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v.4: Session page
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![]() Volunteer moderator Project administrator ![]() Send message Joined: 16 Jun 04 Posts: 4574 Credit: 2,100,463 RAC: 8 |
Here's the third page to receive an update, the session display. You can compare it to the old one over here. This one is probably the one that has changed the most so far - at least visually. Again, the overall sentiment is to spend more screen space on user content while at the same time making technical content available in an easy-to-understand way:
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funkydude Send message Joined: 23 Dec 13 Posts: 275 Credit: 2,478,281 RAC: 0 |
Not sure if I like this, it seems really busy to me. Maybe I just need to get used to it. |
![]() Project donor Send message Joined: 11 Apr 05 Posts: 403 Credit: 2,189,214 RAC: 7 |
Looks fine to me, only the right column with all the data looks overfilled. I can make out a very thin line in a slightly different colour between the sections if I look closer. Maybe it would be optically better if it would be darker. It probably would look better also when the sections are separated in some sort of boxes. Life is Science, and Science rules. To the universe and beyond Proud member of BOINC@Heidelberg My BOINC-Stats ![]() |
![]() Volunteer moderator Project administrator ![]() Send message Joined: 16 Jun 04 Posts: 4574 Credit: 2,100,463 RAC: 8 |
@funkydude: You need to be way more specific =) @DoctorNow: Thanks for the feedback, here's a few changes made based on that:
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funkydude Send message Joined: 23 Dec 13 Posts: 275 Credit: 2,478,281 RAC: 0 |
I guess I just don't like the info at the side, just makes the whole page seem really busy. I'd rather scroll down more personally. When you think about it the least important info is the posts on the forum, most people won't care about that. So maybe have all that sidebar info under the screenshots and then start the forum posts below that. To use tech sites, blogs, etc. as an example. It's the content that's most important, most sites will hide all the comments under a click-able button, which will then load the comments below it. I don't think a button is required in our case, the comments should naturally be off-screen from the info being above it. |
![]() Project donor Send message Joined: 11 Apr 05 Posts: 403 Credit: 2,189,214 RAC: 7 |
* Made infobox header lines a bit darker so that they are easier to spot Yeah, looks better now and way more clearer. Anyhow, isn't it possible to make the lines go through? Also, the lines still are a bit too thin or wrong in colour IMO. Can you try make it black or 2,3 pixels wider/higher? Life is Science, and Science rules. To the universe and beyond Proud member of BOINC@Heidelberg My BOINC-Stats ![]() |
Knightoffaith Send message Joined: 23 May 14 Posts: 9 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
I guess I just don't like the info at the side, just makes the whole page seem really busy. Comments on the side won't work well, as they wouldn't look good compressed, at least as far as I've seen. By that I mean they should be more horizontal, instead of vertical, if it can be helped. |
funkydude Send message Joined: 23 Dec 13 Posts: 275 Credit: 2,478,281 RAC: 0 |
Comments on the side won't work well, as they wouldn't look good compressed, at least as far as I've seen. By that I mean they should be more horizontal, instead of vertical, if it can be helped. I never said they should be on the side, what websites have it on the side? Nothing should be on the side. |
Knightoffaith Send message Joined: 23 May 14 Posts: 9 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
Comments on the side won't work well, as they wouldn't look good compressed, at least as far as I've seen. By that I mean they should be more horizontal, instead of vertical, if it can be helped. Oh, sorry, misread your comment. :S |
![]() Volunteer moderator Project administrator ![]() Send message Joined: 16 Jun 04 Posts: 4574 Credit: 2,100,463 RAC: 8 |
Anyhow, isn't it possible to make the lines go through? Also, the lines still are a bit too thin or wrong in colour IMO. Can you try make it black or 2,3 pixels wider/higher? The lines are like an underlining of the header rather than dividers in themselves, so they don't go all the way to the edge. Based on your suggestions and other stuff I could come up with that would simplify and straighten out the infoboxes I tried out a few more things:
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funkydude Send message Joined: 23 Dec 13 Posts: 275 Credit: 2,478,281 RAC: 0 |
It still looks silly. It's like trying to read a column in a newspaper with only 1 tiny column. You've got ALL the useful information crammed into the right column, and all the useless information (forum comments) gets all the space. There's nothing wrong with making a longer page and scrolling down. All new HTML5 sites are doing it. e.g. https://www.google.co.uk/nexus/5/ http://jolla.com/ http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/27/5849272/material-world-how-google-discovered-what-software-is-made-of https://www.apple.com/your-verse/orchestrating-sound/ Scrolling is the basis of all these pages. They all put emphasis on clean and simple, making ample use of scrolling. Trying to cram everything into the display will only make the page seem overly busy, confusing the user trying to find something. |
