Overall design: Impressive in that it appears to incorporate virtually every feature of the other site. Text and background colors are pleasant, and contrast appears to be optimal.
User Interface: Most immediate and positive observation is that the text sizes have all been scaled upwards
making it a more reader-friendly site for those of us who are visually impaired. That's huge for me. Otherwise
I can't see any really negative navigation issues.
One question about the layout of the default page. Can this layout be emulated globally on all other pages? Just wondering. I like the right-hand margin features like "members online now", "forum statistics", Gallery Statistics", "Share This Page", and so on. Not simply over their functionality, but that they scale back the screen real real estate relavent to page width. That it's inherently better design not to have people having to read a thread that spans across a widescreen. Much more user-friendly. Just a thought, anyways providing it's even possible.
While the layout is different, I find it more intuitive. Especially with the dropdown menus that consolidate more infomation (such as the user-member, inbox and alerts menus.) Nice touch with dialogue boxes showing up with mouseovers on thread titles. Easy, faster navigation. Posting in basic threads seemed easy enough, as well as all the text formatting afforded each user.
Shoutbox Function: Overall very good, again noting upscaled text. Formatting choices look good, function well,
although there doesn't appear to be a way to alter the font sizes inside the shout box. Could be a drawback for
some users. I especially like the option of the shoutbox as a separate popup as opposed to occupying the top
portion of the default forums page. Personally I find this more functional, but opinions may vary.
Media & Blogs: Of all the features and functions, the media page was the one that probably took me the most time to understand. I'm just not willing to categorically say there's any fault in the layout or design...maybe I'm just slow on the uptake. However I ultimately figured it out...put up an album and successfully uploaded a graphic with a caption.
The blogging function seemed easier. Text formatting options all appeared to work fine. Not sure about importing graphic attachments or syntax issue pertinent to markup language as King_Oni noted in the shoutbox. (Blade Runner's Christmas photos showed links to photos, but weren't functional.)
I'm assuming for security purposes that this forum software automatically filters out non-authorized domains pertinent to embedded source code like .swf files. It appears that way. I'd just hate to see anyone be able to embed such code from a domain no one knows anything about.
I have to say I'm very impressed to see a forum of this size migrated to a new format with no real loss of functionality. We may be Aspies and somewhat resistant to change, but I think most members are going to like this new forum.
Well done, Brent.
