@CCadmin_Sorin I’m glad to see someone connected to the site updates is at least reading this thread. Some specific issues that I find problematic with the updates are. I limited the list to 10 issues, which I listed at the bottom of this post.
I’ve been visiting this forum for years and have seen several updates. This update is by far the least user friendly. It’s actually the most unpleasant forum update I have ever seen on any forum I’ve ever participated on in my lifetime. Had the CC forum originally been in this state, I’m certain I never would have joined. I question how any group of persons who regularly post on this forum could have expected this update could receive well. I’m not sure what were the goals of this update, but I’d be very surprised if the benefits outweigh the negatives. I realize this may not be practical, but I think most users would prefer to temporarily return back to the old version; then later make updates after working through some user interface issues, hopefully while getting user feedback with beta testing before making sweeping changes.
While this post is largely negative, kudos to fixing the issue with displaying articles and much of the site content with Firefox and removing the smiles from the posting box.
**Awkward Forum Navigation**
The previous design had a forum index that listed many different forums and subforums. Many of the forums I visited were just a click away, without any scrolling. The new design makes finding forums far more awkward. For example, if I click on "Home", I see a link to 2 not new CCTorrey articles with unnecessary pictures. On the next page down, I see 4 more not new CCTorrey articles with unnecessary pictures. On the 3rd page down, I finally start to see some forums, but only a small portion of the number of forums in the previous forum index structure. It's awkward to need to scroll down 3 or more pages, every time. Trying to navigate to subforums can be even worse, with more scrolling. For example, I need to scroll down 6 pages from the CC Top Universities forum index to get the Stanford University forum link. Forum navigation through my phone is even worse, with the navigation in the upper left, no longer showing the forum index.
**Awkward Thread Navigation**
If I actually do take the time and effort to go through the navigation and make it to the desired forum, it is even more awkward to find desired threads. With the old design, I could see ~20 threads on the forum on a single screen. It was easy to see which threads I had previously posted in, which had new posts, which were stickies, etc. It short it was easy to navigate and identify the thread I want to open. Under the new design, I may need to scroll down 5 pages every time to get past all the wasted space and stickied threads, and it's far less obvious where the stickied threads end and new threads begin. I can view only ~1/4 of the threads on the screen as I could with the previous designs, so there will be even more scrolling. It also doesn't jump out as much which threads I have participated on.
**Recent Activity Section is Problematic**
If I actually take the time and effort to make to go through the navigation and make it to the desired thread, then there is more scrolling and unnecessary white space. However, I now face a new source of aggravation -- the Recent Activity section. The Recent Activity section below post box makes it awkward to scroll down at stop at the point of the 1 ... n thread index I'll need to navigate to the next page, without overshooting to the Recent Activity section. This is particularly problematic on phones.
**Double Spacing Makes Posting Awkward**
If I finally decide to post, the problems continue. The double spacing in text post box, makes posting more awkward. This is particularly awkward when trying to make paragraph breaks, with quadruple spacing displayed.
**Font Size is Too Big**
The font size is too large, which leaves fewer fonts to fill up the post width. This can make it awkward to make larger and more complex posts, such as ones with lists.
**Save Draft Button is Gone**
The Save Draft button is gone, so if I choose not to post, I need to wait and hope to visually catch the draft saved flash, before I move on.
**Video Ad Is Awful**
The auto video ad makes the forum almost unusable. I turned on an ad blocker to eliminate, which also removed some more benign advertisements on the forum. I now see far less ads than I used to.
**Color Scheme is Unpleasant**
The color scheme in unpleasant, with two much white. This could be partially improved by making the primary font darker.
**New Avatars are Unpleasant**
The avatars are far too big, particularly on phones; and the new default avatar looks strange. It reminds me of the temperature dial in older cars.
**Post Time and Other Key Info is Less Visible**
While some post information is much larger and more obvious, such as the avatars, mentioned above. Other key post content is far less noticeable, such as the post time. The post time used to be listed at the top of the post in a strong blue. This important information was easy to see, as it should be. Now the post time is listed at the bottom in a barely visible font. A reader will have to scroll through a lot of text to see at what time this long post occurred .
@gouf78 , I can see who agreed with you, but I’m not telling:-)
And OMG, the default profile avatar brings to mind an inappropriate visual image now. I agree that it seems as though I’m swimming below someone, and it ain’t pretty.
“Guys, we are closely following this thread. Your feedback is important to us and will be/is closely reviewed. Since the release yesterday we are working diligently with the technical team to address all functionality issues and bugs.”
Having been in software delivery for 25 years and web/UX development for 10, my professional opinion is that these are not “functionality issues and bugs”. And the “technical team” isn’t going to fix it.
