New Responsive Design for DCUM

[Anonymous]

Looks nice on my MacBook.

[jsteele]

I've modified the list of topics page per some of the conversation above. Let me know if this version looks less busy. It has exactly the same info, just laid out differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it doesn't look any different on my phone.

It does on mine.

Samsung S21

[Anonymous]

It was confusing to know where to find Recent Topics.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the great update!

Some thoughts:

Maybe each Forum could be a link, without the list of other “sub-forums” underneath? Basically: Parenting Discussion Forums Link, then Relationship Discussion Forums link, and so on.

Also, inside of each forum, maybe less info for each of the topics (on my phone, it looks a little bit too busy the way it is).

The problem with using a responsive design is that it is hard to limit changes to just the mobile version. They tend to impact both versions. Neither of your ideas are impossible to implement for mobile-only, but the sub-forum idea is fairly challenging.

If I understand your second suggestion, you are referring to the number of replies, views, first and last post, etc? If so, I agree but in a previous attempt to use a design similar to this, mobile users were pretty strident about wanting the same info as desktop users. So, I have implemented it even though I think we could do without some of it.

Maybe different formatting instead of links that I suggested (sorry I am not a web-developer)? In the current version, if I open the “Forums page” on my iPhone 14 Pro, it takes two full scrolls to see all the forums. In the new mobile version, it takes 5-6 full scrolls to see all the forums.
For the second suggestion, your idea at 16:15 sounded great (topic title across, other info below).

I have changed the how the list of topics is displayed on the forum page. Let me know if that's better. Regarding the list of forum (the main page), what would be your suggestion to have less scrolls. The ideas that I can think of are:

1) smaller fonts;
2) don't display the description;
3) somehow have shorter descriptions; or
4) some combination of the above.

I don't really know how I could implement shorter descriptions without rewriting them for the desktop version as well.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the great update!

Some thoughts:

Maybe each Forum could be a link, without the list of other “sub-forums” underneath? Basically: Parenting Discussion Forums Link, then Relationship Discussion Forums link, and so on.

Also, inside of each forum, maybe less info for each of the topics (on my phone, it looks a little bit too busy the way it is).

The problem with using a responsive design is that it is hard to limit changes to just the mobile version. They tend to impact both versions. Neither of your ideas are impossible to implement for mobile-only, but the sub-forum idea is fairly challenging.

If I understand your second suggestion, you are referring to the number of replies, views, first and last post, etc? If so, I agree but in a previous attempt to use a design similar to this, mobile users were pretty strident about wanting the same info as desktop users. So, I have implemented it even though I think we could do without some of it.

Maybe different formatting instead of links that I suggested (sorry I am not a web-developer)? In the current version, if I open the “Forums page” on my iPhone 14 Pro, it takes two full scrolls to see all the forums. In the new mobile version, it takes 5-6 full scrolls to see all the forums.
For the second suggestion, your idea at 16:15 sounded great (topic title across, other info below).

I have changed the how the list of topics is displayed on the forum page. Let me know if that's better. Regarding the list of forum (the main page), what would be your suggestion to have less scrolls. The ideas that I can think of are:

1) smaller fonts;
2) don't display the description;
3) somehow have shorter descriptions; or
4) some combination of the above.

I don't really know how I could implement shorter descriptions without rewriting them for the desktop version as well.

I would vote for 2, not displaying the description. As is, it is too long to scroll through & hard to find recent topics. Thank you for all your work on the site.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:I've modified the list of topics page per some of the conversation above. Let me know if this version looks less busy. It has exactly the same info, just laid out differently.

This version looks so much better!

Regarding the main page: it is already better. But, maybe smaller font and/or expendable description if not too hard to implement? Like have a small arrow or similar next to or below the name of the forum so those who are interested can open up the description if they need it.

[Anonymous]

I’m on an iPad Mini. I randomly clicked around and noticed a few things. First post/last post is visible.
Replies/Views cut off.

This thread is missing page numbers top and bottom. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/mobile/posts/list/1127683.page

Others show page numbers top and bottom, but the Go to page box is missing. I find this really useful when I leave a thread. I can type in the page number to pick up where I left off.

What is the small white image supposed to be on the left side of each forum title and within the thread topics? Maybe you can nix it to extend the row for first post/last post, date/time and recent views (cut off on iPad Mini).

