TypeDrawers Updates
James Hultquist-Todd
Posts: 417
As most of you know, the search bar has been broken for a while. The fix was to update our theme. I’ve been working on the update for a little while but if you see anything that’s broken, please let me know.
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Comments
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OMG. What a shock when I saw the new design. Looks great!8
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The site looks fantastic in your Oculi!
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There was a brief moment when I was confused as to whether I had landed on the correct web site!
It looks both more modern and more refined. Nice!6 -
I really like the new UI, but I have one request: can you add back the ability to "Mark All Discussions Read"? That was one of the best features on the old site.
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Bravo! Nice design! And you kept the "Save Draft" function not available (shame!) on some other forums!
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Glad to hear you’re all enjoying it! @George Thomas , I’ll look into that.
EDIT:
I’ve put in a request for it to be added. Hopefully, it’ll be turned on early next week.
EDIT 2:
Here’s what I got from Vanilla:All you need to do is go over any category you want and click the ellipsis, at which point you get the option to mark as read. Which them makes all those discussions within the category read for the user. There isn't a button to do this for every post on the community, the only option is for each specific category.
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@James Hultquist-Todd, thanks for looking into it.
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I miss the menu bar on the left side and I don’t like the tons of empty white space wasted.
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I feel as if I am drowning in all the white space
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Having the Discussions link pinned to the top is super helpful—I've been wanting that for a long time.0
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The sheer amount of white space does mean a lot more scrolling.
I have to admit, my first reaction when landing on the main page is… that I want to leave.
I am not completely certain why that is, but I think it is just my personal reaction to Parabolica, the new main-page interface font. It seems odd that the main page headings all use it, but nothing large on the specific thread pages does.2 -
when I start at the main page, ca. 55% of the screen space is used for the header (and a ridiculous large search bar). 15…20% would be optimal; compare with other forums.On that start page I see only the topmost two topics, anything else is hidden until I scroll like a maniac. With the old layout, at start I saw ~20 menu items on the left and ca. 10 recent discussion topics at once. So, the new layout has not half the display efficiency of the old site, rather 10% of it. That is too bad …The body text face is nice, but the topics header typeface is just dull helveticaism i.m.h.o., really sad.I have a feeling that I don’t like any more to be here.0 -
As for the use of the fonts, I find it very XXth century (not to say retrograde). Couldn't we move to something modern, and why stick to those "helveticaist" (like Andreas wrote) and other classic fonts?
There are so much modern and easy to read fonts on the market, namely those of the forum participants. Why not use them?
Please, let's move ahead!0 -
James, it looks great on mobile. Lots of people hate change, no matter what the changes may be. Indeed, some “subscribers” will always leave medium when redesign is put through, no matter which titles one considers. It just comes with the territory. Anyway, I think your update is fabulous! Keep up the good work.2
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@James Hultquist-Todd -- Regarding the "Mark Read", I have not been able to find it following their instructions. The only two things that appear for me are "Dismiss" (rarely) or "Tag" (always).[Edited to Update] -- I finally found it. I have to be on the "All Categories" page to access "Mark Read". Not very efficient, IMHO.
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Thanks for all the insights everyone!As I am woking within the boundaries of Vanilla Forums themes, there’s only so much I can deviate from their design. It’ll continue to be tweaked as time goes on.0
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I agree. I wrote to Vanilla Forums about it. I’d rather the option exist on the main menu.George Thomas said:@James Hultquist-Todd -- Regarding the "Mark Read", I have not been able to find it following their instructions. The only two things that appear for me are "Dismiss" (rarely) or "Tag" (always).[Edited to Update] -- I finally found it. I have to be on the "All Categories" page to access "Mark Read". Not very efficient, IMHO.0 -
TypeVrawers???
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We rebranded.Andreas Stötzner said:TypeVrawers???To be honest, I don’t like the big search bar either. I’m going to spend some time tomorrow exploring ways to make it smaller.0 -
For my taste, on mobile the main font of the postings is too large. It is much bigger than pretty much anything else, including the headings.
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Thank you for the efforts to update the design! Like the new color scheme. I'd be curious about a shade of blue for the red to feel a little more relaxed and less alerting, to me. But it's nice, and just new, so I imagine in time will feel more settled. Just an observation to throw out.0
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@James Hultquist-Todd I just want to say your fonts are so sick. Elfreth and Oculi are huge inspirations to me. The kind of typefaces that make me say "I wish I'd thought of that".
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That’s so kind, thank you! I wish interesting display fonts came as to me as they seem to do for you.Matthijs Herzberg said:@James Hultquist-Todd I just want to say your fonts are so sick. Elfreth and Oculi are huge inspirations to me. The kind of typefaces that make me say "I wish I'd thought of that".0 -
Does the favicon need to change to reflect the new TD icon (logo?)0
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It does; I made a new one but I haven’t uploaded it yet.0
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@Jens Kutilek I agree with your comment about the mobil font size. The forum software doesn’t give me a lot of granular control over setting type sizes but I’m exploring options.
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The changing logotype is a nice touch too... bit of freshness and inspiration. Curious, is that a planned rotating feature between a few (or many), or just experimenting with a couple styles?0
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Thanks! Just trying to find the right fit. I have been thinking about doing the Typographica masthead thing and opening it up to sponsorship. The only issue is the fonts have to be on Adobe fonts (I can't do self-hosted fonts here).1
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A few observations:
- The new body copy font is very sexy, but perhaps a bit too exuberantly original for extended reading? Especially in the Italic. At any rate, it seems to be rather underendowed with Unicode coverage; both the capital Eszett (ẞ) and even the most basic IPA symbols (like ɑ) trigger a conspicuous fallback font.
- I like the black-and-white sobriety of the main page, as well as the changing title font. However, I find it harder to distinguish read from unread thread titles these days, probably because the font's Bold isn't very assertive.
- The name tags are tiny...
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I just tried the new design on mobile and it looks good.On old issue is still there. When you go back to the list of posts from a post page, by swiping from the left edge of the screen, it shows the list page for a tiny bit. But then it does a reload and jumps to the top of the page.When using the regular back button it works as expected. (iPhone 13 with the latest system)0
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