![]() Volunteer moderator Project administrator ![]() Send message Joined: 16 Jun 04 Posts: 4574 Credit: 2,100,463 RAC: 8 |
ALL the useful information crammed into the right column, and all the useless information [snip] gets all the space. Aha! Then we are touching upon one of the very core design questions for the v.4 site - namely: "What happens when user content gets more focus?" Also, what is a "user"? We have many different people visiting BURP each day: BOINC contributors, artists, casuals that are in neither group but still interested and so on. Hence, user content can be a lot of things: a session, a forum post (or even a comment), a tutorial written to help artists, maybe some text for a dev Wiki page, the profile pages. User content may or may not be useless, but it is one of the things that differentiate us from closed renderfarms. A closed renderfarm simply does not have the ability to show user content (primarily session imagery due to closed licensing) and in extension there simply isn't the possibility of commenting on user content. BURP on the other hand can, which means we can also put an answer to the question: "Is user content actually useless information?". Another point with regard to session comments, something that was actually reserved for later when the forum came up but let's take it now anyways: I'm leaving. Well, not actually leaving right now or even leaving entirely. At some point during the next decade I will no longer be the primary driver for the user-facing day-to-day maintenance of this project. Some of that responsibility will slowly shift to the community. As part of that transition there has been an intro for about 2 years now where administrative session feedback (like, what was wrong for cancelled sessions, what parameters were changed for modified sessions etc.) has been provided in the session comments forum rather than as private messages to the author of the session which was the way things were done earlier. The intention is for this kind of public feedback to continue when other people are joining in on the session review process; both as a way to share information with other authors, as a way to review the reviewers and as a way for reviewers to coordinate with each other. That was slightly off-topic btw. Sorry |
funkydude Send message Joined: 23 Dec 13 Posts: 275 Credit: 2,478,281 RAC: 0 |
That's understandable and admirable. But I feel I need to make clear than I'm not pushing to remove or discourage these comments, I'm trying to place a "priority" on the various pieces of content and I'd place a "low" on comments. That doesn't mean removing them, it just means scrolling down to see them. I'm just trying to imagine myself as an outsider coming to this site and looking a the content. I'd be most interested in the video/screenshots and the project metadata. In my eyes the layout would be more like: --video-- --screenshot, screenshot, screenshot-- --description-- --downloads, license-- --spec, log-- --comments-- |
![]() Project donor Send message Joined: 11 Apr 05 Posts: 403 Credit: 2,189,214 RAC: 7 |
Looks good to me now. ALL the useful information crammed into the right column, and all the useless information (forum comments) gets all the space. In relation to that, I now noticed that there is a lot of free space left and right on ALL the new sites you build. Not sure if this is Drupal-design by default but I somehow hate that. Some projects changed to such a layout also - I wonder why do we have wide screens then? I rather want to have a full screen used than wasted a lot of screen layout by pressing all into a small area in the middle of the screen. Oh, looks like we have a favicon for the browsers as well now on the new sites. Looks cute! :-) I'm leaving. Well, that shocked me for a short time, but then I noticed that's life. Projects are coming and going, and I'm probably not crunching for the rest of my life also... ;-) Life is Science, and Science rules. To the universe and beyond Proud member of BOINC@Heidelberg My BOINC-Stats ![]() |
![]() Volunteer moderator Project administrator ![]() Send message Joined: 16 Jun 04 Posts: 4574 Credit: 2,100,463 RAC: 8 |
--video-- Interesting, that's pretty much how it looks in mobile mode now I rather want to have a full screen used than wasted a lot of screen layout by pressing all into a small area in the middle of the screen. The ultra-wide mode was ditched during the first layout round because it kinda made everything extremely difficult to do. Once the layout settles down a bit it may come back as an option in the website preferences. It is certainly still being considered. Another option would be to use the extra space for special events. I haven't quite decided on that yet. |