IP.Board 3.2 Update: Mobile Skin

We've had specific support for mobile touch devices in the IP.Board suite for a number of versions - these devices see a specially designed skin which is stripped down and touch friendly, rather than the usual skin. We've taken the opportunity to update this skin for IP.Board 3.2, refreshing some aspects of the style and adding support for new features.

Launcher

Gone is the linear menu of community links, replaced instead with a new launcher screen that shows the various areas that can be accessed:



As well as looking more pleasant, the increased space for each item should make tapping easier. In addition, you'll notice that we now display bubbles that show the message/notification counts, like on the default skin.

General interface improvements

We've restyled most elements in the skin, to lighten it and reduce the space necessary. As an example, here's the topic list:



You'll notice the navigation bar that used to be present is now displayed as a 'Back' link in the header bar - a convention mobile users are well used to. The individual page title is shown in the black bar, with the page content following.

In this particular screenshot, you might also notice that we're using the standard default skin read/unread topic markers, since they're perfectly suited.

Here's a look at the slightly-updated topic view:



As well as the cleaner display, you might notice we also support the new Like feature for posts.

Notifications

Notifications aren't something we've supported in the mobile skin before, but with more focus being placed on them in IP.Board as a whole, we took the step of adding them to the mobile view too. They essentially work just like you're used to, with the option to go to the user, the content, of the individual post:



Tagging

Tagging is a new feature introduced in IP.Board 3.2, and since tags can be set as required when posted, it was essential that posting support was added to the mobile skin. This series of screenshots shows the process:



To remove a tag, simply tap it, then tap the Remove Selected button that will appear:



If you choose to use the closed tagging system (whereby users can only choose from tags you define), a select list is shown instead, allowing users to choose from the native phone interface.

View New Content/Searching

IP.Board 3.2 introduces a new way of filtering results when using View New Content or when searching. A bar is shown on the left, with the various filter choices able to toggled on and off to change the results. While this interface clearly wouldn't work on a mobile device, we did want to ensure the filtering options were still available. This is what we came up with:



Clicking one of the buttons on the top bar presents the available filters, with the currently-used shown with a check: