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22:20, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

New site design.

Posted by jase
jase
admin, 3697 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 02:22

Re: RPoL Design Update

A few quick things;

Popped a link on the main menu to this forum.  Had been meaning to, thanks for the prompt.

Font size is larger than the current site, about 15% larger so not sure why the font size issue.

Fixed closed/notice icons.  Think I was going to change the way it was done for compatibility issues but left it as it was going to be implement, let me know if any browsers don't show the icons.

GM private group screen is very wide due to the number of groups.  Refuses to side-scroll at the moment but working in it.

Have to cut it short for now but thanks for the feedback, will read more in-depth later!
Aethulred
member, 8 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 03:29
  • msg #235

Re: RPoL Design Update

Noted an issuetoday where it did not acknowledge that I had read the message and kept it marked as new...
nauthiz
subscriber, 619 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 06:11
  • msg #236

Re: RPoL Design Update

So, with the recent changes, noticed something odd with the vertical spacing of certain text elements.

It's very pronounced on mobile.

https://i.imgur.com/ihg4C9x.jpg

Though even via a desktop machine there's still some text dipping down into the "border" line that seems like it's supposed to contain it.

https://i.imgur.com/aAOgtoB.jpg
nauthiz
subscriber, 620 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 06:14
  • msg #237

Re: RPoL Design Update

Aethulred:
Noted an issuetoday where it did not acknowledge that I had read the message and kept it marked as new...


You might try clearing your browser's cookies and trying again, especially if you're bouncing between the "classic" site and the responsive one on the same device.  It has been an occasional issue for years and typically clearing the cookies takes care of it.
Skald
moderator, 870 posts
Whatever it is,
I'm against it
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 07:15
  • msg #238

Re: RPoL Design Update

Mocked up the changes to the responsive site front screen (pre login) for clarification, mostly what I was proposing:

https://drive.google.com/file/...57H/view?usp=sharing

  • Moved preferences information to the welcome text at the top (and reworded slightly)
  • Added impossible cube logo to info block headings
  • Standardised size of info blocks (allowing four lines of text below heading) to balance them
  • Moved "games on record text" from welcome text to the Find a Game info block
  • Reworded Find a Game and Help info blocks - blue text should be set as links to the relevant subscreen

DIDN'T turn them into those buttons I was talking about (actually a better comparison would be the Tiles that Windows uses) as that's another step again, and would require some thought on the colour scheme to be used to make them stand out as a clickable element.  Might be a step too far.  ;>
jase
admin, 3698 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 07:26

Re: RPoL Design Update

Ok, fuller responses...

Larger fonts throws out all sorts of calculations.  It's already larger than what we'e got currently so confused it's not a complaint about the old site!

Will look if I can tweak the PM blue.

SunRuanEr:
is there a particular reason why you don't want to give us the option to collapse the right-hand menu up to the top?

A few reasons; Effort vs reward.  The layout is new and everyone needs time to adjust.  Lastly, having used it for quite some time, I don't think it's necessary.

Aethulred:
I also note the lack of a<Game> & < Main> menu at the top right of he page when posting

Main should be top left, called "Home".  There was some discussion about whether to call it Home or "Main Menu".  I've actually avoided Home as I think on RPoL it could be confused with going back to the game "home" screen.  Might go change it shortly actually so could well become "Main Menu"!  (c;

Game link should be on the brown menu; This forum > Game Menu.  Should be the first option.

ppwhere:
One more idea... As the content part made thinner and we have sooo much "empty" space could the portrait made bigger? Or at least a config option for it in theme? If I'm right on the Character Details part it is 102px but next to a comment it is just 50px

Tried it and it actually messed with the layout of that section, pushes it higher than it normally is.  While the name, bio etc are to the left of the portrait the "rMail" etc links are actually below it (and to the left).

Thought it was a good idea which is why I tried it, but it ends up not quite working and at first glance it also seems a bit too large and all the portraits dominate the thread.

ppwhere:
Also it looks to me <large> is not working in the new site and probably <smallcaps> too

Thanks fixed!
Pretty sure it gets larger.
Pretty sure it gets larger.
Pretty sure it gets larger.
Pretty sure it gets larger.

(If you've got a custom theme make sure you update it to get the latest changes.)

ppwhere:
And one last bug, alignment in easy tables looks dead as well right now...

Thought I'd fixed that one, will have to check it out some more.

ppwhere:
These probably well known problems as if I'm right you are working on the css now, just wanted to flag up them in case you didn't know about them

Always a tricky one.  Some I know about and have been ignoring, others are on the to-do list and then lastly there's some that I'm unaware of.  Just raise them here and I'll do my best to fix them pretty quickly if they're not a really stubborn problem.

ppwhere:
And hopefully a last css problem... Character details and easy tables again. 100% in the classic site meant that the full width of the current character sheet which could be used to create some very neat character sheets... In the responsive site 100% means a preset max width which makes it much less useful... If this is how it is designed to work I'll just replace it with some more hardcoded width settings so there are some options...

