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Codidact Meta is the meta-discussion site for the Codidact community network and the Codidact software. Whether you have bug reports or feature requests, support questions or rule discussions that touch the whole network – this is the site for you.

Comments on Taking our design to the next level: feedback wanted

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Taking our design to the next level: feedback wanted

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Our team has been exploring some ideas to improve Codidact's design. We've wanted to improve the visual design for a while, and we also have a lot of other usability changes we'd like to make. We want visual design and function to complement each other, creating a more intuitive and pleasant experience for our community members and visitors. Everything's interconnected, which has made it hard to just do that one thing now, so our design team has been working on a mockup that shows several ideas together. We'd like your feedback.

We're starting with the "post list", the list of (usually) questions on the main page of a community or any of its categories. By moving a few things around and changing the visual emphasis of certain elements, we think this new design is easier to scan and easier to interact with, whether you're looking at a list of questions or a list of recipes or a community's blog. Please check out a live mockup. Note that the design is live but data is static, not all buttons do something (but they hint at what you'd see), and you can't really go to other pages.

screenshot

Color is used more sparingly in this design, with the eye drawn to unanswered questions and the "ask" button (which is now in line with the list of questions rather than all the way to the right). The design supports header banners beyond just the logo, which we think will allow communities to express more of their identity. That orange stripe is a placeholder, to be replaced with whatever each community wants to use to convey itself visually.

The structure of categories -- a row showing the categories, description and category-specific controls below those tabs, post list below that -- is preserved with some tweaks. As you can see, we've moved the voting information to the right and decreased the size of the numbers. Both the numbers (raw data) and the score scale are shown, supporting different modes of taking in information. For some people, the "temperature" bar is the best way to convey information. For those who want a closer look, the raw numbers are still there. We'll keep the tooltips we have now (or improve them); we're not taking away guidance.

Tags are styled differently in an effort to be present and visible without necessarily being in your face. We've given titles a little more breathing room, but we think this still allows for a reasonable number of questions to be shown together.

The "expand" control is new; it allows you to see a quick summary of the page (in a pop-out modal) from right there on the post list. It'll show you the opening lines of the question and a summary of answers, sort of like the table of contents that's available on question pages. (That TOC part isn't there in the mockup now.) For posts that aren't questions, like blog posts, it'll still show the opening lines.

Sorts, filters, and search move into the right column to be "closer" to the things being sorted/filtered/searched. Eventually we envision real user-defined filters, so you can define something that shows you only questions in these tags with fewer than N answers, or posts in all categories meeting some other criteria, or only unanswered questions, or other things yet to be thought of. We haven't designed this filtering system yet (and we'll be asking for your input on what you'd like to have before we do so), but this is where it would plug in and what it could look like. Filters are kind of like named searches, so it made sense to us for search and filters to be together on the page. We think the current sorts (Activity, Votes, etc) probably fit in here too, though we grant that filters (restrict what you show) and sorts (show the same things in different orders) are not quite the same thing.

This design doesn't show the rest of the right column, which we'd like to review separately. For communities that have an important notice (particularly relevant for certain professions), this notice will remain prominent at the top of the column. Other stuff, like featured posts, ads, selected questions, the chat and advertising links, and so on -- that stuff's all subject to more review later, and ultimately we think communities should decide what shows up there. We're also hoping to use that space sometimes for contextual information -- for example, formatting help when you're creating or editing a post.

The design is responsive; try changing your window size to see how it looks for different form factors.

We've been tossing around low-end sketches (Paintbrush is my friend...) with circles and arrows and comments like "clicking here does X". We'd like to thank Matt Brent for turning those vague ideas and his own design experience into a real design that we can now bring to the community for feedback before writing code.

Why are we spending effort on a new design when we have a design that works fine now? Partly to visually distinguish ourselves even more, partly to have a solid foundation for all the things we want to add that were never thought of when the original QPixel code was being written, and partly to empower our communities to customize their presentation along with their content. We think this design helps to highlight the things that are different (we think better) about Codidact. We want communities to be able to build their dreams and we want visitors to see what is possible, what makes it worth looking around.

Please check out the mockup and use answers here to tell us what you like and where you see issues or have suggestions. We want your feedback and constructive criticism so we can all work together to build an even better Codidact.

