[UI Change] What's New has a new position

Grover

Grover

Well-known member
I always thought the What's New link being the first in line of ... What's New, Mark All Forums Read, Watched Threads was somehow not quite right. Also I remember Kier posting the same somewhere (can not find it back... where is that XF Bookmark function?) . Can not explain really why it felt that way (maybe because in vBulletin it has a more prominent place more to the right, don't know), but now they've moved it to the right! :).
 
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I don't really care about the order in the navbar, but now "What's New" is the last item in Forums drop-down and "Mark all forums read" is the first one, which is a bit weird IMO.
 
Sami said:
I don't really care about the order in the navbar, but now "What's New" is the last item in Forums drop-down and "Mark all forums read" is the first one, which is a bit weird IMO.
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I think we're close to 50/50 on this. Thank goodness it's a simple template edit.
 
Peggy said:
and this is how I'm saying that I prefer it. What's new is in front of me because it's the more important of the 3 links. :)

The least used links should be to the left, out of my way, as I don't use them much.
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oh sorry, I thought you said that What's New? IS the most important

to screen readers and most users, I would think that What's New? is the most important task (should be first on the list)

on a separate note, no one has addressed the fact that the UI changes when logged in

What's New? is to the left (first on list) to GUESTS but when logged in What's New? is to the right (last on the list) ... Don't you think it should stay the same - What's New? at the top of the list?

For RTL readers, the list should read (html source):

Quick Links (As Guest)
  • What's New
Quick Links (As Member Logged In)
  • What's New
  • Watched Threads
  • Mark all forums read
looking at the design, it should be displayed as
Mark all forums read | Watched Threads | What's New .1

Making What's New? the first thing one reads

For LTR readers, the list should still read (html source):

Quick Links (As Guest)
  • What's New
Quick Links (As Member Logged In)
  • What's New
  • Watched Threads
  • Mark all forums read
but the design is reversed:
1. What's New | Watched Threads | Mark all forums read

Making What's New? the first thing one reads.


Usability (some characteristics)
  1. Should be the same for all users. eg. disabled, rtl, ltr, etc
  2. Should consider the importance and frequency of the task.

Please note that I'm not trying to change how the links are set here - I know that I can change it via a template edit. I just like discussing anything related to UI's, usability, and the likes of it. ;)
 
You have completely lost me, lol. I don't see a "list". When I click on the Forum tab I see:
Mark all forums read | Watched Threads | What's New (Without the | of course).

The What's New link IS the most important. Therefore (imo) it should be right in front of me, not to the left, which is where I move links that I don't/rarely use.

haha We could go round and round about this from now til release. It's a matter of preference, imo.
 
Peggy said:
The What's New link IS the most important. Therefore - to me anyway - it should be right in front of me, not to the left, which is where I move links that I don't/rarely use.

haha We could go round and round about this from now til release. It's a matter of preference, imo, and a very easy template edit for those who want to move it to the left.
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Agreed.
I'm in the other camp so I will have to resort to editing which is always a pain when it comes to upgrading, etc, as all edits need to be managed and in most cases re-applied.

The current implementation does make the dropdown menus look odd though as the most common/used options are now at the bottom of the menu list which is where the least common items are in every other piece of software I use.
 
Oh wait, ok I see what list you're talking about. I never click the arrow to see the list. I click on the forum tab and get the 3 links next to each other. Sorry!
 
Well I actually mean both, I prefer left to right and top to bottom :)

But yes, I also don't generally use the drop down links unless I'm in a hurry, if one can ever be in a hurry on a forum :D
 
Princeton said:
oh sorry, I thought you said that What's New? IS the most important

to screen readers and most users, I would think that What's New? is the most important task (should be first on the list)

on a separate note, no one has addressed the fact that the UI changes when logged in

What's New? is to the left (first on list) to GUESTS but when logged in What's New? is to the right (last on the list) ... Don't you think it should stay the same - What's New? at the top of the list?
Click to expand...

Whats New is the most important to me, which is why it is important to have be on the right near the center of the screen, where my mouse cursor is. How people use there mouse has nothing to do with the language (RTL/LTR). For people with an actual 'mouse', it does not matter nearly as much as people using a touch pad which uses a fairly small area to move around on - if that is set up for speed, it looses accuracy.
  • When not logged in, on the forums page, there is only 1 button, Whats new.
  • When not on the members page, such as the members page or Help page, there is only one item in the drop down list on the forums tab - Whats New.
 
Brogan said:
The current implementation does make the dropdown menus look odd though as the most common/used options are now at the bottom of the menu list which is where the least common items are in every other piece of software I use.
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The order of the quick links could be changed, it does look slightly strange, but basic navigation between Watched Threads, and Whats New can now be done without using quick links - after the change yesterday when they added the Whats New in the Watch Threads page. Which to me makes the ordering of the quick links menu far less important.
 
Can anyone point us to any usability studies that support either camp? I've always designed/customized my sites according to the expected behaviors and layouts, and prefer to know for sure which design is best for the majority of my members.
 
Find it quite interesting to read about different people views about this. Proofs how difficult it is to make an interface that works for everyone.

Personally I think it was slightly easier to find the "What's New" button when it was to the left.
Now I get feeling that I need to aim more instead of just throwing the cursor to the left and there it was.
Don't consider it to be a problem though, it isn't exactly hard the way it is now either...

/SK
 
@Peggy, while I het what you're saying.. I honestly don't find my self looking at the center of the screen to find links, but navigation in general has always been OR 'top centered and listed from left to right' OR 'top left aligned and listed from left to right' OR 'top right aligned and listed from right to left'
(hence the natural feel imho of the 'report like reply')
and quite sure you'll agree that, while it conflicts with your center focus logic, the 'Reply' button on the extreme right makes most sence, AND can be considered mostly used, right?

that said.. it's odd that bottom-right aligned stuff feel more natural from left to right ('post reply' 'upload a file' 'more options'), but I think that can be explained by the fact that while typing a post your eyes are already in the center, en reading from left to right.

that said.. I don't really mind how it is here, but I'd probably edit it back in the template to the order 'what's new' 'watched threads' 'mark as read'

my 2cents
 
Grover said:
Hi Kerry-Anne,

Don't you have a problem then with 'Quote-Replying' to a thread? See: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/reply-link-need-to-be-more-prominent.1175/#post-36821
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no, that feels right to me although IMO it's not very friendly because if you are not sure what you are looking for then there is no obvious way to quote a post. I actually did manual quoting a couple of times before I worked out that the reply link is for quoting, and I'm not exactly a newb when it comes to forums!
 
I just don't get it how people don't learn? Who never clicks on Reply? That's just silly .. You read a post and go, I want to reply to THIS .. and you click on Reply. and then you see it gets quoted in the quick reply box. tada, you learned how it behaves.
 
Princeton said:
What's New | Watched Threads | Mark Forums Read

This is the most logical order. It's listed by priority (most hits/usage).
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Have to admit I work left-to-right too.

P.S. It must be killing Kier and Mike to be getting bogged down in these UI details and disagreements among members. Ultimately you have to pick a style and release it and if people want it changed, they'll change it.

I'm hopeful that the navbar is a nice template or set of templates, and then there is a Navbar Manager that lets us change the order of the items. If someone wants to completely redo the navbar, they just ignore the Navbar Manager and replace whole chunks of HTML.
 
In a style used for languages that are written and read from top left to bottom right, the most important things have to be top left


Usualy i read whats written before i click on it, so the reading part is more prominent to me than the mouse movement.
 

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