complaint about use of screen space

[cheapbooks.com]

the invision power board is great, however on any given forum page, it seems as though 35% - 40% of the page is used by things that give little value to someone who is looking for the main services of the board - the posts. I am afraid to add subforums because it bumps off the topics, and new visitors are leary about scrolling the page down.

inother words, when people visit the site, 35% - 40% of the viewable page never changes from day to day.

I believe from my years of experience (been using the web since 1994) that it is poor web design to use up so much space for logos, nav bars, etc, with the content hidden down the page. I haven't even added ad banners to my header yet.

for example, a complete row is used for the 'new topic' and 'add reply' buttons, which could just as easily go next to the 'options' drop down

I am hoping this is addressed in the future.

[stoo2000]

You can create your own skin if your not happy ;)

[The Clash]

It's the skin, not IPB. Stoo's right - create your own templates if you don't like the default ones.

[Jason H]

I believe from my years of experience (been using the web since 1994) that it is poor web design to use up so much space for logos, nav bars, etc, with the content hidden down the page.

I haven't even added ad banners to my header yet.

That's what got me.. "The screen is just too cluttered even before I add *MY* clutter to it!"

[stoo2000]

That's what got me.. "The screen is just too cluttered even before I add *MY* clutter to it!"

Lol,

I think alot of the wasted space is the pinned topics :blink: (http://forum.cheapbooks.com/index.php?showforum=1)

[Alex]

Then dont pin them :) Pinned topics are meant to be like that, so you can see them

[Jason H]

Then dont pin them :) Pinned topics are meant to be like that, so you can see them

Ugh.. Don't get me started on that one.. I leave my board in the hands of my moderating team.. I just keep the server running and fix problems when need be.. I go back and look at it sometimes and they've pinned 25 topics.. I seriously unpinned a topic in June that was "Merry Christmas"...

[Amy T]

That's what got me.. "The screen is just too cluttered even before I add *MY* clutter to it!"

I feel the same way and you can skin the site to look how ever you want.
I mean you can put the logo to the left and the nav just to the right of that and I have seen sites do that. I had it that way once until I found it easier to use drop down menus to save space.

[Rοb]

for example, a complete row is used for the 'new topic' and 'add reply' buttons, which could just as easily go next to the 'options' drop down

I'll go with that bit, it does leave a lot of unnecessary white-space.

[Alex]

Not really Rob. its on the same row as the pages link, so it doesnt use anymore than it should. You'd have to remove page links aswell to get rid of that white space

[Rοb]

Yeah true, forgot about those bad boys.

[Alex]

It'd be nice, but I dont think there is anywhere where whitespace can be removed, because their technically is no space, its being used.

[elj]

The thing I don't understand is the OP's comment that users "don't want to scroll down" - surely everyone just scrolls? :/

[Millar]

The thing I don't understand is the OP's comment that users "don't want to scroll down" - surely everyone just scrolls? :/

Well anyone who doesn't scroll doesn't deserve to appreciate the web... :o

That is very lazy indeed if people choose to do that, I know I don't. So yeah!

[W13]

I confess that my scrolling-finger hurts after scrolling so much (I should use page-up,page-down,home,end keys). And it IS true that the default skins are fairly "space-consuming".

As for banners, I just stick mine right inside the header-bar ( http://www.zybez.net/community ) with an absolute position.

It'd be pretty awesome if there was an ultra-minimalistic skin (don't link me to Lo-fi!) ... fully functional, but very minimalistic.

[VelvetElvis]

I got my first complaint from someone using their iphone to view my site the other day. As more and more people are using handheld devices to access the web, the pinch on designers is going to get worse.

I sorta miss the html 3.0 days.

[bfarber]

To be honest Velvet, I own an iphone and it's really much better than any other phone in terms of browsing a site.

However, in the future I'd love to create a WAP and iphone-specific access point for IPB...I'd certainly use it.

[dyelton]

To be honest Velvet, I own an iphone and it's really much better than any other phone in terms of browsing a site.

However, in the future I'd love to create a WAP and iphone-specific access point for IPB...I'd certainly use it.

A lot of users on my site use handheld devices and I personally have an iPhone as well. I would love to see an iPhone specific mod. Regarding regular cell phone browsing, I have modified the lo-fi skin to meet my needs on that front and it works quite well. Unfortunately there is no way for users to login or post via this interface which would be a welcome addition (either with a mod or by default in a future release).

[Keith J. Kacin]

To be honest Velvet, I own an iphone and it's really much better than any other phone in terms of browsing a site.

And even other phones with dedicated 'mobile browsers', this site and most sites work correctly.
They can use http://www.operamini.com
It looks just like this:
http://www.operamini.com/beta/simulator/

I can only think it is an issue when people use the standard phone browser that comes on most phones.

[Louis M.]

I would like to see a default skin for phones in the future but there are other solutions out there ATM. I just got back from the States ( currently in Japan) and my brothers iphone displayed my site pretty well and even Nexus too.

[Mat Barrie]

To be honest Velvet, I own an iphone and it's really much better than any other phone in terms of browsing a site.

However, in the future I'd love to create a WAP and iphone-specific access point for IPB...I'd certainly use it.

Please, for the love of all, do not get sucked into that whole iPhone specific web pages crap. The iPhone doesn't represent the majority of mobile devices, and I'd much rather there be an interface that works flawlessly on any 200x300 screeen (or whatever the size is) such as those provided by Windows Mobile and Nokia devices. The blackberry is a similar size too, is it not? The iPhone has a larger screen than normal, and any attempt to design for it would result in an ugly mess on everything else.

[dyelton]

Please, for the love of all, do not get sucked into that whole iPhone specific web pages crap. The iPhone doesn't represent the majority of mobile devices, and I'd much rather there be an interface that works flawlessly on any 200x300 screeen (or whatever the size is) such as those provided by Windows Mobile and Nokia devices. The blackberry is a similar size too, is it not? The iPhone has a larger screen than normal, and any attempt to design for it would result in an ugly mess on everything else.

You can develop for both and have the page sense what mobile device you have. I assume you're not an iPhone user since you don't see a benefit in designing a web app for it. It really is much easier than other mobile devices I've had my hands on, as long as the page has been designed for it, but even if it isn't it does quite well.

On a side note, I would much rather see a general mobile version released so anyone with a mobile device could view AND post to the forums form the device.

[bfarber]

Yes, I didn't mean I would disregard every other mobile device and do just an iphone version. I realize it doesn't represent the vast majority of the internet. But if we suddenly in 3.0 had support for "HTML, reduced-size, WAP, iphone, read-only, XML, etc. etc. etc." versions, the iphone one wouldn't be that big of a deal if you didn't want to use it right? ;) It would be beneficial to those that DID have an iphone however.

[dyelton]

I think it would be a greatly missed opportunity if the next major revision of IP.Board didn't have full mobile support (including the ability to edit basic account functions and post to threads).

[Jason H]

you know.. Just as devils advocate.. How in the blue hell would we support that?

Go get every mobile phone known to man? How are you going to react to "There's this tiny little gap between the border of messages that only happens on my Nokia Monkey Phone"?

What about "Dropdowns work on my iPhone, but don't work on my Agent99 Shoe Phone"? and fixing it on the shoe phone breaks it on the iPhone..

It'd have to be something along the lines of what Keith mentioned. Support for Operamini on cell phones...