Community Redesign

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

over the past few months we've been working on new designs for the community - it's not just cosmetic, as you can see we're looking at some new features too.

We'd love to hear what you think about these 3 potential designs, and we'd also appreciate any ideas or suggestions

Looking forward to your feedback!

Design #1

[Cleoriff]

As far as I am concerned they can hurry up and change it back... I have been on for 20 minutes only, reading threads to catch up...I can feel a headache starting already....

And for info..this is an eyestrain related headache...I used to get these rarely but have had them for the past 2 days..

[Toby]

Hi guys,

A can assure you there will not be external ads in the space. We are trying it out to see if members find the links useful. (i.e asking a question, seeing our brilliant highlight threads or needing to find MyO2 easily) We want to test it for a few days which is why I've asked for feedback from you. Many people enter the forum through thread pages so we're seeing if its useful. I get that its a frustrating change for many of you and I'll be discussing your views with the team

[Cleoriff]

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@Toby wrote:

Hi guys,

A can assure you there will not be external ads in the space. We are trying it out to see if members find the links useful. (i.e asking a question, seeing our brilliant highlight threads or needing to find MyO2 easily) We want to test it for a few days which is why I've asked for feedback from you. Many people enter the forum through thread pages so we're seeing if its useful. I get that its a frustrating change for many of you and I'll be discussing your views with the team

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If that is the case @Toby  then why, when we are answering threads halfway down the page...we are just shown a long blank white space?

With due respect to the designers...they must have had a hell of a bad day if this is the best they could do 

It is NOT a change for the better. it creates problems for all... let alone those with any type of eye problems

[jonsie]

With respect, all the links are on the home community page. If you must have them on everypage then stick them at the bottom. At the moment we have two search boxes and the initial one was enlarged so no one could really miss it. You could just as easily re-title that to 'ask a question'.

It seems to have been designed by people who don't use it. By all means ask for feedback but all feedback has been negative. No one, and I mean no one, likes the shambles that it has become.

I remember when they changed the forum initially and asked members to test it in beta. We spent hours of our time testing, making observations and giving constructive feedback. Only to find that most of our suggestions and feedback was totally ignored and all the thanks we got was the superuser status taken away.

I have given my constructive feedback and I don't know what more can be said. If our views are ignored this time there are a few people who will be considering their future participation. This isn't an ultimatum, it's just that it will be impossible to use with any comfort.

[aldaweb]

I have to agree with jonsie on this, but if it is the case that this is being imposed from above by someone who never visits then at least keep that sidebar in a collapsible frame so those of us who don't need to see it can effectively turn it off ourselves.

[MI5]

That would be a good compromise aldaweb

[jonsie]

...but we would still have everything squashed to the left and a big white half page banner down the right side.

It would all have to be redesigned and resized. No benefit that I can see in the change.

[MI5]

My thinking was along the lines of the help side bar in Office....
With it open it compresses the left hand pane so it's visible down the right hand side. When you close it the left hand pane goes full screen again.....?

[Cleoriff]

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@jonsie wrote:

...but we would still have everything squashed to the left and a big white half page banner down the right side.

It would all have to be redesigned and resized. No benefit that I can see in the change.

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I was just about to say that @jonsie . They would not be prepared to alter the settings to make the screen bigger for those of us that turned the settings off..

No a revert back to how it was is the only option I would be happy with...

[aldaweb]

Yup, that was my thinking too