EN World Buttons (@Russ)

[Morrus]

The trouble there is that too much clutter effectively hides things just as well as actually removing them. Remember how "nobody can ever find" the Search menu?

I remember it as much as "People can find it".

[Edit - that was awfully long winded. Shorter version - most people find the buttons; fewer people find the text menu links; even fewer people find the links in the dropdown menus. Dropping a link from one category to the next lower reduces its chance of being found drastically. We can track link usage with Google Analytics pretty accurately, so we know what's being clicked on and what isn't.]

 

[weem]

Ok, here we go... first, a comparison followed by a link to the images...

I was able to keep them close in height (only 3px difference) by reducing the border thickness and padding inside the button while ALSO increasing the font size - so, hopefully these work better

<edit> Of course, it could be even more narrow without the logos for WotBS and SF!, but I think the logos are cool/important, hehe. </edit>

<edit2> I re-upped the zip to include a second wotbs button without the "4e" on it incase you wanted to keep that neutral. It's small enough that you can't really read it well anyway, but I thought... just incase </edit2>

Download buttons here (zipped)

 

[Nifft]

I remember it as much as "People can find it".

[Edit - that was awfully long winded. Shorter version - most people find the buttons; fewer people find the text menu links; even fewer people find the links in the dropdown menus. Dropping a link from one category to the next lower reduces its chance of being found drastically. We can track link usage with Google Analytics pretty accurately, so we know what's being clicked on and what isn't.]

Sure, I know that some people can find the dropdown. I'm a person, and I use it plenty. But if you have reason to believe one is better than the other, just keep the one that's better, be it the button or the dropdown. It doesn't really matter which, does it?


Regarding calendar, etc., it feels like some are there because you hope they will be useful secondary resources in the future. It's nice that you're developing secondary resources, but IMHO one ought to always have one's eye on the core resource, which for EN World is having great forums.

Don't dilute your core competency -- great forums -- for new toys. IMHO anything that makes the forums better is good, anything that detracts from them -- even mildly -- is bad. If you can fit in toys that don't detract, great! Toys are fun, and people like them. But never, ever sacrifice core functionality for toys.

It seems to me that WotC did this with their forums, and it drove a bunch of people away. CharOp now works mostly in the wiki, because the forums are lacking.

Ok, here we go... first, a comparison followed by a link to the images...

I was able to keep them close in height (only 3px difference) by reducing the border thickness and padding inside the button while ALSO increasing the font size - so, hopefully these work better

<edit> Of course, it could be even more narrow without the logos for WotBS and SF!, but I think the logos are cool/important, hehe. </edit>

Looks good to me. Under 800px was the target, right?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nytmare]

Ok, here we go... first, a comparison followed by a link to the images...

Newsletter, Subscribe, and Search don't seem to pop as nicely as the others. I'm also wondering if there's a good reason to fight to keep those logos clear and within the bounds of those buttons since you can't really see them at that size.

My suggestion would be to make all of the buttons that height, but all the same width. I'd have the Burning Sky and Space Fight logos larger, and recognizable, but cropped by the edges of the buttons.

Is there a reason why the buttons are grouped like that instead of by news - subscriber content - games?

Hey look I maded a drawring!

 

[Morrus]

That's exellent, weem! We're down to about 850 pixels of graphics (plus scrollbar and a little spacing). That's a good 200-px saving!

 

[Sammael]

If you're open to suggestions regarding the UI (I can't stand the term "chrome"), I think one of the more confusing things is the fact that any given forum page has three different navigation menus, which is confusing and makes the site look cluttered. As Nifft said upthread, "less is more" works.

The three different menus are:

1. Large graphical buttons on top (News, Forums, Subscribe Now!, Wiki, Groups, Blogs...)

2. Text-based menu located under the breadcrumb/user info panel (My Account, Forum Jump, Blogs, FAQ, Calendar...)

3. New button bar (Older news, Newsletter, Subscriber Content, Subscribe...)

In addition, if I'm actually reading a thread, each thread has its own top menu (Linkback, Thread Tools...)

This takes up entirely too much vertical real estate. Furthermore, it's unfocused, since the menu choices are scattered and divided (divisions are fine if done logically, which is not the case here).

My suggestion would be to

A) Move the user info panel to the right-side of the top panel (where the logo is).

B) Merge the graphical buttons and new buttons into a single menu. There is some redundancy (Subscribe, WotBS) and some less frequently used buttons can be "demoted" to text links (there is also redundancy between text links and the two menus - Gamers Seeking Gamers, Reviews, Downloads...).

C) Rearrange the text menu so that it corresponds to the graphical buttons and position it directly under the graphical buttons. For example, I would place Older News on this menu (as a regular text link), directly under the News button. Forum Jump goes under Forums, and so on.

D) Place a big search box where user info used to be (with a small button that opens advanced search).

This way, you should get a much more focused menu, with a lot more vertical real estate.

To show you what I mean (conceptually), here's a mockup (just to see the layout):

 

[mudbunny]

I noticed that, depending on the forum, the button bar is different widths.

FREX, in General RPG discussion, it looks like this (and doesn't give me a horizontal scroll bar):

Whereas here in meta it looks like this (and does give me a horizontal scroll bar):

 

[Nifft]

Ah, nice short dropdown bar! Thanks.

Obligatory UI complaint: the bright green "status" thing in the upper-right corner keeps making me check to see if I have a private message. I guess once enough people realize they have a "status", you can make it less bright green?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Morrus]

Obligatory UI complaint: the bright green "status" thing in the upper-right corner

Please, gimme a rest! Just for a moment!

I'm half tempted to just hand you the keys and tell you to make it how you want it. I'll sell it first, of course!

The bright colours help me see what I'm doing. I'm not one fo those that can look at PHP code and visualise it. I have to make each element look completely different so I can see what's affecting what.

 

[Nytmare]

please, gimme a rest! Just for a moment!

Also a pony, thank you!

[EDIT - How dare it not let me type my message out annoyingly in all caps!]