New Style For DF

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New Style for DF Nov 23, 2011
I am developing a new Style for Dubai forums. It is much simpler and cleaner than the current one.
At least I see it this way. :)

It is still a beta and it works only in the latest browsers. IE9+, latest Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Safari
You can try it and let me know what you think.

The style is called. "Dubai Lite"

By the end of the year it will become the new default style. So if you have any ideas how to make it better write it bellow.

Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 23, 2011
it seems that no one cares. hmm...
Andyba
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 23, 2011
I care about DF! it's just that I'm not very technical and have absolutely no idea what you're on about.
That says more about me than DF.
Bethsmum
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 23, 2011
Sorry Andy, not much of a techno jargon geek here either. Can you keep 'General' at the top - seeing as that's where most peeps head to.
Chocoholic
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 23, 2011
The only thing I notice is the seconds, minutes, hours, today, yesterday, days of posts - no dates. Is there anything else we should be looking at?
Bora Bora
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 23, 2011
Anything simple and uncluttered is good!
I liked the original format of DF, but improvements in the direction of 'simplicity' making it use friendly are always welcome!
Good Luck!
zonker
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 25, 2011
Ehh... hmm.. Did you try to change the DF style in the User Control Panel to "Dubai Lite"?
I will make the new style the default then. It's almost ready. If you find anything that does not work properly let me know.

The next thing I am working on is the community moderation feature. I hope you will like it. ;)
Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 25, 2011
Welcome back Andy

New style looks good.
Nucleus
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 25, 2011
I like dis internets , it looks fancy Nancy
shawagma
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 25, 2011
Not looking good in internet explorer 8.
So if you did not upgrade I really recommend doing it because ie8 is worse than my mobile browser.
The new design is optimized for tablets so if you have a tablet please share your experience.
On my asus transformer it works great.
Andyba
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 26, 2011
I’m using IE Ver 9.0.8112.16421 and your new lite interface invokes the following error message on every page refresh; Internet Explorer has modified this page to help prevent cross-site scripting.

I don't see the benefit of the new lite interface, if it is simply for tablet users it should be provided as an option and not default, the Dubai interface wasn't broken, it didn't need fixing!
Dillon
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 26, 2011
Looks good on IPad. Also faster to browse.
spellcheckergirl
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 26, 2011
Andyba,

It seems that you get 2 posts to a page???? Please use the old format as the default. I really don't care for this one personally.
Bora Bora
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 27, 2011
Did you ever hear the phrase: 'if it aint broke dont fix it'?...it aint the form...it's the...oh, nevermind.
Ambassador
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 27, 2011
As I said it's a Beta and I am going to fix all errors. I am developing on linux so IE is not readily available for me.
That's why I need your help for this.

I believe that the error on IE9 is related to the NEW facebook and google+ buttons. I may be wrong I will investigate it.


BTW the old style is still there and it's not going anywhere. You can use it if you wish but it will not get updated with all the new features I am going to implement soon.
Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 27, 2011
It's starting to look ok Andy, I think it's going to take a bit of getting used to it.
Chocoholic
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 27, 2011
Bora Bora wrote:Andyba,

It seems that you get 2 posts to a page???? Please use the old format as the default. I really don't care for this one personally.


What do you mean by "2 posts to a page"?

Dillon wrote:I’m using IE Ver 9.0.8112.16421 and your new lite interface invokes the following error message on every page refresh; Internet Explorer has modified this page to help prevent cross-site scripting.


Can you help me with this? I am testing on the same build of IE and I don't get this error at all.
Which page triggers the error? Are you logged in? Does the error appear when you log out?

Chocoholic wrote:It's starting to look ok Andy, I think it's going to take a bit of getting used to it.

What browser do you use? What features from the old design do you miss? I mean why do you have to get used to it?

Besides fast loading speeds, my goal is to make this design as usable as possible. So if you were using some features that are missing or are hidden deeper than previously let me know and I will try to adapt the design for you.
Andyba
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 27, 2011
I'm using all of the following. IE, Safar, Firefox, Google Chrome.

The white background and blue text is extremely harsh on the eyes, the two tone blue background and text you had before was much, much easier for the eyes to digest.

I don't know, it all just seems a bit 'in your face'.
Chocoholic
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 27, 2011
I changed the background to the previous color. Is it easier on the eyes now?
Andyba
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 28, 2011
Yes much. :D
Chocoholic
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Re: New Style for DF Nov 30, 2011


:lol:
Dillon
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 30, 2011
Dillon, how do you know? You are using the old style..
What exactly you don't like in the new style?
Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 30, 2011
Andyba wrote:Dillon, how do you know? You are using the old style..
What exactly you don't like in the new style?


