I know there's been a lot of upset about the changes made to the forums/chatroom on the old site, so I decided to do something totally new on the new website.
My design goals were as follows...
1) Simplify the chatroom 2) Make it easier to access, not just hidden in the forums 3) Get it more active 4) Make it usable for mobile users
And I did it! If you visit the new beta website at https://beta.bikermatch.co.uk you will see it.
-Tab on the right of EVERY PAGE -Only for people who are logged in with an ENABLED PROFILE -Simplified by removing ability to whisper and change colours. -Can be opened while doing whatever you're doing. No need to change pages or open popups. Open and close the "chat flap" as and when you want it. -It refreshes either every 30 seconds OR whenever you post a message
I actually made this really quickly. Took me 3.5 days. I hope you like it and I hope it will make the chatroom much busier when the beta website becomes fully active (October-ish)
Feedback here in this topic please. Constructive criticism welcome. If you like it - please also say so
Open new website ( https://beta.bikermatch.co.uk ) and login. Then, as long as your profile is enabled, you will get a big blue button on the right of every page. The button will be fixed to the side so even when you scroll up and down it will still follow you around.
Thanks guys for all the feedback, positive and negative.
I will take any of the negative feedback with a pinch of salt at the moment, until you've all had a week or two to at least play a bit more with the system. I understand a sudden and drastic change can be a bit daunting
Quick thoughts...very easy to use, and it's good to see the timing on the messages. Losing the whisper ability seems to be a backward step, though, with a danger of driving people away into FaceBook chat, WhatsApp, etc.
Don't know, I feel the whisper is just duplicating the private messages feature. It's rarely used in the chatroom. I also wanted to save space in the design... Don't know how I can fit the extra functions in (also colour changing) without filling the full screen on mobiles with just buttons. I want to maximise the visible number of chat messages
Managed to access the chat room just by touching the right of the screen but there's no 'chat flap' as you described Matt. Looks good tho nice and neat
Havent tried it as I am a standard member but the whisper feature was handy for having private chats in realtime while still being involved in chatroom proper. Just my two penn'th.
I got in fine from my lappy but can't get chat to open on my phone (Samsung/Android) Using the icons top left or right opens another menu and the chat link is there on both, just doesn't open chat.
So now we have effin' Samsung as well as effin' Apple......who's next i wonder...apologies to ALL android users in advance if they can't get into my profile