PDA

View Full Version : An appearance suggestion with an example.



Severi Salminen
17-Oct-2003, 02:31
Sorry for making a second post (this'll be the last whatever the "decision" ;), but I appreciate if you even check the layout example I made - to avoid confusions on what I actually meant. The change is very, very minor but improves the readibility greatly and is very easy to implement. I simply added an author column. I also vote for keeping things as simple and unchanged as possible (as opposed to what photo.net now did), but this change definitely would not make things worse.


http://webusers.siba.fi/~ssalmine/largeformatphotography.info.htm (http://webusers.siba.fi/~ssalmine/largeformatphotography.info.htm)

Thanks for patience,

Frank Petronio
17-Oct-2003, 04:03
I like Severi's idea. FWIW I'm a web designer and his thinking is right on.

David A. Goldfarb
17-Oct-2003, 06:48
That's not what it sounded like in the original post. I think it would be a good change.

Sidney Cammeresi
17-Oct-2003, 07:22
Is it really necessary to restrict the table width to 80% of the browser window? I want to use all of my monitor, not just 80%.

Ken Lee
17-Oct-2003, 07:58
I suggest that the top of the page chould more closely resemble the bottom of the page: The links like "Recent Topics", "New Responses", etc. are in a small font. There is no need for those same links, at the top of the page, to be so huge. A little smaller would still be readable !

jerry brodkey
17-Oct-2003, 08:07
The "posted" and "last reply" are still too close together.

Severi Salminen
17-Oct-2003, 08:16
Here is a new example, where:

1. Full screen width is used everywhere
2. The links are rearranged so that they are in more logical places. This is not the final version, just a suggestion. I think the "Ask a New Question" is the most frequently used link so that should be clearly visible. Other links are also now grouped more properly.
3. The "Pages" links are now aligned left - I don't know which is better.

Using the whole width and smaller links works IMHO better now with 800x600 and 1024x768 than the original forum. With 1200x1000, the larger links would maybe be better. But here is the actual example:


http://webusers.siba.fi/~ssalmine/largeformatphotography2.info.htm (http://webusers.siba.fi/~ssalmine/largeformatphotography2.info.htm)

And my point is not definitely ruin the forum appearance, but to make it even more intuitive to use without unnecessary bells and whistles. The column widths also need a bit tweaking.

Regards,

JohnnyV
17-Oct-2003, 11:13
I do like the 2nd variation - it's a much easier and faster read.

QT Luong
17-Oct-2003, 11:56
Thanks for taking the time to clarify your new design suggestion. Personally, I like it, but it's up to Tom to decide whether to adopt it or not.

Capocheny
17-Oct-2003, 14:22
I also like the second version... I'm sure the "heading width and screen dimension" details can ultimately be hammered out at the end of the day but, overall, the second version is clean and easy on the eyes.

Cheers

jerry brodkey
17-Oct-2003, 14:26
One problem is that it doesn't seem possible to get emails of replies to a specific thread without posting a message on the thread. Or am I missing something?

tim atherton
17-Oct-2003, 14:31
jerald, go to "Email Alerts" at the top of the front page

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/mailsetup.php

Jon_2416
17-Oct-2003, 17:53
>That's not what it sounded like in the original post. I think it would be a good >change.

>--David A. Goldfarb, 2003-10-17 05:48:03

That is exactly what he wrote in the first posting--make a column for the author's name...

I still think it is a good idea... :)

Jon_2416
17-Oct-2003, 17:57
>That's not what it sounded like in the original post. I think it would be a good change.

>--David A. Goldfarb, 2003-10-17 05:48:03

Here is the original post:

>>> A suggestion to forum appearance

Now the author of a thread is displayed immediately after the subject line. It would be much better to have a separate column for subject and author. (I'm refering to http://largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/)

--Severi Salminen, 2003-10-16 03:18 PM >>>

Tom Westbrook
17-Oct-2003, 18:07
While the ideas are good, they will have to go to the end of the line. Current development priorities are:

<ol><li>Getting the moderators an easy way to categorize uncategorized threads<li>Moving the source code to a place where I'm not the sole maintainer (e.g. Sourceforge).</ol>

I see that last item as the answer to the above wish list ideas, since that will give others the opportunity to join in the development/maintenance fun and allow more speedy implementation of new features that folks want. To get there, I need to spend some time going over the current code to assure myself that there are no obvious security holes in the current version before going public with it. Also, there are the issues of deciding what license it should be placed under and other similar tasks (development guidelines, finding interested developers, etc).

Sal Santamaura
17-Oct-2003, 20:42
Tom, another option might be to rebuff 'improvement' suggestions for a while and ask folks to be grateful for the non-commercial, perfectly functional site they've just been given for free. Why not just let it run? You've done quite enough volunteer work, and none of these change ideas will improve communication on the subject of LF photography one iota.

Severi Salminen
18-Oct-2003, 02:57
Tom, there is, of course, no hurry with this thing and I'd gladly contribute to program developing (well, depending on what language...) once it is possible. I'll keep the 'improved version' stored so I don't forget what was done.

And again: the forum works great even now - so no rush. But I allways think that there is no such thing as perfect: everything can be improved :) I think these small changes would improve the usability.

David G. Gagnon
18-Oct-2003, 10:15
I like this proposed format, either version 1 or 2. I like to be able to see which threads are "cold" before checking them only to find no new responses.

Thanks for the time it took to work this out Severi.

DG

Tom Westbrook
13-Nov-2003, 18:15
I managed to incorporate most of the ideas here into the latest minor update. I didn't like the menu being seperated into several chunks (as in Severi's 2nd version), so I left that as is.

Hope this helps with readability. I also hope I didn't break anything.

Enjoy.

otzi
13-Nov-2003, 22:04
2c worth

I liked the # of replies shown and the smaller type heading. Why waste space uneceserily expanding the headers. Identifiying dead or live threads is good value.

Thanks for the option of input.