[RFC] Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

These requests for comments/change have lead to an implemented feature that has been successfully merged into the 3.1/Ascraeus branch. Everything listed in this forum will be available in phpBB 3.1.
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Darkness_demoN
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by Darkness_demoN »

Yey :) I saw that. But it's a bit stranege :/

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Kamahl19
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by Kamahl19 »

At first I was really surprised by borders, but then I saw navbar which I dont like so much. It is good to group all related stuff to one right corner, but there is a room for improvement.

1. Quick links in left corner - why are most used links hidden under another click? Most of the users click on View your posts or New posts when they come to forum (I have proved this to myself by tool which tracks clicks on website). Now, they have to make one additional click. So most used links are grouped so that header is cleaner, but there is still Current time and Last visited time, which are used by only small % of users. That does not make sense.

2. If you really want to hide and group these links, at least the order should be changed. Most used link is New posts so ti should be first link in dropdown.

3. Why Your posts and Unanswered posts have different icons?

4. There is inconsistency in displaying "there is a dropdown menu". Quick links uses 3 bars icon but user dropdown uses arrow pointing down.

5. I believe, FAQ link should be moved down to Contact us, The team, Members and other not important links. If Members link was moved down then FAQ should be too.

6. If FAQ link is moved down, then we dont need Quick links dropdown box but these links can be displayed all in top left corner of navbar.

7. Icons in user dropdown are not aligned properly. Well, from CSS pov, they are good but icons does not have the same width so there is smaller space between icon and UCP then between icon and Logout link.

8. There is inconsistency in Notifications and PMs. When I click on Notifications links, dropdown is shown. When I click on PMs, it should also display latest PMs instead of redirecting me to PMs.

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hanakin
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by hanakin »

@Kamahl19

their was ample time to make any comments prior to merging as this is a 21 page post? But let me answer some of your responses
Kamahl19 wrote:At first I was really surprised by borders, but then I saw navbar which I dont like so much. It is good to group all related stuff to one right corner, but there is a room for improvement.

1. Quick links in left corner - why are most used links hidden under another click? Most of the users click on View your posts or New posts when they come to forum (I have proved this to myself by tool which tracks clicks on website). Now, they have to make one additional click. So most used links are grouped so that header is cleaner, but there is still Current time and Last visited time, which are used by only small % of users. That does not make sense.

this is done because they are all related however there are too many to show without a menu, as for your data that is a small sample as its on your site. When it comes to UX/UI you have to way all the options not just the addition of clicks. Th rest is a separate issue unrelated to the navbar

2. If you really want to hide and group these links, at least the order should be changed. Most used link is New posts so ti should be first link in dropdown.

This is an initial change we can make smaller modifications now that its forced into the userscope

3. Why Your posts and Unanswered posts have different icons?

Again initial change and due to no feedback on it otherwise. Beside with the switch in 3.2 to font-awsome it makes sense to have icons here

4. There is inconsistency in displaying "there is a dropdown menu". Quick links uses 3 bars icon but user dropdown uses arrow pointing down.

prosilver is one big inconsistency, but this is not really one of them as hamburger means menu so the arrow is repetitive.

5. I believe, FAQ link should be moved down to Contact us, The team, Members and other not important links. If Members link was moved down then FAQ should be too.

I agree its in the wrong place but It should not go in the footer it should be moved into the usemenu when logged in and still on the right when not. But too many people saying different things so it was left where it was originally

6. If FAQ link is moved down, then we dont need Quick links dropdown box but these links can be displayed all in top left corner of navbar.

See answer to #5, also you are not seeing the ACP and MCP links on area51 that are their as well, so you have to think responivly

7. Icons in user dropdown are not aligned properly. Well, from CSS pov, they are good but icons does not have the same width so there is smaller space between icon and UCP then between icon and Logout link.

prosilver is one big inconsistency, this specific on is due to the fact that the icons are image based an all design and created by different individuals at different scales using different colors and different methods, should I go on... font-awesome will fix this

8. There is inconsistency in Notifications and PMs. When I click on Notifications links, dropdown is shown. When I click on PMs, it should also display latest PMs instead of redirecting me to PMs.

100% agree but that is a seperate RFC
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Kamahl19
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by Kamahl19 »

1. all things which are related should be grouped under dropdown menu? Even when they are most used links in forum? Honestly, what link do you click at first when you open a forum? Is it something else than New posts and Your posts?
One of the very important rule in UI/UX is not to hide important things.

4. I dont see the difference between those 2 dropdown menus but they have different icons. Why? If there is a good argument ok, but if not, it is inconsistency.

5. 100% of people agreed with moving Members link? I doubt that but it is moved anyway. Take a look on other big sites. All these links about the page are in footer. In top navbar are only links for main pages of the website. FAQ is not the main page and it also does not belong to user dropdown. Also guests can read FAQ.

6. Are you saying that links used by all users should be hidden because there are MCP and ACP links used by 1-10 users?

7. Font awesome will be maybe in 3.2. so do you agree with releasing first major release after 8 years with ugly dropdown? I am not saying add FA to 3.1, thats not possible, but that dropdown is a new thing in 3.1 so it should be polished a bit.

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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

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Kamahl19 wrote:1. Quick links in left corner - why are most used links hidden under another click? Most of the users click on View your posts or New posts when they come to forum (I have proved this to myself by tool which tracks clicks on website). Now, they have to make one additional click. So most used links are grouped so that header is cleaner, but there is still Current time and Last visited time, which are used by only small % of users. That does not make sense.
I was vocal during the ample time allotted that on the index/home page of the board, these quick links should still also be in their original locations, so that those of us who live by them can still get to them as we have been trained for almost a decade, and just 1 click.

