New Layout for IF - Feedback required

Hi Friends,

As mentioned in my earlier posts and PMs we were working on a new look for India Forums and to make it even better. So would appreciate if you all check the new design and give your feedback on the same.

Before viewing the design there are few things that would like to point out:

a) This is a demo layout and its not functional. Currently its just showing 3 channels but we will be having all the channels. Probably all the shows will go in their respective channels page which will reduce the loading time for the homepage.

b) We will be even concentrating on promoting General Discussions section so that will also make room on the homepage.

c) We will have the Top 10 most active contributors on the homepage too.

d) I know many like to see their name on the homepage page of online users but probably we will have to move it to another page as the members are increasing at a very rapid pace and soon it might reach where there will be thousand names just on the homepage. So keeping scalability issues in mind we will have to move it to the next page.

e) I know I had mentioned about the Buddy list changes but this homepage redesign took some extra time and since we are working on a newer framework for IF.

f) And a lot of features will be similar to Social Networking sites like Orkut, Facebook. Please note this change will take us around 1 months time once we freeze on the design with around 5 people team as a lot of codes will be completely redone.

g) We are also working on changing the logo from the current one as this one cant be copyrighted as it has Indian Flag (as per indian copyright and trademark laws).

h) You will also notice a "Quick Links" on the right side of the page which is basically a smart customizable slider which slides as the page scrolls down and will also allow members to bookmark their favorite shows so that they can move from one forum to another with ease.

Thanks for reading through all of that:
http://www.india-forums.com/new_design/

Post Update

First of all thanks to all for giving their input and its really appreciated.

I wanted to show the design before implementing as that way we have the option to make corrections. And right now we can take in all the suggestions.

Lets discuss the points raise:

a) The childsafe advocates is a banner space 😊 and has nothing to do with our site policy. And may be some other banner keep showing. As you know we cover all our servers expenses, site development, tellybuzz through the ad revenues so we do need to give an attractive spot to our site advertiser (we have to be fair with them too as they help us run the show financially).

b) Yes I know with time we all have got used to the current design and start finding it simple to use. But the problem is that when I asked many people to give their feedback about India Forums they first didnt understood what it is all about as half people feels lost (and other half do not believe people can chat so much about Television shows and start giving wierd faces.)

c) The idea is now to make India Forums a safe social networking site which has a lot more to offer then just television discussions (where we are already #1). We want to get the same recognition for Bollywood too and other interest areas like Sports, Poems, Books and much more.

d) The changes suggested have been informed to the designing team:

- To highlight Global Announcements so that it doesnt look sidelined.

- Bollywood and TellyBuzz section will come side by side.

- We will have Channels pages seperate so that we can have Channel specific announcements too so it will help our Channel Moderators handle their sections.

- The links that you all are seeing missing will soon be coming in the next layout.

e) The login box, intro about IF will only appear for visitors who are coming on our site for the first time so that they get a complete idea of what India Forums is all about and they can easily get them started.


If you have more suggestions then feel free to drop your views here as me and the designing team will be going through them regularly.

Updated: April 01, 2008

Hi Friends,

It was really nice going through all the suggestions and feedback. I do not know how many times I say, its really nice to see a "sense of belongingness" towards India-Forums and the way members come forward to help us with their ideas, suggestions and feedback. And probably that is what makes us different to other sites.

Coming back to a few more stuffs:

a) As mentioned earlier I understand that many might feel that this will make the site look more techno and less of a "welcoming","homely" but do not worry we are taking all possible user tests to make sure that India-Forums is always welcoming and a warm place and somewhere "homely" too.

b) The design update is essential as the current layout is somewhere limiting us in terms of things that we can really do at India Forums to make it even better and take it to the next level. Somewhere the idea is to give members a platform to discuss on issues apart from Television to even more broader areas like Bollywood, Indian Entertainment. Then evolving it into a unique Social Networking model, Video sharing, FREE Classifieds, etc and also to further integrete it with our other projects like Egreeting which should be resurfacing in June 2008 and I am sure you all will like it and we are also working on finding a right partner to guide us in making a useful portal on Indian Vedic Astrology and Numerology.

c) The whole team at Cyberax working on India Forums are excited on the developments and the features we are planning to integrete.

d) One of the member suggested a feature "Whisper" which I found really interesting where by instead of sending PM you can just send a short message to a member just like you get a chat popup while browsing your Gmail. Sounds like a simple thing but lets see how easy it is making it work on a high traffic site like ours.

e) We will now be able to check who else are surfing in that particular forum / post as we are redoing the entire session management.

