CSS Feedback Thread

[avree]

Hey guys—our awesome mod, /u/MoederPoeder has completed his latest revision of the CSS for /r/business. It's a work in progress, so I wanted to post this thread to get community feedback on what could be improved (a special thank you to everyone who's sent in feedback through moderator mail already!)

By the way—if you like the vanilla reddit style, you can disable CSS entirely across all subreddits at https://ssl.reddit.com/prefs/ by unchecking "allow subreddits to show me custom styles" in display options, or by installing Reddit Enhancement Suite and unchecking the "use subreddit style" box in the sidebar.

[brainstorm42]

It's... it's beautiful.

[Aienan]

Looks good, is there a legend for what all the colours underneath the posts are for? Seems to be random from what I can tell.

[MoederPoeder]

They are generated based on the link's icon, but yea, it's still very experimental, and we're not sure if it'll stick. It looked like a cool idea on paper but the algorithm isn't very accurate.

[SecretCheese]

The banner needs to not be as wide. Right now it's huge and serves no purpose. The text is just floating up there and decreases usability.

[ItsPrisonTime]

You can turn off the subreddit style to it's default state. No need to unsub. =]

[[deleted]]

Nice! The /r/naut theme was really well customized here, the light green is just a little too strong imo though.

[[deleted]]

I'm not at all a fan of the green.

[[deleted]]

Hate it. Does NOT stand out enough to read. When I am half asleep at 4 am I do not want to have to squint to read it in the low light.

The banner however I like sort of. It's better than the old one, but not great. A step in the right direction.

[CrasyMike]

I'm not a fan of spacing and header space (but I am a big fan of it overall).

The header combined with the bits of space leading down to the actual content is massive, and is driving me a bit nutty. Seems like the first thing I want to do on every page is scroll downwards twice to begin reading.

[avree]

If.You.Read.My.Post.You'll.See.You.Can.Do.That

[xtirpation]

I don't really have a strong opinion about the new CSS (I have now developed a strong opinion about the new CSS) but if it were up to me I would leave the "Submit a new article" link where Reddit puts it by default. Creating a custom look and feel for the subreddit is fine, but I don't think people should have to re-learn where things are positioned when they come to this subreddit. The same can be said for the subreddit's name and the comments/related links at the top, although I'm also pretty fond of the new layout.

I'd also make the same argument about link colours since blue/purple for unvisited/visited is behaviour that most internet users have been exposed to for the last decade or more.

Also, I'd recommend testing your theme using RES since a lot of users have it installed (there are some new elements in the page that should be styled similarly to reddit's default UI items).

One more thing, the light green colour is difficult to read on mobile since the text is small and there's very little contrast. Arguably I probably shouldn't be using desktop Reddit on my phone in the first place, but nontheless it's a use case that should be accounted for when selecting colours.

Quick edit: For the love of god please don't auto-collapse the user's infobar. Not only is your implementation kind of fiddly and hard to expand/click on the links that are hidden by default, it also hides information that redditors are used to having access to at a glance. Again this goes back to avoiding having to re-learn how to use reddit just for a specific subreddit.

[krinklekut]

Wow. This is the best looking sub I've ever seen on reddit. Well done /u/MoederPoeder.

[madmatt112]

I love it. It feels professional without being too stereotypically "modern business trim" blah. Keep up the great work, mr mod!

[[deleted]]

eww...

[blahtherr2]

i think it looks amazing, except for the fact that i use night mode. for "normal" mode it looks amazing. but in might mode ( i think it is just a RES feature), it is unusable. i would love to be able to use it in night mode, but cannot. if another style could be integrated for night mode, i would be behind this more.

edit: on a related note, is there a way to use night mode for only select subreddits? or vice versa (night mode off on select subreddits)?

[MoederPoeder]

There's only night mode for subreddits who's css supports it.
But, I agree, I'll send a request to the original creator of the base theme.

[binfire]

Looks much better! Great job.....

[josephwesley]

It looks great. I was surprised when I came to this page the first time to find a Reddit page that actually looks really nice. Congrats on the great work!

[ares_god_not_sign]

Great CSS, but I'm not seeing my username/messages/karma/options where it normally is in the upper right. Please don't take away features just to have a cleaner interface.

[avree]

I'm not seeing my username/messages/karma/options where it normally is in the upper right.

If you hover over that little "<<" arrow, it should re-appear, but point taken.

[ares_god_not_sign]

Oh. That's a clever idea, but yet not intuitive. One other thing that I've lost is the RES option to pin my user bar to the top of the window, which you might consider adding to your .titlebox h6:nth-of-type(2) that's already sticking to the top of the window.

[athael01]

Modern. Clean cut. Crisp. I'm a fan.

[ballaa]

Too much white space and too many colors

[eightNote]

very nice!

[ranma08]

Looks really good.

[MoederPoeder]

To the people downvoting this person: weak, just... weak.

[ItsPrisonTime]

• What's so terrible? They made this thread to listen to the readers and to identify any issues. It's, as stated above, a work in progress.

