Adaptive STW

So. It’s all a bit different 🙂

The feedback is already being worked on. Ali has a growing document of tweaks and bug fixing reports that we are documenting with your help.

Here’s a non exhaustive collection of our very early thoughts.

– The link to the Forum overview page from within a thread will return. That’s one of those obvious things that you completely don;t see until it’s too late 🙂

– The advertising positions and what’s in them will settle down in the next day or so. The general aim has been to reduce the ads around the page and use them in a less intrusive manner within stories.

– We’ve reduced the ad positions in the RH column on desktops.

– The shortening of the forum thread titles was to truncate things so that each thread is displayed on a single line on the screen for mobile. There’s a lot of data displayed for each thread on a desktop and we had to lose some of it to adapt it for mobile. Thanks for pointing out that the page count is no longer there, which was used to go directly to the latest page in a thread. We are thinking hard about bringing you a solution to that that maintains the single line approach to mobile.

– We’ve made it clearer to see what type of stories you are reading by displaying the categories on the stories on the front page. These categories are, of course, clickable to take you to similar content.

– Sponsored stories are better labelled now so you are aware that a commercial partner is involved in producing it BEFORE you click on the story to read it.

– We are aware of some font sizing issues and they are fairly high up the list of bug fixes. For example the font size is too small in the forum post entry box. There’s also a bug that reduces the size of the font following the insert of a quote.

– Pinch and zoom – We are aware of the issues with different browsers. Our plan is to eliminate the need entirely. I’d like to see a editable font size controls. We are looking into it.

That’s all for now. But keep feeding back 🙂

@Gary_M If you have your browser window sized quite narrow then you get the tablet/phone version and there’s a fixed bar at the top with the hamburger menu and “Singletrack” banner. Make your browser window wider (doesn’t have to be full screen) and you’ll get the desktop version. This happens automatically so you don’t need to refresh the page.

This is how adaptive/responsive websites work, the browser knows how big its viewing window is and uses the relevant formatting based on that.

No “post last updated column” (chrome/android/phone). If that’s combined with a “show threads updated since last visit” function it’ll be reet

In general it does look better Mark, especially on mobile. 6 months time and I’m sure we’ll all be wondering why we thought the old one was better.

Gary_M – Member

Ah the singletrack banner thing is only there if you view in a reduced size browser – viewing full screen removes it, but I don’t view full screen in work.

Oh yes, having it on half screen or a small screen (phone/pad I guess) make it jump from the normal desktop setup to the ‘adaptive’ mobile style shrunk format, rather than a side-ways scroll bar. Yes they probably need to think about that Singletrack header for people who use it that way on a desktop.

– We’ve made it clearer to see what type of stories you are reading by displaying the categories on the stories on the front page. These categories are, of course, clickable to take you to similar content.

– Sponsored stories are better labelled now so you are aware that a commercial partner is involved in producing it BEFORE you click on the story to read it.

Still amazes me how much effort is put into the front page when I almost never go there, I cant be the only one Im sure 😆

It’s on the list

So. It’s all a bit different

It’s not the bits that are different that I have a problem with, it’s the bits that obviously don’t work.
That list should have been a much shorter list before the new site was released.

I’m using up to date IE on a Windows laptop, and it’s very buggy, and Chrome on an Android phone, and it’s very buggy. Like someone else has said, they’re hardly outlandish browser/device combinations.

Ali has a growing document of tweaks and bug fixing reports that we are documenting with your help.

Poor ALi should have been given more time to iron a lot of the stuff out before you had him release the site to production.

Make your browser window wider and you’ll get the desktop version

But I don’t want the window wider, I want to browse in stealth mode in an office environment but I’ve found a workaround now.

Ah – if I ask my browser to give me the Desktop version I get the main forum page the old way but each thread I open is in the new format. That’s neat.

It’s changed??
*makes note to book optician’s appointment in the new year*

EDIT Oooh, the “Send Post” button is a very retro sage green now 🙂

Whole thing looks great to me, (iphone 6s and iMac 27″). Nice work guys

So you want to force the browser to a less stealthy mode to be stealthy?

Widen the window to 1000px (which on my monitor is about half the overall display width) and you’ll get the desktop version which is just as understated and doesn’t have the banner.

Looks fresh, works fine, ju allow font selection on front page. And the could you use use developer who knows something other than iOS. I can’t read the threads on the front page!

This on a BlackBerry OS10 Passport running opera. Not looked on the ipad as I’m sure I was tested thoroughly.

A few tweaks for buttons is minor by comparison, but would also be welcome.