Please note the layout that we have shown is not the final one and we are constantly taking your inputs and making necessary changes to give it the best possible revamp.

Cheers,
Vijay
- India Forums Development Team

India Forums is growing and I am sure that with the new layout we will be able to make India Forums better experience in terms of ease of use, features, navigation and quality.

Last but not the least I really appreciate whatever the Development team does to keep this site so much fun and a happening place on the web.

Cheers,
Vijay 😊

Vijay bhai i just had a look...And 👏 👏 👏 for doing so much wrk...It completely looks new...I have a few suggestions...

1)The space used for registering and tht username..It is using too much of space and i beleive that they shuld be on the top as in this current layout

2)The child protective environment i guess we shuld avoid using so...Althu we try our best to keep all the content safe for children but sumtyms there still is left sum content not ok...So if we wrie on the front page itself its a bit ...also the logo used there is not so attractive

3)The new logo seems reli nice...so its a yes for it

4)The GA's pls keep them on the front page..All of them bcoz the topic are made GA's so tht they catch everyone's attention..And mostly people will skip GA's if they have to click more...

5)Also feel that top bollywood news is taking too much space...so if u culd just shift tht to a side....

6)Instead of moving active users on the other page..Can we not make new tabs for the appearance of the names...Like if today we have IF Rocker at 5000 now we can make tht at 25000...And so on reshuffle everything...So we can accomodate the active users on the 1st page itself

I guess just these till now 😳

just had a look on the new page bro

here are some suggestions

i liked the new logo of IF it is really nice i don't know but i somehow feel that the GA's are bit side tracked and a member will not notice it at first sight. where as the purpose of having them on homepage is that it can easily catch eye na 😳 top 10 users well, i can see spamming coming unless we have the rule properly saying thanks an lol type posts are not counted.. i also think it will take a bit getting used to i also agree with anku that the bollywood new section is taking a lot of space also in the log in box, i cannot find the option to selet if we want to log in and seem offline or not. (believe me it is gr8 feature and very handy to have 😆so please don't remove it)
1. i liked hte new colours it is nicely blended

will edit if i can think of any new points

Wow, Nice Tecchy Design,😛

Will take getting used t as i know there are members here always who hate change, lol

A+ B I like the idea that all have their own page, as yay finally GD will be promoted..It is so what we needed, so Thanks Bro for this.😃 I am happy Now,😉

c) Top 10 most active contributors - Good Idea, but somehowi can see more spamming, unless the function is implemented of no post count for lol n thnxs posts.

d) Seeems good, 😳 but seems all a bit tecchy 😆 as i thinkeveryone liked having things on 1st page, - less clicking. 😳

e) Buddy list - multiple Pm thing is needed. so pleaseeeee can we have it soon.😆

f) Sounds guuud.....😳

g) Yeah i know the logo is great!!!!! As the old one yes too easy to copy. 😳

h) Quick linksss seems awesome!!!!

Like others Said, missing links, and Bolly and the Child thing takes too much space. 😳

GA'S

Very Important, and on the side no one will care or notice them. They need to be like on the homepage now😳

So does that mean GD will also loose its GA board?😳 because GA feature is good😳

Overall it seems very high tech and bright, however feel there is too much clicking, and wil take time for people to get used to and like...as i means finding their way around. 😳

Very nice though and thanks 👏

very nice 👏 👏 its so cool and techy looking 😆

-I love the way the vidoe section is laid out..but I think we can add more TellyBuzz links rather than Bollywood news.😳

-The channels like for the shows will we have all the shows on one channel or do we have to click on more information to access the rest of the shows?

-The new logo is awesome👏

-I also think that Global announcements could be added like in the center somewhere so people cant miss them😳

-The child safe advocates logo/banner could be reduced in size a bit or added to the bottom?

-is there a way we can put the latest Tellybuzz and Bollywood section news on one side of the page?? instead of them beign seperate

Vijay, I just checked out the new look its lovely!!😳Look wise and the new colour combination is simply beautiful and is blending absolutely well..........

Here are my inputs, if i think of anything else i shall edit or post in here😳😳😳

I feel that Bollywood News is taking a little extra space, it can be reduced, or it can be placed side below the General Discussion column and space will be there for adding extra stuff, like online/active users

GA's should either be on front page or even if its in side, it should be highlighted in such a way that it catches immediate Attention!!

