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Board Index Concept [WIP]

Started by Mick., May 03, 2020, 10:52:01 AM

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Mick.

Been working on a board index concept. Sure, it's not new but sure seems pretty nifty. I use something similar in my own forum ( https://www.idesignsmf.com/index.php?action=forum ) Currently it's in HTML & CSS form. The PHP will be added after it's complete. No biggie.

Quick Demo: https://www.idesignsmf.com/index.php/page,board_index_concept.html


Bigguy


Jeff Lewis

I like that! Looks pretty nice!
Co-Founder of SMF

Doug Heffernan

It looks pretty neat and sharp.

Mick.

Quote from: Bigguy on May 03, 2020, 11:54:12 AM
Looks real good. I like it.
Thank you!

Quote from: Jeff Lewis on May 03, 2020, 11:55:46 AM
I like that! Looks pretty nice!
Thank you!!

Quote from: doug_ips on May 03, 2020, 11:58:56 AM
It looks pretty neat and sharp.
Thank you.

Still working on some kinks. Now I wonder how it would look on default theme lol. Prolly not pretty at all ;)

Bloc

Looks very good, Mick! This would also be easier to show on mobile phones I would imagine.

Now, I couldn't help but fiddle with it - its the designer in me I am afraid :P - so I hope you forgive me for showing a suggestion.   

Mick.

@bloc... not at all bruh! Looks like the post count got moved over?

Bloc

Yes, just some aligment stuff really. Image in line with of the board name and the post count etc. align with the title/description. The divider just separates the two. If you ever wanted to do child boards into this, it would be not be so bad to add a extra icon, signalling there are child boards in there. Actually showing them would proabaly ruin the layout though.

Mick.

Quote from: Bloc on May 03, 2020, 03:01:54 PM
Yes, just some aligment stuff really. Image in line with of the board name and the post count etc. align with the title/description. The divider just separates the two. If you ever wanted to do child boards into this, it would be not be so bad to add a extra icon, signalling there are child boards in there. Actually showing them would proabaly ruin the layout though.
Yup. Having a handful of links it's not cool. It would look like a link farm. I suppose once clicked you'll see the child boards.
It's pretty nifty as is. I'm the type that keeps things simple for the user.

Mick.

@bloc... I'm just wondering how the user would add the custom icon. Via theme options? That's not right, right? Maybe have them hard code it

Ricky.

That's neat.

Using Bootstrap ?

Mick.

Quote from: Ricky. on May 03, 2020, 03:15:05 PM
That's neat.

Using Bootstrap ?
Thank you. No, not at all. Just Flex grid

Dzonny

Love the idea and the design!

Bloc

Quote from: Mick. on May 03, 2020, 03:09:04 PM
@bloc... I'm just wondering how the user would add the custom icon. Via theme options? That's not right, right? Maybe have them hard code it
You mean administrators? There are a few ways to do it.. for example letting the theme look for icons named with its board ID. Another method could be adding a CSS class with the same ID, but that requires them to actually make the correct CSS code. I would think just adding the desired icons into a images subfolder within the theme, and then rename them with the board ID is the easiest concept to grasp. The theme could also show a default icon if it can't find a designated icon.

Antechinus

It'd stack well on mobile, but my initial impression is that it's not so great on desktop, because you have to hunt all over the page to find the board you want.

The problem with doing things differently is that it's easy to get an idea, and it's easy to get enthusiastic about coding it for a change, and it's easy for everyone to say it's awesome just because it's different, but then you have to stop being enthusiastic and sit back and think about it. Is it really better, in terms of UX?

Mick.

Quote from: Antechinus on May 03, 2020, 05:54:05 PM
It'd stack well on mobile, but my initial impression is that it's not so great on desktop, because you have to hunt all over the page to find the board you want.

The problem with doing things differently is that it's easy to get an idea, and it's easy to get enthusiastic about coding it for a change, and it's easy for everyone to say it's awesome just because it's different, but then you have to stop being enthusiastic and sit back and think about it. Is it really better, in terms of UX?
Yup, this isnt for everyone. Especially for those who have a hundred boards. Me, in this case, I only run 9 boards lol

Antes

Very nice looking design, hopefully we see it in theme site soon(TM).

Mick.

Quote from: Antes on May 03, 2020, 06:30:09 PM
Very nice looking design, hopefully we see it in theme site soon(TM).
That's the thing...I'm debating whether to be on a custom theme or just simply share the boardindex.template file hehhee... either way, I'm cool with it

Antes

I end up trying things for Bastion and share its bits and part separately...

Mick.

Quote from: Antes on May 03, 2020, 07:02:26 PM
I end up trying things for Bastion and share its bits and part separately...
I know right? Either way, does not matter. Everyone knows who did it

Decent_946

Truly speaking, I had the same design in my mind. But wallah! You have all setup! I'm really grateful to see such a design. It's indeed way better then my visions. Your designing always inspires me to look for new concepts. Waiting for its release!

