Hi Toby, some tips to improve the UX of KF

[GTC]

Hello Toby,

Maybe this is not the ideal section to publish this post, feel free to move it if you find it necessary...

KF is a great site for kitesurfers all around the world. I find it very helpful to stay up to date with all news related to this sport. However I think that you could improve a lot your site by simply making some changes.

Looks like this site is not designed by a professional (maybe you or a friend of you "designed" it some time ago ) . There are some issues that affect negatively the User Experience of your users when browsing your site.

Let me name some examples:

1- Mobile navigation sucks! Open KF in a mobile device and try to tab on a forum post displayed at the homepage. The text has such a small size (14 px) and small margin that the possibility of missing the link and tabbing the upper or lower links are very high. When browsing KF on my phone (5,5' screen) sometimes I miss 3 times the desired link. See picture attached

2- Too many useless text and icons on the header. See picture attached

3- Links inside a text post. When clicking a link inside a body message, the new site opens in the same window. Do you know what it means? The possibility that the user doesn't come back to KF is very high! Bad for you and for the companies that advertise on you your site. You can easily solve it by opening new links on secondary tabs.

4- Too many forum sections (25!!). Some of them (Women's & Fitness) don't even have a hundred of topics.

5- A blue logo in a blue background doesn't make much sense. A contrast background color like white would make KF logo much more visible.


Please take it as a constructive criticism from a guy that spends few hours a day designing sites

Best Regards

[Toby]

Thx for the feedback, always appreciated.

The two menus are: one site menu, one forum menu. Need both.

You have more space on top, since you use an ad blocker...next to the logo shows a banner normally (no banners, no forum...please don't use ad blockers, you kill sites like this!).

The home button is not necessary, right. But the more customized the sites gets, the harder the updates of the phpBB software will be...

If you leave so much space between lines, it costs a lot of space...more scrolling...do people like more scrolling?

But will be interesting what others think.

Thanks
Toby

[jakemoore]

I like a desktop site delivered to my phone and no irritating Tapatalk app popups. KF doesn't have these ads for the app but other PHPBB sites do and it drives me bananas. Small text and close together is fine for me cause I can read fast.

Also, sometimes I see an ad I'd like to follow just as I click away to the next page. Most ads I ignore but sometimes there is something relevant and interesting I want to see. When I hit back, the ad has rotated away to something that does not interest me. Just FYI in case the forum gets paid cost per click. It would help to see the same ads when you navigate back to a page using the browser back button.

Ads on KF are relevant and non-intrusive. Problem is so much of the internet wants to put up nuisance ads that block the content until dismissed. Then redirect to the advertiser site even if you dismiss. I'm not going to buy Geico Car Insurance no matter how many times I accidentally click their links. Even worse are the video ads that drain data and bandwidth for people on metered plans. Its fair game if I want to watch a video to have a preroll, but autoplay video ads are the worst. Then there are ads with sound that interrupt the music. So its the Yahoo and CNN's of the world that are driving people to install the ad blockers.

[Peter_Frank]

I think it works pretty perfect on a mobile (Androids).

Regarding text size - indeed, avoiding scrolling too much is important, and every phone browser lets you set your individual text size so you can just beef it up if you prefer that

Links not opening in a new tab - this is 50/50 I think, what one likes...

As soon as you have realized this, you just step "back" instead, which is actually faster than closing new tabs - so also an advantage.
But true, one could also link to a new tab, like most websites do

IMO, keeping the interface the same, so it is well known, is of bigger advantage than small changes that could be individual anyways, so no consensus of what is best.

Of course, major flaws should be corrected - but I think they have been

The number of forum sections is maybe higher than needed, if some are not used much - but hey, does it matter ?
They dont harm at all when you have found whats YOUR interest, and you just direct link to these

I think it works great.

Peter

[lindseym]

User experience is important and these are good points but its also important to keep in mind that this is a common model for large-scale community forums, especially those that have been around since the early 2000s. As with anything, there are tons of areas of improvement but as a raw resource for information, advice, and such I find KF to be excellent.

[KristianE86]

Toby, I want you to keep the site the same.

[FLandOBX]

+1. Keep KF the same. One of the most annoying aspects of most other sites is the constant updating and re-formatting. Once I learn my way around a site, I don't want to have to deal with the newest and "greatest" updated edition every six months. I'm sure the OP has the best intentions, but I suspect most KF users are happy with the current format of the site. IMHO.

[Mossy 757]

Hey OP, does the site suck at UX or does it just not conform to your design standards? Not going to disagree with your aesthetic points, but if the site generates traffic and ad revenue while people engage in lively discussions of the topic at hand, then it doesn't suck, it's just not as pretty as it could be.

[Peert]

Toby, I want you to keep the site the same.

+1
As with my supermarket floorplan I dislike it when my favourite websites make changes that cause me to look longer for what I need.

I have thick fingers and a large android. Still no desire for less text. That would provoke more scrolling touches..

I generally only navigate via the last posts links. Check KF almost every day. So don't care about menus at all. Only relevant for a Topic Starter if you ask me.

[GTC]

Hi all,
It's great to see your opinions. Let me answer some of your points:

The two menus are: one site menu, one forum menu. Need both.

The are two icons that look the same and have different contents (!!!). Of course they are important but I'm sure there's a better way to solve it without confusing the user.

You have more space on top, since you use an ad blocker...next to the logo shows a banner normally (no banners, no forum...please don't use ad blockers, you kill sites like this!).

Toby, I don't use adblock on your site (the image its cropped). In the example I attached, you could easily add the ad container between de header (top blue bar) and the top menu (white bar) or below the top menu (see pic).

The home button is not necessary, right. But the more customized the sites gets, the harder the updates of the phpBB software will be...

This is easy peasy for any decent developer

If you leave so much space between lines, it costs a lot of space...more scrolling...do people like more scrolling?

Toby, what do you prefer? A small 80cm x 50cm work table or a bigger one like 150cm x 100cm?
If you increase type size, line height and margins of course you'll need more scrolling, but you'll improve usability. It's not as bad as it sounds, just take a look at some top-end sites (Airbnb, Google, FB, CNN, Twitter...).
This article talks about typography: https://uxplanet.org/10-tips-on-typogra ... a378f4aa0d

Hey OP, does the site suck at UX or does it just not conform to your design standards? Not going to disagree with your aesthetic points, but if the site generates traffic and ad revenue while people engage in lively discussions of the topic at hand, then it doesn't suck, it's just not as pretty as it could be.

The fact that you like how KF is designed doesn't mean that it has a good design, most probably you like it because you're used to it . Maybe a new user doesn't think the same.

As I said in the first post, this is just a personal opinion. Some of my points may be wrong.

Regards and sorry for my English!