# Your thoughts on the forum upgrade (launch date 18th Feb)



## Josh DUK (Nov 25, 2019)

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would share some details for the forum upgrade.  

This is the new front page where we will list the topic sections. You can see some things have shifted around, but small changes here and there. It is much cleaner from the older version of the forum and the tabs and topics are located in the same area. 

 

If you click on someone's picture on the forum, it will pop up some information about the person and its similar to the live version of the forum.
 
If you go to the persons page, you can still write on their profile and you can click 'start conversation' which was missing in the older version of the forum.

The reaction score shown on someone's profile is a calculated by the number of reactions people have with the post. It is essentially liking a post or giving it a heart. 

It also displays profile posts, latest activity, postings, and about section if you would like to know more information about a member of the community. 
 
You are more than welcome to share your thoughts and we are planning to invite some users to test our some of the features of the forum. 

Best, 

Josh DUK


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## AJLang (Nov 27, 2019)

I thought that when likes were first introduced on this forum there was some concern about it turning into a popularity contest. Is this risk going to increase with the risk of hearts?
Has the new design incorporated the needs of those who have varying types of visual impairment?


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## AJLang (Nov 27, 2019)

Plus if someone starts a conversation will these be public as I know that one of the problems on the existing design is that people have started conversations (as opposed to pm’s) thinking they are private when they are actually available for everyone to see.


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## Pine Marten (Nov 27, 2019)

I am still having trouble inserting emoji things, ie when I click on them a list of forums comes up, like before.

Actually I don't see any difference on the front page as shown by Josh DUK, my screen shows the same as usual...? Or has the new front page not been installed yet?


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## silentsquirrel (Nov 27, 2019)

When does a like become a heart?  For the indecisive among us, this adds a new layer of worry - do I like it or do I "heart" it?

A great pity that you are not taking the opportunity to get rid of profile posts - many new posters must think they are being ignored when they ask questions via profile posts, and never make it to the forum proper.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 27, 2019)

Pine Marten said:


> I am still having trouble inserting emoji things, ie when I click on them a list of forums comes up, like before.
> 
> Actually I don't see any difference on the front page as shown by Josh DUK, my screen shows the same as usual...? Or has the new front page not been installed yet?



Josh’s post contains a picture of the new look and feel. They haven’t activated it yet. 

hopefully they will be ironing out some of the bugs people have mentioned too (like the weird Smiley Menu glitch)


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## Ralph-YK (Nov 27, 2019)

How do you get Watched Threads and New Posts. Currently seen like this:


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## Josh DUK (Nov 28, 2019)

Please share any feedback what you want to change or you don't think it is needed. The profile posts is something we can look at in the back end and possibly disable. We can also possibly get rid of the reactions and just keep the likes.

The new upgrade is still being tested on our internal server, but we plan on inviting some users to test out the software.


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## Ljc (Nov 28, 2019)

Personally I think profile posts are not only unnecessary but are confusing to new(ish) members who may well think they are being ignored or that they are posting on the forum .
I detest the idea of reactions, jut keep the likes. 

This is a peer support forum I would hate it to start looking like another social media site , imo it’s more important to cater for those with eyesight difficulties and easy to navigate around the site for newcomers than anything else.


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## Eddy Edson (Nov 28, 2019)

Ljc said:


> I detest the idea of reactions, jut keep the likes.


Yup, agree


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## TheClockworkDodo (Nov 28, 2019)

Everything Lin said!
And please don't fix things which aren't broken - if forum users haven't asked you to change things, please don't change them for the sake of a fresh look, a lot of us will find that confusing and difficult to use.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 29, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Everything Lin said!
> And please don't fix things which aren't broken - if forum users haven't asked you to change things, please don't change them for the sake of a fresh look, a lot of us will find that confusing and difficult to use.



From what I can tell the new style will adapt better to smaller screens / phones / tablets and should offer greater legibility if anything.  Hopefully any users who are offered the chance of previewing the new look will be able to feedback any concerns over legibility or clarity.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Nov 29, 2019)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> From what I can tell the new style will adapt better to smaller screens / phones / tablets and should offer greater legibility if anything.  Hopefully any users who are offered the chance of previewing the new look will be able to feedback any concerns over legibility or clarity.