Have just hacked in something quickly, give it a go I don't have any good examples to test it against.

Raddek:
Jase, thanks for all the work on the responsive site - The one thing I've noticed in the scripting is that in the GM menu, private (language) groups, that the table for the 32 groups overlaps the "your account" sidebar.  Basically the "This page scrolls right unless you use a wide screen -->" and groups 28 through 32 overlap with the sidebar.

Oh yeah, that was one I was avoiding.  But I need prods to fix these things so fixed!  Should side-scroll now.

horus:
Yeah, I was, maybe, a bit resistant to change.  Reading over the UI recommendations jase mentioned sort of brought that home to me.  Those recommendations are based on some sound principles and the results of well-controlled studies, as I recall.

I was quite resistant to it myself, took me a while to get used to the responsive layout (have been messing with it since 2012!).  While (often self-proclaimed) experts aren't the be all and end all I had to recognise that (a) I didn't have a clue about aesthetics, typography and flow and (b) everyone was saying the exact same thing, couldn't find anyone to back up my cause!  Begrudgingly tried the responsive layout and then eventually begrudgingly admitted they were right.

That said, we do have a need for wider content than most due to character sheets (pretty much that's the only reason actually) so I did widen it.  It was originally around 65 characters per line, the 70, 80, finally 100.  Now we're at 125 and I think it makes some pages look weird (compose screen, main menu, threads with brief posts).

Aethulred:
Noted an issuetoday where it did not acknowledge that I had read the message and kept it marked as new...

As pointed out by others this will probably be due to cookies between the two sites getting confused.  Relog will help, also might seem odd but log out of rpol.net and just stay logged in to r.rpol.net.


nauthiz:
So, with the recent changes, noticed something odd with the vertical spacing of certain text elements.

Ah, thanks.  The icons were forcing the text down.  Fixed.


... and thanks Skald, looks good.  Will save that for next time!  (c;
ppwhere
member, 23 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 09:13
  • msg #240

Re: RPoL Design Update

Testing alignment in easy tables

Preset alignment with header

LeftMiddleRight
TestTestTest
TestTestTest
TestTestTest

Preset alignment with no header

TestTestTest
TestTestTest
TestTestTest

In-line alignment

LeftMiddleRight
TestTestTest
TestTestTest
TestTestTest

Looks like middle alignment is not working and for some reason left overwrites the header's default middle alignment


For character sheets I have some good examples, not sure if that is good enough for you
This message was last edited by the user at 09:17, Sun 25 Aug 2019.
nauthiz
subscriber, 621 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 09:16
  • msg #241

Re: RPoL Design Update

Question: Is there a way for players to effect the GM character sheet options of "Fixed Width, Word Wrap Off" and "Variable Width, Word Wrap On"?

I have two games I play in with nearly identically formatted sheets.  One of them keeps its formatting on narrow width screens and allows the option to scroll left/right, the other text wraps and breaks the formatting.  Some experimenting on the Beta site revealed those GM options seemed to be the culprit.  If it's set to "Variable Width" the sheet breaks, if it's set to "Fixed Width" it doesn't.

Both sheets include the <tt></tt> tags which used to be the key to keeping things nice even if the GM didn't check that option on the character sheet screen.
Ymdar
member, 6 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 11:06
  • msg #242

Re: RPoL Design Update

I'm not sure if it is just me but the new site is well pretty ugly compared to the old one. I'm sorry but this design looks like a forum where I would ask advice on how to improve my gaming PC or how to tune up my car. I understand that it probably takes a lot of work and the effort of many to improve stuff but it just feels like rpol is losing it's soul with the new skin.
jase
admin, 3699 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 14:14

Re: RPoL Design Update

In reply to ppwhere (msg # 240):

Fixed, thanks.  I think a bit of it might be broken on the old site too!


In reply to nauthiz (msg # 241):

<tt></tt> will use a fixed width font but still word wrap.  Think of it like the compose screen I'm using right now!

What you want is <pre>.  That's what setting "fixed width" for the sheet does... wraps the whole thing in a <pre></pre> block.


In reply to Ymdar (msg # 242):

I'll admit it's very different to the current site but don't agree it's ugly.  The old site certainly has a lot of charm, a bit like an old house... but like in an old house when you look at that charm you realise that walls don't meet up at 90 degree angles and everything's just a bit.. wrong.  The current site design is nineteen years old (today!), you can't claim it's not dated.  Try it on a mobile.. yeuch.

