Hi everybody,
I recently changed from JomSocial to Easysocial and I am VERY HAPPY with EasySocial. It is much better organized, more stable, the support is outstanding, it was a really good decision to switch over.
So please take this posting as "requests" and not as critics. EasySocial is already a great piece of software, and this suggestions are just to make it even better. ;-)
It´s about the acticity-stream. The activity-stream is one of the most important parts on the website, because it shows the guests "what is happening". Having that in mind, and also having other examples from other scripts in mind, I would love to see some developement in terms of layout/design into this directions:
The acticity-stream does not look "sorted"
The reason is all the thin lines. On a light page, it is very diffictult to see the frame of a single actitvity. If the activity-box would have a light shadow, if the header would have a light grey background, this would make it much easier to get the activities "sorted" in the mind.
The activity-stream needs go get more "compact"
Most activities take too much space. For example a Kunena-activity, which is some of the worst example:
Usually it takes two lines in the header (with the topic and the thread-title includet in the header). The third line is the time, which makes only the header already three (!) lines of thext.
Beneath that is the quoted post. No way to shrink it. This takes LOTS of space
But still in the "content-part" of the activity are the links "see answer" and "show thread".
Beneath that, in the footer, again three links and one icon.
One of the links is "comment", which makes no sense on a forum-posting. This could divide a discussion, while some users are discussing in the forum and others start the discussion in the activity-stream.
Now imagine:
If one user writes an endless (and useless) post in the forum, this brings up an endless (and useless) post on my frontpage through the activity-stream. If this would be limited, there would be much more space for different activities in the stream. And if a user wants to read the post ... he should click on it! And there is no need for a "show thread"-link in the content, while the header is linked to the forum.
I personally think:
One line for the header, three or four for the content, one line at the bottom, an image of the posting user at the side, that should be enough.
The activities need more "emotional impact"
Take friendships for example:
It´s just the linke "is friend with" and one single image. Users don´t start "reading" about friendships. Bringing the two avatars togehter has much more impact. "Avatar 1 is now friend of Avatar 2". This would be totally enough.
There should be at least bouth images, so it has some emotional impact. Avatars in the activity-stream should have a tooltip like avatars in the online-list.
Avatar-Changes need another layout
When a user uploads a new avatar, there is way too much space in the activity.
The avatar is shown in the content, but the whole side is empty. Maybe a shorter avtivity with no content but the new avatar as a tooltip could make it better.
Well, this is all my personal thoughts, but I would love if other users would share theire opinion.
Just as an example what I mean: The layout of Tigra (for JomSocial) is not perfect, but there are some things that I like in the layout:
http://tigracon.com/tigra.html
1. The frame is easier to see. The header has a light grey, also the footer.
2. The 2-column-layout make all more compact. It allows a better use of the space.
3. Discussions inside of activities are collapsed. Saves space.
When I look on a tigra-page I see 6-8 activities on one screen and it still seesm "sorted" to me.
If I watch the EasySocial-stream, I only can see 2-3 activities and they still seem like a mess to me: I have to concentrage to find out, where a new activity starts, where a comment is in and stuff like that.
I would love if you could have a look on improving the activity-stream in the next releases.
All the best, Julian!
I recently changed from JomSocial to Easysocial and I am VERY HAPPY with EasySocial. It is much better organized, more stable, the support is outstanding, it was a really good decision to switch over.
So please take this posting as "requests" and not as critics. EasySocial is already a great piece of software, and this suggestions are just to make it even better. ;-)
It´s about the acticity-stream. The activity-stream is one of the most important parts on the website, because it shows the guests "what is happening". Having that in mind, and also having other examples from other scripts in mind, I would love to see some developement in terms of layout/design into this directions:
The acticity-stream does not look "sorted"
The reason is all the thin lines. On a light page, it is very diffictult to see the frame of a single actitvity. If the activity-box would have a light shadow, if the header would have a light grey background, this would make it much easier to get the activities "sorted" in the mind.
The activity-stream needs go get more "compact"
Most activities take too much space. For example a Kunena-activity, which is some of the worst example:
Usually it takes two lines in the header (with the topic and the thread-title includet in the header). The third line is the time, which makes only the header already three (!) lines of thext.
Beneath that is the quoted post. No way to shrink it. This takes LOTS of space
But still in the "content-part" of the activity are the links "see answer" and "show thread".
Beneath that, in the footer, again three links and one icon.
One of the links is "comment", which makes no sense on a forum-posting. This could divide a discussion, while some users are discussing in the forum and others start the discussion in the activity-stream.
Now imagine:
If one user writes an endless (and useless) post in the forum, this brings up an endless (and useless) post on my frontpage through the activity-stream. If this would be limited, there would be much more space for different activities in the stream. And if a user wants to read the post ... he should click on it! And there is no need for a "show thread"-link in the content, while the header is linked to the forum.
I personally think:
One line for the header, three or four for the content, one line at the bottom, an image of the posting user at the side, that should be enough.
The activities need more "emotional impact"
Take friendships for example:
It´s just the linke "is friend with" and one single image. Users don´t start "reading" about friendships. Bringing the two avatars togehter has much more impact. "Avatar 1 is now friend of Avatar 2". This would be totally enough.
There should be at least bouth images, so it has some emotional impact. Avatars in the activity-stream should have a tooltip like avatars in the online-list.
Avatar-Changes need another layout
When a user uploads a new avatar, there is way too much space in the activity.
The avatar is shown in the content, but the whole side is empty. Maybe a shorter avtivity with no content but the new avatar as a tooltip could make it better.
Well, this is all my personal thoughts, but I would love if other users would share theire opinion.
Just as an example what I mean: The layout of Tigra (for JomSocial) is not perfect, but there are some things that I like in the layout:
http://tigracon.com/tigra.html
1. The frame is easier to see. The header has a light grey, also the footer.
2. The 2-column-layout make all more compact. It allows a better use of the space.
3. Discussions inside of activities are collapsed. Saves space.
When I look on a tigra-page I see 6-8 activities on one screen and it still seesm "sorted" to me.
If I watch the EasySocial-stream, I only can see 2-3 activities and they still seem like a mess to me: I have to concentrage to find out, where a new activity starts, where a comment is in and stuff like that.
I would love if you could have a look on improving the activity-stream in the next releases.
All the best, Julian!