Homepage Layout

[Hands]

The new layout is incredible, it looks so modern and fresh

 

[Bidoof FTW]

Volcarona theme could use a color change

Spoiler:

better yet, just bring in a bidoof theme so I can switch off of this ;)

 

[moon]

Maybe consider putting one forum down a row in places with 4 or 10 forums (for example), so that they display as 2-2 and 3-3-2-2 rather than 3-1 and 3-3-3-1. If that makes any sense.

 

[Nihilego]

phwoarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Looks great on Forever Standing, viewing full screen on my desktop. Much much much nicer than before, really impressed by this. Minor note - Pokémon: General Discussions' last two sections are showing in an odd formation (X - X as opposed to X X -, if that makes sense; I'll post screenshots if not).

On mobile it's not such a nice story, though. The sections are huge and it makes me feel like the small amount of space available on the screen isn't being used well. Also, weirdly, none of the images on the left hand side of the section, uh, "blobs" show up on my phone (running the most recent iOS, if that matters).

But the desktop version looks awesome.

 

[ToWriteLove]

A little busy, but I like where it's heading for the most part. Maybe smoother transitions between everything rather than separate bubbles. Only major complaint, the Subforum title colors, such as "Pokemon Sun and Moon"/"Sixth Generation", "Art Design"/"Roleplay Theater". It is pretty much impossible to read unless you highlight them.

 

[Bidoof FTW]

Subforum... title colours? Are you using Soaring to the Moon/Shooting for the Sun theme by any chance? This layout looks best there than in other themes.

Well even if that one theme looks good I'd like that to not be the answer to "hey my theme is unreadable". Having to switch themes just to be able to navigate PC's main page is a bit lame.

 

[ToWriteLove]

this is what I see. See how the lettering is super dark and blends in?

Only can see if highlighted. Unless I have something wrong with my settings.

 

[Bidoof FTW]

I took a look to see which themes are the ones with readability issues, these are the ones with color scheme issues:

Spoiler:

Bewitched
Volcarona Pour Toujours
The Top Dog
Atop Mount Coronet
Forest Savage
Let's Fly Together (Legacy and normal)

Also, the PC Pro series is either completely broken or intentionally doesn't show any of the forums, not sure which.

BTW, I really like the new layout, I found a theme that looks really good with it :)

 

[Ice1]

The new layout looks good on Dawn Of Champions, as far as the main page goes. Things don't center well once you're actually in a forum. I don't really have any issues with the visuals itself, but I don't feel like these cards are a great use of space.

My screen suddenly is displaying a lot of info on the main page, making it a bit distracting. There's a lot of colour, different cards, I can see tiny links to about 45 different threads. It's a bit of a personal complaint, though, and I feel like it isn't really a problem for quite some people. It's weird. There's way less wasted screen space right now. I guess it feels less structured to me.

The subforums aren't really given a nice link. They don't tell me anything except their name. They look kinda tacked on at the moment, in both the classic and the current layout. The read indicator that used to be in front of them made them look way more like an actual part of the design, instead of an unimportant thing that's just tucked away at the bottom.

Showing that a subforum has some new posts is something that I do value a lot. It's more useful for me to see which subforums have unread posts, instead of seeing if the three most recent threads have new posts. I think actually incorporating them into the design will be a great help.

I'm also going to say it again, but if there's colour trouble, and the cards don't display well on certain themes, why is the layout currently being tested on them? Disable those themes from seeing the new layout until you know it's optimized for them.

 

[Deokishisu]

I hate this even more now. Please give us versions of popular forum skins that puts it back to the way it was if you guys are dead set on this as default. Perhaps one for Color Flattered X.

EDIT: Oh my goodness you can't even escape it within hub subforums. This looks like a shitty mobile design and takes up way more space than it should. This literally makes me not want to come to PC.

 

[Nah]

I hate this even more now. Please give us versions of popular forum skins that puts it back to the way it was if you guys are dead set on this as default. Perhaps one for Color Flattered X.

If you go to Edit Options on your CP and scroll to the bottom, there should be a thing that says "Forumbit style". There you can choose between "Modern" (this new layout) and "Classic", which looks more or less like how things did before this recent series of index changes.

 

[Klippy]

I hate this even more now. Please give us versions of popular forum skins that puts it back to the way it was if you guys are dead set on this as default. Perhaps one for Color Flattered X.

