Rant: I hate the Forum Home, it sucks.

Digital Doctor said:
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Even a 2 column layout is better than most forum homes.
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Do you have any information to make 2 column? :D
 
I think that the forum should not just look appealing. Windows8 tiles are cool and all, but do not help much with increasing usability and letting the user find what he/she needs.

The default forum index can use improvement simply by adding more display options.
But once you have hundreds of nodes then you have a real problem. Because users get lost and have trouble to find the forum they need. A drop down navigation with all nodes in it does help. As does a filter system.
But the layout should be clear in where to find what, reduce scrolling, keep readers attention and add recognizable graphics or icons to locations.
 
Rudy said:
You forgot *cough* "looks amateur as hell" *cough*...
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I'm assuming the software is new so I'm sure they'll improve as time passes, but my posts are constructive (screenshots) depending on how they are looked upon since they can walk away from that and make changes, or not. personally, I'm not a fan of the layout or the "minimised" info thing since there's some info that the majority still find useful. I wish them luck though despite my opinion.

I still think xenforo did it right. They managed to minimize data and keep things clean, uncluttered whilst still keeping the essential info in. I seriously can't see what some people don't like about that, or why they think it sucks.
 
Shelley said:
You're absolutely right, that is really my own opinion since I think that particular layout is beyond bad and does nothing for me other than keeps me guessing and wondering why they wasted so much space on and in that area.
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I agree it's a trainwreck. Yet, I also believe that many sites have become way too cluttered and overloaded with information. A forum's index page (out of the box) really hasn't changed since the days of UBB, and if there is a way I could present a streamlined version of the same information, but with a little more functionality (with no "hover" gimmicks), I'd be all for it. I just don't have the time or template skills as of yet to pull off what I want to. I need a good theme designer to make it happen. ;)

I do have an idea for a revamped home page that would be cleaner, more direct, but also be highly usable. Just having tiles for tiles' sake is not the answer though. And I agree about the horsepile. Somewhat. I'd have said "steaming horsepile". :D

As long as the forum home page never gets styled in that useless "Pinterest" style layout (with staggered blocks)...that is the most unreadable mess I've seen, and it is alarming as to how many other sites are beginning to use it.
 
Rudy said:
I agree it's a trainwreck. Yet, I also believe that many sites have become way too cluttered and overloaded with information. A forum's index page (out of the box) really hasn't changed since the days of UBB, and if there is a way I could present a streamlined version of the same information, but with a little more functionality (with no "hover" gimmicks), I'd be all for it. I just don't have the time or template skills as of yet to pull off what I want to. I need a good theme designer to make it happen. ;)

I do have an idea for a revamped home page that would be cleaner, more direct, but also be highly usable. Just having tiles for tiles' sake is not the answer though. And I agree about the horsepile. Somewhat. I'd have said "steaming horsepile". :D

As long as the forum home page never gets styled in that useless "Pinterest" style layout (with staggered blocks)...that is the most unreadable mess I've seen, and it is alarming as to how many other sites are beginning to use it.
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I was probably a little too harsh calling it "horse pile". Though I did want to test the waters and see if either that comment was going to be the focus point or the constructive screenshots (depending how they are looked upon). I guess it was enough for someone to race over there and rat me out. :P Honestly though, I'm quite positive they'll improve upon their script.

I'm not against the column layout as long as essential info is retained. Like I said, it's easy to minimize and keep everything out. The difficult part is minimizing the look and retaining a clean layout - Meet xenforo. I'll go with the latter.
 
Shelley said:
I was probably a little too harsh calling it "horse pile". Though I did want to test the waters and see if either that comment was going to be the focus point or the constructive screenshots (depending how they are looked upon). I guess it was enough for someone to race over there and rat me out. :p Honestly though, I'm quite positive they'll improve upon their script.

I'm not against the column layout as long as essential info is retained. Like I said, it's easy to minimize and keep everything out. The difficult part is minimizing the look and retaining a clean layout - Meet xenforo. I'll go with the latter.
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I've been bitten by too many open source forum systems that I tend to view them warily to begin with. But if the initial page I see in a demo looks as haphazard as that (if anything, it looks unfinished), chances are I'll never go back. I guess part of me is also affected by a lot of the WordPress themes I've come across over the years--only a small handful look professional enough for me to use on a site I'd put my name on.

I do like XF's forum home--it is well laid out and suitable for most sites IMHO, and it works perfectly fine out of the box. In my case, I just want to freshen things up and give it a slightly different format, putting more visual emphasis on the category of content within each area as opposed to having it be a pure textual listing. Since there is not yet a portal that I like completely, a simple re-do of the main forum landing page would probably suit us better.

The "tiles" idea, though, reminds me of it being a good idea for a Windows support forum that I am a member of, which just switched over to XF. :D
 
Yes, I agree.
With larger boards... it makes things look a bit more "simplified" and "organized" to have certain nodes horizontal. In my opinion of course.
Anything to decrease the amount of index scroll time, is always nice.

I also feel like totally simplistic themes are a trend now a days. People want whats important right in front of them, and cant be bothered to dig a little bit to find what satisfy them. Just the way our society is now a days ... I guess.

Here is what @Ashley.S. and I came up with last week. Graphics are still a work in progress...

Untitled33.webp
 

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Eaglebunker said:
Dark..
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Easier on the eyes for us gamers at night, and early morning hours :p
Anyways, that is besides the point.

Horizontal custom nodes, or settings to do so in future Xenforo releases, and maybe some other creativity to the forum index may be the future. We will have to see...
 
Wing said:
Yes, I agree.
With larger boards... it makes things look a bit more "simplified" and "organized" to have certain nodes horizontal. In my opinion of course.
Anything to decrease the amount of index scroll time, is always nice.

I also feel like totally simplistic themes are a trend now a days. People want whats important right in front of them, and cant be bothered to dig a little bit to find what satisfy them. Just the way our society is now a days ... I guess.

Here is what @Ashley.S. and I came up with last week. Graphics are still a work in progress...

View attachment 59741
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That looks good also. Though I would have kept the lastpost data in and do something creative with it rather than leaving it out. Not sure the .nodeDescription needed to be there but i guess that is preference I would have personally left that out. Overall though, not to bad at all.
 
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