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New Style

As an Aspie, programmer, and user here, I'm actually quite satisfied with the new design. I think the highly responsive nature, allowing for easy mobile viewing, is unbelievable. I honestly haven't been on many forum sites that do their absolute best to display well on so many different aspect ratios. I also find the new design far more fluid and organized than the previous site. Additionally, I find the load times to be much faster than previously. So, thanks for the upgrade Brent!

However, I would also like to say that the contrast is painful, but bearable. It would be nice to see some colour skins for this site.
I've yet to explore the preferences to see if their are any updated color schemes, but, I find this to be very bearable issue considering the good things about the change I mentioned earlier.

If you haven't yet or aren't able to add the color scheme option to eliminate the contrast problem, would you mind if I built a chrome extension that would allow users to do that locally? I'm quite happy to hash and bash some javascript to do my part for the forums here, that is if your cool with it :) People customizing their own skins could simplify things, anyways, it was just an idea.

Edit: After spending a little bit more time around here since the update, I thought I would just say that there are so many added features to improve navigation (such as the footer and the "^top" button that follows you around) that I am really enjoying the site. Its good to see the forums being developed like this. Oh, and the load times are definitely faster; not too sure how the new look makes it faster though (Maybe because of its mobile-first design?).
 
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Contrast is my highest priority right now.

I have an idea on how I can let you guys change the color scheme to whatever you want and will be implementing that after we get the contrast squared away.

Thanks for the offer though. I may ping you about somethings that I have been wanting to do with our forum software to see if you are interested. It'd be almost purely javascript.
 
Brent said:
Contrast is my highest priority right now.

I have an idea on how I can let you guys change the color scheme to whatever you want and will be implementing that after we get the contrast squared away.

Thanks for the offer though. I may ping you about somethings that I have been wanting to do with our forum software to see if you are interested. It'd be almost purely javascript.
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I'd be happy to help, so feel free :)
 
Sass said:
That sounds grand :)
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Went ahead and made a few quick variations on the same idea of some kind of circular spectrum to symbolize aspergers and community.

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aspie 5.png
 

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Sass said:
Those are great! I think the first are third ones are my favourites. Good work you :)
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I must say I like these! The jigsaw piece is a bit outdated in my opinion. It was originally done because autism was a mystery at the time, but now we know its a spectrum disorder then I like the spectrum of colours on these logos :)

As for the puzzle piece - I suppose the world makes perfect sense to us and its a puzzle why NT's think they have the monopoly on "normal"! ;)
 
While I've grown used to the old design ever since I signed up here (I've always had the purple theme around) I don't mind this change that much. Everything is still on the same place (at least for most part)... unlike that other theme/style that was around for a bit (UI.X? or whatever it was called)

I guess I missed out on the puzzle piece debate. I'll just leave it at; it's associated with Autism speaks and that group doesn't get a lot of sympathy from me. But, given it's not around, I guess we're good :)

I don't think I have much to add here in this thread. Considering Brent does take in consideration comments, criticism and ideas that people tell him, it's more than most admins will do anyway. That by itself is already great. Props to Brent
 
King_Oni said:
I guess I missed out on the puzzle piece debate. I'll just leave it at; it's associated with Autism speaks and that group doesn't get a lot of sympathy from me. But, given it's not around, I guess we're good :)
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I suspect that pretty much everyone is on the same page when it comes to Autism Speaks. Moot point anyway given it's a trademarked logo. Kudos to members coming up with some attractive alternates though. :)
 
When you think of a spectrum you likely think of the beautiful distribution of colors produced when light hits a prism…like the colors of a rainbow. I think those who live on the spectrum are like that. The beauty and intensity of the colors is there in varying displays waiting to be seen and understood…embraced and celebrated...move forward on the project because change is a good thing...
prismsp2 copy.jpg
 
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It looks great! Is there any way to get it so that links are underlined again? That's the one thing that makes it really hard on my iPad/iPhone.
 