Yes the responsive site is missing some of the old charm but I don't miss editing the clutter underneath.  Some of the code is so old that's it's about to get phased out and no longer supported by browsers!

I haven't settled on the colour scheme here (heck, you guys can even create a new one and then tell me about it, I can grab your custom theme) and nor have I given up getting the horizontal twirl between messages back for some nostalgia, but I'm not going to go out of my way to make walls meet at 87 degrees.
Imladir
member, 12 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 14:46
  • msg #244

Re: RPoL Design Update

It takes some getting used to, but I think it's pretty nice once the initial "shock" has passed.
bazhsw
member, 36 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 14:56
  • msg #245

Re: RPoL Design Update

I am absolutely loving the new design.  Feels a lot better to get around on a mobile but it is really on my laptop where the look and feel shines.  It feels natural already.  I haven't noticed any bugs or difficulties yet.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 109 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 15:23
  • msg #246

Re: RPoL Design Update

jase:
I haven't settled on the colour scheme here (heck, you guys can even create a new one and then tell me about it, I can grab your custom theme)

Probably answered elsewhere, but again its early and I'm uncaffeinated, but are we going to be getting a version of the existing themes ported over to the responsive site when it goes live? (Or new and exciting themes, those would be fine too!)

(Have been playing with the custom themes more on the responsive site, and noticed that if you set the legend background to black, the icons for New Messages/Closed thread/Notice disappear, and there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust their appearance. Will they be full-color icons when live?)
This message was last edited by the user at 16:21, Sun 25 Aug 2019.
jase
admin, 3700 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 16:35

Re: RPoL Design Update

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 246):

Yes, you'll have more than "white".  Not bothering to update the other colour schemes yet as it's a moving target but it's engineered in such a way now that creating a custom theme creates a file identical to the template it's based off (except for the colours of course!) so in future if I want to create a theme I can actually use the same tool you do and grab the output.  Should make my life a bit easier and I could even outsource it!  (c;

Icons I'll probably create a light and dark set and then you tell the edit what kind of theme it is and it'll load the appropriate icon set.

Or go back to (smaller versions of) the current images we use, I think they work on both light and dark.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 110 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 18:17
  • msg #248

Re: RPoL Design Update

Well, that was an excuse to go make (mostly) a theme! (And that was kind of fun!)

Not sure if this is a case of me overlooking it, or it not being there, but I cannot for the life of me find a way to adjust the color of the light blue line above and below posts that holds the 'all'/'top'/'bottom'/page numbers information (or the color of the text within). I've adjusted everything that appears to be in any way a shade of blue in the default settings, and nothing seems to change that. Is that option missing?

Also, is the customization for the dieroller text buried somewhere strange? (Not the part at the top that says 'The RPoL Die Roller' or the 'Enter in the number of dice...' right beneath that, but the part in the rectangles that says 'Step 1: Choose the dice', 'Select dice and modifers', etc)  I've clearly changed it somehow, because it doesn't seem to match the default settings on my spouse's RPoL, but none of the options in the customizer seem to match what I've changed it to, nor does changing any of the ones that say 'text' seem to change it - I tried all of them on the off chance that the unrecognizable color was being created by some kind of opaque bleedthrough. (It's distinctly possible I'm just losing my mind here...)
Raddek
supporter, 12 posts
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 18:18
  • msg #249

Re: RPoL Design Update

Noticed one more this morning - The game map function doesn't seem to be displaying normally.  I haven't had any issues with <img src> tags, but actually uploading the game map to the site doesn't seem to display anything.  Old site still shows it normally and I even tried reuploading it just in case.
evileeyore
member, 204 posts
GURPS GM and Player
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 22:04
  • msg #250

Re: RPoL Design Update

jase:
... but I'm not going to go out of my way to make walls meet at 87 degrees.

But jase... to many 90° angles will summon the Growlithe of Tindalos...


Iä! Iä! Pokemon fhtagn!
horus
member, 851 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 23:29
  • msg #251

Re: RPoL Design Update

Some things I'm noticing while attempting to replicate my old dark theme from the "classic" site:

When viewing a topic, there's this bar above each post with the links/commands/buttons for "all" and "bottom" that shows in a bright aqua color. What's that bar called?  I can't seem to figure out where it is.  Sorry, already mentioned...

Are there plans to make the editor window follow custom color schemes in the future.  The whole reason I set up a dark scheme is so I can post at night without lighting up a dark room.  (Rough on my eyes, too, as habituated to darkness as I am.)  The window in which I type this message is stark white with black text.

