Comments/Questions on New Layout

[Kevin_Price]

I'll slightly amend my prior comments.  Some of the ways I found myself "fighting" the new layout were because of things I didn't understand about it.  For example, the combination of huge fonts, wasted whitespace, and a different way to designate "floated" threads led me to the wrong conclusion that sorting to show the most recent topics first was no longer being supported.  

I'm still a pretty strong un-fan of most of the changes, but recognize that only some of them are truly anti-productive for me.  Others merely go against my preference, and in many cases preference is mostly about familiarity.  That part's nothing new -- I've been on the losing side of the argument for most UI changes & trends since Windows 2000.

FWIW, here are the ways I still find the new layout to be anti-productive for me and thus, less motivated to participate:

1. no link to jump directly to the first unread post in a thread.  This is the most bothersome thing I've noticed, and is a big demotivator for continuing participation in a long-running thread.
2. it takes considerably more effort to try to "quickly skim" through lots of threads to identify one of interest.  There are multiple distinct factors contributing to the difficulty.
   • Big fonts & massive whitespace.  Far less content is visible at a time.  More clicking/scrolling is required to skim the same amount of content.
   • Harder to identify thread participants and other info.  The old table format was much faster to skim through because each column served up one specific piece of info.  A fast vertical scan on a particular column was an effective strategy for quickly identifying a thread of possible interest.  Now however, the big left-hand column holds the topic text, the original poster's name, the timestamp on the first post, the timestamp on the most recent post, and the most recent poster's name.  That's too many distinct things to skim quickly.  The new layout requires noticeably more effort and time due to the decreased information density and specificity.
3. There's no distinct indication of threads I've already participated in

-Kevin P

[Jacobson-ni]

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@LiliMcDonald wrote:

@Jacobson-ni wrote:

I'm not sure if this is the case for anyone else, but it looks like the screen is just cut off when using a tablet, some of the banners don't even extend to the edge of the screen and there is quite a bit of white space.

 Can you please indicate what kind of tablet you are using?

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I'm using an iPad but haven't updated it in a while. I suppose I should accept software updates that come up before I complain about something not being right.

[LiliMcDonald]

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@GregSands wrote:

Also in the Idea Exchanges, it seems that topics are only sometimes being marked as read when they are opened, and sometimes not i.e. they remain in the list of Unread Topics in the sidebar. There seems to be no pattern to this.

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I was able to reproduce this issue and discovered that the problem is specific to an idea that has no comments. The idea will disappear from the "unread topics" component only if you have read all of the comments associated with the idea. I will log this bug to Lithium.

@Kevin_Price wrote:

FWIW, here are the ways I still find the new layout to be anti-productive for me and thus, less motivated to participate:

1. no link to jump directly to the first unread post in a thread.  This is the most bothersome thing I've noticed, and is a big demotivator for continuing participation in a long-running thread.
2. it takes considerably more effort to try to "quickly skim" through lots of threads to identify one of interest.  There are multiple distinct factors contributing to the difficulty.
   • Big fonts & massive whitespace.  Far less content is visible at a time.  More clicking/scrolling is required to skim the same amount of content.
   • Harder to identify thread participants and other info.  The old table format was much faster to skim through because each column served up one specific piece of info.  A fast vertical scan on a particular column was an effective strategy for quickly identifying a thread of possible interest.  Now however, the big left-hand column holds the topic text, the original poster's name, the timestamp on the first post, the timestamp on the most recent post, and the most recent poster's name.  That's too many distinct things to skim quickly.  The new layout requires noticeably more effort and time due to the decreased information density and specificity.
3. There's no distinct indication of threads I've already participated in

Thanks for the feedback, Kevin. These items have been raised by others earlier in this topic as well. We're taking all of this into consideration.

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Jacobson wrote: I'm using an iPad but haven't updated it in a while. I suppose I should accept software updates that come up before I complain about something not being right.

I emulated an iPad a few hours ago using Google Dev Tools in Chrome. I believe what you may have meant by the page being "cut off" is that you had to swipe slightly to the left to see the entire page (which obviously shouldn't happen). However, now I'm not seeing this. There are still some issues with a few components in the tablet/mobile view, but the page width itself seemed okay. If you're still seeing this, could you please provide a screenshot/link of where it occurred?

[Ben]

How do I un-sticky those threads that I used to have flaoted to the top and did not mind but now are a pain?

Ben

[Ben]

Just for the record I was lead to believe the changes were only going to affect the Community and not the dev-exchange. Disappointed.

As usual I do not like it so far.

Ben

[LiliMcDonald]

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Norbert_B wrote: For my browser (Firefox) all 0 kudos are black, all >0 kudo the "Kudo" string is blue. No difference if the kudo is from myself or someone else.....

RavensFan wrote: Actually, on my screen, the color looks identical.  The difference is that if I had kudoed the post, the count number turns blue, while it is black if I have not.  Which is a pretty subtle difference in itself.

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I already commented on this topic, but also wanted to mention that the # Kudos string turns blue because it becomes a hyperlink once it has kudos. Clicking through takes you to a list of all the people that have kuoded a post. Also, the color on the star button does not change. It is the same yellow.
But yes, we can look at making the "give kudo" vs "revoke kudo" experience more visibly different.

Ben wrote: How do I un-sticky those threads that I used to have flaoted to the top and did not mind but now are a pain?

To un-float a topic, open the topic, click on Topic Options at the top of the page, and select Un-Float this Topic. This is the same process for un-floating an entire board.

Ben wrote:Just for the record I was lead to believe the changes were only going to affect the Community and not the dev-exchange. Disappointed.

Which section of the site are you referring to when you say "dev-exchange"? As mentioned in the original announcement, the changes we're focusing on are consolidating the NI Discussion Forums and NI User Group Community. Part of this was the switch to a responsive design.

Please be sure to check the updated timeline for changes here: The NI Community renovations are almost here!

[X.]

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@RavensFan wrote:

I never noticed the color wasn't much different.  You're right.  I was just visually going by the number itself going up by one and that fact it was severely delayed.

Actually, on my screen, the color looks identical.  The difference is that if I had kudoed the post, the count number turns blue, while it is black if I have not.  Which is a pretty subtle difference in itself.

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I think there is a hue change from the bottom to the top of the page (slightly darker hence orange at the top, lighter hence yellow at the bottom). This to match the background gradient I suppose...

[X.]

The kudo switch definitely takes way too long and encourages double if not triple-clicking for random outcomes, not mentioning that there is no way to figure out whether the kudo has been registered or not.

[Wolfgang]

I don't know what causes the changes from day to day, now all posts with unread or no unread messages look the same, no difference in bold / normal font, just like the first day - the change for the better seen yesterday seems to be gone. I am not aware of having done anything differently...

@Wolfgang wrote:

OK, some good news The bold/normal font used to distinguish between posts with new unread messages now works on my system, I can clearly see the difference now, thanks!

[Norbert_B]

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@X. wrote:

The kudo switch definitely takes way too long and encourages double if not triple-clicking for random outcomes, not mentioning that there is no way to figure out whether the kudo has been registered or not.

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Wait 10 seconds, the kudo count should increase. Additionally, you can click on the kudo count string itself (once blue, mean: hyperlink *thanks Lili for explaining this*) and then check if you name shows up. I haven't checked what ordering that names have, so if it is not by date (backwards), you likely won't list first. So searching in 100+ kudo names could be... useless.....

Norbert