Post by demigray on Sept 13, 2013 14:22:00 GMT
As I mentioned in my Tumblr post, I do have some more suggestions for improvement (largely based on my experience with forums/web design/etc). As I said, the site is overall pretty great so I offer these without the intent to offend or step on your toes or anything! I think as an alternative to AVEN, this forum should appear as professional as possible, because AVEN tries its best to come across that way, since it is the largest and most well-known asexuality organization. Anyway, here goes; hope they help!
1) Regarding the issue with the top title and subtitle: here is a picture of how it looks on my computer, which is why I said it looks funny on smaller screens. Perhaps you could just put a banner graphic on top instead?
2) There should be a "meta" forum for forum business, such as selecting mods, announcements regarding the board/membership, etc. I would put this thread in there as well.
3) In that board, there should be a thread of board rules. For example, this is a safe space, no name-calling, mark triggers, etc. all that stuff.
4) There could be fewer boards, as I said in my post: the "FAQ" and "Got a Question?" boards seem kind of like they serve the same purpose and I'm not sure how they're different from "About Asexuality", the pride boards could be consolidated as each pride thing doesn't need its own board, not sure if each romantic orientation needs its own board, and the asexuality spectrum doesn't need its own board.
This would make it less overwhelming for new visitors, and would make the board look less empty at first, when there's not as much activity—you would have to have multiple discussions in EACH board to make it look active. In addition, if you find that later on you need to split off and make new boards, you can do that.
5) Remove board descriptions where they are redundant (which might be in all of them, actually). You don't need to say what the board is about if the name of the board makes it obvious.
6) Is there an option for you to have custom profile fields? Because then maybe you could make one for gender and another for orientation.
7) I love the layout overall, but the background is a bit too bright—it shouldn't be the brightest thing on the page as it is distracting.
8) Be consistent in capitalizing forum names ("Got a question?" and "Am I asexual?" need to be fixed). Also use exclamation points sparingly.
9) You could expand the General section to include a board for forum games, another for "personal life" stuff, and other "fun" boards.
1) Regarding the issue with the top title and subtitle: here is a picture of how it looks on my computer, which is why I said it looks funny on smaller screens. Perhaps you could just put a banner graphic on top instead?
2) There should be a "meta" forum for forum business, such as selecting mods, announcements regarding the board/membership, etc. I would put this thread in there as well.
3) In that board, there should be a thread of board rules. For example, this is a safe space, no name-calling, mark triggers, etc. all that stuff.
4) There could be fewer boards, as I said in my post: the "FAQ" and "Got a Question?" boards seem kind of like they serve the same purpose and I'm not sure how they're different from "About Asexuality", the pride boards could be consolidated as each pride thing doesn't need its own board, not sure if each romantic orientation needs its own board, and the asexuality spectrum doesn't need its own board.
This would make it less overwhelming for new visitors, and would make the board look less empty at first, when there's not as much activity—you would have to have multiple discussions in EACH board to make it look active. In addition, if you find that later on you need to split off and make new boards, you can do that.
5) Remove board descriptions where they are redundant (which might be in all of them, actually). You don't need to say what the board is about if the name of the board makes it obvious.
6) Is there an option for you to have custom profile fields? Because then maybe you could make one for gender and another for orientation.
7) I love the layout overall, but the background is a bit too bright—it shouldn't be the brightest thing on the page as it is distracting.
8) Be consistent in capitalizing forum names ("Got a question?" and "Am I asexual?" need to be fixed). Also use exclamation points sparingly.
9) You could expand the General section to include a board for forum games, another for "personal life" stuff, and other "fun" boards.
