Rework the flow, layout and phrasing

[dethfire]

First of all, congrats on adding Xen Gallery. I think it's a good call. Nice product.

My suggestion isn't specific, but I run a community for older women and they often have trouble using the gallery because it's clearly laid out by a programmer and not a designer. The flow of how to add new media and interact with current media is not all that easyobvious for them. Again I don't have specifics, but just imagine if the software was released as a solo product like pinterest. Many won't agree with me, but that is because you are problem solving programmers. I just go by what I hear and that is my older women community who can use xenforo fine, sometimes have trouble with figuring out the gallery.

thanks!!

 

[Paul B]

Suggestions need to be specific rather than just "make it easier for this demographic".

Personally I don't find it difficult as it seems fairly obvious what the steps are, starting with clicking the [Add Media] button.

 

[dethfire]

Personally I don't find it difficult as it seems fairly obvious what the steps are, starting with clicking the [Add Media] button.

Yeah because you're a ninja programmer. A few ladies couldn't even find the add media button because it's far on the right side.

 

[Chris D]

Then, how are they able to create threads?

 

[Paul B]

A few ladies couldn't even find the add media button because it's far on the right side.

Customise your installation to suit your member base then.

I can't say I've ever heard of anyone having issues with that before.

 

[Grover]

A few ladies couldn't even find the add media button because it's far on the right side.

Very good and valid point Dethfire. Your ladies are not the only one having problems with this. On my own forum (and that of co-forum owners that I know) we are confronted with this as well, as I reported several times over here before. I am not talking about this new plugin specifically, but how it's a fundamental 'issue' in Xenforo, the placement of buttons next to the breadcrumb.

An example:

https://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.18/
https://xenforo.com/community/forums/media-gallery-suggestions.86/

If you compare those screens you will see the button is not displayed in an consistent position. Yes, we know the reason, but why this solution I am still wondering? A button 'should' always have the same position, for obvious UI/UX reasons.

Here I mention a link with lots of suggestions from XF owners in it to improve it. And what the testers of Karelke experienced...

Feedback from our testers states that the button at its current location is hard to find. Therefore we moved the button to the left, just above the pagination. It requires a minor template modification.

... is exactly what our test-experiences (and day-to-day user experiences) on our own boards (and that of co-admins) revealed when it comes to the otherwise fantastic UI/UX of Xenforo.

I wish this issue would be recognized or at least looked into for a future XF release (2.0?). That I think is more helpful in the long run for the endusers of Xenforo then hearing that we need to alter our templates for something that seems fundamentally not quite right in this product.

And yes, I saw the new XFMG add-on today overhere and it also took me a while to actually discover how to add media. It needs discovering, because the button all the way on the right next to a breadcrumb is too hidden. It is much more intuitive from an UI/UX point of view if this button is much more in your face (in other words: visible).

And to be clear: not only my internet no-savvy endusers on my own board (and that of co-admins) experience issues with this in XF. No, it's also even myself as an experienced forum user: next to that I have a good feeling/insight/understanding when it comes to intuitive UI/UX. All in all... I wish for an improvement on these buttons in XF indeed.

Thank you for your valid points @dethfire.

 

[Grover]

The flow of how to add new media and interact with current media is not all that easyobvious for them. Again I don't have specifics...

Hello @dethfire , you mentioned the too hidden [add media] button as a specific. Can you explain more about the issues your endusers have with how to interact with the media? I can see where they are coming from, after using this new product overhere at xenforo.com for a few days. So I am interested to know what your users find confusing about it. As has been said, it's important one mentions specifics, otherwise it's impossible to comment on it and subsequentually improve it.

 

[Breeze]

I saw it for the first time this evening so let me give some honest feedback - I needed 10-15 minutes of intensive looking, thinking and clicking around to realise what is what. It is probably completely fine once you get used to it because it is so clean, but the first impression is also very important and that needs work imho

One thing that confused me a lot is the fact that albums, images and videos look pretty much identical at first glance - only a super tiny icon being different. No matter where I clicked it felt like I was being shown a random collection of just images.

The Site / Albums tabs thing was hard to figure out too . Perhaps something like Site categories / Albums would be a bit easier to understand.

Other than that it is obviously a solid and impressive product, happy that it is part of xenforo now. I think just some cosmetic/phrasing changes like the OP suggests can vastly improve the first impression for people like me and the older ladies who got confused - I would start by adding stuff like Picture / Video / Album (12 items) next to the corresponding tiny icons and make those bigger too.

 

[Grover]

In the next year my intention is to upgrade from VB3.8 to XF2.0. If I want to keep our VB3.8 User Albums, I understood I need to buy the XF Media Gallery. So I am interested to see (by first trying it out on www.xenforo.com) if this product will fulfill what our user-base (who are not your daily forumexperts so to speak ) needs.

So, I guess everything happens in the right time, because the new XF2 style solves the biggest UI flaw the XF1 series had:

And yes, I saw the new XFMG add-on today overhere and it also took me a while to actually discover how to add media. It needs discovering, because the button all the way on the right next to a breadcrumb is too hidden. It is much more intuitive from an UI/UX point of view if this button is much more in your face (in other words: visible).

This new style design that XF2 brings to its endusers is just simply wonderful. Almost everything that was not right (and that was not much to begin with) about the XF1 style is solved in a pixel perfect way.

Key buttons like [Post Thread] and [Add Media] etc... now have the right positions (released from the breadcrumb trails of the past)- and colour.

I believe this was one of the most important of the many UI improvements the new XF2 style brings to it's forum users.

Also the Media Gallery now benefits from this.

Another (tiny) confusing thing mentioned above that was solved is this (which might already have been fixed in a previous version of XFMG, no idea):

The Site / Albums tabs thing was hard to figure out too

If the OP @dethfire has no specifics to share , one could say:

[Implemented]

Because, I think that with the offered UI improvements in both the Media Gallery itself and Xenforo, these valid points have probably improved? :

The flow of how to add new media and interact with current media is not all that easyobvious for them. [...] I just go by what I hear and that is my older women community who can use xenforo fine, sometimes have trouble with figuring out the gallery.

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