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Release Notes (Website: Navigation changes) - March 25, 2015


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IMO, trying to make a single website that is all things for all contexts is what's causing this headache of a backlash :P

 

<snip>

 

And from what I've seen, I think one of, if not the, biggest complaints is ... "whitespace!" :yikes:

I'm not sure that anything other than "it's different" is actually the cause per se, but anyway...

 

I agree that there are some aspects of vertical white space which could be used differently. On the homepage the bit above the graphic that takes up most of the page could be smaller imo for example. The menu bar itself is fine - nice and big - and I can welcome the lack of rollover menus personally. But beyond that I'm struggling to find anything that's horrible from a design perspective wrt this release (I repeat that I have some issues with the search pages - that's where a slightly different mobile implementation might have helped a little perhaps.

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People are struggling to locate specific caches and/or archived caches by using GC Code search.

You can get an archived or specific cache returned by clicking the Play menu >> Log a cache.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/my/recentlyviewedcaches.aspx

 

GC Code widget will return archived caches.

 

1. I liked the "drop down" menus that appeared when you scrolled across the links at the top. Now I have to click an extra time ....

 

I MUCH prefer click to activate. The old menus used to drop down over whatever i was trying to see or get done.

 

My thanks for making the change.

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I'm not sure that anything other than "it's different" is actually the cause per se, but anyway...

I agree that there are some aspects of vertical white space which could be used differently.

 

One of the biggest examples is the spacing of content in the new search. The most common complaint seems to be the amount of results displayed on one page before the fold, as it were.

 

I don't want to separate the issue as 'desktop' vs 'mobile' design concepts, because I too sometimes prefer a desktop-oriented layout on my phone. I think it's more likely that a 'typical' site design is acceptable on a mobile device, but less likely that a mobile-oriented design will be preferred on a desktop.

 

In this case, the overall layout style GS seems to be going with is 'bigger is better'. On a small screen, it can be more beneficial because buttons and interactive regions are easier to see and tap without having to zoom. But one big user difference is that on touch screens typically one finger slide will scroll a few pages in an instant. On a desktop, that's not possible; it's not an elastic effect. The closest you get is to hunt for the scroll bar at th side of the page with your cursor and drag it.

 

'Bigger is better' isn't a universally positive philosophy for desktop designs without an option to reduce. This is why we have browser zooming and custom styles :)

 

In short, modern mobile devices can handle desktop layouts for the most part, as well as designs focused on providing a high-vis usable mobile experience, and has much more responsive page scrolling and zooming. A desktop browser can zoom in and out and is usually much more flexible with custom styles (typically for accessibility, to make things easier to read), but scrolling is more precise, because there's much more visible at one time.

 

Forcing a desktop browser to use a design layout that's more focused on providing high-vis mobile usability is more likely to bother desktop users than mobile users. Especially with no option to remove those 'optimizations'.

 

I may well continue to resort to custom styles to reduce element padding, adjust font styles, and occasionally move a few items on a page around to a more esthetically pleasing layout :)

It would be nice not to feel the need to do that...

Edited by thebruce0
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1. I liked the "drop down" menus that appeared when you scrolled across the links at the top. Now I have to click an extra time ....

 

I MUCH prefer click to activate. The old menus used to drop down over whatever i was trying to see or get done.

 

My thanks for making the change.

 

I agree. I much prefer to click on something, as my choice, rather than have it spill over a page when I inadvertently move the cursor over it.

 

 

B.

first post after removing my sig line.

Edited by Pup Patrol
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As everyone seems to hate the new design, I going to say, that I actually like it.

I myself am a web-designer. I think the new design is cleaner and less old-fashioned.

 

The only concern that I share is about the amount of white space.

From the design-perspective: It just is to much! The texts sometimes feel lost in all that white.

From the usability-perspective: This way you can just not fit anything on the screen. On my laptop I find the cache-lists really hard to read.

 

For the latter reason I will create a custom „condensed“ style-sheet with reduced white space. How is the interest in me sharing this.

How is the interest of Groundspeak to add a „condensed”-layout option in the profile. My changed design will have very little white space, which makes it unpractical as a general layout but only for seasoned users. I'll probably start a thread for it when it is finished.

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People are struggling to locate specific caches and/or archived caches by using GC Code search.

You can get an archived or specific cache returned by clicking the Play menu >> Log a cache.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/my/recentlyviewedcaches.aspx

 

GC Code widget will return archived caches.

 

The question is just whether that's an intuitive place for such a search. One often wants to look at a cache without having the intent to log it.

There are lots of workarounds but it becomes more and more preferable to use other sites to do all what one wants to do in one place and fast.

 

Of course I can learn to click on my alias to get to the page I use the most often - it's however neither intuitive to do that nor very pleasant to have to change habits

every couple of months without ending up with any advantages as compensation. Moreover, every time I click on my alias in that corner, I get annoyed by the crazy color choice

for the find count (either remove it or make it readable) and by the tiny round avatar.

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I'm not sure that anything other than "it's different" is actually the cause per se, but anyway...

I agree that there are some aspects of vertical white space which could be used differently.

 

One of the biggest examples is the spacing of content in the new search. The most common complaint seems to be the amount of results displayed on one page before the fold, as it were.

I agree that there are major issues wrt the search system and display of results. My comments have been about the general design issues - I thought the search was the previous release date?

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I agree that there are major issues wrt the search system and display of results. My comments have been about the general design issues - I thought the search was the previous release date?

Yes my point was also wrt the general visual design. The search was just one (obvious) example of the newer stylistic concerns.

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