about the new Search Stream display format

[Chris Bell]

Hi guys,
so I’ve been trying to like the new search Streams format; i can’t put my finger on it exactly but... i find it very annoying still,
while it’s a nice classic and clean design; i find it very unsettling and confusing to view or track topics;
i don't know if it’s that line across the left side connecting all topics that makes is confusing;
or the lack of tags used to display quick info about topics,

this new search format is just not working out for me;
it’s very confusing and lacks basic intuitive queues,

Anyone else finds this an issue for them?

TIA

Chris

 

[Lindy]

I know you said you can't put your finger on it, but any help regarding what you find confusing would be beneficial. 

Incidentally, we're working on AS enhancements next week. 

[Chris Bell]

@Lindy

Thank you Lindy,
ill give it my best shoot; i know you guys been working hard on fixing the search and indexing functionality,
as far as i can tell it is working as expected for most parts now; yet every time i interact with results page something is missing,

i know its silly...
for some odd reason this line on the left connecting all results makes me feel like they are all connected to one thread; instead of being self sustained results,
i get the feeling it is a thread with posts; i find visually confusing to make the logical separation of them being individual thread posts,

 

another issue i find distracting with the new results display; is the missing count tags from the older format,
my eyes are used to quickly scan the posts count and basic stats like last poster and poster image, with general counts,
i use it as a quick impression if i want to open the thread or not or if something important is going on; these basic stats been missing,
since the major change i find it very difficult to quickly collect stats from the current summarized display tags,

i hope this helps,

Regards,
Chris

[chilihead]

4 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

@Lindy

Thank you Lindy,
ill give it my best shoot; i know you guys been working hard on fixing the search and indexing functionality,
as far as i can tell it is working as expected for most parts now; yet every time i interact with results page something is missing,

i know its silly...
for some odd reason this line on the left connecting all results makes me feel like they are all connected to one thread; instead of being self sustained results,
i get the feeling it is a thread with posts; i find visually confusing to make the logical separation of them being individual thread posts,

The line on the left does make it look "threaded" especially when they are sequential posts from the same content. 

[Chris Bell]

@chilihead

couldn't help it;
just noticed this...
ROFLMAO

[chilihead]

That's an IPS default title, or maybe one they assigned to me personally not sure. Probably the latter.  

[Chris Bell]

something like this more logical, intuitive, and far less confusing imo

vs.

[chilihead]

That's a bit redundant. You have the last poster's pic twice and their name twice, in the action slug line and on the right. I only need the information once. On mobile this would look really hideous.  Sorry.

[Chris Bell]

the left image can be stripped out for mobile!
(i was just playing around in PS)

[opentype]

I think we can leave the design work to Rikki. He knows what he is doing. There are probably more important structural improvements to made to the feed. 

[Chris Bell]

here you go Chili

7 minutes ago, opentype said:

I think we can leave the design work to Rikki. He knows what he is doing.

im sure he does,
the point of this isn't to suggest a design for the page; rater give a feel of how the data is perceived compared to the current layout!

[opentype]

14 hours ago, Lindy said:

Incidentally, we're working on AS enhancements next week. 

Not sure what you have planned, but my recommendations for that …

I think it’s not secret that the Activity Streams are a “Facebook-like” feature. But in contrast to the latter, they are still not very clever or appealing in the way they present content. I see two problems which can be solved in combination. 

Grouping

The streams just use a rigid linear order, which is not always ideal. A classic case for this problem is if someone creates a gallery album with 50 pictures and then the whole activity stream just shows nothing but these pictures each as its own entry, wasting the entire screen space and pushing every forum post or news article way down. Those entries should be grouped somehow. 

Same problem exists for content items (forum posts, blog posts, database articles) and their replies. It’s hard to make sense of the entries since they are all over the place without revealing their true hierarchy. I see the replies in the wrong order, I don’t know which one I have read before and it is not clear which one is a reply to which entry. 

Appeal 

I like the activity stream in principle and even made it the homepage of my 4.1 site, but it still doesn’t look nothing like a Facebook stream with content one wants to engage with. The calendar entries at least have a template bit showing a big “designed” date. That’s a start. But it could go further by actually showing the header image and so on. Pages database entries have no appeal at all. They don’t even show the Record Image, which is actually there to “tease” the content. I wish we would have at least the choice to create such featured entries. As an example. Here is how a database entry from my video database looks like in the activity stream:

Here is how it looks when I put it on Facebook automatically using the Record Image. 

Which one looks more appealing?

 

And this is how ONE entry looks when I post several images into a Facebook album:

And this is what IPS creates for posting images:

 

 

[Chris Bell]

interesting point of view; and that is horrible! (IMO2)
for me i find the grouping distracting for other reasons, yet still rooted in the same grouping principle,

one of my habits is to monitor the "new posts thread/stream"; i monitor several sites simultaneously,
the grouping is something i find very distracting as view style for search result;
where you're quickly looking to get an idea on whats going on where,
everything looks like one big thread; instead of search results,
i feel like im not getting something there and i get frustrated,

now... this is a pure rant but it has some truth behind it,
this new fast migration to mobile view priority is really terrible;
as if we don't work on normal PC's anymore or have multiple monitors and large screen with 4/5K res!
everything is changing in favor of mobile views priority beyond what it should (IMO);
info is stripped out or minimized to save screen real-estate and loading times,
this should really stop before it comes back to bite us!
people still use normal PC with normal size monitors!

[DesignzShop]

It is a timeline, kinda defeats the purpose of its intention if you remove the line I like the timeline myself. It maybe in how it's looked at in design. Have you seen it in other colors It may help or may not ?

