Forum usability and aesthetic

[Tab]

Hi,

Please forgive me if I come across as rude, but I had a couple of ideas to make this forum a bit more "user friendly".

• 9 times out of 10 I am browsing this forum on my phone, which is a terrible experience at the moment. The current theme is not responsive, and having to zoom and drag around to read anything or click anything gets really old. Responsive mobile first designs are kind of expected these days. I really like the look of this theme here: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2837, it's modern, flat, light and responsive.
• Sticking with the mobile first idea, it would be great if you installed TapaTalk. Then I could browse the forum from the awesome Tapatalk mobile app. You can find the package here: https://tapatalk.com/download_SimpleMachines.php
• All the forums being under the "General Category" doesn't seem right to me, especially as you have now added the Google Home forum. I think it could be better categorised with sub-forums to make it more intuitive to browse.

Hope I am not out of line making these suggestions.

Tab

[kevb]

From the moderator posted earlier in another thread:

"Due to some privacy concerns, I have turned off Tapatalk access to this forum.

I have received reports that some members of this forum have received unsolicited email from Tapatalk.

If you use Tapatalk, please access this forum directly from your web browser."

[jwlv]

Hi,

Please forgive me if I come across as rude, but I had a couple of ideas to make this forum a bit more "user friendly".

• 9 times out of 10 I am browsing this forum on my phone, which is a terrible experience at the moment. The current theme is not responsive, and having to zoom and drag around to read anything or click anything gets really old. Responsive mobile first designs are kind of expected these days. I really like the look of this theme here: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2837, it's modern, flat, light and responsive.
• Sticking with the mobile first idea, it would be great if you installed TapaTalk. Then I could browse the forum from the awesome Tapatalk mobile app. You can find the package here: https://tapatalk.com/download_SimpleMachines.php
• All the forums being under the "General Category" doesn't seem right to me, especially as you have now added the Google Home forum. I think it could be better categorised with sub-forums to make it more intuitive to browse.

Hope I am not out of line making these suggestions.

Tab

I've been searching for a good mobile/responsive theme for a while now. I gave up after only finding several really horrible ones. Your post prompted me to look again. And voila! I found a really good one today. It's already installed. I hope everyone likes it.

[renegade600]

that green gotta go or at least use larger fonts in the profiles next to the posts.  It is difficult to read them with my old eyes.  besides the green does not fit with the color scheme for the rest of the forum.   I also agree about the subforums.  this forum is about the echo, google home should be a subforum of smart devices and gadgets.

[Maff]

Hi,

Please forgive me if I come across as rude, but I had a couple of ideas to make this forum a bit more "user friendly".

• 9 times out of 10 I am browsing this forum on my phone, which is a terrible experience at the moment. The current theme is not responsive, and having to zoom and drag around to read anything or click anything gets really old. Responsive mobile first designs are kind of expected these days. I really like the look of this theme here: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2837, it's modern, flat, light and responsive.
• Sticking with the mobile first idea, it would be great if you installed TapaTalk. Then I could browse the forum from the awesome Tapatalk mobile app. You can find the package here: https://tapatalk.com/download_SimpleMachines.php
• All the forums being under the "General Category" doesn't seem right to me, especially as you have now added the Google Home forum. I think it could be better categorised with sub-forums to make it more intuitive to browse.

Hope I am not out of line making these suggestions.

Tab

I've been searching for a good mobile/responsive theme for a while now. I gave up after only finding several really horrible ones. Your post prompted me to look again. And voila! I found a really good one today. It's already installed. I hope everyone likes it.

Love that you are improving the site, but on my tablet the person/profile images images are massive compared to the posts.. Its like a massive square picture of a head as big as the screen, and two tiny lines of text under it for the post. Makes threads impossible to read. Also you can't easily see if a main category has been updated since you last logged in, so have to open every category to see.

Sorry for the negative feedback, can these be changed?

[jwlv]

Love that you are improving the site, but on my tablet the person/profile images images are massive compared to the posts.. Its like a massive square picture of a head as big as the screen, and two tiny lines of text under it for the post. Makes threads impossible to read. Also you can't easily see if a main category has been updated since you last logged in, so have to open every category to see.

Sorry for the negative feedback, can these be changed?

The profile images have been reduced in size. It was set to 100% of the screen width. Now it is fixed at 80 pixels.

The poster's name has been increased in size with a blue background.

Forums with new posts now have a dark shaded icon. Forums without new posts have a light shaded icon. This makes it easier to distinguish the difference. If you don't see this, press F5 to reload/refresh your browser since graphics are usually stored in your browser's cache.

[Maff]

Love that you are improving the site, but on my tablet the person/profile images images are massive compared to the posts.. Its like a massive square picture of a head as big as the screen, and two tiny lines of text under it for the post. Makes threads impossible to read. Also you can't easily see if a main category has been updated since you last logged in, so have to open every category to see.

Sorry for the negative feedback, can these be changed?

The profile images have been reduced in size. It was set to 100% of the screen width. Now it is fixed at 80 pixels.

The poster's name has been increased in size with a blue background.

Forums with new posts now have a dark shaded icon. Forums without new posts have a light shaded icon. This makes it easier to distinguish the difference. If you don't see this, press F5 to reload/refresh your browser since graphics are usually stored in your browser's cache.

Much better! I realised the darker icons when I returned today. Thanks for all your hard work!

[Tab]

Good stuff, love the new theme! Posting this from my phone right now 

[AlanH]

Am I correct in thinking that there's no option to set forum time to a member's location? Forum time seems to be PST.

[DParker]

Am I correct in thinking that there's no option to set forum time to a member's location? Forum time seems to be PST.

In the upper-right corner of the screen look for the "Forum Profile" link and click it.  On the next page, just above the "Profile" title bar, you'll see three options: "Profile Info", "Modify Profile" and "Actions".  Hover your mouse over "Modify Profile" and a drop-down menu will appear.  Select "Look and Layout".  On the screen that appears then the second configuration option will be for your timezone offset.  If you don't know your TZ offset you can click the "(auto detect)" option to the right of the edit box and it will attempt to figure it out for you.

[AlanH]

Got it - thank you.