I absolutely loved the new logo of IF, its fantabulous 👏 👏

Initially we had a |log in| tab where in we cud select whether we want to go online with off-line status or online status by selecting Add me to Active users list

Also, I didn't find the following tab's

Active Topics | Members List | Search | Star Interviews | IF-Addicts |Actors index|

Luv,

Shagun😳

Nice one vijay... 😊

My inputs:

1. The child safe advocates can be put in the bottom of the home page rather than at the top... Because of this banner, other important materials are going down the page...
2. Can we have a television set at the back of the logo?? Because IF is more of television discussion cum social networking site... This logo only depicts social networking
3. This particular link is missing... | Members List | Indian TV Index | TV Actors Index | IF-Addicts
4. You already have Random videos cornor.. You can have the upload videos logo in that column itself... The user login and register now blocks are taking too much of space, instead they can be put in the side bars...
   
5. Global announcement topic headings need to be kept in the middle giving it more space so it can attract the crowd... You can keep just the popular topic links but they are now sidelined.. they need to be brought to attention
   
6. Every channel should have a kind of home page with GAs... It will look just like the General Discussion page and that way you can also keep all the important links regarding a channel in that page as a GA...
7. As everyone said Bollywood news is taking toooooo much of space... They can be put in the sidebar... IF is more of television discussion forum but see that bollywood news is taking the maximum space rather than the others...
   

Vijay bhaiya, just took a look! It's such a cool design! 😃 veryy moderny and different 😊 great job!

Just some points i wanted to make:

1 - Like everyone here has said - GAs - members should be able to see them better and they should stand out to catch attention

2 - The Quick links idea - so cool! 👏 very useful! and its place on the site is perfect! 😃

3 - In the GD section - the different sections are not easily recognisable.. if we could have a bullet pointed list like for the rest of the tv channels it might be easier and it would attract more members maybe? 😳 the headings are good but the forums list is unclear 😳

4 - Question - what are the random videos for? 😕

5 - the Telly Buzz bit is awesome! 👏 again veryy cool! 😃

umm... thats all for now 😊 x

Very nice layout, love the new logo and the new look... very sleek :)

Some of my thoughts:

1. Is the childsafe advocates an ad or part of the layout? If its part of the layout then I don't think its a good idea to put it there so prominently, it can be put on the bottom or somewhere else on the side.
2. Active Topics, Addict List, Members List tab is missing..
3. GAs - These are one of the most prominent parts of the layout right now.. and I think they shud be given a just as prominenent part in the new layout. Its very imp and less members will notice it if its given such a small space. Abt Anu's suggestion to have a GA for every Channel... I don't know if thats a good idea since it will require too much clicking and as we know our members are quite lazy...
4. Log-in tab is using too much space.. i think it can easily be placed near the top somewhere like in the old layout.
5. Not very keen on the Active Contributers thing.. will def ensure spamming unless there is some sort of precaution taken.
6. Bolly News and that video upload thing next to the log in tab are both taking up too much space. I think the GAs cud take the place of where the video upload thing is now.
7. Quick Links tab gets a 👍🏼 from me.
8. Where the telly buzz is right now.. it is taking up lots of room.. if we cud squeeze it together how we have it now i think it wud be better and we wud have room for other things.
9. How the channels are.. do u have to click 'more info' to see the rest of the shows? is there no way to have the shows on the page itself without having to click to find the rest of them?

Just a few suggs from me, other than that - loving the new layout!👏 Although it will take time for me to get used to it, I'm sure I will...😳

Hey vijay,

Firstly, I truly think a new layout for IF will be a wonderful idea and the new layout design is great. There are a few suggestions I have however:

1. I personally dont think that the upload video should be right next to the register and log in? Or actually it shouldnt be before the register and login? perhaps put the log in first, then the register part, and then the video.
2. I think the bollywood news is taking up too much space and is rather odd having it under the channels. I feel it should be directly under the tellybuzz highlight area or, the tellybuzz section should be made smaller and the bollywood news put beside it.
   The channels then stay where they are under neath it. By doing it this way you will have space to keep the online users list on the first page. I personally thing online users should be on homepage as it is much easier for people to access and just seems to me as more practical?
   
3. I think the page just needs to be reshuffled as currently its a bit hard to notice where everything is. I think it would be best if you were to mess around with the positioning and decide a more organized layout and one that follows everything through nicely.
4. Overall it is good.
5. The new logo is FAB!...no doubt it is truly lovely.

Thats all for now..will add more later
x Lika

Thank you Vijay 😊