Suggestion Really...5 sections now for costumes??

[Monster Dave]

Hey guys,

I love the RPF, so I hope that this is only taken as constructive criticism, but the recent 'update' to the menu system has really made it a bit of a mess for costuming organization. The site went from 2 sections for costumes (replica costumes and cosplay showcase) to having now 5 sections - replica costumes, and then all the ones listed under 'popular franchises'. Not to mention, it's really confusing having a section title labeled "Costumes and Props" then having costuming also listed under "Popular Franchises".

Again, this is just my 2 cents, but I think this made it more difficult rather than more organized from both a browsing and posting stand point.

Best,

MD.

 

[Art Andrews]

I will be the first to admit, this is not the perfect solution or even the solution I wanted, but the number one complaint we have been getting for well over a year now has been "Things move to quickly on the site and because of that, my threads don't get viewed and are on page 3 within an hour." There are multiple ways this issue can be approached, but the easiest (and the one most often deployed) is to simply break extremely large forums into smaller forums. That is what we have done. We pulled out the three largest franchises and gave them their own home. This is a direct response to your (the community) desire to slow things down a bit.

 

[Monster Dave]

Thanks Art. I suppose I can see how that would slow things down. It's just unfortunate that the effort to slow things down has hindered the ease of navigation. Since the relaunch of the RPF with the new design, I think that many would agree that navigation has been one of the areas that has suffered the most. Adding more layers of complexity certainly doesn't make it easier on the end users.

I'm probably not pointing out anything that you don't already know, but I do appreciate you taking the time to reply. :thumbsup

 

[Art Andrews]

While I can see how adding more forums could slow down navigation, I am not sure how you feel the upgrade to vB 4 did. Nothing changed except that we went from icons at the top to a legitimate menu bar. While we certainly aren't going back to vB 3 (and can't go back to icons due to the number of forums), I would be interested in heading why you feel the site redesign make things more difficult.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

I'm not sure how sub-dividing has slowed down navigation.

Before when I wanted to look at costumes I would go to the costume forum and browse over the first page looking for new builds. The costume forum moved so fast and had so many bumped threads the first page was almost always a foam or pep build, or ironman. I missed a lot of good, new fabric and sewing costumes.

Now when I want to browse costumes I first click the costume forum and I've got a whole first page of new costumes because the page turns over much slower than before. There is more for me to see that isn't getting pushed down by pep and foam builds.

Then I click the SW forum and again, more costumes on the first page because the traffic is slower. I repeat with the DC page and again, more first page costumes to see that I'm not missing on seeing.

Lastly I click the Marvel page and see what's one page one.

I love this new format because I see MORE props and costumes than I ever did before. Someone commented on a SW costume thread of mine 2-3 days ago and it's still on page one, and as a result it's received more comments. Before it was bumped off page one in less than 12 hours.

I hope we keep this format, I love getting to see more builds, props and costumes.

 

[Monster Dave]

Hey Art,

I think the part that has seemed most difficult (IMO) since the transition from vB3 is the sheer number of selection/choices (clicks) that are required in order to drill down to find what it is that users may be looking for when visiting the RPF. I know there's a fair amount of conjecture out there regarding the usability of a website (ease of access) in comparison to the number of clicks it takes to arrive at a given destination, but at a time when users spend an average of 10-20 seconds on any given webpage, I think it's a fair observation to make that layering with subforums can really be a double edge sword for a parent site.

Personally, when I come to the forum, I have certain sections that I tend to visit most often; I think most people are that way. Frequently I also don't have much time to dig around to find content that's buried under layers of subsections. A great example of how that previously worked was the icon approach to root sections. It would be interesting if there were comparable navigation (click) statistics for the same sections on both the old and new sites. I'd be really curious to compare and contrast the navigational trends and see how many people entered content sections through the icon entry points rather than using the menu system as well as contrasting the click results from the menu structure on the old site to those on the new site. I imagine the traffic flow is bottle-necking more often now than in the past, but if that was the intent as part of slowing things down, then I think it worked.

From my experience, the first 5-10 seconds that a users spends on any given site are critical to determining how long they will stay. Due to so many poorly designed pages on the web, the odds are extremely high that a visitor will not stay very long. To make matters worse, when finding content becomes a struggle, many users tend to rely on search functions as a crutch to poor navigation which is often a frustrating problem on many sites as well...

In any case, as a member and visitor here, I love this site, it's my home away from home on many occasions, but the truth is that when I get frustrated with having to 'work' to find content or in this case find similar content spread out to different forum locations on the same site, it's really an unpleasant and confusing navigational experience.

I know that it must be a difficult task to manage and organize all the diverse content on the forum, so I hope that you know that I do respect the work you and the other mods put into the site. Like I've said in the past, sometimes changes aren't necessarily improvements and there's certainly no way to please everyone!!