EDIT: Oh my goodness you can't even escape it within hub subforums. This looks like a ****ty mobile design and takes up way more space than it should. This literally makes me not want to come to PC.

While we appreciate feedback, you really need to tone it down and help us out by being constructive instead of so blunt and theatrical. Refer to almost any of the other posters on this page for a few ways to be helpful for our coding team so they can adapt this to the benefit of everyone.

You're already using the Classic forum style, so perhaps don't use Modern again until it's finished.

 

[Bidoof FTW]

And suddenly the forum looks so much neater! Loving the change, will love it even more once I get used to these forum positions :)

EDIT: Thanks for making the Underground a forum again <3

 

[moon]

Just reporting that subforums look a bit borked.

Spoiler:

 

[Charlie Brown]

Love the new look! Minor suggestion - on the home page the orange arrows link to the last unread post - to make things easier to see, is it possible for the arrow to be orange if it's a new unread post and the default link colour (blue on the Pokemon Moon skin) if it's an old unread post? So it's easier to see when there are new posts when you're scrolling the index.

 

[Captain Fabio]

I'm very pleased to see the 'Entertainment' section back; so amazing! Hopefully everyone likes that and it all goes well.

Looking good now!​

 

[Nihilego]

having had a week to process this...

- the new layout looks pretty great overall. it's got the same familiarity as the old vB layout, but is much more pleasant to look at and tbh makes normal vB stuff look absolutely ancient. great step towards revitalising some really old software.

- the bulletin board doesn't align properly with the daily articles and it's pretty weird-looking. looks the same on mobile to me, the style is "Jupiter" (which looks the same to me as "fly me to the moon").

- community square's location still feels arbitrary. i was definitely in agreement with it not being needed right at the top of the forum, but it feels odd just being stuck where it is; it neither starts, nor ends, the non-pokémon forums despite being in nature the "first" community-based thing on here, if that makes sense. it might be worth moving it either to the bottom of the index, or above the "Create & Discover" section.

- on mobile, the online list at the bottom of the forum doesn't show for me. this has been happening for months now so it's not to do with the new homepage layout probably, but i thought i'd mention it anyway since it's kinda relevant. this is on the most recent ios, and i've seen it on all of the styles i've used in a long time (including Jupiter). it's nbd but it's kinda inconvenient sometimes.

but really, great job. pc looks completely new.

edit: also, this keeps happening when i make the window thinner than about 850px on desktop.

 

[Nihilego]

bump. please can we have some more admin responses in here?

not because i think my own feedback is MEGA IMPORTANT but because this is literally the first thing everyone sees every time they load PC (and therefore what their impressions are decided on) so it deserves attention

 

[moon]

It made sense to move down the sections that currently sit in the Community Square category, when Community Square encompassed basically all non-pokemon sections. Now it makes less sense. I think we should put it on top of the forums again.

But I also think the front page of PC should look completely different, as I've mentioned elsewhere. But the first forums should be the Community Square ones, as it used to be. Or at least put it at the bottom yeah, even if that seems a tad bit backwards.

 

[Abnegation]

It made sense to move down the sections that currently sit in the Community Square category, when Community Square encompassed basically all non-pokemon sections. Now it makes less sense. I think we should put it on top of the forums again.

But I also think the front page of PC should look completely different, as I've mentioned elsewhere. But the first forums should be the Community Square ones, as it used to be. Or at least put it at the bottom yeah, even if that seems a tad bit backwards.

Legitimately came here to say this (again). Encouraging users to introduce themselves when they join but putting the Meet & Greet forum buried under others at the bottom is backwards. It's a first port of call, no?

Additionally, feedback and suggestions should be emboldened because your users are your most valuable idea generators and improving the forum experience should be paramount. Putting announcements discussion forums, feedback & question forums and welcome forums near the bottom is jarring and unnatural. New users should be able to introduce themselves without much digging and they should also be able to ask questions without having to swim through an already exhaustive index.

Overall I think the index is a real busy mess in terms of usability, and has been for years. There's over 2,000 words on the PokéCommunity index page, that's double the amount of content that CNN have on their index. I think the whole front page needs a serious overhaul and a lot of UX research, instead of small tweaks here and there over a decade. Less is more, the front page should be a simple guide to direct you to where you want to go. Not a 10 page Microsoft Word document.