laurie said...

Hi All,

Cleaned up the look & feel of the forums .. check it out, and share your thoughts before it goes live... (...oh .. and let me know of any errors!)

Also, site has been also been upgraded for easy access via iPhone / Android...

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/

IMHO, nice, except it is rather narrow in how much of the pages width it uses and is it just me or is the font smaller?
Colours look heaps better and way more modern, also the 3d effect on the top bar looks great too.

If it aint broke....i am looking at this on an ipad, original forum i can see three or more posts on the screen, the new version has me scrolling just to read one post, bit like reading an email on a telephone.

laurie said...

Thanks ... the thinner (although not that thin) layout is about reducing the "watching the tennis" effect when you need to scan left/right a long way to read mobs of text... give it a go for a few days, and see how you fare...

Yes, that is very true, in fact that is why newspapers use columns.

The new layout looks good on the phone, and ipad - big fonts are very easy to read

Maybe if you detect mobile browser, apply the narrow layout and keep a wider layout for other browsers

I like the new look of depth to avatars etc, but the lack of choice in page width is a bit weird, I'm reading this on android tablet, and is a lot better when I choose a desktop site, but still misses some of the buttons up top (Help, About).

I'm not a huge fan, I too think it actually looks dated. I get the concept, but free space on the screen is a waste. Put something on the left hand side to fill the empty space if you want to stick to the narrower post width. Does the narrower size mean this will affect the size of photos and videos?

Also it looks terrible on an iPad. But can only assume this would be fixed before going live.

I also prefer the current post background for reading, reading text on a white backgound on a PC screen can be hard on the eyes.

Hats off for putting this up and actully seeking the opinion of the users, many organisations I consult for could learn a thing or two from this sort of consultation.

Hey Laurie,
Imo this way is much better. It look great and works heaps better on my mobile (a crappy nokia n97) But i have to agree with the guys above about the plain white background.... bit boring. Maybe adding a sky background like in the top banner would brighten it up a bit.
Also while ur changing stuff could you add a beginners(newbies tips & tricks) windsurfing forum like the kitesurfers have.... there are alot of newbies ?

EDIT: btw there is no edit button on the beta version.

the shadow on the left and right does nothing to increase readability. Quite the opposite. It makes it harder to read.

The fix width doesn't work for wider content such as videos and photos. In those cases the entire page flows over into the shadow and it looks rather wrong.

The fonts are to small.

The colours are as bad if not worse then what's there at the moment.

The blue theme looks like it somehow escaped Windows XP. The "new" light blue looks like it escaped Windows 8.

You did ask for peoples opinions.

laurie said...

Thanks ... the thinner (although not that thin) layout is about reducing the "watching the tennis" effect when you need to scan left/right a long way to read mobs of text... give it a go for a few days, and see how you fare...

It's better. Tennis effect has been annoying me for ages, especially posts that contain really wide ...things and the text then goes off an already wide "page"/column.

http://www.webtypography.net/Rhythm_and_Proportion/Horizontal_Motion/2.1.2/

A really wide thing: ThisWillMakeThePageGoRidiculouslyWideAndYou'llSeeHowIt'sHarderToReadThisWillMakeThePageGoRidiculouslyWideAndYou'llSeeHo...[edit]

An update from all the feedback so far.

If you're keen and able, and want to be involved it making it the goodness, do take time to check it out again...

1) iPad fonts/sizing all fixed up

2) Android failing click on menus all fixed up

3) "Try to please all the people all the time fix"

Let me explain this one: I'm in favour of the fixed width in the middle design, as it prevents the "watching tennis" effect, however, do understand others prefer the wider format. So... at the very bottom of the page, you'll find a "Widescreen | Fixed" option where you can choose!! Happy days for all.

Do give the fixed width a go before you dis it, as it has been widened a little.

4) Drop shadow has been lightened

5) Some whitespace dropped, although with all the white, there's still a lot of white.

6) Sorry, no fix for the overflowing text just yet..

.. all the other features requested have been logged, but staying focussed on layout for all the devices at the moment.

Lots of testing: Mac Safari/IE, Windows IE7,8,9,/Safari/Chrome/FireFox, iPhone3/4, iPad, HTC Phone, Samsung Phone & tablet .. sometimes just going around in circles .. fix one, the other broke, but we're getting there with your help!

It's all good stuff .. it won't go live, until everybody the majority are happy with where it's headed

Here you go:

www.seabreeze.com.au

Looks cheap, like it's been done from one of those free template websites, much prefer the current style.
But we'll all get used to it and then it won't really matter if we like it or not.

Just a thought. Bold the tab fonts on the top bar, change them to maybe black.
Still fuzzy too much light colour.

mineral1 said...
Just a thought. Bold the tab fonts on the top bar, change them to maybe black.
Still fuzzy too much light colour.

Sorry, not understanding .. which tab fonts on which top bar, and are you using desktop/mobile?