Arduino.cc reboot: feedback and comments

Sorry if this has been raised - the thread has gotten a little too long to review

I see a new toolbar at the bottom "Move topic" and so on. Lots of things that seem moderator relevant, but I am an ordinary mortal. Clicking on them of course just says "You are not allowed to ..."

I just got a personal message about this and have notified the forum administrators. I had no way of testing if the links worked or not and an glad they don't (for our sanity's sake). :slight_smile:

Telecommando:
I've tried a couple of different browsers but haven't really had the time to evaluate them properly. So far, the stock Android browser seems to load a lot of unnecessary data (and then sometimes hangs) and the back button doesn't seem to work anymore. Dolphin Mini crashes repeatedly for no apparent reason and Opera Mini compresses the whole page into a tiny dot in the upper left corner of my screen and I have to enlarge it and enlarge it until I can read it. Very annoying.

I find Firefox on Android is relatively usable, but the top bar takes up far too much space, especially if the phone is in landscape.

I've been using the new forum on my galaxy s3 just fine...

The ONLY issue (yes i'm using my phone right now) is if i slip and hit the blue part above unread messages, replies etc... the blue part drops down covering those links :roll_eyes:

But if careful it works better now on my phone after the "reboot"

Here is an issue and a fix. I think its similar to cjdelphi's.

Clicking on the menu items containing a drop down causes the element '' to enlarge to the size of the drop-down list being clicked.

This occurred on:

  • IE9
  • Comodo Dragon Version 29.1.0.0
  • Google Chrome Version 30.0.1599.101 m

The culprit is this:

topbar.css('height', self.outerHeight($this.siblings('ul'), true) + self.height(titlebar));

In the file: https://id.arduino.cc/js/foundation.topbar.custom.js
Line 164

Commenting out the entire line solved the problem as overflow is not set to hidden. It appears this line is intended for initial sizing, not a click response, also a contributing factor could be that the dropdown is shown at hover, before the click event fires.

Some different options include fixing the js line to only incorporate direct children, rather than any 'ul' inside the element, or using an inline-block styled div rather than a list for the menu items ( not dropdowns ), SEO shouldn't hinder as the menu is in a nav tag & google is already expecting a collection of links.

Msquare:
I see a new toolbar at the bottom "Move topic" and so on

Fixed.

My Thoughts on the Reboot

Someone got a little happy with the typography. While a large, highly kerned font might look nice on the first page of a print article, it's rather tiresome having to scroll around to get any useful information from a page. Particularly the code and product reference pages.

Yes, users could always change the font size of their browser, but typically all sites will use a similar size, so this preference can be set once per the needs/preference of the user, and all sites will comply +/- some small percent. Using an inordinately large font breaks this convention, for no good reason AFAICT.

Also the header is ridiculously large. Really no need for that much white space. Or teal space in this case. Fine minimal design aesthetic on product packaging, and I appreciate the attempt at continuity on the web, but function before form please.

Just my two cents.

I was hoping spam management would be easier.

I was hoping spam management would be easier.

We manage to get plenty of spam. You want to make it easier? 8)

Wow, you guys are doing a bang-up job keeping that from being noticed. I had no idea. Major props sirs.

Well, if you need a new kitchen, or fake passports, we have lots of info about them*. :wink:

  • in the trash

Look, I know my eyesight is going a bit, but isn't this excessive?

http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/KeypadTutorial

It goes on:

If I'm having trouble reading I can also use the browser's "zoom in" facility. I don't need the default text to be in about 30 point type.

Here's another page:

http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/Keypad

What sort of "design" decisions went into this? I feel like I am back in grade 1, being taught to read with really big letters.

Very much so. The whole playground seems to suffer similarly.

It is a design fad. It has its roots in the Metro Interface (I believe it is called) which came out with the Microsoft 8 thingy (I still use XP) and was hailed by some as the new clean look. "Clean" because there are only 8 items-or-less on a page. For all I know there is a linage of the Metro UI from something else.

I wont cut-n-paste the major web news provider here in Denmark (dr.dk - see your self) but what used to be a web page with an overview of the major headlines has turned into the same headlines in VERY BIG lettering. You have to scroll through several meters to see the whole page.

Usefull? Who needs usefull - look at the clean design! ]:slight_smile:

So - IMHO - I agreed with those that think that large letters and large space serves NO USEFULL PURPOSE on a web page whose purpose is to contain information. I've got nothing against estethic minimalistic design (in fact I like it - also used in Danish deisgn a lot) and the examples in the previous pots are NOT that.

I agree that one can put too much information on a web page, too. That a documentation, FAQ, or tutorial page can be cluttered with information in a dense writing with too few breaks and headings is un-digestable or you can skim or peruse it easily. (I meant to write a lot of semi-nonse here to make a large massive paragraph as an example, but then I thought - why inflict more pain?)

Oh, I see. Windows 8.

It's all clear now.

Arduino is going into a tablet?

Also, this on the Products page:

It isn't obvious to me when looking at this if the product label belongs to the image above, or below it. The distance is so great it could be either. For example is the board on the left the Mega ADK or the Mega 2560?

Some kind of shading would help, or move the text much closer to the board to which it refers.

I'm happy to help you out: It is the mega 2560 8)

The adk has a additional label in the bottom right.
I know your eye sight is no longer what it used to be ]:smiley:

Seriously: I fully agree there is room for improvement when selecting fonts.

Best regards
Jantje

http://forum.arduino.cc//index.php?topic=191279.msg1413969#msg1413969

Can't use Internet Explorer!

If I'm not logged in, everything works fine in IE. When I login, I can visit all webpages on Arduino.cc, except the forum. This is how it looks when I click the forum-link when being logged in (See attached image).

Any thoughts on why this happens?

Thank you.

enanthate:
Can't use Internet Explorer!
...
Any thoughts on why this happens?

Just tested IE 9 and it works fine ( for IE anyway ), what version is yours?

An old cache file may be causing the error, you can stop IE from caching old files while Arduino.cc is being updated.

click the menu item 'Tools > Internet Options'
Under the section 'Browsing history' click settings.
Where the dialog says 'Check for newer versions of stored pages:' select the option 'Every time a visit the website.'