Here we are, back again! Today brings another big UI update.
First, I want to thank everyone for their feedback following the last update. Your comments and suggestions inspired us to rethink the site, which culminated in this new design.
I'd be happy to get into the details behind some of the changes in the comments. However, my overall goal was to better align the site's interface with its functionality. Hopefully, you will find the result to be an improvement.
As always, feedback is much appreciated!
EDIT: It looks like there's some issue with the control panel positioning on some iPhone and iPad Safari browsers. Seems like it happens on the newer versions. I'll fix it.
-where are the navigational anchors? new visitors to the site will easily feel lost. -must have a header -my first instinct was to scroll up
I agree that the removal of the top border is a bit disorienting. It was in part purposeful, as I decided to really ramp up the prominence of the feed. khaaan actually sent me a beautiful mockup last night that shuffles these elements just a tad, and restores a top bar. I want to use it as is for some time, but if a topbar comes back, I'll be probably lean heavy on khaaan's suggestion because it looks so damn good. However, I do kind of like the in-your-face nature of the current borderless feed. It's almost defiant.
No, this version will be hanging around for a while. I'll probably make some minor tweaks here and there, but I don't expect any major changes like the last two to happen for quite some time. sounds_sound is right. The big update a couple of weeks ago helped provide some fresh perspective on the site. Part of me hesitated changing again so soon, but I didn't want to settle into a design when I was pretty convinced that there was something better. Actually, IMO it might be a good idea in the future to plan redesigns in two phases from the start. The first phase shakes things up and experiments, and then the second phase takes what you've learned from the first phase. I'm glad that you see it as an improvement, btw.
You've been working your ass off. Time to hang up your hat, put your feet up and just Hubski for a bit. Thanks for all the work, I'm loving this place.
Great on iPad and phone. One problem with iPhone though. When you doubly to to bring the single column up to size, the control panel hovers over and blocks the pages instead of staying out to the left. Same if you zoom in on the column. ThAs pretty broken right now, but once it's fixed this will be great.
Having the panel slide under the feed might work, because when you zoom out or slide left it should pop out. I'll give it a go once I get to my pc. On an iPad atm. Btw, glad you dig the update.
edit: It looks good on the desktop as well. One suggestion, though-- it would be nice if you could visually mark the top of the page. My first instinct after switching back to the tab was to scroll up.
- My first instinct after switching back to the tab was to scroll up.
That said, I can confidently say that mk will not be changing the layout, aside from minor tweaks, for a while. Glad you like the current layout, I do too.
I'm a brand new user of the website, and I thought I'd share some of my experience with this website as a new user. First thing I noticed is that when I open some stuff in a new tab, it looks pretty weird and unformatted. I tend to open most links in a new tab automatically, so it was weird to see that pages like this, or this showed up as completely unformatted, which initially confused me for a bit until I realized I had to only left-click on them without opening them in a new tab for them to work properly. Another thing is that purely from a user perspective, having the 'follow' and 'ignore' buttons so close to eachother on someone's profile could be problematic, and I could see how I (or anyone else) could accidentally click on the ignore button by accident when meaning to click the follow button. I also noticed that when I wanted to 'preview' the posts on my home page, that I could only click on one at a time, and would then have to exit this popup in order to click the next preview button, or do anything else. It would be nice to be able to quickly preview post after post without having to exit out of the popup and only then click on the next preview button. Maybe this could be done by having the preview show up on the right side of the page where there's empty space? Or maybe move the popup a bit to the left so that I'm just able to doubleclick on the next preview icon, and by doubleclicking I both close the current popup and open the next one. These are just my experiences with the site as a brand new user, hopefully they are somewhat helpful. EDIT: In editing my post, I noticed that when I click the 'update' button, it doesn't take me back to any page, and leaves me on that same page. I'm not sure if that's an error on my part somehow, but it seems to me that pressing back on my browser is the only way to go back to the page I was initially on. Maybe there could be a button that allows the user to go back to the previous page? I just realized I have a lot of criticisms, but please realize these are only minor.
I appreciate the feedback. There is always room for improvement, and it definitely helps to get a new and fresh perspective on the site. Right away, I think it's a good idea that the link to return to the post after editing is obvious, and I agree, the 'ignore' and 'follow' buttons could be moved apart.
general behaviour pattern:
Visitors start at the top left of the page.
Then they scan the top of the site (navigation, subscription, search, etc.)
Next they move down, reading the next full row of content… all the way to the sidebar.
Last, surfers enter a “scanning pattern” once they hit the bulk of the site content. I'am not having a go this is just my understanding of web design i strongly believe that a top navigation bar containing the logo user info and submit and then navigation menu down the right hand side would be a smother experience. full article - http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/underst... I make these comment with respect and high regard for the integrity of yourself and others working on Hubski.