Just wanna know what layout style would topics be having? Same grid style as this or default table style?
Thankx to RebellioN

lurkalot

Quote from: Mick. on May 03, 2020, 06:39:06 PM
Quote from: Antes on May 03, 2020, 06:30:09 PM
Very nice looking design, hopefully we see it in theme site soon(TM).
That's the thing...I'm debating whether to be on a custom theme or just simply share the boardindex.template file hehhee... either way, I'm cool with it

Mick,  would it be possible for you make us a portal block snippet using this, please? I'm sure it would come in very handy.  ;)

Kindred

this is, in fact, doable with almost all CSS in 2.1 :D
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

webtiryaki

Hello nice thought parts are equal, a little trouble instead of a flexible design would not be better example.

http://smftheme.byethost18.com/index.php?theme=8

Antechinus

Quote from: Kindred on May 04, 2020, 12:46:54 PM
this is, in fact, doable with almost all CSS in 2.1 :D

Well if you wanna be like that, I reckon it'd be doable in 2.0 as well. Not that there's much advantage in sticking with default markup in either case, but you could do it if you wanted to.

Kindred

well, the "advantage" as it were is less mucking about with code and potentially simple mods and upgrades. :D

Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Antechinus

Yeah, in theory. Although it depends how bonkers you have to go with CSS to get the result you want. CSS is mucking about with code too. ;)

Bloc

It really doesn't matter which version it is..both are based on another concept of boardindex initially, so you have to change html or css anyway..or both. What is important is how much you can change and also benefit elsewhere, at least IMO. Neither version holds the advantage since the boardindex are such a special beast, not repeated anywhere else. Messageindex or display templates on the other hand....

But above all, I just think its great someone does new things in layout. :)

Antechinus

Yes board index is a bit of an odd one out, to some extent. But then if you have child boards your message index template will be displaying a combination of board index and message index. Personally I like them to look like they belong together. Although you could still do this anyway, by having different board presentation for the child boards on message index.

I can see Mick's board index working well if you only have a few boards, but on a site like this one, where you have stacks of boards, I think a more conventional arrangement is probably better.

Gwenwyfar

Interesting. One thing I had done before was use the fact you can do html in board's descriptions to turn the description of one board into two (or more) side-by-side sub-boards content. In this case the link to the parent board was not even available because it was a placeholder to consolidate both sub-boards.
"It is impossible to communicate with one that does not wish to communicate"

Bloc

Quote from: Antechinus on May 05, 2020, 03:39:25 AM
Yes board index is a bit of an odd one out, to some extent. But then if you have child boards your message index template will be displaying a combination of board index and message index. Personally I like them to look like they belong together. Although you could still do this anyway, by having different board presentation for the child boards on message index.

I can see Mick's board index working well if you only have a few boards, but on a site like this one, where you have stacks of boards, I think a more conventional arrangement is probably better.

One idea i played around with for a bit, was using containers like these for only the categories. The trouble was how to present the boards within..I landed on a (semi)normal boardindex, but with categories placed on the side of it - each one will show its boards when clicked upon, intially it just shows them all. 

simplengmakina

Nice fresh take on the board index concept! Tap friendly look.

Antechinus

The other thing you could do if you have a lot of boards is simplify the presentation. If you just had the board icon and the board name it would be a lot easier to scan the grid in a hurry, because it'd be less vulnerable to the TMI effect. With nothing much to distract you from the board names it should scan pretty well.

Mick.

I'm thinking a flip card or even a pull down drawer to display childboards on click instead of hover...

Mick.


aryansindy

yes that's a nice design I have one like that too,
(Zaxo Theme1 SMF2.1RC2)

Demo :

Zaxo Theme1


Mick.

Quote from: aryansindy on May 09, 2020, 02:54:52 PM
yes that's a nice design I have one like that too,
(Zaxo Theme1 SMF2.1RC2)

Demo :

Zaxo Theme1


Very cool dude

Mick.

This is completely stupid. I can't edit my post. Sigh.

Antechinus

Lol. Yeah it's blink and you miss it.

Mick.


Antechinus

Gave me the ******s when I was doing yhe mutant thread. Make a change to a beta and you can't do anything about earlier posts or attachments. Grmpph and bugger. :P

Gwenwyfar

Quote from: Mick. on May 09, 2020, 04:37:07 PM
This is completely stupid. I can't edit my post. Sigh.
I've been saying this for a while, or probably, since this limit was added: more time, please? 1 day sounds about fine.

Quote from: Antechinus on May 09, 2020, 05:52:06 PM
Gave me the ******s when I was doing yhe mutant thread. Make a change to a beta and you can't do anything about earlier posts or attachments. Grmpph and bugger. :P
And this made me realize a separate permission to edit the first post of a topic makes sense with this.
"It is impossible to communicate with one that does not wish to communicate"

Antechinus

No, not the theme release thread. The monster thread for the betas and RC's. There's heaps of stuff there I would have edited for less confusion if it was possible. Not that it matters now, since it's a dead topic, but it was irritating at the time.

Gwenwyfar

Ah, yes.

It's just a sticky situation with certain topics like mods/themes as well, where authors can't edit them. Though I think now it auto-updates with the description in the theme/mod site, at least.
"It is impossible to communicate with one that does not wish to communicate"

StarredSkies

I adore how modern and clean this looks. Nice job!

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