no longer accessible

[auntnini]

New DD interface is not intuitive. You are losing a lot of viewers. How do you check new posts?

For years DD (and associated JavaScriptKit) forum was fabulous learning place to be routinely checked for new ideas. With new interface, DD is no longer viewable.

What a shame. Seems it is now limited to a few "insiders" clique club.

[jscheuer1]

I'm sorry you feel that way. It took me awhile to get used to it. While I was, at first I was a little unhappy about it. And there are still some kinks to be worked out. At the same time there are some new features, improved features, and some old glitches hanging around from the last update have been fixed.

New Posts are on the left edge of the dark blue menu bar immediately below the green menu bar, both near the top of each page.

Is there anything else you're having difficulty finding? I know I was almost completely disoriented at first. I have found most things now though.

Oh, and there's a thread about the update:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/s...to-vBulletin-4!

You can participate in that if you like. Perhaps some of your questions are answered/could be answered there.

There's also another less formal thread on the update here:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/s...-a-huge-change

[djr33]

I'm still getting used to it. I'm not entirely happy about it either, but it's getting better.

One thing I've found is that I like having a narrow (and tall) window on half of my screen with other windows open. With the new layout, that doesn't work. It's too busy and visually distracting to be productive. But if I maximize the window to fill my whole screen, everything is a lot more comfortable.


I wonder if it's harder or not now-- we're just used the old way. Do new visitors find it more difficult than new visitors did with the old layout? I wouldn't be surprised if that's true, but I'm biased so I can't be sure.

[ddadmin]

The interface is still a work in progress, I assure you. I agree certain visual cues definitely could use some fine tuning, and I'll be addressing them in the next few days.

[keyboard]

I wonder if it's harder or not now-- we're just used the old way. Do new visitors find it more difficult than new visitors did with the old layout? I wouldn't be surprised if that's true, but I'm biased so I can't be sure.

I think someone should make a poll about the upgrade because then you could see the communties opinion... And maybe a thread specifically for changes that they think should be made...

[bernie1227]

The website Definately is a different look, however, I don't believe we're losing viewers, the number of people posting seems to be about the same in my view, the only thing that I really have a problem here is not having that bar up the top with the top thanked latest blog posts and latest posts, I don't have any qualms with the rest of the site.

[djr33]

What I'm specifically interested in is whether there would be a difference between User A and User B in the following situation:

User A joined the site in May of this year and was here, actively posting about several problems for one month. User A has never seen the new layout, only the old layout.
User B joined the site yesterday and is now starting to become an active member, and will post about several problems over the next month. User B has only seen the new layout.


Bernie, the statistics could be misleading (because it might take a while for them to catch up, and often bots are caught in the numbers).
Keyboard, you can't be an unbiased judge of this because you've seen the old layout. I'm specifically interested in users who've only seen the new layout. (I can't be an unbiased judge either!)
A poll might work, but I'd be specifically interested in only responses from members who've joined since the change. That is: "What do you think of the forum's layout?", not "...of the new layout?"

[traq]

I think someone should make a poll about the upgrade because then you could see the communties opinion...

results from such a poll would be highly biased.

however, I don't believe we're losing viewers, the number of people posting seems to be about the same in my view...

intuitively, I'd agree with that - though I'd wait a few weeks and see what the stats say about it.

[djr33]

Just browsing around the forum at the moment and thinking about these issues, I want to add that I'm much, much happier now that my screen is maximized (along with slowly adjusting over time).

So, 1) it's the kind of thing I can get used to (I think), and 2) Something needs to be done about the layout on narrower windows/screens. It doesn't scale down very well.

I think the problem is that before everything was clearly divided into sections and now it seems like a lot of somewhat disconnected bits here and there. For example, the signature is so far away from the posts (based just on my visual impression-- colors, boxes, actual distance) that it feels separated from the post. When the window is wider, that compensates so that the vertical distance is minimal compared to the horizontal space.



There's something interesting that I've noticed about visual perception. Try writing a word on a piece of paper (it doesn't matter what you write-- perhaps something to remember), maybe a page with a lot of other things written on it. Next, circle it. Obviously the word is now more prominent on the page. Circle it again. Continue doing that, making a larger and larger border around it. At some point the border starts to overwhelm the text and the text becomes easy to overlook again. I think that's the effect that some of the stand-out colors/borders on this design are having (at least for me). In that sense, sometimes less is more.




But, one important thing is that I think since the initial change, all of the slight changes have been improvements, so DD, your updates have worked for the most part. It's getting there.

[bernie1227]

Bernie, the statistics could be misleading (because it might take a while for them to catch up, and often bots are caught in the numbers).

This isnn't about bots or statistics, this is about me seeing how many posts have been made when I come online, and I can tell you that it looks the same to me.