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+17
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Keep the bidirectional score bar I personally prefer the current bidirectional score bar over the proposed one. It al …

3y ago

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Keep special styling for top level and moderator tags (Top level being the blue discussion, feature-request, bug, and …

3y ago

+12
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Don't call it "expand", call it "preview" Minor detail, but since the purpose of that feature seems to be to preview …

3y ago

+10
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Keep the "expand"/"preview" action link in place Another small detail, but something that has a tendency to annoy me. …

3y ago

+12
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Hover state changes shouldn't cause elements to change size As an example, try using a mouse on desktop to hover over …

3y ago

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Loving the discussion. As the main person responsible for the design I wanted to share my thinking to help inform some f …

3y ago

+7
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Emphasize the site name over the network Currently, in the top left corner, where it says `meta.codidact.com`, while …

3y ago

+10
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Don't touch my avatar! This was already brought up in a comment, but I want to put it in something that can be voted …

3y ago

+6
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Add exclude options for the tag filter Perhaps add a section below the tag include filter so we can quickly and easil …

3y ago

+5
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> Color is used more sparingly in this design, with the eye drawn to unanswered questions and the "ask" button (which is …

3y ago

+5
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Make another pass over the color choices Just some general observations here... Blue background is used to highlig …

3y ago

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I was checking UI/UX in android. I had marked what isn't looking well right now. >ui >Look at following picture. In …

3y ago

+2
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I really don't like the change to tags. "...without necessarily being in your face" They need to be in one's face! …

3y ago

+2
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Save space for the questions The focus of the site are the questions and answers. Taking over vertical space with hea …

3y ago

+4
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Merge the two top bars. Like in Reddit. Reddit header Saves space while still allowing plenty of community customi …

3y ago

+5
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I definitely do not appreciate the bigger fonts. This makes much less content displayed at the same time, which is bad e …

3y ago

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In my honest opinion, the new look is actually really good. The color palette also seems to do well on the new GUIs you …

3y ago

+1
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More phone feedback -- smaller layout issues. For a screenshot see this answer ('cause wow is that huge and I don't wan …

3y ago

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I looked at the mockup on my phone. At default zoom this is what I see (in Chrome, in case it matters): Screenshot …

3y ago

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Another observation: In the new design, the search bar is on the side, which automatically makes it shorter. Which IM …

3y ago

1 comment thread

General comments (9 comments)
Post
+4
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Merge the two top bars. Like in Reddit.

Reddit header

Saves space while still allowing plenty of community customization.

This is a crude example of what I mean. Position of elements could possibly differ and of course the text I copy pasted is not meant to have a different background.

Example of proposed Codidact header

Regarding Monica's comment. This is how Reddit looks on a phone in portrait mode: Reddit header

Indeed there is not enough space to fit what we can see in a desktop computer. And it is the same in landscape mode despite there being enough space for more. They probably did not think it was worth the effort.

I have to agree with Monica. A design which works everywhere is more important.

But are you using the same design everywhere? This is the mockup I get in an Android Samsung XCover 4S model SM-G398FN (1280 x 720) using Chrome: Codidact in a phone

Codidact in a phone with menu expanded

The top blue bar is nowhere to be seen and its functionality has been replaced by the circular button with 3 bars.

If you are using different designs for smartphones than for desktops then for smartphone I would propose this for smartphones: Alternate proposal for smartphone

The triangle pointing down would have the same popup menu as the three bars icon. A three bar icon might be better because it is more common. As seen before Reddit also uses a three bar icon. The icon is not a relevant part of my proposal. The main point is a more compact design without loosing functionality or readability.

And yet another proposal which removes reputation and recovers the hamburger menu. Here the down arrow function is only to change community: Header with hamburger menu

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1 comment thread

General comments (7 comments)
General comments
Monica Cellio‭ wrote over 3 years ago

One of the goals is a design that works on all platforms. On my phone, the layout in this answer is too wide to be legible -- if the design fits the text is too small, and if I zoom to get readable text things don't fit. I'm not seeing what you're seeing when I visit Reddit, so I can't test what they do -- what does that layout look like on your phone?

mattbrent‭ wrote over 3 years ago

I think theres some opportunity to explore an idea to merge the menus, but im not conviced its worth it to save 30 pixels of vertical space? space is free on the internet .... :)

Jirka Hanika‭ wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

@mattbrent - Screen space isn't entirely free. Smaller screen, older eyes... suddenly there's just a thin slit left for the "payload" (the actual Q+A item list). Also, leaner UI tends to be more useable if you are new to it. Of course, this isn't to say that the cost of making the UI more compact would be negligible, either.

Jirka Hanika‭ wrote over 3 years ago

More voting on this item either way would probably help.

Estela‭ wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

@Monica Cellio that is a worthy goal. On my phone it is also too wide to be legible. But the one in the opening question is also too wide to be legible. In the mockup in a phone it is legible, but there even more vertical space is used than in desktop. I've updated my proposal.

Monica Cellio‭ wrote over 3 years ago

I like where your proposal is going. Personally, I'd drop rep and put the hamburger menu back -- people using phones expect a hamburger menu and know what it means. By dropping the rep out we can make room and still even show some banner.

Estela‭ wrote over 3 years ago

@Monica Cellio I agree and have added another design without rep and with hamburger menu.