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New forums

Former Member
Former Member
There is no category for the forums that I can find, so here it is in the water cooler section.

Sometimes it is hard to get used to a new interface simply because it is new. However, one thing that I immediately don't like about the new forum interface is the lower information density due to the window dressing and some questionable choices for laying out the pages.

Specifically, on the old site, the 25 most threads were very compactly shown on a single page. Each line item contained the forum, subject, author, and date. On the new site, probably 10-12 items could fit in the same space because there is now a very "puffy" layout. The row for each thread, instead of being a single line of text, consists of a divider, padding, two rows of text (e.g., putting author beneath the subject line instead of adjacent on the same line) and more padding.

Perhaps someone thinks this is more readable since it isn't so crowded, but in fact it is the opposite. I have to do a lot more scrolling and clicking to review the same amount of information.

It is similar to the complains about the GC site itself -- superficially pretty, but actually contains a lot less information than the older scheme.

I hope this message is received as constructive criticism, and not whining.
  • Familiarity won't make the dead space and the excessive scrolling go away.


    No, but I may be able to deal with it better.;)
  • I'm confused, what "new  forums" are we talking about here ? The current ones or those that might have been implemented 10 years ago based on the time stamp ? In any case I'd like to comment about the new ones and on how tedious it is to have to ENDLESSLY scroll down to find recent discussions. Whatever happened to the gold and tried concept of pagination ? Am I missing something obvious ? Thanks !

    EDIT - so I can see you can sort by "Newest" so I guess that would help...provided they're actually sorted by reverse order, still it's not a very natural way of reading.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member in reply to webvan

    The new fourm UI is awful!  V Bulletin has been around for many years.  There are apparently many ways to implement the UI.

    The problem is that Garmin has designed the UI for mobile (cellphone) users, which is a common approach these days.  But it doesn't make any sense for those of us with desktops and big screens. 

    Designing for a mobile 4-6" screen and then upscaling it to bigger screens is the equivalent for designing for the lowest common denominator and then forcing that restricted design on everyone else.