configurable Vbulletin item. Would be great if the same behaviour and look could be applied to both, i.e.

- hover: either pop up all expandable menus or don't pop up any
- coloring - be consistend with drop down menu colors

[teylyn]

Quote:
Originally Posted by teylyn View Post
- the button for closed threads is not as obvious as the previous version was. Maybe something more powerful might be in order.

Can you please point me to this button ?

see here for example. At the top of the thread, where other posts say "New Post", this one says "Closed", but it does not "stick out" enough

http://www.excelforum.com/excel-prog...tachments.html

Originally Posted by teylyn View Post
just noticed that if the navigation bar is forced onto two lines because of smaller screen size or resizing the window, the last few items roll over into a new line but lose the blue background ....

Can you please take a screen shot for this ? What is the resolution of your screen ?
Edit/Delete Message

My screen resolution does not matter. What matters is that if the nav bar does not fit into the screen width (either because of lower screen rez or sized window) the navbar breaks up into two lines and the second line is not rendered consistently with the first. See attachment.

[zbor]

I agree with teylyn on consistence.

About pop-up I don't know is it just me.. but I always had problems with it (new and old forum).

It's just don't open and always I have that bar upthere wich I can't get rid off.
Whenever open messages or inserting link.
And I use other vBulletin forum where I don't have this problem.

Just a reminder how it was

http://www.newhostgatorcoupon.com/im...etin-forum.png

I like it with 2 bacground colors (divided by columns, as at link) than just one (as it now)... But it's just my opinion.. Not an issue...