I have no real problem with the tags and reply count centered as they are now. But I'm wondering if it might not be a good idea for the mobile layout. Now that the tags seem permanently fixed in the right column for the desktop view, I would like to ask how @Toby feels about their location in the small screen...

EDIT: Come to think of it, I've been ignoring the mobile design too much. I don't use mobile devices, but I know a lot of people in Japan won't even touch a desktop box these days.

Agreed, I don't think the segregation is a real issue. On desktop, putting the tags/replies on separate lines looks aesthetically worse; the aesthetic tradeoff is not worth the semantic correctness.

Trying out some things on mobile now, stay tuned...

Played around with having the tags/reply count on two rows to the right on both mobile and in the sidepane, and didn't like it at all. I think for those small widths, it looks much better if all of the high-contrast stuff (avatar + tags) is together (on the left side).

What we've got now is good.

I was afraid that tags on the right wouldn't work, especially when titles start getting long. But since I don't use mobile thingamabobs, I'm a terrible judge of what works for them.

Now that we use up more room with the "Last reply" words, I'm wondering whether shortening the timestamps would be worth it? e.g. "Last reply 16m ago by Dominion"

    Hmmm ... is that 16 months or minutes? 😉

    I don't feel the need for it on the desktop layout. Would it be possible to use the long version in the desktop layout and the abbreviated version in the mobile layout? (Probably too much bother, I'm guessing.)

    How about a more moderate abbreviation? ... sec ... min ... hr(s) ... day(s) ... mo(s) ... yr(s)

    • Toby replied to this.

      Toby Overlay mini replier avatars on the author avatars.

      what if the opposite: mini author's avatar on the replier avatar?

        wizgriz That's pretty clever!

        ... Now you need to come up with an equally clever icon for the "Started" string. 😉

        EDIT: Is there an arrow icon that starts in the upper left and swooshes down and right? That would work.

          wizgriz Nice idea in theory, but I find that the reply arrow icon draws a tad too much attention, making things feel slightly less comfortable than with plain text. It's better if you move the username back before the timestamp so that the bold elements are together, but then we're back to square one.

          If only there was a single word (verb) that could replace "Last reply"... like "Updated"?

              Toby that could replace "Last reply"

              Response?

              Response 4 minutes ago by Kulga

                "Updated" works, but sounds a bit jargonish. "Answered" is good too, except it implies that the OP is a question. But I'm wondering what the objective is. In terms of screen real estate, there isn't much difference:

                Last reply
                Updated

                ... About half an em is all (if even that). So perhaps the issue is not just length, but the fact that there's no verb? If that's the case, then I think something like this would work:

                Updated by Toby 2 hours ago

                It does seem a bit more natural to have the time at the end. (You can't do that with "Last reply" because then it sounds like we're talking about the last of several replies made by Toby.) And you could change the "Started by" string to match.

                Of course then the username is a bit closer to the avatar... 😉

                I was thinking purely in terms of length – but you're right, "Updated" isn't that much shorter than "Last reply".

                I would argue that showing the time before the username is better for another reason too. On a narrow mobile screen, there's a good chance that there won't be room to show the whole "Last reply" string for some discussions (with >1 tag). In that case I'd rather the username get cut off than I would the time.

                Dominion Hmmm ... is that 16 months or minutes? 😉

                I don't feel the need for it on the desktop layout. Would it be possible to use the long version in the desktop layout and the abbreviated version in the mobile layout? (Probably too much bother, I'm guessing.)

                Ideally as you suggested we would use an abbreviated version on mobile, but that introduces a bit of complexity which I'm not sure it's worth. We'll put it on the "nice-to-have-maybe-one-day" list.

                    Toby Ideally as you suggested we would use an abbreviated version on mobile, but that introduces a bit of complexity which I'm not sure it's worth.

                    Perhaps the not-quite-so-drastic abbreviation would be the way to go, in the meantime?

                    Updated 27 min ago by Toby

                    I like that better than a single letter, not only because of the ambiguity of the "m" but also because it seems a bit less user-friendly than how language is used elsewhere. (In the long run, of course, it doesn't matter much to me either way. Japanese time units are all just one or two characters long. 😉 )

                      Toby changed the title to General UX, discussion list avatar mismatch .

                      @Toby
                      I don't like the current one: "Last reply X hours ago by AAA".
                      It feels weird on the discussion list. That sentence is repeated over and over more than 10 times.

                      1

                      How about this one:

                      2

                      Or showing only 1 avatar:

                      3

                      Edit:
                      I forgot to mention that the timestamp should be thread start time instead of last reply time. I think it makes more sense because generally people don't care about last reply time as long as they know whether there are new unread messages or not.

                        Darmawan I don't like the current one: "Last reply X hours ago by AAA".
                        It feels weird on the discussion list. That sentence is repeated over and over more than 10 times.

                        Agreed. Ideally you could just have it say "time username" to eliminate all static text but oh well 😒

                        Toby Wild idea: What if usernames aren't bold? The reply icon might still draw unwarranted attention to it, but at least your eyes wouldn't be juggling the icon and username.

                        Otherwise abbreviating time is probably fine. I'm not sure if this is a 66-post problem, at least not for the beta, so whatever works works.

                              What about Darmawan's idea to remove the "Last reply" text? That is intruiging.

                              • Toby replied to this.