1. Too much whitespace on the threads
2. Text is too big
3. No option to change the text size as in the old style
4. Avatar is missing for easy poster recognition
5. Difficult to navigate between threads
6. Dir tree and quick link drop down menus are missing

I know because I’ve looked at it and decided to use the old style, If you were to address the above, we would be back to the old style which defeats your objective of creating an interface better suited to be viewed on a tablet, I don’t use a tablet, my preference is the old style. By the way, the error messages I kept getting appear to have resolved, well done!
Dillon
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 30, 2011
Forget the moans Andy this is a huge improvement. Anyone who uses so many browsers can certainly expect conflict and confused little fingers.

I use IPad, IPhone and IE 9 on laptop/computer where all are faster and easier to navigate.

I thinks once all get a bit familiar it will get a more positive response from the moaners
drewpeacock
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Re: New Style For DF Nov 30, 2011
Dillon, Avatars and drop down navigation is there for registered users and it is much easier to use since it's always accessible.
You don't have to scroll to the top to use it. The menu is called 'Jump To' it's above the User CP.

Guests don't see avatars since they are usually interested in information and don't know the poster so they don't care about avatars.
And I am hiding all the complicated menus from guests to make things simpler.

Dir tree is also there it's the only thing in the top header beside google search that you can click on. :)

White space is there because I removed the unnecessary clutter and left only the essential. This way it's easier to concentrate on important things. And I left the fundamental functionality there, for example if you click on the last post time in the forum view you will get to the last post of the thread.

regarding the error I removed all the javascripts from guests so IE is not complaining. If you login and maintain the same security settings on your IE you will probably get the same error. I suspect it's because now the pages load the jquery library from google code so it's a different domain and IE doesn't like it.

Text size is done intentionally larger. It looks a bit uglier but it is much easier to read, no strain on the eyes at all.
Anyway modern browsers usually can modify the text size and making it smaller doesn't break the design.

I am still working on the style so it is still beta. I will write some documentation on how to use it efficiently when it's ready.
Right now I need Your help to find bugs, things that don't work, errors, suggestions etc..

drewpeacock, thank you. :) I am glad at least some people appreciate my efforts. :)
Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Dec 01, 2011
Well I looked at DF a couple of times on my friends IPad when I was away and couldn't decide whether it was the IPad I wasn't familiar with or that I wasn't keen on the new DF.
I've just logged in on my PC and I have to say I'm still not sure.
I liked the view active topics on the old style and you could see what was active without going to General etc. I also like to glance and see if I have a PM without having to hover.
I also don't like the 'Forum Rules' staring me in the face in bright red text. I don't like rules. They make me nervous.
Bethsmum
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Re: New Style For DF Dec 01, 2011
What exactly was 'wrong' with the previous look...I don't like the 'new' look...nevertheless, my 95 year old grandfather appreciates the font size (you would be surprised as to his 'username'....wait, what hapenned to the emoticons (angry face thingy here !!M )
Ambassador
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Re: New Style For DF Dec 01, 2011
Forum rules will be visible only to novice users that have less then X posts.
For now I need your help making the rules effective so you will see them until I make rules for all the forums. :)
Bethsmum, what you do not like more rules or spam? :)

Regarding PMs if you have new pms you will usually have a popup-message telling you about this.

View active topics is deep in the actions menu. Just hover "view your posts".

Ambassador, previous style was:
1 cluttered. All the possible actions were spread on the page using some tiny text.
(The new style has all the actions in one menu that is always visible and accessible)

2 slow. It was based on default phpbb style and it is really not optimized for speed. It has 55 Google "page speed" rank which is really bad.
(The new style has 80-97 google "page speed" rank)

What's wrong with emoticons? :king:

BTW I recently updated the new style and corrected many things.
While I still develop the style you can suggest some improvements or report bugs and I will handle them.
It will not be the case when I start working on another project.
Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Dec 01, 2011
I moved the "view active topics". You can now hover Actions to get to them.
Andyba
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Re: New Style For DF Dec 01, 2011
I notice that the 'reply' 'report' buttons have now become text links at the top of each post - Is this intentional? I preferred the buttons.

Otherwise the new look is looking good to me.

Cheers,
Shafique
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