Back with more.
First, back to what I said last time: (About the drop-down menus)
Conclusion first:Quote And the actual write-up:
(click to show/hide) The dropdown menu system examplifies, at least to me, a system that did not have the user in mind much at all. I think I can understand the reasoning for it,[1] but it just won't do.
Let's look at what MyBB does:
(click to show/hide)
Now this is better but it's still not great. There's some "sensory overload" in some of these screens, where again, there is too much information being presented at the same time. Especially when you are in the user CP.
So what is the fix? I'm not quite sure. What can help tremendously is to make the first settings page you see have more of the most usually used settings, and make the other settings pages easy to reach, if you should want to do so.
In the last topic, Nao replied:Quote from Nao/Gilles on June 22nd, 2011, 07:56 PM Which I think is super. I also think it is nice to discuss usability in general, so I hope you don't mind. :)
2. Icons.
Icons, eh, a source of many debates. With that said, I do think a lot of people do appreciate them. We've all come to understand a set of wrenches or tools to mean "preferences", maybe this could be taken further with an "eye" for the "looks and layout" part of the settings, eg.
First, back to what I said last time: (About the drop-down menus)
Conclusion first:
The web is (for most of us) a visual medium. Menus that the user might be interested in should be in plain view when the user is in the "right place" (profile settings is the right place to start when you want to change your theme.)
Quote from Norodo on June 22nd, 2011, 06:43 PM 1. Drop down menus. The problem is not so much that there are drop down menus, it's more that thee content in them can be ambiguous. For example, the first time you register, and you want to change your theme, where do you go? In the beginning you'll probably be looking for something called "settings" or "control panel", maybe you'll scroll down to the bottom of the page to check if there's a dropdown menu for it, as it is on many boards. When you don't find it there you'll look further. Could your settings be under "Profile", maybe? Yes. Yes they could. So you click account settings and what do you see?
Just an example.
You're getting confused. Where can I change my theme? If you are an inquiring mind you might just hover over modify profile long enough to find look and layout.
Thank God. You're there. The same problem develops if you want to change the default setting of " Return to topics after posting by default." or "Messages to display per page:"
This problem is to a big extent fixed when you use the "sidebar menus" instead of dropdown menus whenever possible, but there might be better solutions...
Let's look at what MyBB does:
You click user CP
Edit options...
And you're there.
Now this is better but it's still not great. There's some "sensory overload" in some of these screens, where again, there is too much information being presented at the same time. Especially when you are in the user CP.
So what is the fix? I'm not quite sure. What can help tremendously is to make the first settings page you see have more of the most usually used settings, and make the other settings pages easy to reach, if you should want to do so.
In the last topic, Nao replied:
But as you see... It's something we're aware of.
2. Icons.
Icons, eh, a source of many debates. With that said, I do think a lot of people do appreciate them. We've all come to understand a set of wrenches or tools to mean "preferences", maybe this could be taken further with an "eye" for the "looks and layout" part of the settings, eg.
1. | Creating dropdown menus lets you give the user more information in a smaller space. SMF is very powerful, and as such has a lot of information you want to present the user with. Dropdown menus seems like a good idea, but isn't. |