That's great for people with smaller screens/phones/tablets, but please don't forget that some of us have old-fashioned computers with large monitors and we want it to work for us too!  Please make sure some of the people previewing are using computers rather than phones etc, and also that not everyone previewing is using Windows (I'm using Chromium on a Linux machine).

To me the picture in Josh's post at the top looks confusing because:
* there are pictures where the current version doesn't have pictures, for no apparent reason
* the dark blue has gone, and everything looks very, very pale which makes it hard to distinguish anything
* profile posts - which no-one likes and which are confusing to newbies, and which several people asked to have removed - are still there
* I can't see the top menu of things like watched threads and new posts, as Ralph commented (though I realise that may be because the screenshot has cut those off the top)


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## Josh DUK (Nov 29, 2019)

Here is the top of the forum. Its quite difficult to get the entire forum image in. Also I am taking notes of all your feedback to pass it on to our digital team.


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## ukjohn (Nov 29, 2019)

Ljc said:


> This is a peer support forum I would hate it to start looking like another social media site , imo it’s more important to cater for those with eyesight difficulties and easy to navigate around the site for newcomers than anything else.



These recent changes are something I have not been happy about for sometime now, This was started as a Peer Support Forum 11 years ago, and now as Ljc say's it is heading into a Social Media site, the fun has gone from this forum. I have to be careful what I say, I recently had a post deleted, WHY ? I was told that I cannot or must not dispute or discuss any actions taken by a Moderator, and this came from a Moderator that deleted the post, so right or wrong I have no right of reply. It is no longer the Diabetic Forum I enjoyed being a member of.  It has moved away from the great work it promoted under the guidance of Northener.  As for being the first member of this Forum, I am still fighting with myself as regards to leaving the group.


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## Jodee (Nov 29, 2019)

More smilies


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## TheClockworkDodo (Nov 29, 2019)

Thanks, @Josh DUK 

Jodee, I agree more smileys would be great, but those moving ones might make the forum unusable for people like me who have visual or neurological problems - I can't actually look at your post properly as the movement is overwhelming, and I'm having to type this with my eyes closed, and then cover half the screen with my arm when I look up to proofread.  So the option to immobilise smileys for those of us who can't cope with the moving ones would also be good!


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## Jodee (Nov 29, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Thanks, @Josh DUK
> 
> Jodee, I agree more smileys would be great, but those moving ones might make the forum unusable for people like me who have visual or neurological problems - I can't actually look at your post properly as the movement is overwhelming, and I'm having to type this with my eyes closed, and then cover half the screen with my arm when I look up to proofread.  So the option to immobilise smileys for those of us who can't cope with the moving ones would also be good!



Oh dear that is a shame Juliet, I will take a few off, there are loads of still smiles too of course


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## TheClockworkDodo (Nov 29, 2019)

Thanks, @Jodee - that's much better!


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## Ljc (Nov 29, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Thanks, @Josh DUK
> 
> Jodee, I agree more smileys would be great, but those moving ones might make the forum unusable for people like me who have visual or neurological problems - I can't actually look at your post properly as the movement is overwhelming, and I'm having to type this with my eyes closed, and then cover half the screen with my arm when I look up to proofread.  So the option to immobilise smileys for those of us who can't cope with the moving ones would also be good!


I didn’t realise that about the animated smilies , I sometimes use them on here,  I will stop.


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## silentsquirrel (Nov 30, 2019)

Jodee said:


> Oh dear that is a shame Juliet, I will take a few off, there are loads of still smiles too of course


Yes, I am like Juliet, and find your bouncing tennis ball very difficult to cope with!


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## Northerner (Nov 30, 2019)

ukjohn said:


> As for being the first member of this Forum, I am still fighting with myself as regards to leaving the group.


Don't you dare!


