GroupDIY - A fresh look and mobile/tablet friendliness (a work in progress)

[Ethan]

Hello Everyone.

You may have noticed our beloved GroupDIY looks a little different.
We've been getting more and more requests for a better user experience on mobile devices.  Rather than installing (and supporting) an additional plugin just to support mobile devices, it seemed as though a better solution would be to implement a fully responsive layout.

This is still a work in progress.  Some features may be broken and some parts of the site may not be fully responsive (yet).
In the coming days/weeks, I will continue to make fixes/updates as needed.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

 

[ln76d]

Good job! New design looks good (old was good too )!
On my laptop  screen  (16" - 1366 x 768 resolution)  fonts are little bit to big. White background color is too bright - my eyes hurt a lttle

 

[weiss]

No offense, but it's waaay too big everything..

 

[pucho812]

oh slick.... Awesome work ethan as usual. 8)

 

[ln76d]

No offense, but it's waaay too big everything..

I think no one will be offended, since "This is still a work in progress. "
Reporting some "issues" may be helpful

 

[JohnRoberts]

Thanks for the continuous improvement, modern web design must be tweaked for smaller screens, while apple phone screens just got a little bigger.

JR

PS: change often makes us uncomfortable, it is good to embrace change. 

 

[Indecline]

Gone for an hour and the place got a cool facelift! 

 

[weiss]

but i like the responsive design and the colors ! nice work..

 

[duantro]

Good work on updating!
Is it possible to include a tab for a non mobile look? I prefer a smaller text with the option to zoom in. I'm also noticing the iPhone option ( which appears when you tap at the bottom of the screen),  to change pages in safari isn't working.

 

[critterkllr]

Good work on updating!
Is it possible to include a tab for a non mobile look? I prefer a smaller text with the option to zoom in. I'm also noticing the iPhone option ( which appears when you tap at the bottom of the screen),  to change pages in safari isn't working.

Ditto!

And you have to click at the top to get the bottom options to come up.

 

[duantro]

Just found that tapping top pulls up menu and was reporting back.  Looks like critterkllr found it also!

 

[Ethan]

Good work on updating!
Is it possible to include a tab for a non mobile look? I prefer a smaller text with the option to zoom in. I'm also noticing the iPhone option ( which appears when you tap at the bottom of the screen),  to change pages in safari isn't working.

There is no non-mobile look.  The look is consistent across all devices, just resizes to accommodate available screen size.
On iphone, the bottom has been disabled to maximize view area. Tap the top of the screen to bring it up.  This was to make it behave more like a native app--you can now save it to your 'home screen' too like apps by tapping the top then when the bottom bar comes up, tap the middle icon, then select 'add to home screen').

Any change takes some getting used to. Give it some time.  It will continue to be an active work in progress.

 

[critterkllr]

Good work on updating!
Is it possible to include a tab for a non mobile look? I prefer a smaller text with the option to zoom in. I'm also noticing the iPhone option ( which appears when you tap at the bottom of the screen),  to change pages in safari isn't working.

There is no non-mobile look.  The look is consistent across all devices, just resizes to accommodate available screen size.
On iphone, the bottom has been disabled to maximize view area. Tap the top of the screen where your address bar / time is.  This was to make it behave more like a native app--you can now save it to your 'home screen' too like apps by tapping the top then when the bottom bar comes up, tap the middle icon, then select 'add to home screen')

I don't understand why standard iphone web functions would be disabled. It's not a huge deal, but I browse this site and many others daily.

If you could allow for a non-mobile site (like other sites and forums), to be viewed on the phone, that would be great. I hate scrolling for days and much prefer the standard format.

 

[Spiritworks]

Looks good on my Kindle with the 8" screen. Much easier to read now.

 

[pucho812]

Possible to change color on the white background? It's a little bright around here...

 

[mitsos]

haven't tried it on a tablet or phone yet but on my 15" macbook pro everything seems too big.  Zooming sort of fixes that.

But I think what makes the sizing seem large is that everything is white (top, bottom, sidebars + text part) and all the posts sort of blend together.  A little more contrast would be good.

thanks!

 

[bruno2000]

Is the "read unread posts" option missing?
Best,
Bruno2000

 

[sr1200]

Awesome, i dig it! 

 

[jstark]

No offense, but it's waaay too big everything..

pc:
CTRL+-

mac:
CMND+-

 

[Kingston]

I am blinded by the onslaught  of very bright white. It will take minutes to adjust. But maybe my body appreciates the possibly increased dose of vitamin D.

I've been reading with an ipad for years and never had a problem with the old layout. For electronics cramming as much info into a small area was always required and this hasn't changed - circuits have only gotten more complex. Now it's like someone expanded all the old A4 schematics to A3 and I ran out of workspace.

As much as I admire the effort to please a phone-based minority, I have to down vote reading double sized text with a light bulb as the background.

Also, zooming on a tablet or a mobile is a one hand pinch operation and couldn't be easier. Random keyboard shortcut doesn't compare.

[edit]

Forgot to say, looks very fresh and clean. But what about the concept of this forum as an actual tool. Ergonomics matter.