Official CrackBerry Redesign Thread!

[Tazos]

Just a dead link....in devices when you click on storm2 it brings you back to the main page.

[John Yester]

Originally Posted by Tazos

Just a dead link....in devices when you click on storm2 it brings you back to the main page.

Works for me, top bar and also in main device forum section.

[deRusett]

SOO NOT a fan!

the spacing between sections is HUGE!
it easily could be cut in half there does not been to be a 50% cell padding, maybe there is logic to this, but I can't see it.

the contrasts are slightly harder on the eyes first thing in the morning, I think I need to make CB my second site to visit in the morning, as the contrasts are not so harsh after being on the PC for 10 min or so, but they are harsh on first view.


Having been on other sites that list top posters/ most acclaimed, and such they always ended up having 2 or 3 people "fighting" with useless posts to take the claim, the vanity of seeing ones name. just a concern.


I also get the feeling the site has been formatted slightly thinner, not much about 20-50 pixels, but enough I feel a little squeezed in

the colours between the post and the posters header is nice, as are the new icons. I don't want to be completely negative, but the sheer amount of white space would have made me move on and look for another site had this been my first day on CB

[baberz]

I like the look of the new crackberry, but I do not like that there is no drop down box when you hover over Forums. Can we please bring that back??

[syb0rg]

i have one word to describe the new site



UGLY


DO NOT LIKE IT

To bright, to spaced out, it doesn't look good in my honest opinion. And the fact you guys removed the old theme is just plain goofy. Looks like i might go back to WAP only, even from a desktop.

[jlb21]

Originally Posted by jlb21

I have to agree. I think it is too cluttered, for my tastes. Trying to "make sense" of everything that's there......feels hyper to me.

Oh, and why bother with the little fade in effects when you scroll down to a new blog post/picture/section.....seems like unnecessary compute cycles.

I do like the amount of sharp color we have now, but just too much stuff.

Oh, I also do like have the 101's real easy to get to......

I appreciate greatly all the hard work. I guess I am just an old fart who doesn't like change........

Oh and the forums do look good.

So I looked late last night and did not give a good critical list of my thoughts. So, having slept and taken more time to look around, I wanted to post a little more detail about what I like and don't like.

Most importantly, again, you guys did a great job overall. A lot of hard work went into this and it is appreciated.

So, first, here's what i liked:

1) I love having the 101s and Help information easily accessible from the front page. Not a biggie for me, but for new members/visitors to the site, we want to make it easy for them to find this information. Excellent.

2) Having the OS page easily accessible. Nice and easy to find out what the latest official OS is for each device. This comes in handy for those who are always thinking about upgrading.

3) Renaming the "Blogs" to "News". This is a subtle change, but it works and is appropriate. Sure, the mods pontificate herein, justifying having called them Blogs. But the info can also almost always be classified news. And, again, for visitors, perhaps ones less technical, we don't want to scare them away or having them not visit a "blog" page because they don't know/care what that is. "News" makes sense to the masses.

4) Having the rumored devices upfront is not necessary (for me), but is another good thing to have upfront from the perspective of webcrawlers and trying to direct hits/traffic to the site.

5) The coloring in the threads themselves is nice and easy on the eyes. I like it a lot.



Now.......here's what I don't like:

1) The Fade effect. Transitions and fade effects just don't work well for me and my aging eyes. Once in a while I get migraines and often they can be triggered by funky effects and weird lighting (fluorescents especially). I don't know if that is something that can be changed, but I find it very distracting. Almost to the point that it makes me not want to ever visit the blog/home page. If it's intended to scream "oh look, you are viewing me for the first time", then it is not necessary. I just find it......ewwwwww....my eyes can't hack it....

2) As others have noted, the size of the comments is a waste and so blocky that it is hard to just focus your eyes on the comments themselves. Let's run "Shrink-a-comment-section" and save some space.