Whole thing looks great to me, (iphone 6s and iMac 27″).

Ooh, lovely. Now, for the 90% of the user population that use Android and Windows…

Widen the window to 1000px

I don’t want to widen the window, that’s the whole point.

As I’ve said I have it running in super stealth mode now with a couple of add ons.

Looks good on the iPhone.

Ooh, lovely. Now, for the 90% of the user population that use Android and Windows

I dont have any issues in with explorer on my PC in a wider window, the issues seem to be the narrow window/mobile style format. Font size, smiles, header banner, etc.

Ooh, lovely. Now, for the 90% of the user population that use Android and Windows..

Back of the queue mate. Mark has stats showing that STW users favour Apple products.

Widen the window to 1000px (which on my monitor is about half the overall display width) and you’ll get the desktop version

On my laptop it needs to be at least 3/4 of the screen width to get “desktop” which is much wider than I usually want the browser. In mobile mode the different format isn’t a problem but the monstrous font size definitely is.

The other thing is that (logged in as premier) in desktop mode 1/3 of the window is taken up by the blank strip down the RHS where the ads aren’t, which I can’t get rid of becase it switches to mobile when I squeeeze the browser window down…

Mark has stats showing that STW users favour Apple products.

Never ask a man if he prefers Apple products; if he does prefer Apple products, he’ll tell you

Was just thinking it looks pretty good on my old iPad, but the font for posts is a bit too large… but Scotroute’s last post has a completely different size font (too small) to all the other posts!
(The frozen Singletrack banner needs to go I reckon.)

Ooh, lovely. Now, for the 90% of the user population that use Android and Windows…

[Jeremy Clarkson Smug Voice]Quit wasting all your time on Internet forums, and soon enough you may be able to afford to upgrade to Apple products too![/Jeremy Clarkson Smug Voice]

😉

lol @ upgrade

Quit wasting all your time on Internet forums, and soon enough you may be able to afford to upgrade to Apple products too

You’re right, I should quit the subsistence existence of IT contracting and get myself the kind of cash cow that is a bike shop 😉

@IHN, given that I’m using Chrome (which last time I checked was available on other platforms), I don’t see what your point is? 😕

You’re right, I should quit the subsistence existence of IT contracting and get myself the kind of cash cow that is a bike shop

It’s a hard life making all this money, but somebody’s got to do it! 😆

Android newest version and latest Chrome Well text size is all over the place, single tap to return to the forum is gone (my preference is always least clicks/taps) last post time missing is annoying especially for those of us in different time zones.
Personally the web version worked really well on my phone before. Will take a bit of getting used to (nothing much leaping put as an improvement here)

I don’t see what your point is?

Which one? I’ve made a few.

We are thinking hard about bringing you a solution to that that maintains the single line approach to mobile

Why? Nothing wrong with it falling to a couple of lines if necessary.

@elliptic – the RH side has the “Don’t miss” block at the top so that’s what’s causing that column to remain in view regardless of whether there are ads there or not.

Pinch and zoom – We are aware of the issues with different browsers. Our plan is to eliminate the need entirely.

A quick pinch zoom into images etc is very very useful. Be a shame to loose that.

Aye, font sizes seem to be completely random. Several in the same post sometimes.

In iOS (not sure about Android) double tapping on any block element makes that element take up the full width of the device. This works on elements that are also links as the browser waits (350ms) for the second tap and only follows the link if the second tap isn’t forthcoming.

How about thread title in smaller font on line 1, then line 2 is number of posts, originator and page jump options?

Worried that I might miss gift giveaway day 19 😐

In iOS (not sure about Android) double tapping on any block element makes that element take up the full width of the device. This works on elements that are also links as the browser waits (350ms) for the second tap and only follows the link if the second tap isn’t forthcoming.

Same on android, which used to work great on the old layout, but doesn’t work at all on the new.

OK. To get to most recent post on the EU referendum thread (though would anyone want to) I now have to click on the 3 dots icon then select the last page. That’s one more click than previously.

Might as well ditch the topic icon next to each post and that’ll save 18px or so with the padding.

@elliptic – the RH side has the “Don’t miss” block at the top so that’s what’s causing that column to remain in view regardless of whether there are ads there or not.

I know. But previously I could squeeze the browser window and it fell off the side (with a scroll bar to bring it back over).

Now I can’t, the site switches to mobile instead.

Working well on my iPhone 6s
I like it

acidtest – Member
Might as well ditch the topic icon next to each post and that’ll save 18px or so with the padding.

Using a different colour or font style for the different forums would still allow them to be identified in Overview