Discussion list revamp

Digital

Dominion i have the same in mind. It is a good idea to implement reply count globally.

Here's what i have in mind.

Unfollowed topics can be primary color.
Followed topics can be neutral color or customizable color.

Digital

I also noticed that followed topics doesn't have star badge. Star badge helps user easily identify which topics are being followed.

Was that intentional or a mistake?

P.S.

Secondary tags will not be shown as well?

csf

Still trying to digest it all so take this with a generous dose of salt, but some thoughts off the top of my head...

I disagree with @jordanjay29's suggestion (no offense) to move new indicator to front of title. I think it's fine (after title). (Keep only the "sticky pin" icon in front of a title so it's easy to see what's sticky.)
I like that you dropped the gold start in discussion lists. I think that was too busy before. A person can simply look at their /following list or at the Following button (right sidebar) in context of a given discussion, if they want to know what threads they're following. Easy-peasy.
Although controversial, you could drop the total reply counts from far right of item and the associated speech bubble icon too. This would give you room to include both the primary and secondary category labels. Seeing both is useful because it helps teach users what the hierarchy associations are. By contrast, I don't see much value in knowing the total replies to every thread, and especially threads I'm not following. More important is the latest replies since last log in, which would be shown on discussions one is following (as the concept indicates).
You could eliminate the need for "new" text by combining the new indicator and reply count indicator into a single system like this:
- A new discussion since last login has a solid fill square, meaning you've never seen the title before.
- If there are also replies to that new discussion, then a reply count shows on top of the filled square.
- When a discussion is no longer new, and you're following it, but have new replies since last visit, the filled square changes to an empty square with the new reply count indicated. (As depicted.)
- When a discussion is no longer new, you're not following it, and you've never opened it, the title remains in regular black text but without square or reply count.

Also, I would expect all new discussions to appear at the top of the list together, not separated like they are depicted in the concept image at top. I don't quite understand how or why that would happen. For example, the discussion titled, "Welcome Banner" is labeled as new but is the fifth item in the list. I would only expect it to be fifth if the other four items before it were also new.

Dominion

csf Also, I would expect all new discussions to appear at the top of the list together, not separated like they are depicted in the concept image at top. I don't quite understand how or why that would happen. For example, the discussion titled, "Welcome Banner" is labeled as new but is the fifth item in the list. I would only expect it to be fifth if the other four items before it were also new.

It happens because "Latest" is selected as the sort order. The other four items have new posts made more recently than the last post in the new "Welcome Banner" discussion.

You can achieve the effect you want by selecting "Newest" as the sort order.

jordanjay29

csf
4. You could eliminate the need for "new" text by combining the new indicator and reply count indicator into a single system like this:

A new discussion since last login has a solid fill square, meaning you've never seen the title before.

If there are also replies to that new discussion, then a reply count shows on top of the filled square.

When a discussion is no longer new, and you're following it, but have new replies since last visit, the filled square changes to an empty square with the new reply count indicated. (As depicted.)

When a discussion is no longer new, you're not following it, and you've never opened it, the title remains in regular black text but without square or reply count.

This honestly reminds me of all the little icons that boards used to have to tell you what was hot, what was locked, what you replied to, etc, etc. It was so convoluted that you had to frequently reference the legend to figure out what meant what.

This sounds like a better extension than it does a Core design feature. A new user should be able to almost immediately understand what they're looking at as soon as they join a Flarum, we shouldn't subject them to a learning curve. If I were a user, I wouldn't have the faintest clue what a box meant. [NEW] means something, and [6] or [3] I could figure out without too much pondering.

csf

Dominion Oh, right. ? If it was a snake...

csf

Self-edited: (mockup lacked thread starter identity. Overlooked that. So, lucky you, no mockup.)

jordanjay29 This honestly reminds me of all the little icons that boards used to have to tell you what was hot, what was locked, what you replied to, etc, etc.

You're right, the colored square idea wasn't good.

