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Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31554]

Sat, 06 May 2006 19:49

naudefj

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Hi Ilia,

Here are some usability suggestions you may want to consider for 2.7.5 or later:

Change the word "FAQ" to "Help". Non techie users don't know what an FAQ is. On the other hand, every Windows/Linux user knows what "Help" is.

First sort "Members -> Message Count" descending and then ascending. Users most likely want to click it to see top posters.

Provide a method for administrators/ moderators to clear topic ratings/ votes.

Allow users to sort messages by rating/ votes. This will allow users to read the best threads a forum has to offer.

Change forum.css.tmpl to make messages easier to read:

MsgBodyText {
        font-size: 12px; line-height: 150%;
}

Print status message after clicking "Admin -> Moderator/User Manager -> Reset Password". Something like: "Password successfully reset and mailed to user XYZ" would be great.

Best regards.

Frank

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31576 is a reply to message #31554]

Mon, 08 May 2006 14:50

Ilia

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The rename of the FAQ link is a good idea and I've made the change in CVS.

As far as the user sorting, personally I find myself more curious about what new users have registered today and over the past few days more so then most common posters. The latter is unlikely to change frequently and on popular forums will often show the exact same names.

Sorting by message rating would be quite slow and I am araid I must decline this feature.

I've tried the line height tricks and it appeared to really have put a lot of spacing between individual lines. I am not sure that's the best way of going about things, perhaps increasing the font size would be better.

The password reset confirmation message is a good idea and itm was added to CVS.

FUDforum Core Developer

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31577 is a reply to message #31576]

Mon, 08 May 2006 15:17

naudefj

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That's good progress - thank you so much!

Quote:

As far as the user sorting, personally I find myself more curious about what new users have registered today...

If you click on "Message Count" it shows you everyone with 0 posts. If you click again, you see top posers. Maybe it should show top posters first.

Please also consider adding a feature to reset a topic's rating.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31603 is a reply to message #31577]

Tue, 09 May 2006 22:14

Ilia

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Good idea, the patch is in the CVS.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31758 is a reply to message #31603]

Tue, 16 May 2006 19:49

naudefj

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Cool, this is going to be a great release!

How about adding a feature for moderators to reset a topic's rating?

For example, make the rating image a link to a page where users can view rating details (from fud26_thread_rate_track) - and where moderators can reset a topics rating or delete some individual ratings.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31774 is a reply to message #31758]

Wed, 17 May 2006 13:04

Ilia

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I really don't see topic rating reset as an essential feature, it can be done manually by tweaking the database values. I'd really love to hear the practical reasons for this that would require this to be used frequently.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31776 is a reply to message #31774]

Wed, 17 May 2006 14:38

naudefj

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We get a lot of newbie users that rate their own topics high to attract attention. In other cases, some users might not like a sticky or announcement and rate it down.

I would like the moderators to reset these ratings. This will ensure that top-rated threads are worth a read; and badly rated topics are indeed crap.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31813 is a reply to message #31776]

Fri, 19 May 2006 14:26

Ilia

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It sounds to me like you'd benefit more from restricting rating ability to certain "trusted" users. Reseting the rating would reset it to 0, potentially trashing dosens and even hundreds of votes. If you cannot trust an average user to rate thing relliable make this a non-default permission and allow group leaders to give it to experienced/trusted forum users.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31891 is a reply to message #31813]

Mon, 22 May 2006 17:56

naudefj

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We trust users to post messages although they need to be moderated occasionally. It would be great if ratings could also be "moderated" without restricting access.

I do realize that this may not be as critical right now. However, it would be great if you can reconsider for one of the future FUDForum releases.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31912 is a reply to message #31891]

Tue, 23 May 2006 21:37

Ilia

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Moderation of ratings is something that I am most definately not planning to add.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31924 is a reply to message #31554]

Wed, 24 May 2006 13:49

JamesS

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As for the font size, don't use the px attribute. If anything, use pt. A CSS pixel is not the same as a normal pixel. A CSS pixel scales with the resolution. See the following articles on this issue:

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks//library/wa-cranky55.html
http://webkit.opendarwin.org/blog/?p=55
http://webkit.opendarwin.org/blog/?p=56
http://webkit.opendarwin.org/blog/?p=57

Adjusting the line height to compensate for high resolutions rendering 12px as really small just isn't a good idea.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31927 is a reply to message #31924]

Wed, 24 May 2006 20:40

naudefj

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Hi James,

You are spot on with the problem. I like to increase the font size when reading pages. However, spacing doesn't increase as the font is increased - hence the 150% spacing I add to my forum.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure I understand the solution. Care to post the correct CSS here?

Best regards.

