Site Feedback & Discussion

[Victoria]

Please share here what you would like this site to include, to eliminate, to tweak, to modify, and of course what you like..

see also: Guide: Forum Tips & Tricks

[tealifehk]

Can we get a heicha forum?

[Victoria]

Can we get a heicha forum?

Sure, will put in place tomorrow for you Jay.

[Brent D]

What do you guys think about giving Taiwanese tea its own section?

[Janice]

I think it would be helpful to have a teaware category for artisanal pottery from people like Shawn of Great Wheel Studio, Seong-Il Hong.

Even with limited postings this forum is already more interesting than teachat! My thanks to everyone who’s been working on setting it up.

[Victoria]

Thanks for your comments. We are in the process of adding, and if possible, subtracting a few categories.

[Bok]

Same as above, Taiwan merits its own category in Tea as well as in Teaware.
While we are at it Korean teaware is also sufficiently independent to have its own.

[debunix]

Overall the site looks great. It is simple and the theme is very clear and easy to read. I'll try to remember to test it out later on my mother, who is traveling with me this week in Japan, and her older eyes are a better test of clarity and ease of use than mine; it was sharing web sites during visits with her that first made me really aware of the issues with degrees of low contrast that had not bothered me a bit. For example, I'm not sure what she'll make the of the gray text over the faded green in the upper text guides/menu/title information above this text box where it is dark gray over white.

I'd like a larger text myself, as I'm writing in the box--I prefer a bit more scrolling to trying to read small text, and on my older iPad3 with Retina display, the default text on Firefox is a bit small for easy reading. More later from Safari on this IPad.

[debunix]

OK, using Safari web browser now on the iPad3 with larger default type set in system settings for all apps that 'use dynamic font' or a phrase something like that. The type here now is the same as it was in Firefox, and is just a little smaller than is really comfortable. Again, I'd like better options for a slightly larger default font for the displays. Yes, it will frustrate those who are happy with tiny font on tiny ultra-sharp screens, but it will increase accessibility for users with aging eyes and poorer vision, and many of those folks are going to have longer experience of tea to share.

Another size issue: the icons in the listing of topics are too small: I wanted to go to a post and tried to use the arrow that I thought would take me to the last post as listed in the right hand text box for that list, and ended up with the user profile instead. That's a bit frustrating especially on a pad or phone when big fingers and small buttons are difficult.

Still, loving the simplicity of the setup, despite these criticisms. Just trying to give feedback to make the site better and more inclusive for everyone.

[pedant]

thanks for the suggestions

I'd like a larger text myself, as I'm writing in the box--I prefer a bit more scrolling to trying to read small text, and on my older iPad3 with Retina display, the default text on Firefox is a bit small for easy reading. More later from Safari on this IPad.

Again, I'd like better options for a slightly larger default font for the displays. Yes, it will frustrate those who are happy with tiny font on tiny ultra-sharp screens, but it will increase accessibility for users with aging eyes and poorer vision, and many of those folks are going to have longer experience of tea to share.

it's hard to pick a font size that pleases everyone (and my preference is for the current size), and i don't really see the point of implementing a font size changer when web browsers can already do this very well: zoom in/out with ctrl +/- on windows/linux or cmd +/- on mac. the advantage of using the browser is that other elements get resized appropriately as well. this phpbb theme is designed to be pretty responsive to different screen sizes and levels of zoom. try zooming in to get bigger text

Another size issue: the icons in the listing of topics are too small

i just experimented with it. they are now slightly bigger (10x10px -> 13x13px) for you, but imo i can't make them much bigger except at the expense of elegance
try pinch-zooming or something on mobile if you're having issues with clicking them

also at your suggestion i reviewed some of the font colors and increased contrast on:

• dropdown menu items e.g. in 'Quick links' in the upper left

• the direct link to each post appearing above each post (also shows the the post's date and time)

[pedant]

returning to the issue of bigger text size on mobile, i just tried it out on my phone with chrome.
i managed to get the text size pretty big:

[debunix]

Thanks for the changes. Usability needs to be given great weight, even at the expense of elegance--remember that this all started with changes to make the TeaChat site *look* better?

