Just come on DS for the first time in a few weeks only to find this disaster of a new design.
Looking at how many pages there are in this thread I think the reasons for my dislike must have been touched upon.
Its too glaring,the posts all look like they run into each other,its bland,boring,difficult to navigate through,sore on the eyes,and doesnt feel like a nice comforting experience coming on here so I doubt I will be coming back unless it gets back to something close to what it used to be like or a far better design than this disaster..possibly the most unwelcoming design ive seen a forum,its almost clinical..nasty.
been here a lot longer than my join date states but looks like I wont be using DS in 2014.
While 'improvements' have been made, it still looks pretty damn awful with all the grey rectangles/boxes, not to mentioned the huge anount of wasted space.
I also have to ask this - given all the grief caused to the users, DS and all the bad publicity, has it been worth the effort? Wouldn't it have been better to have left the forum as it was?
I'd also like to request giving us an option to implement the 'old DS' skin via the Control Panel settings.
I still get a weird-eye effect after a few minutes, it's like looking at a load of geometric patterns!
The best design for any website is basically one background colour and areas of the screen divided up using LINES.
With occasional spot colour to break up the visual monotony.
I think the end result of the appearance should have gave visitors the impression that quite a bit of time had been spent on designing it. The appearance of this looks like a rushed job. It's just absolutely simple and basic.
I tried ctrl + but I'm getting a black strip down the right hand side that cuts off some of the text so I can't read the whole thing (and I've scrolled it across as much as it will go).
Yes, the narrow black mourning band on the righthand side increases in width and encroaches further on the screen. Same thing if I zoom any more. I was already at over 100% before this redesign.
Well at least the minor tweaks are going in the right direction...
Now all we need are the big ones:
1) This is not how you deploy white space on a forum. Look at any forum of a professional company, even ones that (correctly) use generous white space on their normal pages. THEIR FORUMS DO NOT LOOK LIKE THIS, FOR GOOD REASON.
2) Making your users adjust their screen brightness just for your site suggests that it's perhaps you that's wrong, and the rest of the internet that's right.
3) Your tonal colour scheme is designed like an optical illusion to strain eyes. You've corrected that daft cyan-on-white in the main, but the grey-on-grey shades still don't, and will never, work.
That's the sole daft thing I'm letting slide - because it's clearly ad space, for better or worse.
That's been said a few times, it's not for ads as it's fixed width, rather than fluid. If you change your resolution to say 1024x768, you'll see what I mean.
To explain a bit more, if they'd set it as fluid, but reserved the space each side for ads, then, yeah. - but as it's static, those on lower resolutions don't have that space.
I've just checked it on 1024x768 and can see now why some people are complaining about the black bar and it cutting off the posts.
To be fair tho' - no-one these days should be viewing at that resolution - unless thay are using really old hardware, they probably need to install the correct drivers.
Is there any way of jumping forward or backward 10 pages in a long thread in the new look site? I used to do this a lot if I was halfway through a multi-part TV drama series and wanted to get to the chat about the right episode. I have to scroll 1 page at a time now and it's driving me crazy!
Whilst I don't doubt your good intentions, I really think that thanking DS at this stage is totally inappropriate. We are not 'a miserable lot', just ordinary users.
They've made a total and utter balls up of this 'improvement', so to congratulate them when they start to rectify it is daft. They deserve all the flack they get.
It's like congratulating a pilot for making a good landing despite having drunk a bottle of whisky. He shouldn't have had the whisky in the first place. DS should have planned their updates properly and designed the new site well. They quite obviously didn't.
I agree with that, at least in so far as one can speak for "we".
What gets me is the poor communication with users. On this thread I've seen a couple of one- or two-line messages dashed off in the past week. That's all.
Obviously the person directly behind this redesign is fairly high up in the DS organisation, else it would have been turned back by now.
The boss did it, in other words.
I suspect the little brother of the boss, on the cheap.
I can see the boss looking at a random nicely done catalogue site and announcing "Like that!".... not realising that the reason it works is because of the colour photos, and non-text-led content.
Is there any way of jumping forward or backward 10 pages in a long thread in the new look site? I used to do this a lot if I was halfway through a multi-part TV drama series and wanted to get to the chat about the right episode. I have to scroll 1 page at a time now and it's driving me crazy!
I'm not sure about jumping specifically 10 pages, but I use the page numbers at the top and bottom of the thread to jump chunks of pages.
I think so, there's obviously no team behind it, like you say 'In House' means one person.
Changes that should take minutes are taking days. For instance the 'Add Reply' turquoise colour, why hasn't that been changed to the same colour blue as the links yet? It would take minutes.
I've just checked it on 1024x768 and can see now why some people are complaining about the black bar and it cutting off the posts.
To be fair tho' - no-one these days should be viewing at that resolution - unless thay are using really old hardware, they probably need to install the correct drivers.
Surely most people alter the resolution to the size they feel comfortable with using? To say no-one should be using a particular size seems a bit harsh - what size do you think everyone should be using?
I think so, there's obviously no team behind it, like you say 'In House' means one person.
Changes that should take minutes are taking days. For instance the 'Add Reply' turquoise colour, why hasn't that been changed to the same colour blue as the links yet? It would take minutes.
I'm beginning to suspect DS Towers has a workforce of 2 or 3.
Look at the head of this page: headings Thread Tools and Search this Thread in white text fading into grey background.
They could have put the text in deep blue or black that would be a bit more visible, like the blue and black text in the box to the left of a post where it shows the poster's name and Forum Member underneath the name.
We need the rolleyes, sleep and yawn smiley back, they were used just as much as the others, particularly rolleyes which put across the right response without a word needed for some posts.