3) ...and along that same line and in agreement with others (again), the width of the bars/rows in the main forum view listing.....so wide and wasteful of space. I have to do a heck of a lot of scrolling just to get down a few sections. It's just seems excessive.

4) In the same forum view listing, the Last Post, Threads, and Posts columns...the data for these is centered vertically in their cells. The Forum Names over on the left are top-aligned vertically. That seems weird to have something top-aligned and then you try and look at the data on the left and you have to change your focus (vertically). It would be cleaner to have everything align.

5) The Accesories forum still goes to the old style forum/page. Guess what....I sort of miss that already.

6) The page for the BeAmplified contest.....I can't get my post to register. It tries and tries and I keep getting 504 timeout errors.






Again, GREAT WORK OVERALL!!!!

[berryfit]

Yeah, I have to agree with some of these posts. Its very hard to read due to...

1. Too much white space (cell padding)
2. Blog looks like its just out in space.
3. Too bright coloring for such white background
4. Liked the older, homier look....this one is trying too hard
5. New isnt better, better is better (and sometimes, old is better)
6. When you first get to the site, you have to FIND the info...the old site you were right in the mix...easier for newbies, and gives you what you want as soon as you came on. New folks only stay on a site for 7 seconds on average if they can't find what they want.

Just too spacey, too boxy and way too narrow for my liking! Sorry...I hate being critical. But it's not an improvement...I'll probably just stick to reading it on my bb.

[blak8830]

+1 on not liking how comments are formatted in blog posts. The double black "banner" headings are distracting, and take away from the comments themselves, which I agree are in too large of a font.

[yngpapii]

Im definitely loving the new overall redesign.
Suggestions/Errors:
When i went to loging there was like a sideways tab "Login" covering over the part of the username field.
Also im not to fond of the font of the text in the articles, it doesnt look as smooth to read.

Hopefully some helpful feedback.

[John Yester]

Originally Posted by yngpapii

Im definitely loving the new overall redesign.
Suggestions/Errors:
When i went to loging there was like a sideways tab "Login" covering over the part of the username field.
Also im not to fond of the font of the text in the articles, it doesnt look as smooth to read.

Hopefully some helpful feedback.

I DO believe the "Log in" sideways tab you were seeing is right and made that way. In a lot of the articles, BB helps sections you will see the "tabs" on the side.

[deRusett]

Few More Comments
I would like to see a USERCP option to not view the top 5 stats every time I load the main forum page, I don't care about them so I just shrink them, but every time I have to shrink them, it's added scrolling I don't really want to do.

Something that isn't NEW persay but has always bugged me the user bare for all the sister sites being at the top, make it floating at the bottom, or again something to hide, now we've added another line that ONLY HAS my account/log out. the site feels more and more like a 90's site that's purpose was to keep you captive, and not like the highly successful sites that came with the concept of getting you the information you need quickly and in the forefront of the site design.

[baberz]

Originally Posted by John Yester

I DO believe the "Log in" sideways tab you were seeing is right and made that way. In a lot of the articles, BB helps sections you will see the "tabs" on the side.

Then it should be moved a little more to the left because it was covering the username section for me as well...and I DON'T think that is right.

[berryfit]

Originally Posted by John Yester

I DO believe the "Log in" sideways tab you were seeing is right and made that way. In a lot of the articles, BB helps sections you will see the "tabs" on the side.

Yester, what he means, and what I also experienced is the tab actually covers over the username field as you try and type your username in.

Also, is anyone else noticing the top banner. The CB LOGO portion on upper left is missing on most pages except on the forums....

[baberz]

Originally Posted by berryfit

Yester, what he means, and what I also experienced is the tab actually covers over the username field as you try and type your username in.

Also, is anyone else noticing the top banner. The CB LOGO portion on upper left is missing on most pages except on the forums....

+1 I am seeing the same exact thing.

[John Yester]

Covering user name?



Not seeing it on log in page.