 

 

[chilihead]

10 hours ago, Chris Bell said:

here you go Chili

Looks like you are recreating the 3.4 style.

I don't miss that, I like the AS, it just needs some fixin' up.

[Chris Bell]

@chilihead

just toying around with idea's;
not really aiming at one design or the other, these were made to help the visuals(for inspiration only) while we discuss the issue at hand,
the simple way 3.4 delivered the information off a search result page is more intuitive and efficient imo,
im not concerned with the page's styling rather the efficiency of the data presented,

@DesignzShop

i don't know that the color makes any difference; it still resembles a single thread visually 

[Morrigan]

One thing I would like to add is that I think that things like "statuses" and whatnot need to have similar look to posts and other content. It looks odd to have this:

Things like "likes" and notices of "replies" are all formatted differently then a post or a full status. I'd think they should at least have a box the way that the others do but they are just text and look worse (I think) on darker skins.

I think the biggest disconnect for me on those is that you can get stacks of them like you see there (which doesn't look too bad) but then you can get a stray one like this:

 

They look out of place and like they shouldn't be there.

[Chris Bell]

@Morrigan

good call there!
themeing these makes it very intuitive to find and keep track of stats anywhere you're at!

another distracting feature for me at least; is the "today" "yesterday"... tags separation; in addition to the date and time posted right in the post summery,
i find it visually distracting and redundant imo,

 

18 hours ago, chilihead said:

Looks like you are recreating the 3.4 style.

I don't miss that, I like the AS, it just needs some fixin' up.

i couldn't agree more, i like the new AS its clean and classic,

lets not forget that 3.4 been around way longer than 4!
there's a reason why 3.4 ended up the way it did in regard to search results and intuitive queues one gets from the page in general,
i fail to see the point in changing the basics logic thats already deeply embedded; change the style, add queues, thats all fine,

even if you're changing the whole concept; i still think you have to keep some time tested and trusted familiarities,
It’s obvious that many like the new streams and like to be able to do more with these as pages; While some just looking for the simplicity of a stream,

Allowing more style and customization to streams on the one hand is obviously needed; separating the two could be a solution,
a search that is just a standard search; and a streams you can customize as you see fit with more styling and design options,

[Chris Bell]

pls delete

[opentype]

7 minutes ago, Chris Bell said:

there's a reason why 3.4 ended up the way it did …

…i still think you have to keep some time tested and trusted familiarities,

I might have the opposite opinion. The old View New Content was technically nothing more than a search result page with awful limitations, such as showing just one type of content at a time (e.g. just forums). Even though that page is basically the number one page regular community members use, it didn’t reflect that importance as just a search result page. 
Just because people got used to it, doesn’t mean that is was actually good and needs to stay that way or that most of its features need to work the same in the Activity Stream. 

[Chris Bell]

i don't think we disagree at all there,
its clear the framework has been updated and improved over time,
even if you're adding these new features; the basic element should still be there,

as a simple analogy, take a car from 1976 and a fresh car off the line today; they didn't change the basics at all,
its still the same chassis with 4 wheels and a steering wheel, shifter, gas pedal and breaks,
sure we got fancy color coating and plush upholstery with fancy gadgets and sat nav with internet... i can go on obviously,
yet we're all still looking at the same tiny back mirror sitting in the middle there (since ever) to see who's behind us

[DesignzShop]

Ahh, I see what you are getting at A real simple solution here is to make the time the same color as the background. Can be changed in your themes. The software is really more than capable of any presentation you want to give it.  Much easier & much better than 3.4 imo

 

[Chris Bell]

@DesignzShop

clever, i liked that workaround!
Edit:
just tested this little gem; what a relief!!!

but still that right side looks sad and empty,
as Morrigan mentioned symbols themeing is lacking,

i think we're all zooming in on something that bothers us all essentially but was never brought it up in the right context,
not that i have; but everyone's input is now pointing to a handful of items that can improve our experience and application,

[Chris Bell]

Additional note:
I usually scan results quickly to see who posted and when,
I find myself constantly looking left and right, and again left and right in a loop!
That’s because the user icon is now on the left; and the stats are on the right,
As I scroll down the page my eye has to do this left right loop to gather info;

In 3.4 for example you see the topics on the left;
then the rest of the tags are on the right neatly organized together with the user image in the middle,
Its sufficient to read the topic with bulletin on the left; than the rest of the info organized on the right logically,

 

[chilihead]

On 2/8/2016 at 6:53 AM, opentype said:

Not sure what you have planned, but my recommendations for that …

I think it’s not secret that the Activity Streams are a “Facebook-like” feature. But in contrast to the latter, they are still not very clever or appealing in the way they present content. I see two problems which can be solved in combination. 

Grouping

The streams just use a rigid linear order, which is not always ideal. A classic case for this problem is if someone creates a gallery album with 50 pictures and then the whole activity stream just shows nothing but these pictures each as its own entry, wasting the entire screen space and pushing every forum post or news article way down. Those entries should be grouped somehow. 

Same problem exists for content items (forum posts, blog posts, database articles) and their replies. It’s hard to make sense of the entries since they are all over the place without revealing their true hierarchy. I see the replies in the wrong order, I don’t know which one I have read before and it is not clear which one is a reply to which entry. 

 

Agreed, the big picture problem is people will remove Gallery from their AS if they keep seeing annoying things like uploads of every single image as a singly listed content item from a batch upload. Gallery and Status Updates both need some presentation and delivery work, or members will create their own streams w/o them, and then we go back to the VNC where people only see forums.

The best part about the AS is all content is seen, not just one app. So we need to make sure no one is being annoyed by the delivery.