♥ Adam ♠ Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 As Administrators, Site Owners, or Developers; we sometimes lose track of the basic usage of users. As I made away (and so did my members), I shared my account on the preview site. So that Invision (including myself), could get a normal user's thoughts, opinions, and general feedback... ie... People who were not Administrators, Site Owners, or Developers. One of my members wrote a letter (review) of what he thoughts & felt about Invision 3.2 (Preview). Thought I would share it. [color=#032A46][font=Georgia,][/font][/color][color=#032A46][size=2]To whom it may concern,[/size] [size=2]Thank you for the opportunity to be a "tester". I would just like to state up front that I am a computer "illiterate" by some standards. LOL! My knowledge does not extend far beyond knowing how to turn a computer on and off. This was a wonderful experience in the hopes that software designs in the future will have people like me in mind. [/size] [/color][color=#032A46][font=Georgia,]Let me begin by starting with the over-all appearance of the site.[/font] [font=Georgia,]Upon initial log-in, I found the site to be neatly organized with the placement of forums and sub-forums easily readable and accessible. The placement of the perimeter "tabs" were equally accessible and readable. I also found the "alert notification" drop-down to be a very nice feature as to the immediate alert while reading a page and not having to click back to the main page to see if anyone has responded to a post. This is a feature I would like to see kept. One thing I did notice right away was that when I scrolled/hovered over a forum/topic, there was no cloud that appeared letting a poster have a "sneak preview" as to the contents of a particular thread. I would like to see this feature added in the final version. Upon entering a forum/topic/thread, I did notice that a little more differentiation between topics could be incorporated. (ie; slightly darker lines defining topics/posts.)[/font]Posting[font=Georgia,]I found that posting a simple written response was a "no-brainer" and that the choices of font styles/sizes to be superior. Most of the additional "tools" were also easy to use. However, I found it difficult and complicated when trying to post a picture media with the drop-down menu. With the XenForo format, it is just a matter of simple "copy and paste" to post, without all the technical hoopla of trying to figure out which "code" to use. I also tried to post several video medium with disasterous results. I am not sure if this feature was enabled/supported or not in the test version, but in this testers oppinion, it could be a lot LESS complicated. I also tried to copy and paste several times from known sites and it would not let me. I am not sure if this feature was enabled/supported or not also.[/font]Up-loading files/media[font=Georgia,]I browsed the stock files and pics on my computer and I found it to be fairly easy after several attempts to figure out "the code" needed to up-load these to the site. This could be a little more user-friendly, too. I also tried to up-load a pop-out player. No luck. I'm guessing that this feature will be supported in the final version for the forum and the blog sections for the music lovers in cyber-land.[/font]Password forum[font=Georgia,]This is a nice feature that I think should solely be of use to admin and staff. This would be "highly abused" if made available to the general membership.[/font]Bugs[font=Georgia,]I noticed several "bugs". One noticable one was in the reply to post. The font/size tabs were not lined up in the tool bar. This should be an easy fix. Another bug was the "double posting" that occured when I posted several times. Another was when I went back in to test a post edit, (this happened in the blog section also) the edited post re-posted with some "extras" added that should not have been there. (in other words, the re-post read with the font style, font size, color and other text that was unintelligible.)[/font]User experience[font=Georgia,]My over-all experience was, on a scale of 1 to 10, a " 7.5 ". I am sure that more colors/formats and styles/skins will be available in the final version and that audio media will be supported too. My issue is with the "user-friendliness" that the test site offered. This "test" version, to people like me, was to complicated with "codes" to figure out and a definite turn-off. I think that all the "bells and whistles" that were offered in the test are enough to get started in the final version and that a little added "tweaking" in the future should be possible. Hopefully, in the final version, the "friendliness" factor could mirror that of XenForo.[/font] [font=Georgia,]Once again, thanks for allowing me to participate. [/font][/color] [color="#032a46"][font="'trebuchet ms"][size="3"] [/size][/font][/color][color="#032A46"][font="Georgia,"][size="2"] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Guerra Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 really amazing, IPB 3.2 to be is going to be a huge success! Really i just cant wait any longer for it, i used it myself and saw how much more user friendly it is "I find this really important when it comes to Forums"This should explain it =] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chito Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 As Administrators, Site Owners, or Developers; we sometimes lose track of the basic usage of users. As I made away (and so did my members), I shared my account on the preview site. So that Invision (including myself), could get a normal user's thoughts, opinions, and general feedback... ie... People who were not Administrators, Site Owners, or Developers. [/size][/font][/color] Hello, The Visitors, thanks for sharing that letter with us. I have a question regarding one of the comments your member made in that letter dealing with the Password Forum. They stated "This is a nice feature that I think should solely be of use to admin and staff. This would be "highly abused" if made available to the general membership." Though I participated in the 3.2 preview, I did not get a chance to preview this 'Password Forum' feature. So I'm curious to know what did your member mean by saying that it would be "highly abused" if made available to the general membership? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat B Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Hello, The Visitors, thanks for sharing that letter with us. I have a question regarding one of the comments your member made in that letter dealing with the Password Forum. They stated "This is a nice feature that I think should solely be of use to admin and staff. This would be "highly abused" if made available to the general membership." Though I participated in the 3.2 preview, I did not get a chance to preview this 'Password Forum' feature. So I'm curious to know what did your member mean by saying that it would be "highly abused" if made available to the general membership? :) I presume it is a reference to password protected forums. In which case it continues to be something configured via the ACP like most Category and Forum settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥ Adam ♠ Posted May 29, 2011 Author Share Posted May 29, 2011 Adam said:Can you please tell me what browser you were using?I believe that it was Chrome, if that is the correct term. We are connected through Verizon as the IP and the computer itself came preloaded with Windows Vista. Adam said: What did you mean by "password forum" feature?Also had another question...The "password forum" was located within a subforum at the very top of the main page located within the top two categories. I am not sure which category it was actually located in, but I clicked on it and the message read that it was a password protected forum. It also gave the details that the password was "password". I took this as an incorporated feature that is in use here that you use to communicate between your staff to have private convos about site business. I was surprized that something like this would be made available to the general public even in a beta test version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor J Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 One question, why did you share your account? They could of just registered themselves :P. Also about the password protected forums, those are set by admins, the password is only available to those that the admin will give it to, so even though it was accessible, it doesn't mean anything :). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Ian Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 The password forum was merely a demo and as a result the password was visible to all, merely to demonstrate the feature. Often sites might have a locked forum for a group of people and that password is distributed via other methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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