I posted this before in another thread but it got quickly buried by other posts and since it really means a lot to me (and perhaps to other members as well)* I would like to repost it in a new thread with the hopeful thinking that IB will take it to heart.
Can we stop talking about CSS for a second?
When I hear people responding critical to criticism regarding the current alpha/beta style* most I hear is* "why bother* this is CSS and it is easy to change to your liking." Yes* that is probably true in regard to styling and coloring. But creating a successful board theme is a lot more than just finding the right colors and font sizes.
Creating a successful theme is about interaction design. More specifically* about rich interaction design It is a distillation of best practices* patterns* and principles for creating a rich experience unique to the Web. Respecting the user's level of effort is key to producing an effortless interaction. Understanding the user's intent and providing just the right amount of interface (contextual tools) within the current context is critical to providing a lightweight experience. This is a lot more than just styling. It is reconsidering what forum tools we want to offer* and how we want to offer it* at what time and in what place.
Example: The Edit Options page. It's bloated with unnecessary options among a few necessary (or more commonly edited if you will) ones. Do I really need "Allow vCard Download" to be at number 3 of the list? Has anyone ever bothered to change that setting? Why not add the more commonly edited first and add an "advanced" link near the bottom that would* if clicked on* unroll (ajax) further options to be edited?
Another example: The asset manager. It's so sadly confusing that it even turns me off* an old school forum user. Rather than improving the user experience* it makes matters much more difficult than it was before. For a fair analysis* please see this thread.
Fixing or improving user interaction can be done throughout the forum software. Make it (look) less bloated* focus on the typical user's interaction* while keeping the extra features alive by using intelligent web technologies like ajax. THIS is the job only a professional designer can do* a designer who knows her stuff. Everything else* like adding gradients or shadows here and there* is just the icing on the cake.
I hope I could make my point more clear* and I am confident that a lot of other users here share my sentiment.
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10-25-2009, 12:10 PM
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