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## Northerner (Nov 30, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Thanks, @Josh DUK
> 
> Jodee, I agree more smileys would be great, but those moving ones might make the forum unusable for people like me who have visual or neurological problems - I can't actually look at your post properly as the movement is overwhelming, and I'm having to type this with my eyes closed, and then cover half the screen with my arm when I look up to proofread.  So the option to immobilise smileys for those of us who can't cope with the moving ones would also be good!


I used to have a flying pig avatar, but it even drove me mad after a while!


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## Ljc (Nov 30, 2019)

@ukjohn . I totally agree with Alan 


Northerner said:


> Don't you dare!


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## Ljc (Nov 30, 2019)

Perhaps re name conversations/start a conversation to private message , when I first come here it took me awhile to realise that’s what PM’s were called here .


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## Pine Marten (Nov 30, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> That's great for people with smaller screens/phones/tablets, but please don't forget that some of us have old-fashioned computers with large monitors and we want it to work for us too!  Please make sure some of the people previewing are using computers rather than phones etc, and also that not everyone previewing is using Windows (I'm using Chromium on a Linux machine).
> 
> To me the picture in Josh's post at the top looks confusing because:
> * there are pictures where the current version doesn't have pictures, for no apparent reason
> ...


Ditto to all of this from Juliet, *especially* the bit about everything being pale, there seems to be no *dark blue bolded* type any more.


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## Docb (Nov 30, 2019)

Going back to your picture Josh.  I do not have poor eyesight but I find the light blue on dark blue and light blue on grey colour schemes uncomfortable to read.  I understand that you want to keep a "corporate" colour palette but readability for ageing and sometimes damaged eyes has got to come first. One day your young tyro programmers with their 20-20, high acuity, vision will see what I am talking about. 

I sometimes wish that colour computing was impossible leaving everything in black and white!


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## Hazel (Nov 30, 2019)

I do not know if this issue is because of the upgrade, but the top line, from right to left Alerts, Hazel, media is blank and the whole below that is complete illegible nonsense


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## Northerner (Nov 30, 2019)

Linked text should be more obvious so people realise there's something there to click on. Currently very indistinct from ordinary text (on my Windows PC).

To be honest, I don't think we need more bells and whistles, just an easy to navigate and search site - it's the exchange and store of information that makes the site beyond that. The famous adage about user interfaces applies - 'Don't make me think!'   Profile posts are a classic example - we didn't have them before the 2015 upgrade and they have caused nothing but trouble and confusion since their introduction  You shouldn't need to have to stop and wonder how to accomplish something, it should be obvious - especially when you consider that many people may be visiting a forum for the first time and may not be thinking straight if they are upset, worried or confused about a new diagnosis.


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## Pine Marten (Nov 30, 2019)

I've just discovered a strange thing...the smilies etc which don't now work on my pc (list of forums appears instead) come up fine on this laptop. Which suggests something but I'm not sure what...


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## grovesy (Nov 30, 2019)

Northerner said:


> Linked text should be more obvious so people realise there's something there to click on. Currently very indistinct from ordinary text (on my Windows PC).
> 
> To be honest, I don't think we need more bells and whistles, just an easy to navigate and search site - it's the exchange and store of information that makes the site beyond that. The famous adage about user interfaces applies - 'Don't make me think!'   Profile posts are a classic example - we didn't have them before the 2015 upgrade and they have caused nothing but trouble and confusion since their introduction  You shouldn't need to have to stop and wonder how to accomplish something, it should be obvious - especially when you consider that many people may be visiting a forum for the first time and may not be thinking straight if they are upset, worried or confused about a new diagnosis.


I thought we had not always had profile posts.


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## Jodee (Nov 30, 2019)

silentsquirrel said:


> Yes, I am like Juliet, and find your bouncing tennis ball very difficult to cope with!



oh dear sorry you have endured so long SS, only happy to oblige, will go see if I can locate the signature to change it for all the special people who can't cope with ani stickers and smiles


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## Lizzzie (Nov 30, 2019)

Must admit to barely noticing upgrade but looks a bit slicker


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 30, 2019)

Pine Marten said:


> I've just discovered a strange thing...the smilies etc which don't now work on my pc (list of forums appears instead) come up fine on this laptop. Which suggests something but I'm not sure what...