Better might be to color the background of the entire list item containing div a faint yellow (or whatever default you wanted). Then there wouldn't be a need for any additional UI gizmo at all. You would only see the "new item" color when logged in, for the personalized effect, and it would go away when you opened the thread.

But we (CSF) will wait for the stable release and be happy when it gets there.

Btw, I would think UI changes like this would be on the stable v2 roadmap, not v1. Especially as the design is working decent as a V1. I know nobody is giving dates, but can we say a stable release will happen before 2017? I have people chomping at the bit to get enrolled now.

vargmal

the comments. should look and make more sense with smth like this and not on the side of the title but near the comments icon...

42 (+8) x

42 the total nr of comments, +8 the new ones unread in the topic that if clicked send you to the first one of the 8... and the x if you don't care enough for the topic to read it so you can dismiss it by clicking on it

Dominion

vargmal the comments. should look and make more sense with smth like this and not on the side of the title but near the comments icon...

I agree that it would make sense to keep that information together, if it can be done stylishly.

datitisev

vargmal That's a good idea...
It would probably be too much, though.

Trying to get it simple here ?
Not a lot should be going on ?
Not saying it's a bad idea, of course ?

Digital

@Toby

Do you think this is much better?

My issue is the current mockup makes me a little bit confused. At first glance it makes me think that the avatar was from the user who currently replied. Doesn't really occur to me that it was from the topic starter.

I don't know if it's just me or not?

Another issue is, i think there's too much noise on the left side of the list, which contains the following: (topic title, reply, reply time, badge, avatar, reply count, new topic icon).

So i separate things a little bit. As you can see the list is more balance and easy to understand.
Plus, badges is more visible and not overshadowed by the avatar

EDIT:

Just to clarify, i moved the topic starter avatar from left side to right side.

Davis

Digital You're not the only one. I find it a bit confusing as well.

I'm not sure how i feel about your solution though...

Dominion

Digital Davis meetdilip I have a hunch Toby might wish to limit the present discussion to the changes that he proposed in the OP. Regarding the relationship between the avatar and username that's displayed with below the discussion title, I'd like to direct your attention to this older thread.

There you will find a lengthy discussion of the very same issue, including Toby's thinking behind the original design, plus a variety proposals for alternate approaches that resulted in the current layout. It's required reading, if only to avoid a rehashing of ideas that have been discussed before.

amdad

Digital Do you think this is much better?

Toby said before, avatar has a role to topic as identifier. When they are on right you need to jump from left to right. You lost direct/close link between avatar and topic name.

@Toby Your latest changes bring back many ideas from old forum scripts I know. Icons as topic features indicators. NEW, and numbers of unread. So those are all very welcome.

Hiding labels also is great move on All discussion list and other general lists. But when you enter specific Category, like "Support". I don't see any reason to display obvious label information for each topic [ Support ]. Instead of main Category repeated, (child) Tags should appear. Displaying the same information in loop is against economy of simplicity I think.

meetdilip

Normally people would take the avatar as last poster's.

jacko

Toby They are all well thought out ideas. I could think of a change here and there but I'd rather wait and see it in action and also let my forum users express their opinion. Are we going to see this in Beta 6?

Kulga

jacko Are we going to see this in Beta 6?

This forum often has recent features shown, so it'd (probably) show here before in a beta version. My guess is that beta.6 is already overloaded with other things that need to be done and this is in discussion stage atm..
Alternatively, you can use Devflarum which sits at dev-master and updates very frequently. If code was pushed for this revamp, it'll show there - bugs and all ?

HUGZ

Is there much use the avatar being that of the OP? I feel like it would make more sense being that of the last person to reply. Just a thought ?

Davis

HUGZ The first thing to come to mind is if a user has an essablished trust in a community, users may be more likely to read a discussion if they recognize the poster's avatar.

jordanjay29

HUGZ If not an option, it seems like it would make for a good extension to have the last poster avatar displayed.

luceos

jordanjay29 totally agree, often wondered whose avatar is showing up on the list.

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