It wouldn't hurt to have a "basic anatomy of the various page components.  I've kinda worked out some of this, but someone who already knows could do the job much more quickly.  (I figure we're far enough along in development some things won't change much.)

As Inspector Colombo might say, "one more thing"... the smallest Easy Grid square size appears to be rendering as a rectangle that is somewhat taller than it is wide.

+-1-+
| | | |
+---+

renders as:

   

Compare to:

+-2-+
|   |
+---+

which renders as:

 

Don't worry, I wont' take that to its ridiculous extreme.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:26, Mon 26 Aug 2019.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 111 posts
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 00:27
  • msg #252

Re: RPoL Design Update

I'll second the query above regarding the editing window. Stark white with tiny black text is painful on the eyes.

The header break line, the one that shows up with a < hr > (sans spaces), could it be made a bit thicker and wider? Currently on the responsive site, even with the default color settings, it's so thin as to be barely noticeable, and doesn't go all the way across the text window width (even when the window is narrowed, there is a significant gap between the break line and the edges).

I've put in a couple more hours of fiddling around, and still can't seem to figure out any way to tweak that light blue/aqua line above and below posts (also the same line that appears right now above my post preview saying 'Preview Post' and below the editing window saying 'Previous Posts'). Still can't figure out how to adjust the text on the dieroller window, either. *goes to keep looking*

Edit: I do have to say, you were (mostly!) right about the section width, jase. I did extend the line width to 1600 on my settings, so it's a wee bit bigger than the base settings, I admit (and I like it that way), but once I fiddled with the theme and darkened things up to make the thread window/portraits section a distinct color from the space to the right, it made the change in size significantly less noticeable. Now it's less 'oh god, things are surrounded by empty space' and more 'huh, there's space to the right, but whatevs'. You were right, that space to the right just blends in after a while.
This message was last edited by the user at 11:55, Mon 26 Aug 2019.
jase
admin, 3701 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 16:15

Re: RPoL Design Update

SunRuanEr:
Not sure if this is a case of me overlooking it, or it not being there, but I cannot for the life of me find a way to adjust the color of the light blue line above and below posts that holds the 'all'/'top'/'bottom'/page numbers information


SunRuanEr:
Also, is the customization for the dieroller text buried somewhere strange?

They're MIA at the moment.  Need to finalise the CSS behind that so the customisations aren't available yet.


horus:
Are there plans to make the editor window follow custom color schemes in the future.  The whole reason I set up a dark scheme is so I can post at night without lighting up a dark room.

Good point, update your theme.


horus:
the smallest Easy Grid square size appears to be rendering as a rectangle

Fixed!  Thanks.


Raddek:
Noticed one more this morning - The game map function doesn't seem to be displaying normally.  I haven't had any issues with <img src> tags, but actually uploading the game map to the site doesn't seem to display anything.  Old site still shows it normally and I even tried reuploading it just in case.

I can't see any issue with the game maps, just managed to upload three random maps to different groups, seemed to work fine...

Not the old browser refresh issue is it?
horus
member, 852 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 18:33
  • msg #254

Re: RPoL Design Update

Wow... I was considering a suggestion for setting up a bug tracking system, but it appears you get 'em kilt purty quick, jase.

"The only good bug is a dead bug!"

Thanks, man.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 112 posts
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 18:46
  • msg #255

Re: RPoL Design Update

Sweet! Dark editing window w/white text AND a non-aquablue navigation bar.

I see you there, sneaking in the navigation bar settings without saying anything!
The Stray
member, 114 posts
When the Cat's a Stray
the Mice will Pray
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 18:57
  • msg #256

Re: RPoL Design Update

I'm not sure if this is an issue for anyone but me, but the Text Styles (Serif at least, I'm not sure about Monotype or Cursive) don't seem to be working on the responsive site. They still work fine on the old site.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 113 posts
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 19:08
  • msg #257

Re: RPoL Design Update

In reply to The Stray (msg # 256):

It's not just  you. Bold, Italics, and Smallcaps are the only ones that appear to be working at the moment for me, as well. Monotype, Cursive, and Serif are not.
nauthiz
subscriber, 622 posts
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 22:56
  • msg #258

Re: RPoL Design Update

jase:
nauthiz:
So, with the recent changes, noticed something odd with the vertical spacing of certain text elements.

Ah, thanks.  The icons were forcing the text down.  Fixed.


While most of the forums seem to have plenty of space between threads now, the Wanted Players forum still shows the text overlapping in some cases.

It only seems to be an issue where both the game name is long enough to cause the text to wrap, creating a second line, and the time/date/user/genre/system lines are long enough that they wrap to 3 lines vertically.

One or the other isn't an issue, just when they're both present.
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