I wonder if you can clear the cache on your PC browser?


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## silentsquirrel (Nov 30, 2019)

Jodee said:


> oh dear sorry you have endured so long SS, only happy to oblige, will go see if I can locate the signature to change it for all the special people who can't cope with ani stickers and smiles


Many thanks, Jodee, appreciated!  Love the tree!


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 30, 2019)

Lizzzie said:


> Must admit to barely noticing upgrade but looks a bit slicker



Nothing has changed on the actual forum yet Lizzzie - it’s just the pictures that Josh posted at the start of the thread which show a suggestion of what the new style might look like.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 30, 2019)

Pine Marten said:


> Ditto to all of this from Juliet, *especially* the bit about everything being pale, there seems to be no *dark blue bolded* type any more.



I’ve said that while the lighter look has a nicely clean, crisp feel to it, the lower contrast section headers do stand out less, so the new style page doesn’t have quite the same sense of structure. The overall lighter look also means that the column of avatars really do stand out - as they are visually much stronger than most of the other late content.

Interestingly @Northerner, the dark blue link colour seems quite different to the black text colour on my devices. I think it would be helpful to have a ‘high contrast’ option (I think the forum supports this option).


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## Jodee (Nov 30, 2019)

To be honest I am not noticing anything different on my PC  

I am still seeing the dark Blue link text on peoples names and un read post titles.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 30, 2019)

Jodee said:


> To be honest I am not noticing anything different on my PC
> 
> I am still seeing the dark Blue link text on peoples names and un read post titles.



Josh is only asking about the images of the suggested new style at the top of this thread. Nothing about the look of the actual forum has changed yet


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## Jodee (Nov 30, 2019)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> Josh is only asking about the images of the suggested new style at the top of this thread. Nothing about the look of the actual forum has changed yet


I'm not sure the washed out look is an improvement on what we already have.


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## Eddy Edson (Nov 30, 2019)

I would prune more. The less unnecessary stuff on the page, the better.

- Who has any interest in the "statistics" sections? To me they're just clutter.
- Why is it interesting to show number of threads/posts in a sub-forum?
- As everybody says, ditch the profile posts.

Generally, accessability should trump branding/retention/stickiness features.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Nov 30, 2019)

Ljc said:


> I didn’t realise that about the animated smilies , I sometimes use them on here,  I will stop.


Thank you, Lin x
I'm fine with one or two in a post, especially if they're not moving too much - it's several moving a lot (especially if they're all doing something different) which are a big problem for me.  Jodee's "more smileys" post is fine for me now - when she originally posted it it had several different smileys all moving quite a lot.


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## Wirrallass (Dec 1, 2019)

Ljc said:


> Perhaps re name conversations/start a conversation to private message , when I first come here it took me awhile to realise that’s what PM’s were called here .


Me too Ljc
WL


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## Wirrallass (Dec 1, 2019)

Northerner said:


> Don't you dare!


And another 'Dont You Dare' from me too. I'd definitely miss you if you and your feathered friend chose to depart from the forum ukjohn. You're a long standing valued & respected member.
WL


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## Ljc (Dec 1, 2019)

Pine Marten said:


> I've just discovered a strange thing...the smilies etc which don't now work on my pc (list of forums appears instead) come up fine on this laptop. Which suggests something but I'm not sure what...


A while back I installed a tracking blocker on my iPad , if I use it to to come here and other sites I lose smilies and one or two other things, could it be something like that with you.


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## silentsquirrel (Dec 1, 2019)

Jodee said:


> More smilies


I am OK with these tiny animated ones - not sure if the problem with the  tennis ball that was your signature was because of the size, or the amount that the ball travelled.  But lovely to be able to linger to read your posts properly now  Before I would have to position the text very carefully to read, but on a bad day would end up scrolling past at top speed.


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## Northerner (Dec 1, 2019)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> Interestingly @Northerner, the dark blue link colour seems quite different to the black text colour on my devices.