The only decent change they made was to remove the rolleyes, many of us would have supported removing that "smiley" with nothing else done.
I suppose a decent alternative would have been an option to ignore any post containing a rolleyes, I'm not really interested in what anyone who would use that has to say.
Why ever have you done this.It does not fit the screen.You will find people stop logging on.Learn to leave things alone that work and not change for something to do.
The only decent change they made was to remove the rolleyes, many of us would have supported removing that "smiley" with nothing else done.
I suppose a decent alternative would have been an option to ignore any post containing a rolleyes, I'm not really interested in what anyone who would use that has to say.
There are perfectly good contexts for the rolleyes. It isn't always directed at another poster, and it isn't always meant in an unfriendly way. It can be used to express frustration, disapproval or amusement at things outside this forum. For instance, it would find a place after sentences like
My daughter will only listen to One Direction. I lent it to my friend but am still waiting for her to return it, she's hopeless. Of course if you complain, they say it's because of health and safety.
Is anyone else finding some of the new smileys seem to be formatted incorrectly? I'm missing a row of pixels along the right and bottom edges on the bog standard smile amongst others. Weird thing is, it's not every post, but it is the majority, I'm still trying to work out if there's a pattern.
One reason they may not have changed it back is people are starting to say things like they getting used to it or the smilies fix things, you guys seem to forgive very easy. The smilies are just a very minor improvement on what is now a much worse forum design, also I think I am going to keep it in mobile mode from now on, the desktop version seems an after thought, the mobile version also uses the full screen width.
Comments
I can now read the writing again......
Just the 'fitting the page' business to sort out now and I'll be relatively happy
I'm not keen on the colour scheme but I'll get used to it
Looking at how many pages there are in this thread I think the reasons for my dislike must have been touched upon.
Its too glaring,the posts all look like they run into each other,its bland,boring,difficult to navigate through,sore on the eyes,and doesnt feel like a nice comforting experience coming on here so I doubt I will be coming back unless it gets back to something close to what it used to be like or a far better design than this disaster..possibly the most unwelcoming design ive seen a forum,its almost clinical..nasty.
been here a lot longer than my join date states but looks like I wont be using DS in 2014.
I also have to ask this - given all the grief caused to the users, DS and all the bad publicity, has it been worth the effort? Wouldn't it have been better to have left the forum as it was?
I'd also like to request giving us an option to implement the 'old DS' skin via the Control Panel settings.
The best design for any website is basically one background colour and areas of the screen divided up using LINES.
With occasional spot colour to break up the visual monotony.
I think the end result of the appearance should have gave visitors the impression that quite a bit of time had been spent on designing it. The appearance of this looks like a rushed job. It's just absolutely simple and basic.
Yes, the narrow black mourning band on the righthand side increases in width and encroaches further on the screen. Same thing if I zoom any more. I was already at over 100% before this redesign.
Now all we need are the big ones:
1) This is not how you deploy white space on a forum. Look at any forum of a professional company, even ones that (correctly) use generous white space on their normal pages. THEIR FORUMS DO NOT LOOK LIKE THIS, FOR GOOD REASON.
2) Making your users adjust their screen brightness just for your site suggests that it's perhaps you that's wrong, and the rest of the internet that's right.
3) Your tonal colour scheme is designed like an optical illusion to strain eyes. You've corrected that daft cyan-on-white in the main, but the grey-on-grey shades still don't, and will never, work.
That's the sole daft thing I'm letting slide - because it's clearly ad space, for better or worse.
To explain a bit more, if they'd set it as fluid, but reserved the space each side for ads, then, yeah. - but as it's static, those on lower resolutions don't have that space.
I've just checked it on 1024x768 and can see now why some people are complaining about the black bar and it cutting off the posts.
To be fair tho' - no-one these days should be viewing at that resolution - unless thay are using really old hardware, they probably need to install the correct drivers.
I agree with that, at least in so far as one can speak for "we".
What gets me is the poor communication with users. On this thread I've seen a couple of one- or two-line messages dashed off in the past week. That's all.
The boss did it, in other words.
I suspect the little brother of the boss, on the cheap.
I can see the boss looking at a random nicely done catalogue site and announcing "Like that!".... not realising that the reason it works is because of the colour photos, and non-text-led content.
I'm not sure about jumping specifically 10 pages, but I use the page numbers at the top and bottom of the thread to jump chunks of pages.
Changes that should take minutes are taking days. For instance the 'Add Reply' turquoise colour, why hasn't that been changed to the same colour blue as the links yet? It would take minutes.
Surely most people alter the resolution to the size they feel comfortable with using? To say no-one should be using a particular size seems a bit harsh - what size do you think everyone should be using?
I'm beginning to suspect DS Towers has a workforce of 2 or 3.
They could have put the text in deep blue or black that would be a bit more visible, like the blue and black text in the box to the left of a post where it shows the poster's name and Forum Member underneath the name.
The only decent change they made was to remove the rolleyes, many of us would have supported removing that "smiley" with nothing else done.
I suppose a decent alternative would have been an option to ignore any post containing a rolleyes, I'm not really interested in what anyone who would use that has to say.
There are perfectly good contexts for the rolleyes. It isn't always directed at another poster, and it isn't always meant in an unfriendly way. It can be used to express frustration, disapproval or amusement at things outside this forum. For instance, it would find a place after sentences like
My daughter will only listen to One Direction.
I lent it to my friend but am still waiting for her to return it, she's hopeless.
Of course if you complain, they say it's because of health and safety.
so changing browsers fiddling with settings makes it ok? no thanks.