This is a fundamental design failure. Fixing the appearance of 2 lines instead of 1 in the edit box is a pimple on the *** of the problem here. Unless you consider “the entire UX model is broken” a bug, you’re going to be nibbling around the edges and not make substantive impact to the user impact of changes
I think we’d all prefer an update that you understand the magnitude of the issue. And that, as I unfortunately expect, you’re not going to address it, so we should only expect incremental changes.
Not that I went into the “High School Life” or “College Life” sections often but now I can’t find them at all. I’m sure there are other forum areas that I can’t find, but I can’t think of what they are right now bc I thought they used to be listed on the left hand side and I didn’t have them memorized. There was also another way to navigate to find all of the sub forum sections listed but I can’t remember how I did it bc it was so easy to do that I didn’t have to remember how to do it, and now, it seems, I can’t do it at all if that makes any sense, lol. ?
On my laptop (windows 10, firefox, AdBlock Plus) if I right-click on a component, there is usually an item at the bottom of the context menu that says “Block element”. So right-click on the video box and see if you have something similar; if so choose it. That should hopefully block the video ad.
@CCadmin_Sorin
I agree that this is not solely a fuctionality issue or just bugs. It is absolutely a flawed design and I would be willing to bet a large amount of money that, had this been the design when we longtime members joined the forum, none of us would still be here participating and helping students years later.
Look at FB and Twitter on the desktop. The content is in the center but there are borders and the sides are grey so it is easier to read. With an all white screen my photoreceptors quickly become bleached and when I look away, I can’t see anything.
For example, they refused to fix one of the most annoying changes during the last big refresh - they put the user name in the subject of an update email. For example:
notrichenough commented on Our Fresh New Look Is Here
The problem is that this breaks threading email programs like gmail. So instead of seeing one email that has all of the emails contained in it for replies to that thread, I see a separate email for every reply.
Except that if a given user replies more than once, all of their replies get threaded, so now the emails are out of order, and the first one that shows in my inbox may not be the earliest new reply.
And the fix is so easy - just leave the username out of the subject.
Still aggravated about that, I think I’ve seen about 400 emails for this thread. :neutral:
Please, for all that is holy, reduce the font size. It’s actually hard for me to read. I’m also struggling to find specific thread categories - i.e. athletic recruits. I had to go to scroll though my posts to find one where I posted in that room, and then click there. I’m sure there’s an easier way, But I can’t figure it out.
Feeling sorry for whomever is behind this upgrade. Since yesterday, they have “corrected” the profile avatar setting, so now we can change that basketball/or “inappropriate image” into anything we want and even get a badge for it for COL.
@eb23282, how did you find how to scroll through your old posts? That was one way I was trying to find different sections I’ve visited. I’m on an iPad mini and at the top right I only see where I have my notifications, mail and bookmarks. I used to be able to hit on my little name/avatar at the top and it would take me to my page where I could navigate through my own specific activity such as where I could view all my previous posts.
I also miss in the “Latest Posts” section seeing under each thread title the section it was in. You could either choose to click on that thread or quickly go to that section it was in if you didn’t want to see that particular thread but wanted a quick route to that section.
I truly appreciate the attempt to help me. For one thing, I am on a Mac and I use Safari. So, there is no right click, etc. But it is KINDA a moot point, because as I posted also today, while I hated the HUGE font, and did get help with making it smaller, and that’s when the video appeared on the right hand side, the smaller font was difficult to read because it is grayish and thin. Too much strain. So, I reluctantly changed it back to the other “evil” choice of the huge font. With the huge font, the only positive thing is that the video doesn’t appear in my window. It is FARRRR down the page if I were to scroll. So, huge font (for me) = not seeing video. But I can see just one post at a time on my entire screen (so bad!). Small font let’s me see more on the screen, but it ads in the annoying video which is a huge distraction.
What I hate even more is the terrible navigation to find various forums I read and I am not sure how a newbie would even know they exist. Then, if I even get to the forum, I can only see a list of a few posts, and have to scroll past featured threads (many of which are quite outdated) and many pinned threads, to find any newer threads. I can’t imagine someone who is new to the forum really getting the lay of the land if those of us who are aware of the different aspects of the forum are having such difficulty.
I already use AdBlocker, but from this thread, I gather that many who did not use AdBlocker are doing so NOW. That likely is not in CC’s best interests.
If I were the head of CC, I’d be very concerned that the new format is 99% displeasing to members, many who have helped to make the forum the great forum that it has been. I don’t think they can simply chalk it up to “change is hard.” In this case, nobody seems happy with it, and for a multitude of reasons/problems. I can only hope they will be addressed. Since yesterday, I have mostly only read this thread. The rest is too hard to deal with.
PS to @notrichenough …I had tried the clicking on the element to block it, come to think of it, earlier today! But what that did was block the video for a few seconds and then all of a sudden it would reappear. Ugh.
@rjm2018 I haven’t figured out where “my posts” are either, but I did find “my bookmarks” which is how I found some old posts of mine. That section is on the right hand side, but you need to scroll down a bit. Clicking your name is now pretty useless.