Don't know if this screen shot helps illustrate the lack of contrast of the link text as I see it, a very light blue, where it says 'very indistinct':


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## everydayupsanddowns (Dec 1, 2019)

Interesting @Northerner. That’s a little less clear I think, but I wonder whether screen settings / contrast / gamut might be playing a role? I know I’ve had that with colour/tone balance on client websites during the design phase - clients have said a colour is too pale/too dark and I’ve only understood why when viewing on their specific laptop which was rendering the colours very differently to all the ones I had access to.

I get the links as the dark ‘Diabetes UK’ logo blue colour, which is noticeably different to the black text colour (though I confess it doesn’t hugely ‘pop out’ because the line weights of the text are quite thin and tonally both colours are only a few % apart).


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## Robin (Dec 1, 2019)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> Interesting @Northerner. That’s a little less clear I think, but I wonder whether screen settings / contrast / gamut might be playing a role? I know I’ve had that with colour/tone balance on client websites during the design phase - clients have said a colour is too pale/too dark and I’ve only understood why when viewing on their specific laptop which was rendering the colours very differently to all the ones I had access to.
> 
> I get the links as the dark ‘Diabetes UK’ logo blue colour, which is noticeably different to the black text colour (though I confess it doesn’t hugely ‘pop out’ because the line weights of the text are quite thin and tonally both colours are only a few % apart).


It doesn’t really stand out on my ipad either, I've often read a post and thought, 'well you might have linked to the thing you’re talking about' and then gone back and examined the text carefully and found there was one.


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## Jodee (Dec 1, 2019)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> Interesting @Northerner. That’s a little less clear I think, but I wonder whether screen settings / contrast / gamut might be playing a role? I know I’ve had that with colour/tone balance on client websites during the design phase - clients have said a colour is too pale/too dark and I’ve only understood why when viewing on their specific laptop which was rendering the colours very differently to all the ones I had access to.
> 
> I get the links as the dark ‘Diabetes UK’ logo blue colour, which is noticeably different to the black text colour (though I confess it doesn’t hugely ‘pop out’ because the line weights of the text are quite thin and tonally both colours are only a few % apart).



I would say same and I'm pretty sure things will definitely appear differently on different devices,  its why I mainly use the PC on line as pages are pretty consistent and you can read pretty much everything without having to scroll back and forth, left to right, up and down so much.


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## Jodee (Dec 1, 2019)

silentsquirrel said:


> I am OK with these tiny animated ones - not sure if the problem with the  tennis ball that was your signature was because of the size, or the amount that the ball travelled.  But lovely to be able to linger to read your posts properly now  Before I would have to position the text very carefully to read, but on a bad day would end up scrolling past at top speed.



Perfect


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## mikeyB (Dec 5, 2019)

There has been some discussion on colours and pictures, but the Elephant in the room is the standard font. A sans serif font is more difficult to read below about 10 point, which can happen on smaller devices. Jodees' post above demonstrates this beautifully - the red type in the signature is easy to read, the black text in the personal info above that is sans serif Arial but the same point size, and more of a struggle.

It's subtle, but British Rail realised this effect when they standardised all their signage to a new sans serif design. It just didn't work for smaller text in their leaflets.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Dec 5, 2019)

Interesting.  Does this site have mostly sans fonts?  I have my computer set to override fonts wherever possible and turn them all into sans because I struggle to read serif fonts!  But then I also have my computer set to override sizing and make everything bigger.  The black and red bits of Jodee's sig are both too small for me to read comfortably - the red is no better or worse than the black at that size, but I'd need to do control + to read either of them if they were any longer ... and having tried control + the black bit is much easier for me to read than the red bit.

Sorry Jodee, not picking on you, just as Mike said your sig happened to be immediately above his post!


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## Pine Marten (Dec 7, 2019)

Ljc said:


> A while back I installed a tracking blocker on my iPad , if I use it to to come here and other sites I lose smilies and one or two other things, could it be something like that with you.


Hmm, I really have no idea. I haven't installed anything (as far as I know!) and when it happened, other people mentioned it too, so I assumed it was this site rather than me...??


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## MeeTooTeeTwo (Dec 12, 2019)

Docb said:


> I sometimes wish that colour computing was impossible leaving everything in black and white!


