(Official) New Windows Central Design Thread - Bug Fixes / Issues / Problems

[James Falconer]

@Chris_Kez @WanderingTraveler - thanks for the screens/feedback. Keep it coming.
​
@WanderingTraveler - that issue you were experiencing should be fixed now.

 

[davidD93]

Any progress on the "WPCentral (word) disappearing when hovering over them" problem? [screenshots are on the 1st page by Guzzler3

 

[James Falconer]

Any progress on the "WPCentral (word) disappearing when hovering over them" problem? [screenshots are on the 1st page by Guzzler3

Can't recreate here... and in the shots it looks like it was taken from an old version of the redesign (different colors). We've made a number of enhancements and fixes since the redesign launch... try clearing your cache and history, and let me know if that helps!

 

[davidD93]

Can't recreate here... and in the shots it looks like it was taken from an old version of the redesign (different colors). We've made a number of enhancements and fixes since the redesign launch... try clearing your cache and history, and let me know if that helps!

I think I have cleared the cache and history correctly, and it still isn't fixed. The picture below shows the boxes I ticked, please let me know if some boxes are incorrectly un/checked.



A few things to note:

1. The issue appears on IE11 (Modern UI and desktop), but fine in chrome.
2. This issues seems only to affect WPC, not any of the other MN sites.

 

[thron]

Is there any way to get rid of that recent news bar on the forum? It's huge and gaudy, takes up so much space. (beneath the baby blue wpcentral bar)

The login button is also two-clicks now, before I get to the spot to type my details in, this seems unnecessary.
Thread titles seem unnecessarily huge, too. They're like 500x larger than the standard text of a thread, the contrast is also gaudy.

No offense to any of the designers.

 

[gomezz]

Why does the Go to first new post button before a thread title now take me to the last post in a thread instead? Only started doing this today.

 

[korg250]

About the new commenting system.

Bugs:

• When you up/downvote the total is not updated; instead you see 1 ou -1.
• I cannot remove a vote.

Improvements:

• I wish I could collapse the threads in order to better see who is replying. Also, stating to who one is replying.
• The layout takes too much space.
• Hide (with the possibility of showing back) those comments with several downvotes; color differently those with several upvotes.

Thanks.

 

[kb4000]

Thanks for all of your efforts. I have some feedback about the changes to the commenting system.
? I like the new up and down voting.
Information density is WAY too low. On my 23" monitor I can only see 3 or 4 comments at once.
? It's really hard to see who is replying to whom. Please put "in reply to..." or something similar. The comments take up so much space that the hierarchy is not really visible. Please come up with a way to fix this on the webpage and the app.
? It would be nice to see how many up votes and down votes there are rather than just the net total.
? I'd also like to be able to see the totals even after voting instead of just seeing what you voted.

 

[gomezz]

Why does the Go to first new post button before a thread title now take me to the last post in a thread instead? Only started doing this today.

Back to working as it should today.

 

[Chris_Kez]

Using the mobile site on my phone is just brutal, bordering on unusable. Lumia 920 on AT&T with 8.1 DP with Update 1 and Black firmware (OS 8.10.14157.2). Whether I'm on WiFi or LTE, the site performance is just poor.

• Slow loading
• Laggy scrolling
• Non-responsive touch elements (just tapped Previous Story a dozen times- nothing)
• Poorly rendered elements (see the Twitter and G+ boxes below Daniel's quote in the first pic, as well as the top the larger blue and orange boxes to their right)

But the WORST part is still the incredibly user-unfriendly landing you get every time you enter the site or move to a new page (see 2nd pic). The following elements conspire to make things really tough to enjoy:

• A large menu/tool bar
• Giant blue-tinged image and headline that have nothing to do with the page you thought you were navigating to
• A low-res banner ad
• Another ad that takes up almost half of the usable screen
• A jumble of fonts and colors

Again, the second screenshot is what I saw when I clicked on the headline "US residents can choose any Xbox One game..." Rather than seeing the content I'm looking for, I'm greeted with a giant toolbar/image/headline and a large ad. And the only way to scroll down to see the article is by grabbing that random headline. The ad-covered area is non-scrollable. And because the site is wonky, it sometimes results in me getting kicked over to that story instead of scrolling.

