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The new forumindex....


TheSonic

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This grid layout can be a useful feature in several areas of the suite. I don’t think the forum index is one of those places though. 

Beside the waste of space when there is just one item in a line of possibly three or four, it’s just not helpful in regards to usability. The forum index is structurally a “list of items”, and therefore a list view just works best. Then you can “scan” the left part of the text row and easily find what you are looking for. With the grid view you have to go through all the lines individually — which are not even clear lines, but actually rows within lines. And even if you remember the position of your most-used forum, their position will change again when forums are added or removed … So while it is certainly visually appealing, I wouldn’t recommend to use that setting. 

 

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This grid layout can be a useful feature in several areas of the suite. I don’t think the forum index is one of those places though. 

Beside the waste of space when there is just one item in a line of possibly three or four, it’s just not helpful in regards to usability. The forum index is structurally a “list of items”, and therefore a list view just works best. Then you can “scan” the left part of the text row and easily find what you are looking for. With the grid view you have to go through all the lines individually — which are not even clear lines, but actually rows within lines. And even if you remember the position of your most-used forum, their position will change again when forums are added or removed … So while it is certainly visually appealing, I wouldn’t recommend to use that setting. 

 

​from a pragmatic approach you are right, the list is most practical and effective. However, lists are BORING.. people get paid to look at lists. I want something that's fun and content that's engaging. I think the card layout is modern and makes the site more appealing. There is an option to turn it off so I think everyone wins here. IPB is that much better! WOO!

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I think the card layout is modern and makes the site more appealing. 

​I don’t disagree. I am using such a multi-column card layout throughout my 4.0 site myself. For example to make my article section more appealing. 

But wherever there are clear lists, which serve as an access point to more items, I stick to the list view. Those pages might be visited hundreds or thousands of times by an individual user. It’s not like they are looking for “visual appeal” every time they visit the forum index. They want to find the right forum to post in. A grid-view doesn’t really help in that regard. 

Just my two cents …

 

 

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The more I look at the grid view, the more I like it.  On our board, we have three main categories.  In the first category, we have 9 forums.  In the second category, we have 42 forums.  In the third category, we have 4 forums. 

We have implemented a modification so that our members only see their 'selected' forums for the first two categories, as a default display.  They can always click on the 'full display button' at the top of the page to see all of the forums.  But the display still shows the list view.  With this new option, I think of modifying our 'select' forums to appear as just a nice grid display without the 'header' of each category.  Rather, it would just show say the 4 that I have selected from the first category and the 2 I have selected from the second category, and the 4 from the third category.

Thinking even more outside the box, wouldn't it be cool to have a drag and drop for a personalized display?

My only concern with the grid view is that it has a very strong appearance.  It makes me think there isn't any more below the page break or scroll down.  It is hard to describe but somehow the visual effect makes me not think to scroll down and down.  I get less of that effect in the list view.

- Brian

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I dislike the new format because I cannot easily tell where I have unread posts. The subforums are never bolded for me.

​This.

Also, it looks a little off when viewing a forum that has both sub-forums and topics. The difference between the 2 layouts (one on top of the other) is a little jarring. 

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The more I use it, the more I think it's distracting. At first I was like... ooooo, pretty.... but now I find I can't focus on the content properly. I'm not sure if this is just an adjustment thing or if I just really can't read this way. Leaning toward the latter.

But I wanted so badly to like it. :(

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The more I use it, the more I think it's distracting. At first I was like... ooooo, pretty.... but now I find I can't focus on the content properly. I'm not sure if this is just an adjustment thing or if I just really can't read this way. Leaning toward the latter.

But I wanted so badly to like it. :(

​I feel the same. It's definitely great that it's available as an option — it'll save us designers a nice chunk of time. I don't think it's the grid that's the problem, it's more about the design of it. In my opinion. It doesn't lead your eyes to where they should be looking. The avatars tend to pull my eyes away from the forum titles. Generally, a grid view like this works really well with images and not so much lists and textual information. Naturally, we read the standard or old school forum list easily because it's words in... a list. In a grid view, there needs to be a bit more guidance as to where the user should be looking.

But that's up to the designer, really. It can be easily changed, so this feature is pretty awesome as it is. Just gotta put some work into it.

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