@Docb If you use the Chrome browser on PC or laptop there is an extension here that will do that for you
Greyscale the web
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grayscale-the-web-save-si/mblmpdpfppogibmoobibfannckeeleag


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## MeeTooTeeTwo (Dec 12, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Interesting.  Does this site have mostly sans fonts?  I have my computer set to override fonts wherever possible and turn them all into sans because I struggle to read serif fonts!  But then I also have my computer set to override sizing and make everything bigger.  The black and red bits of Jodee's sig are both too small for me to read comfortably - the red is no better or worse than the black at that size, but I'd need to do control + to read either of them if they were any longer ... and having tried control + the black bit is much easier for me to read than the red bit.
> 
> Sorry Jodee, not picking on you, just as Mike said your sig happened to be immediately above his post!


@TheClockworkDodo If you are using windows 10 have you tried messing around with Ease of Access in the settings?
There are colour filters, high contrast settings and a screen narrator.

Dez


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## Docb (Dec 12, 2019)

MeeTooTeeTwo said:


> @Docb If you use the Chrome browser on PC or laptop there is an extension here that will do that for you
> Greyscale the web
> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grayscale-the-web-save-si/mblmpdpfppogibmoobibfannckeeleag



Don't use chrome browser but in any case it has got to be bad form for somebody to produce a web site and then expect users to start fiddling to make it usable.  Easy way to turn people who are not geeks off.


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## Ditto (Dec 12, 2019)

Has there been some changes? I can't tell. I'm not very observant.  Looks fine to me.


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## MeeTooTeeTwo (Dec 12, 2019)

I take your point @Docb 
It can't be that difficult to incorporate different "themes", "colour schemes" for individual users.
Having said that, this forum and the new one havn't been designed from scratch, they are based on a template by this company.

Forum software by XenForo™ © 2010-2018 XenForo Ltd
If you follow that link you'll see how very similar their support forum is to ours. 

Dez


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## MeeTooTeeTwo (Dec 12, 2019)

Ditto said:


> Has there been some changes? I can't tell. I'm not very observant.  Looks fine to me.


Nothing here has changed.
There is an updated version that is in testing phase at the moment. 
Josh was just posting some pictures of what it might (or might not) look like. 

Dez


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## TheClockworkDodo (Dec 12, 2019)

MeeTooTeeTwo said:


> @TheClockworkDodo If you are using windows 10 have you tried messing around with Ease of Access in the settings?
> There are colour filters, high contrast settings and a screen narrator.
> 
> Dez


Thanks Dez, but I'm using Chromium on a Linux machine.  I have lots of preferences set so that things are easier for me to access, but none of the things you mention would actually be any help for my particular needs - I just need ordinary text that's not too small or too twiddly, and nothing flashing or moving about too much.


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## MeeTooTeeTwo (Dec 12, 2019)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Thanks Dez, but I'm using Chromium on a Linux machine.  I have lots of preferences set so that things are easier for me to access, but none of the things you mention would actually be any help for my particular needs - I just need ordinary text that's not too small or too twiddly, and nothing flashing or moving about too much.


Ah Juliet, I'm an old dyed-in-the-wool MS-DOS and Windows man. 
Dunno too much about Linux, I never really got on with it.

Dez


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## TheClockworkDodo (Dec 12, 2019)

Doesn't need to be _that_ big! 

R's an internet security specialist, he wouldn't have windows in the house.  At least ... oh, you know what I mean


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## Neens (Jan 28, 2020)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Doesn't need to be _that_ big!
> 
> R's an internet security specialist, he wouldn't have windows in the house.  At least ... oh, you know what I mean


Can you increase the size of font on screen? After retinopathy I use Ctrl and + key and read everything at 200%.... the more sensible option would not have been using the laptop until I could see properly.


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## Josh DUK (Jan 28, 2020)

Neens said:


> Can you increase the size of font on screen? After retinopathy I use Ctrl and + key and read everything at 200%.... the more sensible option would not have been using the laptop until I could see properly.



We have just increased it on the test version today. If people are still having issues with reading text, I will increase it again.


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