The Shape of Things to Come

[azerty]

I like the streamlined-ness of this new layout, even if it's not 100% eye candy; form follows function. The things that I frequently use are now far more accessible; only thing is that I don't see a link to the IRC anymore (just a minor annoyance).

[Facade]

e.g. the giant buttons at the top of the screen.
!

actually now that i think about it those would look better if they where shrunk a little bit

[Injustrial]

I'm missing the "mark topics as read" function a lot...

This button is very easy to miss, it took me a while to find out its location.

Also, why is the warning still there?

Hah, thanks man! Asian eyes are small for a reason, I guess xD

[itroitnyah]

If I could make one change to the forum layout, is that each subject box thing when looking through subforums and topics is a bit too big, I think due to the text. It makes everything seem too big and scrolling through it all is a pain. Everything is too spaced out, as well. I think it would be much more user friendly if everything was a bit more scrunched together, so that on a regular 1920x1080 monitor you can see the off-topic discussion subforum without scrolling, or at least with minimal scrolling.

[Paianni]

...on a regular 1920x1080 monitor...

Perhaps we should be using monitors with the 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10 aspect ratios. Full widescreen on a computer monitor was a bad idea in usability terms and it still is.

[CDPP]

I'm rather displeased with the theme. It's understandably difficult to develop something clean and elegant when there is so much content, but I still think it's somewhat ugly e.g. the giant buttons at the top of the screen.
At least we can make it better now.
Flat design, please!

This. And a complimentary color scheme too, grey and pink is just painful xD

[itroitnyah]

Perhaps we should be using monitors with the 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10 aspect ratios. Full widescreen on a computer monitor was a bad idea in usability terms and it still is.

Not really anything that I can change, that I'm using a monitor with a 16:9 ratio. I don't want to go out and get a new monitor, haha. Besides, having full widesceen hasn't done anything bad for me in terms of usability. I don't have any trouble whatsoever with watching videos, browsing the internet, working on word or excel documents... You'd have to explain to me why full widescreen on a computer monitor is a bad idea in usability terms.

[Paianni]

You'd have to explain to me why full widescreen on a computer monitor is a bad idea in usability terms.

Well for starters, most of the programs and webpages you use daily are vertically oriented. They make most efficient use of space when monitors have a vertical resolution that is higher relative to the horizontal resolution. Widescreen monitors are a huge waste of space, because generally you scroll up and down, not left to right, which creates a fairly unnatural experience, especially for productivity.

Widescreen monitors are good for video, and for tablets when the primary function is consumption of information. But for actual work they are useless. The industry switched because it was cheaper to focus on one aspect ratio than a range of options. But that's not because you should. Most people who have had a desktop for more than five years have had a more vertically oriented monitor, there's no reason one can't use that instead.

As for laptops, well that's tricky. 16:10 fell by the wayside during 2010/2011, and today they're hard to come by. Models still...exist, such as this one from Fujitsu, the MacBook Pro and Chromebook Pixel, but generally you're looking towards the second hand market, which is probably more daunting for most people to bother with than simply going out and buying a widescreen laptop. If you don't care enough, that's fine by me. Just sit back and enjoy your PC the way it wasn't meant to be used. :)

[Makkon]

And now pink on blue! Because no one liked the grey...
And wouldn't you know it, now it looks worse.

Guess what the complementary color of Magenta is?



Anyway, we're still figuring things out. Thanks for your patience.

[edit] changed it back, that blue bg was really terrible looking.

[Makkon]

Added a link to the IRC in the REDIRECTS section, for now. Not the flash based version.

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Well, things sure happened. I guess I could say I chose the wrong time to resurrect, but one can only expect such changes when you leave a forum as intimate and community-driven as this for nearly a year. (You know, life and stuff) Alas, this forum sure looks healthy enough to keep on standing as it has, though whether or not that's true is something that we will find out soon enough.

I also think the site looks purty.

[itroitnyah]

A bunch of stuff in response to what I said

I think you're overthinking monitors, dude. The only things that don't benefit from widescreen are microsoft word and some websites. In video creation software, adding widescreen makes more room for opening file paths to load images or video files without restricting the size of the preview. In art programs there's more viewing space on the canvas because everything is moved off to the sides. With DAWs there is a lot more benefit because you can fit more windows onto the screen (A good example is FL. I can fit Massive as well as the piano roll onto the screen without needing to resize piano roll into a tiny ass square). Excel works well with widescreen because you can view more rows of columns. And then of course games and videos benefit from widescreen. Besides, if you're going to get your undies in that much of a bundle because of how much gray space you're seeing between the writing space in MS Word and the screen, you can always turn the monitor sideways and change the display orientation in the control panel. The family computer in my house actually has a fairly square monitor, and I would pick widescreen over a more-square monitor any day. Even if I were to just use MS Word for the rest of my life on computers.

But alas, we're jumping too far off topic. I suppose if you want to continue to debate monitors with me, there's a PM button right over somewhere.

Well, things sure happened. I guess I could say I chose the wrong time to resurrect, but one can only expect such changes when you leave a forum as intimate and community-driven as this for nearly a year. (You know, life and stuff) Alas, this forum sure looks healthy enough to keep on standing as it has, though whether or not that's true is something that we will find out soon enough.

I also think the site looks purty.

Hey another person who left some time ago. It seems like a lot of people who used to visit the forum a honey bunches of oats are coming back again. Or maybe that's just me. Welcome back. Somebody get some more of the oldies to jump back in. The site could use some more traffic.

Other than that, I still think that the subforum and topic text is a bit too big and spaced out.

[SticktheFigure]

I not really a web-design-connoisseur, but I like the new look.
Though it would appear that I'm quite alone on that opinion.

[simonli2575]

The new banner has been changed, and I can't really decide whether I like it or not.
I think I like the previous new banner better.

[Makkon]

I wish I could get a general consensus from people before I go making changes...

Was is the picture or the color that you liked more? I liked them both too.

[Facade]

you should change the web page icon too

[simonli2575]

I wish I could get a general consensus from people before I go making changes...

Was is the picture or the color that you liked more? I liked them both too.

Neither. In both cases, I think it's still the previous one that does the better job (in terms of the new layout).

[Acsii]

you should change the web page icon too

It's called a favicon

[Facade]

you should change the web page icon too

It's called a favicon

its called whatever i want to call it

[simonli2575]

you should change the web page icon too

It's called a favicon

#namenazi

[TheUncrativePony]

IMO the layout's fine, but if you guys dont like it theres a setting in your profile settings page that lets you change the layout back to the original

[JacksonMiller]

They changed the logo! Tha'ts nice :)

[Tsyolin]

Woah things have changed it seems.

[Acsii]

Woah things have changed it seems.

one could say that

[CitricAcid]

They changed the logo! Tha'ts nice :)

Woo! Having not seen it for a little while now, I agree that this logo is best.