Resolved [Site Usability] - Change the look a little?

[Luca]

I had a conversation with one of the players who was leaving for personal reasons, and I asked why they were leaving, telling them about the player retention problem.

And then he offered some advice on the default theme we're using. I think we should make a couple of changes.

[21] Luca but I do have one question
[21] nina_noone Please ask
[21] Luca was it a problem with the site that's making you leave, or just personal stuff?
[21] nina_noone Noes, just personal stuff.
[21] nina_noone But the site is kind of confusing at first
[21] Luca Fair enough - we've been having problems with player retention and we're just looking for ways to make things easier
[21] nina_noone Some things that should be buttons are just links, and at times you don't know where to click
[21] Luca Huh... Do tell. Maybe buttons could draw more attention
[21] nina_noone For example, when you click on Neplepsian forum you'd try to click on the big image saying "4TH FLEET" rather than the tiny name above it.
[21] nina_noone And the outlining for a few stuff is too small
[21] Luca :!:
[21] Luca notes this down
[21] Luca I can see the problem.
[21] nina_noone Also the colors
[21] Luca I did a course on usability, and I'll pass this on. It shouldn't be too hard to change.
[21] nina_noone Almost everything is blue
[21] nina_noone The posts could have a slightly brighter shade of blue, just so you can tell them apart
[21] Luca That's not a bad idea.
[21] nina_noone I'm not sure what kind of code you guys are working on, but it should be fairly easy.
[21] Luca I'm also looking at the other themes and I'm seeing problems there too
[21] nina_noone There are more themes?
[21] Luca Yes
[21] Luca They aren't advertised, but give them a whirl - we do need some feedback on them
[21] nina_noone Where do I select these?
[21] Luca User Control Panel > Board Preferences
[21] nina_noone aha
[21] Luca Ooooohhhhh
[21] Luca Proglass might be better
[21] Luca tries it, finds that it isn't
[21] nina_noone hmhm.
[21] nina_noone The Neplepsian one is wayyy better.
[21] Luca THE AVATARS ARE ON THE LEFT SIDE WHAT IS THIS
[21] Luca *RIGHT
[21] nina_noone Mostly due to the border of the tables
[21] Luca Mmmhmm
[21] nina_noone Hum.
[21] Luca although the colour of hte links for Admins and the ones for normal links are the same. :S (On the Nepleslia Theme)
[21] nina_noone Proglass is the very default theme, I think.
[21] Luca Thanks for your feedback, Noone
[21] nina_noone The Nepleslian one is the best one, I think.
[21] Luca K
[21] nina_noone Stuff to add: Borders for tables and div tags, and clickable pictures for specific forums
[21] Luca Gotcha
[21] Luca Thanks for your assistance
[21] Luca I've just gotten so used to it I didn't see it
[21] nina_noone Hehe, yeah.
[21] nina_noone At the very first time, it was kinda hard for me.
[21] nina_noone But not enough to discourage me to continue.

So here are the points, summarised:

• The Forum Banners should be clickable buttons. You can easily do an '<a href="FORUM LINK"...><img src="FORUM BANNER"... /></a>' to do this in each of the descriptions, if that's where the image is placed.
• Some links should be buttons. He didn't elaborate upon which links should be buttons, but I'm guessing some of the more important ones pertaining to accessing the Wiki
• Have the post body and content a different shade of slightly lighter or darker shade from the rest of the background (The forum colour, #000022 perhaps to This Colour, #000011. It'll make the white stand out more.) (That is, from #000022 to #000011 on post body backgrounds.
• Almost everything is blue. We might need more contrast to separate certain pieces of content.
• The player didn't even know there were more themes, and settled on using the Nepleslia theme rather than the default, because...
• There are clear borders on each bit of content to separate everything you read - however, the default link colour is the same as the 'Admin' colour. I looked at the GM list and said: "Wait when did Gabriel and Shotjon become admins?" with this theme!

So yeah those are my findings, and I think we should act upon them in some capacity, since it almost discouraged Nina_Noone from continuing.

I couldn't have found these problems myself since I've gotten so used to how the site looks and I subconsciously wade through these problems, however small they are. I know we're going for a seamless look, even getting rid of Signatures to aid this, but some way to visually encapsulate the content will help with readability.

 

[Wes]

I've added this to my list of feedback.

 

[Sigma]

Yeah, the Nepleslian theme is kinda broken. There are random people with blue names. Regular users are also yellow names. I cannot tell the difference between Samanthia and Nashoba's colors on this theme. It really does need to be addressed if we're going to offer the Nepleslian theme as an alternative.

 

[Wes]

Yellow is the link color on the Nepleslian theme. It also happens to be the color for the admin group.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Actually, a question that's hung on my mind a while — Is there a difference between the nebula theme and the old SA Blue theme besides the nebula image? Like, am I missing anything by going SA Blue?

 

[Luca]

Actually, a question that's hung on my mind a while — Is there a difference between the nebula theme and the old SA Blue theme besides the nebula image? Like, am I missing anything by going SA Blue?

The Nebula background is omitted in SA Blue.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Right. But besides that.

 

[Wes]

The nav bar at the top is different and there have been some other minor changes to the nebula one, but they're mostly the same. The StarArmyBlue theme is for people that didn't like the nebula and wanted to stick with the older look.