Regarding font size, I have two points that should be considered very seriously:
(1) older users with low vision may NEED larger font
younger users with OK vision may PREFER larger font because it decreases eye strain



(2) larger default font means shorter text lines. Shorter text lines are easier to read: hence, newspaper and magazine columns. Less time for your eyes to go back and forth from the end of one line to the beginning of another, and less likelihood of getting lost between the lines.

Web browsers are pretty good at enlarging text & icons, but not perfect, and iOS device browsers are lousy at it. I often find myself getting frustrated searching about for something that is just off the edge of the page. My eyes are OK with my glasses but I spend too much time looking at screens and do everything I can to decrease eye strain. My default is enlargement of virtually all web sites, and for sites that I am visiting casually--following a link from somewhere else--I bail quickly.

How hard is it to implement a larger default font for the site as a whole?

[debunix]

Separate point: when I reply to a post, it takes either scrolling up to the menu upper left corner, or several clicks backwards to get back to where I want to be--to the forum home page, or a particular forum, or to unread or active topic displays. It would be nice if those links or a menu linking to them was down at the bottom of the page for when you finish reading through a topic or finish a post.

[debunix]

While I'm busy wishing.....how about an option to 'forget' topics that don't interest you? E.g., if I've reviewed someone's for-sale thread, or don't want to read more grumbling about a retailer I've never done interest with, or just am not interested in a particular type or tea or teaware, and I'd like to improve the signal to noise ratio in my list of unread or active topics, it would be great to be able to stop those topics from showing up in my lists.

Being able to turn topics and forums on and off as desired is one of the best features of the WELL, my primary online home.

[pedant]

How hard is it to implement a larger default font for the site as a whole?

trivial, but the issue is that i think that the default font size is already good.
it's a font size that's in line with other typical websites.

like i was saying though, my aversion to implementing a font size changer is heavily influenced by how it's always been my experience that it's very easy to use your web browser to control the size of fonts (and other page elements)...

Web browsers are pretty good at enlarging text & icons, but not perfect, and iOS device browsers are lousy at it. I often find myself getting frustrated searching about for something that is just off the edge of the page. My eyes are OK with my glasses but I spend too much time looking at screens and do everything I can to decrease eye strain. My default is enlargement of virtually all web sites, and for sites that I am visiting casually--following a link from somewhere else--I bail quickly.

but maybe you don't have the same situation somehow. i don't have an iOS device to test with right now, but maybe consider trying another (a better?) browser on your device? perhaps chrome will give you more accessibility options (worked well for me in android when i tested as per my screenshots above).

can you please try that and get back to me? ty

Separate point: when I reply to a post, it takes either scrolling up to the menu upper left corner, or several clicks backwards to get back to where I want to be--to the forum home page, or a particular forum, or to unread or active topic displays. It would be nice if those links or a menu linking to them was down at the bottom of the page for when you finish reading through a topic or finish a post.

i'm not necessarily opposed to adding the quicklinks dropdown menu to the bottom of the page too, but i just need to think about the best place to put it.

the workflow i had in mind is this though: right now, i have a floating arrow that appears in the bottom right when you're scrolled down in a page.
you can click that to auto scroll to the top, and then interact with the menus up there. do you think that's not good enough?

While I'm busy wishing.....how about an option to 'forget' topics that don't interest you? E.g., if I've reviewed someone's for-sale thread, or don't want to read more grumbling about a retailer I've never done interest with, or just am not interested in a particular type or tea or teaware, and I'd like to improve the signal to noise ratio in my list of unread or active topics, it would be great to be able to stop those topics from showing up in my lists.

Being able to turn topics and forums on and off as desired is one of the best features of the WELL, my primary online home.

i agree that this would be a useful feature. ty for suggesting it.

i have a few more pressing features that take priority, but i'd like to look into it when i'm done with those.