Board redesign - provide your input

Ok guys, the new design is available in a limited production environment. I'm not sure if this is only available to admins, let me know, but in the bottom left corner of the site, I was able to select from the drop-down the skin called "qb sneak".

This will allow us to update the forum structure & test in a live environment before going global.

Frank or another admin, would you like to do the honors of updating the forum structure per our earlier thread?

Also, below are instructions for updating the countdown clock & other toys.

---------------------------

How to edit the blocks for Husker Board. I set it up so the information that needs to be edited can be found in one place.

Process:

1. All settings will be found in the Admin CP

2. Under My Apps Tab click on IP.Content

3. Left sidebar click on Blocks

4. Scroll down to category Husker Custom

5. Click arrow -> Edit Block

Counter Settings

Do the process above to get to the code. Edit Next Game block.

Find: <!-- EDIT THIS FOR NEXT GAME -->

Below you will see:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

jQuery(document).ready(function() {

jQuery('#countdown_dashboard').countDown({

targetDate: {

'day': 25,

'month': 9,

'year': 2010,

'hour': 6,

'min': 0,

'sec': 0

}

});

});

</script>

Just edit the values and save.

Editing Previous Game:

Do the process to get to Previous Game block.

Find:

<div class='general_box clearfix'>

<h3 class='next_header'>

Previous Game:

<a href='http://www.huskerboard.com/mods/2009-nebraska-husker-football-schedule#BIGXII'>Arizona</a> |

<a href='http://www.huskervideos.com/'>Order Game DVD</a>

</h3>

<div class='next_game_bg row1'>

<div class='left'><img src='http://huskerboard.com/img/NU.gif' /></div>

<div class='right'><img src='http://huskerboard.com/mods/img/09/arizona_sm.png' /></div>

<div id='score'>

<div class='dash'>

<div class='digit win'>3</div>

<div class='digit win'>3</div>

</div>

<div class='dash'>

<div class='digit'>0</div>

<div class='digit'>0</div>

</div>

</div>

<br class='clear' />

</div>

</div>

Be sure to change the 'digit win' value over if the other team won.

Editing Articles:

You will find this in My Apps -> IP Content. On the left sidebar you will see the settings to edit articles, add categories, etc.

Additional Info:

Each block consists of a special code usually like {parse block="scoreboard"} . Say you want to move the scoreboard to the bottom of the sidebar. You would edit the BoardIndex Template find {parse block="scoreboard"} and move it accordingly.

Now, blocks can be moved to any template. This means you can move any block from any part of the board to where-ever.

 
Blackshirt said:
zoogies said:
We just got an update to the status.

Are we going to get rid of status altogether with the new board?
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter to me at all. If most ppl feel it's useful, then it stays. What are your thoughts zoogies & everyone else?
Click to expand...
Are we talking about the member status sidebar, where members can leave "Facebook-like" status lines, or something else? I think the members like that feature.

 
Blackshirt said:
Ok guys, the new design is available in a limited production environment. I'm not sure if this is only available to admins, let me know, but in the bottom left corner of the site, I was able to select from the drop-down the skin called "qb sneak".

This will allow us to update the forum structure & test in a live environment before going global.

Frank or another admin, would you like to do the honors of updating the forum structure per our earlier thread?

Also, below are instructions for updating the countdown clock & other toys.

***SNIP***
Click to expand...
I'm using the QB Sneak skin now. Looking good!

I'll get to work on the forum structure, but let me work on it until at least Monday. I'd like to a lot of it later at night so as to minimize disruption. DaveH or any other Admin - feel free to do any reorg also; we can have more than one working on it.

I'm posting the Board edit instructions into the thread I pinned earler for quick reference.

 
Ah - I just meant, I had not seen it in the redesign templates so I wasn't sure if it was part of the plans or not. In which case it would be pretty odd to upgrade the features, just before getting rid of it.

 
I think the members would riot if we got rid of the Status Updates feature. :)

The new skin must only be available to Admins. I don't have that option.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok I've applied the new skin to our Mod forum, so you guys should be able to see how it looks within this area only, for now.

Frank, for some reason I thought the design co told me we could edit the forum structure so it would only apply to the new skin - to allow a seamless transition, before going live. But I can't seem to figure out how to do that. As you can see I discovered how to apply to certain forums only. I've sent them a note, but not sure if they will reply soon.