Maybe some of the performance issues are due to my phone, but the UI and design stuff could still use some tweaking. For the time being, I just don't ever want to use the mobile site.

 

[eddlang]

...

James, could you please take a look at wpcentral on opera mini too? It's pretty much unreadable as you can see in my comment, #24.

Wpcentral went from good to broken with the new design on opera mini.

Also, the mobile website doesn't load and just redirects to the full website.

 

[jibgilmon]

I agree with 100% of what Chris_Kez posted. He described my frustrations in much better detail than I had in the mobile site thread.

 

[James Falconer]

We're making progress here folks. I suggest you clear your cache often to make sure you're pulling the latest files. We've made a number of enhancements recently!

Keep the feedback coming, we do see it and investigate all reports!

 

[Talderon]

Guys, I am a LONG time fan and user here at the forums and let me tell you, this site is REALLY starting to get to me. I mean, it's at the point where I cringe when I click a link to read an article on the site.

For example:

Article: Opera Mini browser beta for Windows Phone is how available

Experience:

Loading the site, I can't even scroll for over 10+ seconds because of the loading this page does (this is not the only page, this is just the one I am picking on for this example). After that, the scrolling is bad in general for a while because of the calls the page makes in order to fully load.

Specs:

GET Requests made: 1168

Total Load Time to FULLY FINISH LOADING:

360.55 Seconds - 6 Minutes!!!!

Total Bandwidth used: 6,548.98 KB (really? 6.5MB to render a single article?)

Look, I know you have costs to pay. I understand you need to advertise, but damn, 6.5MB it costs me to read an article on your full site?

There has to be something that can be done. I mean, I used to use the forums a LOT here, but the page load times are just getting to the point where I am just not wanting to wait for the page to even partially load so I can even start scrolling.

If you need more details, let me know. I am sure your tech guys can easily look at this and see what I mean.

Thanks!

 

[James Falconer]

@Talderon - I agree. That is ridiculous. I'm going to reach out to you direct to gather some more info from you. Then I will have the tech team take a look. The team has been making steady improvements to the site (and apps) over the last few months... but there's obviously more to do!

Stick with us! And thanks for your patience!

 

[Talderon]

@Talderon - I agree. That is ridiculous. I'm going to reach out to you direct to gather some more info from you. Then I will have the tech team take a look. The team has been making steady improvements to the site (and apps) over the last few months... but there's obviously more to do!

Stick with us! And thanks for your patience!

I was having a bad day yesterday, I hope I didn't come across too hardly.

Please let me know what I can do to help. I really love your site and have a vested interest in keeping things going smoothly here.

Thanks!

 

[Dave Bhullar]

Is there any way I can reset my vote on comments on the website? Can you guys add that feature?

 

[James Falconer]

I was having a bad day yesterday, I hope I didn't come across too hardly.

Please let me know what I can do to help. I really love your site and have a vested interest in keeping things going smoothly here.

Thanks!

Not a problem. I understand the frustration... but keep in mind our tech team has multiple projects going on at the same time, so I do appreciate your patience

 

[secher]

What happened to the great feature that made the top bar visible when scrolling up, regardles of where you where on the page?
I miss that!

 

[secher]

I know the site runs on advertising, but the worst tendancy in my oppinion, across the internet right now, is the "Also on the web" block that appears on sooo many websites. It is annoying, and space consuming. I'm am here to read Windows news, not that there is a restaurant that has a snake problem or that a man tiled his floor with pennies.... If you MUST show these blocks, please do so in the end of articles, and not in the blog stream on the main site... Just my oppinion...