I just get nervous in the inevitable transition of newer forum templates having a distinct purpose to adopt more readily to mobile sources. It seems to be at the expense of desktop users and particularly those of us with vision issues. An industry-wide dynamic I've been cringing at for some time. There's really no "sweet-spot" between the two formats, IMO. But it's also no secret that desktop users no longer have any real priority in the marketplace either. It concerns me greatly.

Sort of reminds me when we used to produce multiple versions of the same website based on potential resolution. Which was pretty labor-intensive...and something not often done any more given the economic considerations of labor and disk space.
 
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I don't know if its already been mentioned, and I will note that I haven't been on the mobile site yet since the update, but at least on my computer using Chrome the one big thing that bothers me about the update is the colors. It shows up as different shades of white and grey, tab buttons included, unless I hover over a tab then it turns blue. I don't know how to put it other than it just doesn't look good to me, there isn't enough color variation. That's my one issue. I notice the font looks a little different but perhaps that's just the new design its against making it look different? I'm fine with the font though, it looks fine to me. I just wanted to put in my two cents while I noticed it
 
I pump my laptop into a 32 inch TV 4 feet away...I have a Galaxy S5 and see no reason to use it for the forum as my database is not on my phone,but computer based, so mobile sites are not the norm for me...I got the AS app and hated the way it worked on a phone as it was a bit small and hard to navigate...the regular site using my phone browser worked better,but my old eyes struggle with small screens
 
The bad news are developers who design applications based on their own sense of visual acuity rather than others. The good news is we have local administrators like Brent who are willing to work with us over such issues. It's just too bad that the developers don't make such considerations at the outset.

The really bad news is business as usual. That the money is concentrated in handheld devices rather than desktop ones. That isn't likely to change. Younger people who buy more handheld devices are more likely to have better vision...so marketing considerations/demographics aren't so critical. One of the local news websites I've normally viewed for years has recently gone to a layout clearly catering to handheld devices. They lost me in an instant.

In other words, I under$tand it. However that doesn't mean I like it, either. Old fart rant concluded. Carry on.
 
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wyverary said:
It looks great! Is there any way to get it so that links are underlined again? That's the one thing that makes it really hard on my iPad/iPhone.
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Heh... because of no underlining I actually didn't even consider some posts to be links but just random blurts in threads. D'oh!

Judge said:
I just get nervous in the inevitable transition of newer forum templates having a distinct purpose to adopt more readily to mobile sources. It seems to be at the expense of desktop users and particularly those of us with vision issues. An industry-wide dynamic I've been cringing at for some time. There's really no "sweet-spot" between the two formats, IMO. But it's also no secret that desktop users no longer have any real priority in the marketplace either. It concerns me greatly.
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Considering smartphones get bigger all the time... in about 2 years we'll be hauling around 22" phones the size of desktop screens.
 
King_Oni said:
Heh... because of no underlining I actually didn't even consider some posts to be links but just random blurts in threads. D'oh!
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Sad truth: Intuitive web design doesn't come naturally to all designers. You should see how they argue over such things amongst themselves!

Makes me wonder sometimes if Jakob Nielsen committed suicide over the present state of the web. :(

Speaking of which:

The floating "top" button om the right margin drives me nuts. Every time I see it bounce up it distracts me. The kind of function I was instructed not to implement for that very reason. You want to keep the viewer's focus on the content...not the features. I always used static buttons for such purposes....no animation, no blinking...etc.

-Gone. Thanks Brent. ;)
 
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A suggestion that may make it easier to read is to make the latest thread in bold. I am just thinking it might be something easy for to to do. or the same size as the section title but not in bold.

that is the difference I see text wise between the old and new format. I feel a lot of it is to be able to read to easily, for all ages.
 
Brent said:
The post area has been completely redesigned, as you can see in here. Thoughts?
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the quote button still pulls up everywhere I posted in the forum...reply pulls up a single quote...I think the quotation box should do the quotation and reply should just reply to the post with no quote...makes it kinda tough for us posoholics
 
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