The user icons at the topic overview page seem important to me. Why not move the user icons where they make sense, which is at the left in front the topic titles?

It seems like not a big change but it feels better to the eye because the heat map always starts from left to right when reading the title. The current blue dot in front of every topic title does not make any sense, does it?

Let me know what you think. (:

Agree, looks better and is perhaps more logical as it provides author details at start (avatar) and end of topic title (user name). I think this is how XF do it as well.

Well, doesn't the dot show if you have read that particularly topic or new posts? (dark dot, dark star, etc). New content is not a great example, but is does show different icons. It also adds a link so you go directly to the last unread post.

Moved to Feedback. :)

Well, doesn't the dot show if you have read that particularly topic or new posts? (dark dot, dark star, etc). New content is not a great example, but is does show different icons. It also adds a link so you go directly to the last unread post.

^ Was gonna say that.

I personally think that adding to many images can get messy

I agree with joelle, NewRockRabbitt, and NinjaPP. Until this topic had been made, I had struggled to put my finger on what it was that bothered me about the IPB default skin and these unread symbols.

First, as a new visitor, there is no key that tells me what they mean and second, when someone from IPS protests my first outburst, it is neither obvious or intuitive that I should or will gain anything from hovering over the symbols.

By Joelle's action, I instantly see what is wrong with the default picture and what a graphic designer would have seen long before: the symbols need to be on the right. That is where check marks go in most things that are visual, be it checkbooks or to do lists, and how left to right readers expect to see status symbols. Most of you will grill me on that claim because many of the email programs have symbols on the left side. Take yahoo as just one example. Look at the new outlook mail layout. No symbols. The IPS layout is akin to some drab government office space with grey carpet, white walls, and standard overhead fluorescent lighting. If all IPS did was move the symbol to the far right side but kept the darker shade vertical rectangle, it would be an improvement. The symbols are just way too distracting on the left side.

I think NinjaPP does have a good point: adding too many images can make things very messy. For a new visitor, it is inherently confusing when you see the image and the name on the right because most newcomers identify that image as the original poster. I do think separating the image of the most recent reply from the person's name is confusing. To me, the change Joelle made just reinforces that impression.

If you click on a topic, what you see is the image of the original poster at the top, along with the topic title. It makes the most sense to have the image of the original poster on the left side, adjacent to the topic title. My solution would be to remove the image of the latest poster and replace it with simply the words 'Latest reply: AndyF and the time below.

Then I would put the symbols to the right of the latest poster information.

By Joelle's action, I instantly see what is wrong with the default picture and what a graphic designer would have seen long before: the symbols need to be on the right.

Being a graphic designer I need to weigh in:

The topic symbol is not an unnecessary distraction that should be moved to the right and out of view. It's the main entry point to threads, because it gets you to the last unread post.

I also don’t understand why a poster’s image on the left would make more sense. Why is that? It's just a different position. Usually my decision to open a thread is based on the topic title and that’s how the listing is structured. There might be more personal forums where it's more about who started the post or who replied, but then I would suggest a small template edit for these boards. I don't see the logic why such a different row structure should be an improvement for all IPS boards.

I value title much more than icon.

The user photo is related to the user information on the right, not the topic title. The topic icon is more relevant to the topic title :)

This is very good.

I was wait for this! :)