Frontpage

[Mike_Noren]

Just posting a couple of suggestions on the frontpage. Please do not take this as criticism.

With Firefox 7.0.1 the frontpage doesn't presently fit on a 21" 1650 x 1050 pixel display; it requires scrolling both vertically and horizontally.

I think the design could be shrunk, there's a lot of dead space in the design. Frontpage; Frontpage2; Frontpage3.
It seems the core problem is that the rightmost panel varies so wildly in size.
The height could also be reduced a little by streamlining all the minor entries in the top and bottom 10-15 lines.

Also in My Very Humble Opinion(tm) the meat of the site is the Cat-eLog and the Forum, and those sections on the frontpage might well be enlarged, while I'm not sure the Breederboard, Fun Stuff and the Book Reviews really warrant their own frames on the frontpage. Maybe as entries in a single frame. Also that My Cats doesn't warrant taking up half the page. In my personal opinion.

The CotM page looks great to me, and rescales properly. My only suggestion would be maybe a thumbnail of the featured catfish next to the entry to 'sell' the article?

[Jools]

Just posting a couple of suggestions on the frontpage. Please do not take this as criticism.

Absolutely not a problem with criticism, and I wish more people took the time to so eloquently talk about these things. If you don't tell the doc you're sick, he can't cure you...

I should also say I am learning this as I go along. I did the species pages in the catelog first as there are thousands of them and as you say form major part of the site. I did the front page next as it was the hardest. Then (now including Mats) moved on to the cotm article and index pages. In short, I will revisit the front page when I have learned more with the other sections of the site. The dropdown tabs and FB like button need work too.

With Firefox 7.0.1 the frontpage doesn't presently fit on a 21" 1650 x 1050 pixel display; it requires scrolling both vertically and horizontally.

OK, so the horizontal scroll bar is a bug. It shouldn't ever be required to see anything.

1650x1050 is a big old screen size. To be honest, I've not tested anything larger than 1280x960. In one layout you send at least that's the issue because the "fun stuff" box hasn't wrapped around to the left and so is created a lot of white space. Some of the redesign is in the increased use of the site by mobile devices. Usage has increased by 300% in a year but it still only makes up 5% of total traffic. Our mobile bounce rate (how long users spend on the site) is terrible even for mobile. I see a massive increase in mobile traffic over the next 48 months, so part of my thinking is adapting to that as well. Heck, we have .5% of our visitors using Sony Playstation 3s!

I also see a large increase of visitors from India, Brazil and Russia. Here screen resolutions are smaller and OS versions older. In fact, I note after the US, the Netherlands now sends more people to Planet than the UK (3rd place). In terms of this discussion that is interesting as device usage in NL are about 12-18 months behind the US & UK. I.E. Even in the top there consumer countries, the screen resolution varies a lot.

You can get a sense of the issue by resizing the window to half of your screen size. It probably looks quite different.

I think the design could be shrunk, there's a lot of dead space in the design.

Those screenshots are really useful, can I post them as attachments to this thread so they don't get lost?

It seems the core problem is that the rightmost panel varies so wildly in size.

Perhaps, but the core problem is more the variance of screen sizes I've got to provide for. Around 30% of our users use resolutions around the size I have and test at (1280 wide). About 15% use resolutions around your size. There are a few (~2%) way out big screens at ~2500 wide but the vast majority of the users use 1280wide or smaller (~75%). And that's not even thinking about portrait screens. In short, I need to ensure anything I do for big screen users doesn't impact smaller screen users as they are considerably more of them.

The height could also be reduced a little by streamlining all the minor entries in the top and bottom 10-15 lines.

I'm not sure I follow this, an you expand?

The general aim I am going for is stuff like fun stuff and so on is below the scroll line, cotm, catelog, updates and forum should be above. On landscape and portrait.

Also in My Very Humble Opinion(tm) the meat of the site is the Cat-eLog and the Forum, and those sections on the frontpage might well be enlarged, while I'm not sure the Breederboard, Fun Stuff and the Book Reviews really warrant their own frames on the frontpage. Maybe as entries in a single frame. Also that My Cats doesn't warrant taking up half the page. In my personal opinion.

Yeah, I get that. At present, all the dynamic content (save the forum) is served up on the right hand side randomly. What people prefer will be different. For example, I really like the blog and breederboard stuff as I see people interacting with the site. Others might like My Cats and consume their catelog updates via twitter, RSS or facebook. Pretty sure a lot of people agree with you two and are not that excited by, say My Aquaria, and would really always like to see the new species updates.

So, the plan here is to make what sections are served up configurable in the forum control panel. If you're not logged in, don't select this option or don't register then you get served up a random bit of content. You, for example, could select not to see My Aquaria or Breederboard entries and so get served up a random selection from the remainder. However, that doesn't detract for the fact I need to get the layout improved too!

The CotM page looks great to me, and rescales properly. My only suggestion would be maybe a thumbnail of the featured catfish next to the entry to 'sell' the article?

Hover over the species name?

I like the idea, but I used the hover thing so that desk based users can hover over and see the pics and mobile users don't get their screen cluttered. In portrait those pics don't look great in table layout.

So, this isn't a "thanks but I'm going to ignore you". Far from it, but I think I will absorb a lot of feedback over the next while and build it in as we go. So I very much value this, and any other feedback. The feedback I don't like is "it's great" or "it's crap" without a why and/or a suggestion. You've certainly done that, so thank you.

Cheers,

Jools

[Jools]

Full stats on screen size.

Jools

[Jools]

I've found a way to replicate the problem by making the text size very small.

On thing I would note about "breederboard" is that when it gets to 30 entries (e.g. there are 30 or more breeders registered) then one of the issues will go away.

Jools

[RickE]

Number 44 in the screen size list must be an exciting browsing experience

[Mike_Noren]

I should also say I am learning this as I go along.

I've dabbled a little and appreciate how difficult it is to get websites to behave as intended. I went in to it thinking HTML was sufficiently advanced that it'd be like making a rich text document in Word or Acrobat, and man was I wrong.

1650x1050 is a big old screen size

Yes I figured the dead space was due to the frames being rescaled and the content constrained; e.g. that dead space 1 and 2 in the first screenshot is due to showing a fixed number of most recent posts with a fixed width, in a dynamically rescaled frame.

Those screenshots are really useful, can I post them as attachments to this thread so they don't get lost?

Of course.

I'm not sure I follow this, an you expand?

It's very minor personal preference things like moving the Smartfeed, Facebook and Twitter buttons next to the Like button (or the other way around), placing quicksearch next to search; placing rules, faq & Convert length, Temperature or Volume only in the Help! drop-down menu, and moving Donate up from the bottom of the page... Really nothing.

So, the plan here is to make what sections are served up configurable in the forum control panel.

Sounds great.

So, this isn't a "thanks but I'm going to ignore you".

Feel absolutely free to ignore anything I've said, I guarantee there'll not be the slightest inkling of a hard feeling from me.

[Jools]

Number 44 in the screen size list must be an exciting browsing experience

What we like to call a headless chicken. In other words, a 'bot that no one is watching!

Jools

[Jools]

@Mike,

Made some minor changes this evening - any better from a dead space point of view?

Cheers,

Jools

[Jools]

Just wanted to revisit this following this:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 78#p261078

Also, yes, the "Convert length, temperature & volume" stuff needs to go. That's soonish...


Jools

[MatsP]

Can be moved to "Resolved"?

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Mats