Does that make sense?

 

[Monster Dave]

One idea I just had was deploying filter options in root sections.

For example - root section -> Costuming -> Default View (All)

Then on the menu at the top of the section have "Filter by" check boxes for the major franchises that refreshes the list view.

That approach reduces navigational confusion, improves ease of access, and ultimately sends everyone to the same root section where users can easily filter the content that they want to see.

??

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

I'll admit I hate the drop down menu as the only way to get to certain content, I really liked the one click icons we used to have before the upgrade.

I like having the drop down menus as a permanent feature, but I wish we had direct-link buttons for props, costumes, JY, SW, Marvel, DC, and OT because those are the most viewed forums.

 

[VilleLeskinen]

One idea I just had was deploying filter options in root sections.

For example - root section -> Costuming -> Default View (All)

Then on the menu at the top of the section have "Filter by" check boxes for the major franchises that refreshes the list view.

That approach reduces navigational confusion, improves ease of access, and ultimately sends everyone to the same root section where users can easily filter the content that they want to see.

??

Even though I love the new sectioning (less threads to shuffle thru with similar content) I think the idea of content filters could be usable. With this new sectioning, I've found that I'm less likely to read anything from the Marvel or DC threads when previously I'd check a few threads out just out of curiosity. I doubt I'm the only one. Just my 2 cents.

 

[EyeofSauron]

why not just have a props section and a costumes section in the navigation bar, and then have the props part under the props navigation part, and have costumes, marvel costumes, dc costumes, sw costumes, dredd costumes and original costumes under the costuming section?

i really hate that i have to go to two different navigation bars to see all costumes.
my concept above should easily clear up the separation between costume and props.

otherwise why have a prop part at all? i mean we have a separate model part, can we pls keep the seperate prop part too? its really very annoying and distracting this way

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

You know guys, back in the old days we didn't have a costume section, or a model section. We had a prop section and everything went in one forum.

Be thankful for what you've got.

Navigating the new RPF is only as hard as you make it. If seeing certain content is important to you, you'll make time to view it.

 

[Art Andrews]

Our reasoning for this was because it didn't make sense to split up franchise specific items. We couldn't rationalize a Star Wars prop forum AND a Star Wars costume forum. It would only create confusion and MORE places for you to have to visit. The general prop forum and costume forum are busy enough that they do not require a merge, but the franchise specific forums just couldn't justify it.

why not just have a props section and a costumes section in the navigation bar, and then have the props part under the props navigation part, and have costumes, marvel costumes, dc costumes, sw costumes, dredd costumes and original costumes under the costuming section?

i really hate that i have to go to two different navigation bars to see all costumes.
my concept above should easily clear up the separation between costume and props.

otherwise why have a prop part at all? i mean we have a separate model part, can we pls keep the seperate prop part too? its really very annoying and distracting this way

 

[EyeofSauron]

why not just leave star wars, marvel, dc, and dredd props in the normal prop section? there are not that many prop builds from those anyway, they dont crowd the prop forum. its different with iron man costume builds etc, but its not like theres a million marvel props being built.

 

[Monster Dave]

I think optional filtering is probably the most effective way to accommodate everyone's desires.

 

[Art Andrews]

why not just leave star wars, marvel, dc, and dredd props in the normal prop section? there are not that many prop builds from those anyway, they dont crowd the prop forum. its different with iron man costume builds etc, but its not like theres a million marvel props being built.

Because there is so much crossover between props and costumes, it seemed more logical to put props and costumes together when dealing with a franchise. You have to keep in mind that we aren't looking at this from the standpoint of solving a single problem, but of addressing a larger issue. What you are proposing would only add confusion, no matter how well-intended.

 

[Art Andrews]

I think optional filtering is probably the most effective way to accommodate everyone's desires.

Nailed it.

 

[Treadwell]

I've never understood the "AAGH, I'm not on the first page!" thing. I think most folks use the mark forum read feature....don't they? It doesn't matter if something is on page 3, if it's marked unread, I will see it.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

I've never understood the "AAGH, I'm not on the first page!" thing. I think most folks use the mark forum read feature....don't they? It doesn't matter if something is on page 3, if it's marked unread, I will see it.

Yep...

Sadly it seems the more the forum gets divided the more I miss.

 

[Art Andrews]

Yep...

Sadly it seems the more the forum gets divided the more I miss.

:lol We can't win for losing. We divided these out, partially due to the exact opposite argument: "The forums need to be divided because I miss too much."

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

I've never understood the "AAGH, I'm not on the first page!" thing. I think most folks use the mark forum read feature....don't they? It doesn't matter if something is on page 3, if it's marked unread, I will see it.

I usually read/look at what is on page one in every forum.

But I browse the RPF all day, so I'm constantly seeing new content as things get bumped or new threads pop up.