Re: Status updates -- this appears to be included in the new skin, so no worries :)

 
Heres a quick list of the main areas we will want to update prior to the release:

-Countdown clock

-Implement Eliot's scoreboard.. ?

-'Previous Game' block

-Add Huskernation banner (if nothing else until rotator is in place)

-Add new board logo/header -- I believe the contest is ending soon..

-Forum re-org

-Remove some of the "stickys" in Husker Football

 
Okay...nice!

There are some kinks to work through still, though. For instance, as I'm posting, the textarea in Chrome sort of runs over into the Emoticons panel. And there's a bit of white space left between the emoticons panel and the rest of the posting interface. Attached picture for reference.



Also, in lower resolutions, the navigation breaks down. See attached picture again...I think this is a big issue that has to be squared away before going live.



Finally, a cosmetic issue with the thread display. I don't like the alternating backgrounds. The main thing is that threads with new replies are awful hard to differentiate. If you look at the main forums, what helps separate these threads? A HIGH amount of contrast present only in the thread icon, as illustrated:

imageshackjq.jpg


With the new system, the difference in background color is sharp enough that white vs light gray is the big thing that separates one thread from another. I like the idea of alternating background colors but the execution doesn't seem to be working. I would suggest the 'dark' background option be lightened even more so that the difference is very subtle.

Most important, on the 'darker' alternating rows, the following three columns are shaded more heavily than the thread title: thread icon, thread author, last post info. These make every other thread in the forum list jump out at you, which is very bad, because we should be wanting every newly updated thread to jump out instead.

Additionally, I think there is too much difference in the forum icons between "no unread post" threads and "no unread post, but hot topic" threads. Both are pale folders; the former is yellow and the latter is red. This contrast suggests that all the red folder icons are threads with unread posts, when they aren't. My suggestion: a deep, high saturation red folder for threads with new posts, and maybe a tiny, tiny fire icon overlayed on the bottom corner of the yellow folder for 'hot' threads.

Conclusion: nice work, but a little rough around the edges at the moment. I know it's temporary too, but I don't think I like the way the logo looks right now. I think it's the transparent part that's getting to me. How about that entire top section/row have a light background, so the logo isn't transparent and the red pebble background is visible only on the sides of the page?

 

Attachments

  • untitled2.JPG
    untitled2.JPG
    10.4 KB · Views: 0
  • untitled.JPG
    untitled.JPG
    75.2 KB · Views: 0
Apologies for the bad screenshots...

To add, here is a comparison, side by side, of the old and the new forum thread icons.

sidebyside.jpg


Old: on the left. In order, top to bottom, we have: 1) 'hot' thread, no new posts. 2) normal thread, no new posts. 3) 'hot' thread, new (unread) posts.

New: on the right. It looks like the thread on top is unread, doesn't it? Makes me just want to click it, particularly with the darker background. In fact, both threads have no unread posts and the only difference is that the one on top is considered a 'hot' thread; i.e, it has more posts in it and is being flagged as popular. These two threads should look almost the same, and neither should jump out at you. They should be as different as the first two thread icons on the old board.

This is not the biggest deal in the world because it's something we can do with the CSS on our own. I'm just bringing it up since I don't think we should roll this out before those changes are made. Also, when posting, the 'eit/reply/delete/quote/report' buttons are pretty ugly looking compared to before. I'd bring those graphics back if we can.

Sorry to nitpick. Didn't really browse through the forum or post on it in the live demo version, just looked at the overall.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Blackshirt said:
***SNIP***
Frank, for some reason I thought the design co told me we could edit the forum structure so it would only apply to the new skin - to allow a seamless transition, before going live. But I can't seem to figure out how to do that. As you can see I discovered how to apply to certain forums only. I've sent them a note, but not sure if they will reply soon.

***SNIP***
Click to expand...
Nope - can't see how to do it either. Of course, we can still do the reorganization, then hit them later with the new skin. Want me to proceed with the reorganization?

EDIT: I've set up the Poll for voting on the new banner, and posted a notice in Husker Football.

SECOND EDIT: Fixed the Countdown Clock. Note to other Admins - if you change the Next Game, be aware that you will have to ensure that the size of the opponent's logo is about 44 x 47.