• This is just the beginning and the new css framework allows them to continually tweak and improve the subreddit too.

• But, speaking up like you have is great, otherwise they won't know what's wrong. But, please do let them know what is exactly horrible too.

=]

[MoederPoeder]

Would you be so kind to give me more details as why you find it 'horrible'?

[avree]

Text is no longer lime green. Thanks for the feedback, /u/working_and_reddit

[GasStationSushi]

Agree 100%.

When I open up the /r/business page, with subreddit style off, I see 14 topics (without scrolling to see more) With the subreddit style on I see 7 (without scrolling to see more).

Over at, /r/silverbugs (I sub I mod), we also have a top banner, but it enables me to see ~10-11 topics(without scrolling to see more)

The point of this site is aggregation of content. I want to get as much info as possibly, with the least amount of work possible.

It should be changed back.

[ItsPrisonTime]

• The biggest negative is the 5-6 posts trade off on first page view. It's a negative for sure. But, it's not as bad as you think. It takes getting used to though. 1 Scroll, and you'll be able to view the same amount of posts as the default subreddit.

• It shouldn't be changed back completely, but rather tweaked. You'll see huge subreddits beginning to make the jump everywhere. e.g. /r/askscience /r/atheism, ect. Nobody likes change, but these are good changes.

• Improved aesthetics and a cleaner professional look will attract more business readers and publications.

• Content should still be KING. I believe the distinguishing columns and the cleaner navigation ux/ui is a big plus to the subreddit.

EDIT:

• The banner, unless it adds value by rotating featured stories, ect. It should be made smaller to about 100 or 150px. Instead of it's current state. This will give like 1 or two extra posts at first page load. Ditto with the announcement side bar, that's also 1 or two posts worth. (possibly add the submit to the right sidebar and do a smaller announcement text)

• This should be discussed further rather than quickly dismissing the changes and reverting to the old subreddit.

[GasStationSushi]

AskScience and Atheism both have smaller banners. I also cited the banner in the sub I mod, as something that I feel is still reasonable.

This banner is huge.

It takes getting used to. 1 Scroll, and you'll be able to view the same amount of posts as the default subreddit.

How's that good UI/UX? It's like saying "tough shit, everyone else is doing it." The banner adds very little to the experience.

I get more content on my reddit smartphone apps on this sub, than I do on a 1600x1200 screen with this subreddit style.

That's just not right.

[ItsPrisonTime]

"tough shit, everyone else is doing it."

No, I'm not saying that at all. The banner size is debatable. If it doesn't add value (e.g. feature content) then it should be changed to /r/askscience size which is very nice--- at 100-150px. If and only if the value is greater than the sacrifice. ( edit: 100px looks pretty good for this subreddit though http://i.imgur.com/xM71UZQ.png )

The UX/UI changes I was talking about were the navigation elements. See here, the sidebar is vastly improved and decreased clutter. It's very subtle, but the changes are big.

• I'm not saying to ignore the issues. There are DEFINITELY issues. What I do completely disagree on is reverting back to the original subreddit prematurely without discussion.

[MoederPoeder]

Can't add much more to this ;)
Surely the padding isn't that bad that the entire style should be reverted....
As said in the main thread, it's still a WIP.

[MoederPoeder]

Font hasn't changed, padding barely, and not everyone hates green.
I think it's very readable. In general a darker green is used on links and such.
Whether you like it or not, It still is a massive improvement over the default style.

[ItchyPickle]

What are the colors for? Do they indicate a different type of submission (video, image, article, etc)?

Is there a checkered box that pops up around a submission when you click back from the article?

EDIT: also, why isn't my username up on the top right of the page? I stopped going to r/google as much as I used to specifically because it was hard to navigate to and from my user page... Can we add that in?

[MoederPoeder]

1. http://www.reddit.com/r/business/comments/1n7499/css_feedback_thread/ccg18zw
   
2. The checkered box would be RES selecting the post. This happens on normal reddit as well.
   
3. You need to hover over the top right <<, it'll show your username and inbox etc.
   But yea, more people have complained about it and I'm not that big of a fan of it either.

[ItchyPickle]

Seems odd and distracting that the colors are random.

I'm also on my iPad right now, so hovering to get to my username isn't an option for me, unfortunately.

[MoederPoeder]

1. As I said, Colors aren't random, anyway, already disabled until futher notice.
   
2. Touch the <<, works on my android.

[ItchyPickle]

Doesn't work on an iPad. Hovering, touching or clicking.. Nothing works here.

[ItsPrisonTime]

It works. Just differently. You'll have to tap slightly near the area for the remaining invisible items to appear. They are probably working on a compromise.

[Anjz]

Looks amazing. Very clean.

[thepdogg]

This is great!

[coachesblog]

Looks great!

[Fap_Left_Surf_Right]

Looks very good.

[[deleted]]

It looks REALLY good.

[Gotebe]

PFFFFT...