Shoutbox

Oh man... I cannot begin to explain how disappointed I am to hear that yet another month of waiting was added.

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Originally posted by Discrate
The new website design looks ABSOLUTELY terrible.

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I agree the current one's design is better

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Originally posted by xfagx
Oh man... I cannot begin to explain how disappointed I am to hear that yet another month of waiting was added.

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Without a beta testing phase I (and sure many others) was expecting this.

I usually try to stay neutral, however the website is indeed FUgly.... looks like Alpha to me.... kinda 2000ish.

Not to keen on the UI of the application itself but will leave that until I get a look however the website is definately second-rate, seems like a website that was made of a default php template from somewhere.

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Originally posted by aflove65
You could have at least sent out an updated version that worked with everything instead of sending out a version that only worked with part of the program and then do the whole overhaul. But hey we're only customers why should what we want matter

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Errrr..... Making it completely compatible is exactly the whole point of this new version.
They can not "send an updated version that works with everything in the mean time" because that is exactly the whole point why Plus!5 is being created and what is currently being tested and why you need to wait a bit more :/

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Originally posted by blessedguy
Also found the new preferences window actually harder and less intuitive than the current one, shouldn't the layout evolve instead of going back to the past?

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Eventhough I shared the very same opinion at first, before actually using it, and complained about it too when we saw the first conceptual screenshots a while ago, I must say that after actually using it, I find it is more intuitive than before imho. Ok, it isn't that much eye candy and bling bling (afterall, it is a treeview). But eye candy is not everything either.

To compare it: When Plus!4 came with its new concept and the complete changed order of features and what not, I had a hard time to get used to the changed places of stuff and often had to skim thru panels to find what I needed. And it took a while before I knew where everything was without clicking on the wrong panel and getting lost sometimes. With this new treeview concept in Plus!5, I haven't had a single time that I had to search longer than 1 second to find a certain option again (and that even without using the new search feature). Thus in the very short time I have used it, I already am used to the new concept, thus way faster than with Plus!4.

It also provides for much easier expansion with more features than it was before (which already was messy and cramped in some places because of the used concept and the lack of space in the panels).

This also means that brand new features can be designed much quicker and updates can be made more frequently. In Plus!4 it would have meant also completely redesigning the preferences each time you wanted to add something more (with the downside that quite a lot probably needed to be retranslated too because available space for the existing stuff would have been decreased...wich was already problematic for certain languages as it was). Hence I suspect this is one of the reasons why new features were never really done during its lifetime; the cost in time simply to redesign and retranslate the panels each time would have been too big compared to the time to program the actual feature. This isn't (or shouldn't be) so anymore with Plus!5.

There are simply way to many options in Plus! to put everything under a few buttons. The name of the last category in the Plus!4 options is kind of proof of that imho; it's like "hmmm, we need to have some place to put these new options under, bleh, lets called it customize for the sake of it", while everything about Plus! is customization. The same for the many 'main' and 'general' sections in the preferences in Plus!4 and the sometimes overlapping categories of options and such.

Now you could make it into a huge list of big nice looking icons instead of a plain treeview, but that would again be counterproductive I think because then you would need to scroll quite a lot and you loose the overall big picture and relation of things.

But, I do think the plain treeview could use some small sized icons for each category though. It would make the plain list a bit less dull.

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As for the website. I'm not extremely excited about it either, but I have seen far worse. The biggest thorn in my eye is the massive (and frankly quite useless) header/banner with all its colors and background stuff on top of the site. Which I think is the main culprint of this 'default scheme' kind of look. Having a way smaller and more slick looking header might come a long way in defining 'the look and feeling'.

Also the fixed width is a concearn of mine (considering the forum is integrated in the same design - for the site itself it doesn't matter that much, but it does for the forum imho -).

But after using it for a while, you do get used to it somewhat. And I find its navigation and order of topics quite natural despite of things.

But I suppose that this is a big work in progress, bigger than Plus! itself actually. And it will continue to be a work in progress after the release, at least I hope so. Unless they pull of a miracle and make everything perfect for everyone in a month's time.


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Originally posted by Chrissy
So why tell the pubic? Just keep it quite..

All they need to say is a closed beta is out, and the main on will be January.

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Are you fu**ing joking me? Who was it that cried by high and low that the "stupids at Yuna" forgot about us and blahblah and demanded that they "must" release a list of features because every other software does it (ok, that last part wasn't said by you personally, but still, you were more than happy to jump on that very same bandwagon). And now that they post more info about it (bang on the timeframe they have said they would no less, omg11!!11!!), now you say they should kept it quite????? Come on...., flame, shout and have different opinions all you want, but at least be consistant and consequent about it instead of saying A when they say B and vice versa, seriously.

@CookieRevised

Looking from that point, easier to add updates and easier organization, it is indeed better. But it still is uglier, and has too much information in a small space. Doing it with walls of icons wouldn't be good either. But even in treeview you can do something better:

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Originally posted by Discrate
TL;DR

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It wasn't even 3000 words long, only 1042!

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Originally posted by blessedguy
But even in treeview you can do something better:

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yeah, agreed, that's is exactly what I meant with "small sized icons for each category"

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Originally posted by CookieRevised


But, I do think the plain treeview could use some small sized icons for each category though. It would make the plain list a bit less dull.

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As for the website. I'm not extremely excited about it either, but I have seen far worse. The biggest thorn in my eye is the massive (and frankly quite useless) header/banner on top of the site, and the fixed width (considering the forum is integrated in the same design - for the site itself it doesn't matter that much, but it does for the forum imho -).

After using it for a while, you do get used to it, and I find its navigation and order of things quite natural.

But I suppose, that this is a big work in progress, bigger than Plus! itself actually. And it will continue to be a work in progress after the release, at least I hope so. Unless they pull of a miracle and make everything perfect for everyone in a month's time.

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The designer initially came up with icon in the tree list as you suggested. Unfortunately, recoding the tree list control to insert the icons did not make it in this version.

I share your views regarding the banner. I still think it is too big. We'll have to do something about that.

You can expect the web site to evolve continuously. The Plus! 5 release is just a milestone for the web team. They will continue to release at regular intervals.

I don't believe in miracles, but hey, we never know.

Abracadabra,

   

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Eventhough I shared the very same opinion at first, before actually using it, and complained about it too when we saw the first conceptual screenshots a while ago, I must say that after actually using it, I find it is more intuitive than before imho. Ok, it isn't that much eye candy and bling bling (afterall, it is a treeview). But eye candy is not everything either.

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i've tried it too and i dont like it, everything is a mess and it looks 8 years old And they will keep those giant buttons apparently... even though they are redundant :-\

They could try to make it more appealing to the eye. Messenger Plus! 3 had a sort of treeview too (not exactly but still) with the panels on the left and it looked way better than Plus! 2 (and 5 beta)... i dunno, im not satisfied at all like many other testers pointed it out in the original thread .

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
But, I do think the plain treeview could use some small sized icons for each category though. It would make the plain list a bit less dull.

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Good suggestion, you should post it if you havent

The website's a whole different story. i havent been able to use it that much, so i cant give a honest opinion. The forums lacked many of the features that we have here, which sucks.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
yeah, agreed, that's is exactly what I meant with "small sized icons for each category"

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Not only the icons, removing the dotted lines, for example, and getting rid of that background already makes things slightly better.