Is it possible to have a major interface overhaul?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Asher
You also have several spots for news updates. Why? Get rid of the 3 entries right of the above links: "03.May: CIV4 WARLORDS AVATARS
02.May: `APOLYCON `06` AUDIO FEATURE PART 1/3 PROMO
01.May: FORUM LAYOUT CHANGES".

They just look stupid there. You already have the drop-down for that.

since you dont visit the other forums much you probably havent noticed that these news items are forum-related. in the civ4 forum you get the latest civ4 headlines, in the apolyton the about ones, etc

on a more general note, if you think the current setup is too cluttered, you could try the light styles

[Locutus]

Can't say I disagree, the design has become more bloated over time and with it increasingly annoying and overwhelming for newbies. There are some 60 links at the top of each page (more if there are a lot of civgroups) and more than 70 at the bottom! In UI design 7 plus or minus 2 is considered somewhat of a magic number: this is on average the number of items people can memorize. Of course there are all kinds of caveats and provisions but it's a good number to work with. Even if you count the top and bottom of pages and the forum itself as seperate entities, we're a whopping 50 items over the magic number at best!

And changing styles doesn't affect anything, that only affects the forum itself, not the part from 'Today on Apolyton' to the chat box and the part from 'Show a printable version' to 'moo3.net'.

IMO the part between "main | civ2 | civ3 | ..." and the chat room box should be condensed into 8-12 items max. Removing the chat box itself is a big help already (everywhere but at the main forum page), the 'main | ... | about' list can be removed entirely (you can get there by clicking the Apolyton logo and then whatever section you need). I guess the convention stuff is temporary so it could be tolerated for a while, but the 'control panel | ... | PLUS' section should be condensed into 6 items max. Add tabs, submenus, whatever you want, but get rid of some of that bloat!

At the bottom I think it's safe to remove the poll links at least, those have been around for, what, 3 years now? I think every registered member that's interested in filling it out has already done so, and the rest never reads it as it's too inconspicuous between all the other crap there. The 'Forum rules' section is not really needed either, maybe leave it only on the reply screen. All those links at the bottom ('Front Page | ... | moo3.net') can go as well. If you do that you might even risk that some people will actually read the few links that remain, i.e. the Support Apolyton stuff

[Solver]

Getting rid of the chatbox everywhere except the main page would probably be the single best change. It occupies way too much vertical space.

Locutus's spot on about the top part... particularly, why is the link to retrieve a lost password there when you're logged in? Control panel, PM box, search and my threads, those are four critical, probably often-used links. The rest don't need to be immediately visible.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Locutus
Can't say I disagree, the design has become more bloated over time and with it increasingly annoying and overwhelming for newbies. There are some 60 links at the top of each page (more if there are a lot of civgroups) and more than 70 at the bottom! In UI design 7 plus or minus 2 is considered somewhat of a magic number: this is on average the number of items people can memorize.

we're not asking people to memorize 60 links. for example, the "main... about" line is a single entity with the main sections, not 11 links....

[Solver]

Yes it is eleven links. It's not about memorizing, it's about concentration. When presented with such a large array of links, then most people will just ignore them, because they seem too cluttery, too many. A "Site sections" link that opens a menu with the sections is good. Just having none, clicking on the logo and then selecting a section is good.

[Locutus]

What Solver said, I don't see 60 links, I don't see x different sections, I see a big blue/white/gray blur. I happen to know there's a control panel and search there because I got used to them over the years and use them all the time, but only now that I actually take the time to consciously study the links do I see that there's a faster way to get to ACSR from the forums than the one I always follow (main forum > main page > ACSR), that there are store, PLUS, chat, upload file links there (and a few others than I never noticed before but I won't bore you). I get/see questions from newbies (and sometimes not-so-newbies) all the time asking for stuff that's in those top links somewhere, they just can't find it. This is all because there's so much crap there that invidual links become invisible. I'm sure you've heard of the expression "can't see the forest for the trees"?

I didn't notice the convention advertisements until basically today either, which is kind of stupid because you seem to be trying very hard to promote the Con and bring it to everyone's attention. I happened to already know about it but who knows how many people don't and still don't see those links? You could put a link there "click this now or your account will be terminated" and I doubt more than a handful of people would click on it, because it's would simply be invisible between all the other links.

You're currently use 3 or 4 different ways to emphasize links you feel are important, so on a level you are apparently aware of this problem yourself. I stopped seeing underlined, blue-on-gray, yellow-on-red and white-on-red links ages ago. The blue-on-white that was very briefly used for Today on Apolyton grabbed my attention before it was replaced but I doubt it would've kept it for more than a few days, if that long. IMO it's time for a permanent solution rather than these ineffective temporary hotfixes: get rid of some of that bloat...

[Kuciwalker]

At the bottom I think it's safe to remove the poll links at least, those have been around for, what, 3 years now? I think every registered member that's interested in filling it out has already done so, and the rest never reads it as it's too inconspicuous between all the other crap there.

Wait, that survey isn't an ad?

See what they mean?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Wait, that survey isn't an ad?

no, it's not an ad. it's there to collect demographic data which help determine which ads we get to show

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Locutus
I happened to already know about it but who knows how many people don't and still don't see those links?

actually visits to the convention site have increased by 400% since this was added

IMO it's time for a permanent solution rather than these ineffective temporary hotfixes: get rid of some of that bloat...

well at the moment there are other things in the top of my list....

[Frozzy]

on a more general note, if you think the current setup is too cluttered, you could try the light styles

That makes it more cluttered

[Last Conformist]

I'm with Skanky. I get 50% of the redheads.

[Skanky Burns]

You get 35%, max.

[Illuminatus]

Could we have a logout button somewhere on the top or the bottom of the page? Currently it exists only at main or forum overview pages.

[Agathon]

It's fine

Learn2play.

[joncha]

So... was the official solution to the too-much-crap-at-the-top-of-the-page problem to move some of it to the bottom?