View unanswered posts, View unread posts, View new posts, View active topics

They should be put back on index. They are important.

viewtopic.php?f=84&t=45679&p=264821&hilit=index#p264821
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hanakin
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by hanakin »

Kamahl19 wrote: 1. all things which are related should be grouped under dropdown menu? Even when they are most used links in forum? Honestly, what link do you click at first when you open a forum? Is it something else than New posts and Your posts?
One of the very important rule in UI/UX is not to hide important things.


1. Never said all related content should be grouped under drop-down
2. They are not the most used links, if they were they would be on every style and in every other forum software.
3. Their are more important links, I never use them the only one I have used on occasion is the "your posts" link but rarely only when I have returned to a forum after several months of inactivity and needed to find a post from awhile back.
4. Thats not a rule...as important is relative. UI is a game of push and pull, especially without full metrics.


4. I dont see the difference between those 2 dropdown menus but they have different icons. Why? If there is a good argument ok, but if not, it is inconsistency.

I did point out the difference to so not sure what the problem is? a hamburger icon means menu just as much as the arrow does so having both is repetitive!

5. 100% of people agreed with moving Members link? I doubt that but it is moved anyway. Take a look on other big sites. All these links about the page are in footer. In top navbar are only links for main pages of the website. FAQ is not the main page and it also does not belong to user dropdown. Also guests can read FAQ.

Not sure where you get 100% from I have said that, but I id agree with you that it does not belong their. I opt for it in the loged out stage to be next to the login and register links because it is related to registering and in that regard when logged in it should stay on the right side and move into the menu for the user maybe if not moved to the footer at that point.

6. Are you saying that links used by all users should be hidden because there are MCP and ACP links used by 1-10 users?

Not what I said, Their is already too many links their that can not be moved into menus. The post related links had to be moved into a menu

7. Font awesome will be maybe in 3.2. so do you agree with releasing first major release after 8 years with ugly dropdown? I am not saying add FA to 3.1, thats not possible, but that dropdown is a new thing in 3.1 so it should be polished a bit.

Again not what I said. The icons are images and without completely recreating all the images which I have mind you. Followed by a complete overhaul of the icon/dropdowns its impossible to get it 100%. My plan is/was to do another PR to merge them all into one a sprite. Its not an easy task and their are still PRs that would need to be merge before this can happen
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by MattF »

FAQ should remain in the header. Not because of whether one person thinks it is important enough or not. But:
1. Newbies may look for a FAQ and they will usually look "above the fold" for such items, so it's placement is right.
2. The FAQ, which is a "page" is just the starting point for additional extensions to add their own nav-links to their "pages". IE: Board Rules, the logical place for that is not only in the header, above the fold, but adjacent to or as close as possible to the FAQ.
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Louis7777
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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by Louis7777 »

Kamahl19 wrote: 1. Quick links in left corner - why are most used links hidden under another click? Most of the users click on View your posts or New posts when they come to forum (I have proved this to myself by tool which tracks clicks on website). Now, they have to make one additional click. So most used links are grouped so that header is cleaner, but there is still Current time and Last visited time, which are used by only small % of users. That does not make sense.

[...]

6. If FAQ link is moved down, then we dont need Quick links dropdown box but these links can be displayed all in top left corner of navbar.
The header should look cleaner, that's one reason why "quick links" were created. I bet no one really loves those quick links, but they are better than having link clutter on the index. I hope that we'll also find a way to get rid of "Mark forums read" in 3.2.

In my opinion, we could have killed the "View your posts" link. If we want to view our posts (why???) we can find them through our profile or the UCP. After all, now that we have notifications we'll be notified of replies to our posts. Viewing our topics is far more useful, in my opinion, but for some reason we never had that link available.

The FAQ could be moved to the footer I guess, but... there's that friggin "Delete all board cookies" link taking up all the space.
Kamahl19 wrote: 8. There is inconsistency in Notifications and PMs. When I click on Notifications links, dropdown is shown. When I click on PMs, it should also display latest PMs instead of redirecting me to PMs.
I bet all the devs agree with you on that, but there's just no more time to implement it for 3.1.

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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

Post by John P »

Don't know if I like this, it's again a click more for functions often used.
Besides of that the difference of layout for quick links and notifications doesn't make it show nice.

One has an arrow down, the other has lines and another doesn't have anything to view there is more.

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Re: Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

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Kamahl19 wrote:At first I was really surprised by borders, but then I saw navbar which I dont like so much. It is good to group all related stuff to one right corner, but there is a room for improvement.

1. Quick links in left corner - why are most used links hidden under another click? Most of the users click on View your posts or New posts when they come to forum (I have proved this to myself by tool which tracks clicks on website). Now, they have to make one additional click. So most used links are grouped so that header is cleaner, but there is still Current time and Last visited time, which are used by only small % of users. That does not make sense.
I think it makes a lot of sense to group all of the similar icons instead of keeping the Nav bar crowded. If anything though, FAQ doesn't need to remain because it's hardly used.
Kamahl19 wrote:2. If you really want to hide and group these links, at least the order should be changed. Most used link is New posts so ti should be first link in dropdown.
Agreed... The order should be changed. If not alphabetically, my recommendation would be: New Posts, Your Posts, Active Topics, Unanswered Posts, Unread Posts
Kamahl19 wrote:3. Why Your posts and Unanswered posts have different icons?
Having different icons make it easier to differentiate the different links.
Kamahl19 wrote:5. I believe, FAQ link should be moved down to Contact us, The team, Members and other not important links. If Members link was moved down then FAQ should be too.
I agree...
Kamahl19 wrote:6. If FAQ link is moved down, then we dont need Quick links dropdown box but these links can be displayed all in top left corner of navbar.
I disagree... See #1.

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