Some issues when contemplating Hypography design changes
Posted 09-18-2008 at 10:42 AM by Tormod
I am thinking about how to improve Hypography's design.
No, not the color scheme, logo or typography.
I am thinking about how it is so 100% obviously a vBulletin forum (even in the blog section). There are the boxy boxes, the straight columns and the endless horizontal bars.
Certainly there must be ways to improve it?
vBulletin has a major problem in that it is using a table-based layout. Add to that a rather comprehensive modular template engine, tweaking the design sometimes takes ages - and as soon as a new version is released, the template changes need to be reapplied.
If we also consider the third-party extensions like the quiz scrip, the link directory, the news system and the arcade, the task is too big to handle without a dedicated design team and a well documented upgrade process.
So what are the options? Well, here are some thoughts.
We could focus on reducing clutter. Take away columns. Many websites now feature only two columns. Most forums actually only have one, at least in the actual discussion pages. We have gone from three to two columns lately, and the forum listings (apart from the forum index) now is using a single-column template.
In addition, we could minimize and remove advertisements. A forum is generally difficult to monetize, particularly when it's such a non-specific niche as "science" with such a nondescript target group as "everyone". Therefore it's necessary to use advertisements to maintain a steady income. But would a nicer, cleaner-looking design perhaps *improve* ad conversion rates so we could have less ads and still make what we need?
Can we centralize the content? The actual information in the columns is overloaded. Who needs to *constantly* see the updated topics, latest news, and topics without replies? Maybe these boxes belong to the front page only? But the problem here is that very few pages actually visit our front page. They go directly to a sub page. How can we work around that?
There is also standard things to do, like tweaking the CSS and layout without touching the templates. We could add more Web 2.0-looks, rounded corners etc. But these things hardly make the forums more effective - only prettier.
Thoughts?
No, not the color scheme, logo or typography.
I am thinking about how it is so 100% obviously a vBulletin forum (even in the blog section). There are the boxy boxes, the straight columns and the endless horizontal bars.
Certainly there must be ways to improve it?
vBulletin has a major problem in that it is using a table-based layout. Add to that a rather comprehensive modular template engine, tweaking the design sometimes takes ages - and as soon as a new version is released, the template changes need to be reapplied.
If we also consider the third-party extensions like the quiz scrip, the link directory, the news system and the arcade, the task is too big to handle without a dedicated design team and a well documented upgrade process.
So what are the options? Well, here are some thoughts.
We could focus on reducing clutter. Take away columns. Many websites now feature only two columns. Most forums actually only have one, at least in the actual discussion pages. We have gone from three to two columns lately, and the forum listings (apart from the forum index) now is using a single-column template.
In addition, we could minimize and remove advertisements. A forum is generally difficult to monetize, particularly when it's such a non-specific niche as "science" with such a nondescript target group as "everyone". Therefore it's necessary to use advertisements to maintain a steady income. But would a nicer, cleaner-looking design perhaps *improve* ad conversion rates so we could have less ads and still make what we need?
Can we centralize the content? The actual information in the columns is overloaded. Who needs to *constantly* see the updated topics, latest news, and topics without replies? Maybe these boxes belong to the front page only? But the problem here is that very few pages actually visit our front page. They go directly to a sub page. How can we work around that?
There is also standard things to do, like tweaking the CSS and layout without touching the templates. We could add more Web 2.0-looks, rounded corners etc. But these things hardly make the forums more effective - only prettier.
Thoughts?
Total Comments 7
Comments
 |  well .. you could put iFrames, in the site, and allow the users, to modify it, to view to their comfort in the browser for centralizing the content, i hope you guys can do something such that after the title, the first paragraph is displayed in a collapseable menu, where people can either open it to peek in what's inside, instead of displaying the whole thread.... if you remove ad's, how the hell will hypography be maintained?? the ad's are perfectly placed. all the flashy ones should be placed in the top and bottom of the page, and the ones with the links, just in the middle of the pages or so. |
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| | i wouldnt prefer if you take away the columns, i like the look, gives an aura of systematic discussions going on. Quote:
i hope you guys can do something such that after the title, the first paragraph is displayed in a collapseable menu, where people can either open it to peek in what's inside, instead of displaying the whole thread(i.e if they want to)
anyway Roxer - The easiest way to make a webpage when you enter the page, you will notice a small lock button to your left corner of the screen. click on it, and you will get a info box. read it and close. drag the images and then reshape the page how you want. the above can be superbly done in the user profiles. |
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| |  Thanks for your feedback, TBA. As you probably have noticed, I have removed the right side columns on all pages except the Portal page and the Forum index (as well as the link directory). I am not so concerned about the user profiles, but how the forum pages (forums and topics) are displayed and how easy they are to navigate. |
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| | That's amazing article! |
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| | Wonderful, anything else, up your sleeve? THX TBA |
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| | hey hey hey i wanna know what happened to the portal? TBA |
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| | Which portal? It's still there - but it's using the forum engine rather than the CMS we tried out for a while. |
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Recent Blog Entries by Tormod
- I suck at Browser Compliance Testing (09-29-2008)
- The horrors of trying to make money in a decent way (09-25-2008)
- Some issues when contemplating Hypography design changes (09-18-2008)
- Maintaining Hypography (09-16-2008)
