Dear Lizzie,
The forum has bedded in a bit more so its time to look at some of the problems or niggles its now presents from a users perspective.
Overall it is far better that what went before, so it has been a move in the right direction. But there are still some issues which I find very unsatisfactory.
I have already mentioned about the colour of the text:- grey rather than black. This occurs in the composition box and in the final posting window. The small difference in contrast makes a significant difference to its readability. In these days of disabled access legislation, such issues should be considered.
Also in the composition boxes, the font size is smaller (and grey as noted above)than the final posting window, why not make it the same size and have the same formatting style as the final post, so if we are trying to create a list we can see the columns will align and the overall look of the deposition as we create it, rather than having to jump to a preview page.?
My next moan is about the adverts that pop up. Now I know the site uses advertising revenue to help pay for it, so their presence is to be expected, but what is exceptionally annoying (and it has got worse as the site has matured) is the way you can open a page, see the top few threads, go to click on one of them only to find the page has resized to accommodate a banner advert which means you miss your intended target. You then have to backspace and go through the process again. On my connection, the page can take up to 10 seconds before it settles down and can resize two or three times as new adverts are added.
I was speaking to my Son about this who designs web pages professionally and he said its poor programme design or implementation, and can easily be avoided by designing the web page with fixed size spaces and positions for the adverts. This means the forum text would come up stable and fixed, but the the page may not be accessible until the adverts have loaded, so it would still take time, but at least you not faced with a page jumping about.
After responding to a thread, or marking a thread "already read", we get a system pop up which grabs the focus of the whole screen and tells us the request has been completed. As it offers no means of reversing or editing the process, is such a note necessary especially as it requires user action to clear it. Can it either be eliminated as it serves no useful purpose, or amend it so it
simply becomes a flag against the topic, or automatically self clears after a couple of seconds.
Sticky Posts. When you open several of the category pages the top few pigeon holes are filled with stick threads. Depending on the screen resolution you are using, this relegates the latest threads to the bottom or even below the first page break . Surely if these sticky threads are so important there should be space made for them at the side of the page so they remain visible, but not using up thread space. Also some of the sticky notes are quite old now, do we still need them all?
Prof John
The forum has bedded in a bit more so its time to look at some of the problems or niggles its now presents from a users perspective.
Overall it is far better that what went before, so it has been a move in the right direction. But there are still some issues which I find very unsatisfactory.
I have already mentioned about the colour of the text:- grey rather than black. This occurs in the composition box and in the final posting window. The small difference in contrast makes a significant difference to its readability. In these days of disabled access legislation, such issues should be considered.
Also in the composition boxes, the font size is smaller (and grey as noted above)than the final posting window, why not make it the same size and have the same formatting style as the final post, so if we are trying to create a list we can see the columns will align and the overall look of the deposition as we create it, rather than having to jump to a preview page.?
My next moan is about the adverts that pop up. Now I know the site uses advertising revenue to help pay for it, so their presence is to be expected, but what is exceptionally annoying (and it has got worse as the site has matured) is the way you can open a page, see the top few threads, go to click on one of them only to find the page has resized to accommodate a banner advert which means you miss your intended target. You then have to backspace and go through the process again. On my connection, the page can take up to 10 seconds before it settles down and can resize two or three times as new adverts are added.
I was speaking to my Son about this who designs web pages professionally and he said its poor programme design or implementation, and can easily be avoided by designing the web page with fixed size spaces and positions for the adverts. This means the forum text would come up stable and fixed, but the the page may not be accessible until the adverts have loaded, so it would still take time, but at least you not faced with a page jumping about.
After responding to a thread, or marking a thread "already read", we get a system pop up which grabs the focus of the whole screen and tells us the request has been completed. As it offers no means of reversing or editing the process, is such a note necessary especially as it requires user action to clear it. Can it either be eliminated as it serves no useful purpose, or amend it so it
simply becomes a flag against the topic, or automatically self clears after a couple of seconds.
Sticky Posts. When you open several of the category pages the top few pigeon holes are filled with stick threads. Depending on the screen resolution you are using, this relegates the latest threads to the bottom or even below the first page break . Surely if these sticky threads are so important there should be space made for them at the side of the page so they remain visible, but not using up thread space. Also some of the sticky notes are quite old now, do we still need them all?
Prof John
Its my experience of using the forum, and Haymarket are asking for our views. :blink:
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