Frank

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31934 is a reply to message #31924]

Wed, 24 May 2006 22:28

Ilia

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Can you suggest a patch?

FUDforum Core Developer

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31940 is a reply to message #31554]

Thu, 25 May 2006 19:25

JamesS

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Just changing

.MsgBodyText {
	font-size: 12px;
}

to

.MsgBodyText {
	font-size: 12pt;
}

should fix the problem. In fact, I would recommend changing all font sizes from px to pt or just leaving them out all together. If you do change them to pt, you may want to drop down to 10pt font instead of 12pt. It would be more like the way it currently is but will scale better and honor the user's font settings.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31944 is a reply to message #31940]

Thu, 25 May 2006 23:44

Ilia

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Changed in CVS for all pixel font sizes.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31986 is a reply to message #31944]

Mon, 29 May 2006 17:56

naudefj

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Hi James,

I've started to read your references and it looks like they suggest using relative font sizes (like em and px!) instead of absolute sizes (like pt).

For example, look at this document: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/syndata.html#length-units

"Absolute length units are only useful when the physical properties of the output medium are known."

So, "pt" is not the ideal solution for screens. Looks like "em" is the best unit to use.

Best regards.

Frank

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #31988 is a reply to message #31554]

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:24

JamesS

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I disagree with the recommendation for using the pixel unit. It is not a very flexible unit. I agree with em and ex, though. I tend to use ex for a lot of spacing. When I am specifying fonts, I like to use pt because the font files do most of the scaling. Plus, it seems to me that web browsers will change font sizes better if they were specified via pt in the CSS file.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32009 is a reply to message #31988]

Wed, 31 May 2006 05:41

naudefj

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"em" is much better from a usability point as it scales to the user's font-size settings. Thus, no more resizing (Firefox Control-+) every time you visit a site.

Also, W3C seems to favor "em" units for specifying font sizes (as per http://www.w3c.org/TR/WCAG10-CSS-TECHS/#units).

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32013 is a reply to message #32009]

Wed, 31 May 2006 21:00

Ilia

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Can you provide em patch?

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32017 is a reply to message #31554]

Thu, 01 June 2006 00:32

JamesS

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Yes. The em unit is a better unit than pt. But, I believe that will require a complete reworking of the stylesheet since a lot of it is written with absolute units in mind.

I've been pretty bored at work lately. Maybe I will setup a bland forum and write up a new stylesheet from scratch that uses only relative units.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32024 is a reply to message #32017]

Thu, 01 June 2006 19:00

naudefj

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That would be great - thanks James!

Just to get you started - add this to the top of the .css file:

html { font-size: 100%; /* IE hack */ }
body { font-size: 0.75em; }

You may also find this useful: http://www.clagnut.com/blog/348/

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32250 is a reply to message #32024]

Sat, 17 June 2006 20:19

naudefj

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Ilia, would you consider a patch to allow moderators to view and delete topic ratings?

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32262 is a reply to message #32250]

Sun, 18 June 2006 16:26

Ilia

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I'd consider it, but it'd have to be an amazingly good patch Wink

Wink

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32270 is a reply to message #32262]

Sun, 18 June 2006 18:05

naudefj

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Well, I'm definitely not as proficient in PHP as you are, but I normally do manage to get things to work.

The patch will initially add a pop-up window and display 10 ratings. Moderators will be able to delete these ratings. I will leave paging functionality for later.

If the code doesn't meet expectations, you can always improve it or ask me to make certain changes. Should I proceed?

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32278 is a reply to message #32270]

Mon, 19 June 2006 01:20

Ilia

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If the code does not meet expectations it will not be included, since I have no interest in adding this functionality I will not spend time to tweak/rewrite it to work properly.

FUDforum Core Developer

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32329 is a reply to message #32278]

Wed, 21 June 2006 06:52

naudefj

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Here is the patch (with new files). Please let me know if I need to change anything before it can be committed.

PS: No need to be rude. If the code it not good enough and you don't want to help, just delete it.

Attachment: ratingtrack.tar.gz
(Size: 6.77KB, Downloaded 1125 times)

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32571 is a reply to message #32329]

Sun, 09 July 2006 16:21

naudefj

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This patch is rock solid and behaving very well on my production server. Any chance of getting it committed to the FUDforum CVS?

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32590 is a reply to message #32571]

Mon, 10 July 2006 18:51

Ilia

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Let me review it, i'll try to get to it this week.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32829 is a reply to message #32590]

Mon, 24 July 2006 17:25

Ilia

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The feature with some revisions was added to CVS, thanks.

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Re: Usability suggestions for 2.7.5 and beyond [message #32831 is a reply to message #32829]

Mon, 24 July 2006 18:38

naudefj

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Thank you very much!

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