The larger font size looks clean and is definitely easier on the eyes. There’s quite a bit of white space that makes it feel less cohesive. The original, more condensed version packs a punch on a single page. More squinting, but intuitive and quicker.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I’m on an iPad Mini. I randomly clicked around and noticed a few things. First post/last post is visible.
Replies/Views cut off.

This thread is missing page numbers top and bottom. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/mobile/posts/list/1127683.page

Others show page numbers top and bottom, but the Go to page box is missing. I find this really useful when I leave a thread. I can type in the page number to pick up where I left off.

What is the small white image supposed to be on the left side of each forum title and within the thread topics? Maybe you can nix it to extend the row for first post/last post, date/time and recent views (cut off on iPad Mini).

The larger font size looks clean and is definitely easier on the eyes. There’s quite a bit of white space that makes it feel less cohesive. The original, more condensed version packs a punch on a single page. More squinting, but intuitive and quicker.

That thread doesn't have page numbers because it is only one page long (or was at the time you viewed it). Threads that are more than one page will have page numbers.

I'll fix the Go To box.

The white image is supposed to be an icon of a folder. Those fields should not be cut off so I'll look into that. Could you check that your iPad Mini and confirm that the display is set for 100% when using DCUM? You do that by clicking on the two "A" characters in the address bar. There will be a plus sign and a minus sign with the zoom percentage between them.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m on an iPad Mini. I randomly clicked around and noticed a few things. First post/last post is visible.
Replies/Views cut off.

This thread is missing page numbers top and bottom. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/mobile/posts/list/1127683.page

Others show page numbers top and bottom, but the Go to page box is missing. I find this really useful when I leave a thread. I can type in the page number to pick up where I left off.

What is the small white image supposed to be on the left side of each forum title and within the thread topics? Maybe you can nix it to extend the row for first post/last post, date/time and recent views (cut off on iPad Mini).

The larger font size looks clean and is definitely easier on the eyes. There’s quite a bit of white space that makes it feel less cohesive. The original, more condensed version packs a punch on a single page. More squinting, but intuitive and quicker.

That thread doesn't have page numbers because it is only one page long (or was at the time you viewed it). Threads that are more than one page will have page numbers.

I'll fix the Go To box.

The white image is supposed to be an icon of a folder. Those fields should not be cut off so I'll look into that. Could you check that your iPad Mini and confirm that the display is set for 100% when using DCUM? You do that by clicking on the two "A" characters in the address bar. There will be a plus sign and a minus sign with the zoom percentage between them.

The melted folder icon has quite a bit of whitespace around it. I imagine that is someone else's idea of good layout, but it looks terrible.

[Anonymous]

I like the current design of all the titles of threads in a row without the other info under each title. The other info is distracting and makes for inefficient scanning of topics. I’m on an iPhone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the clean look, though a few parts like first post/last message are running together a bit. Kind of miss the framing of the messages but can get used to it. Top banner ad and bottom banner ad are alternately getting slightly cut off or slightly covering comment boxes. Using an iPad.

Could you clarify whether it is a normal iPad, and iPad Pro, or an iPad Mini? A regular iPad is the one thing that I haven't test with yet.

Regular iPad, 9th generation

Looks fantastic on regular browser - Chrome (has mobile in the URL).
The only issues I've seen with responsive design on browser are the ding dongs who have a very strange resolution. But they are the outliers.
I'll check iPad laters.

[Anonymous]

You probably don't need to repeat the forum name under the subject column. It's right there in the forum column. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You probably don't need to repeat the forum name under the subject column. It's right there in the forum column. Just a thought.

^^Hottest topics. Love the icon.

[Anonymous]

I'm on a galaxy s22.

My comment is that I prefer the old style because I read ahead quite far from what I'm actually reading, and in the old style I can take in a whole page or list of information and only actively read what I want. With this new style I have to read everything, but it doesn't feel as clean. I find it difficult to scan. Maybe take out the line spacing in the posts and some of the spacing around the posts, but still, I really want to pan out. I want to be able to read/scan multiple posts at once, and decide which ones to read from there.

For bugs, your op is cut off along the right side, but other posts seem fine, everything else seems good.