THIRD EDIT: Fixed the Last Game setting. If anyone wants to check it, just go to the main page, then to the bottom left, and select the QB Sneak skin for the entire board.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
zoogies said:
***SNIP***
Finally, a cosmetic issue with the thread display. I don't like the alternating backgrounds. The main thing is that threads with new replies are awful hard to differentiate. If you look at the main forums, what helps separate these threads? A HIGH amount of contrast present only in the thread icon, as illustrated:

***SNIP***

With the new system, the difference in background color is sharp enough that white vs light gray is the big thing that separates one thread from another. I like the idea of alternating background colors but the execution doesn't seem to be working. I would suggest the 'dark' background option be lightened even more so that the difference is very subtle.

Most important, on the 'darker' alternating rows, the following three columns are shaded more heavily than the thread title: thread icon, thread author, last post info. These make every other thread in the forum list jump out at you, which is very bad, because we should be wanting every newly updated thread to jump out instead.

Additionally, I think there is too much difference in the forum icons between "no unread post" threads and "no unread post, but hot topic" threads. Both are pale folders; the former is yellow and the latter is red. This contrast suggests that all the red folder icons are threads with unread posts, when they aren't. My suggestion: a deep, high saturation red folder for threads with new posts, and maybe a tiny, tiny fire icon overlayed on the bottom corner of the yellow folder for 'hot' threads.

***SNIP***
Click to expand...
I've been using the new skin exclusively for the entire Board and zoogie's points, above, really jump out at me. Particularly the icon for the new replies - very difficult to tell which threads have new content as compared to the old skin. If that icon could be...dunno...brighter or something to really make it stand out, that would help considerably.

This is something our own grapics folks could fix, I should imagine. If someone can edit the "new reply" icon to make it more distinctive or bolder/brighter, we can upload it and take care of that ourselves. Anyone up for it?

Agree, also, with zoogie's other points above.

1. Anyone want to offer up the RGB code that would make the "darker" alternating rows or would just having a better, brigher icon do the trick?

2. Again, if someone can edit the icons zoogie mentions above as per his suggestions and post 'em here, we can hit on something we like and upload it, I believe.

 
Blackshirt said:
Heres a quick list of the main areas we will want to update prior to the release:

-Countdown clock

-Implement Eliot's scoreboard.. ?

-'Previous Game' block

-Add Huskernation banner (if nothing else until rotator is in place)

-Add new board logo/header -- I believe the contest is ending soon..

-Forum re-org

-Remove some of the "stickys" in Husker Football
Click to expand...
Here's an update on the "To-Do" list. Items above with a strike-through have been done (may need tweaking, but done for the moment). The rest of them are in blod text above, and are discussed below:

  1. Not sure whether the current scoreboard is the one Eliot's suggesting, so not sure whether this one is still valid.
  2. Add new Board logo/banner. Contest is now in the voting stage, and I've stickied a notice of it in Husker Football. So far, no votes for any banner.
  3. Since it doesn't appear that we can do a reorg for just the new skin, do we do the reorg now followed by rolling out the new skin, or vice versa? Thoughts?

Also, I've reduced the stickys in Husker Football to four - and one of those will go when the Banner Contest voting is done, leaving us with three. I moved the "Introduce Yourself" to the BS Forum. I merged the "All Time Husker Team" with the "Husker Tradition" thread and left the "Husker Tradition" thread pinned in Husker Football. Any suggestions on the remaining items? The ones about the Schedule/Results page and the Prediction contest will go away after the end of the season, leaving us with just one sticky at the end of the season.

Finally, do we want the HuskerNation banner above the "breadcrumbs" (on the left) and the Board Rules and View New Content links (on the right) as it is now, or do we want it below those? I assumed the former as it makes it easier for members to jump up the forum structure, but still shows the banner on each page. Thoughts?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry for cluttering up the thread, but I just wanted to state that, having used the new skin exclusively the last few days, I'm really impressed with the design for the most part. The scoreboard is a great addition - I think the members will love it. And Chad, the way the designers exposed the ability to edit the new blocks (Countdown Clock/Next Game, Previous Games, etc.) was a very nice touch. Very handy to edit - I don't have to pull full templates down, locate where the change should go, edit it, and then paste it back. A one-stop shop, and it works great.

While there are some design changes to consider, some of them we can do ourselves I think (see my earlier post on the icons, for example). Good job by the designer.

 
Another update - I've coded all the links in the Countdown Clock/Next Game, Previous Game, 2010 Schedule, Husker Watch Sites, and Board rules to open in new windows. Those are all that I could see that link to "external" material (the helmets at the bottom of the page I already set to spawn new windows).

 
Back
Top