New Layout

[Wouter Melissen]

Good day,

Today we are proud to present a new layout, which for the first time is uniform throughout Ultimatecarpage.com. The obvious changes in colours are combined with some minor changes in the layout and functionality.

On the main page the changes are subtle and mostly include the slight moving around of familiar functions. The supporting members will see bigger changes with the spec table moved next to the image gallery and article at car features.

For the forum users the biggest change is the post layout. The new style is more efficient and also presents all information vertically, making it more obvious whose post you are reading. To keep the user-info box as small as possible we have adjusted the avatar size for supporting members, which is now 200x90 as opposed to 90x90 for regular members. It has also opened up space for more attachments per post.
On the main forum page the list of newly added cars makes its long awaited return.

With the new style we decided to add a fresh new logo with a number of new cars. They now also appear randomly on forum pages.

If you run into any problems please let us know in this thread.

All the changes are rounded up in the following screen shots.

Thanks for your time and enjoy this and your future visits!

Wouter Melissen

[rev440]

The new layout is amazing nice job Wouter!

[adamfraser]

Yeah, very good!

Especially like the spec table being on the right, thats where my ads are!

For that i might just send a few quid along...

[Wouter Melissen]

Yeah, very good!

Especially like the spec table being on the right, thats where my ads are!

For that i might just send a few quid along...

I can't disclose much yet, but you can expect more new premium features in the very near future.

[adamfraser]

*counts how much change i have*

Hmm, in 10 schooldays i could have enough... saving £2 a day

[d-quik]

i love this layout because i hated the previous one because i loved the one before the previous one

the enemy's enemy is your friend?

[Lagonda]

I'll repeat what I said in the lock thread: You need to revert to vertical avatars. This is a readability nigthmare. And while you're at it limit the size of sigs. Say to two lines of text.

But, I'm pretty sure that won't happen.

[henk4]

But, I'm pretty sure that won't happen.

I think you may have guessed correctly. I am confident that it may need some time to get used to. However, the limitation of the signature size, about which I made a jocular remark because GT1 Street has a complete shopping list, warrants a serious approach.

[d-quik]

I'll repeat what I said in the lock thread: You need to revert to vertical avatars. This is a readability nigthmare. And while you're at it limit the size of sigs. Say to two lines of text.

saying it with your "as a matter of fact" "tone" doesnt stop this from just being an opinion

[Lagonda]

saying it with your "as a matter of fact" "tone" doesnt stop this from just being an opinion

Are we in a bad mood today ?

With the horizontal avatars you could read everything much quicker. You could pretty much ignore them. Now when you read and you go down to the next post you tend to automatically "read" the avatar box. That's why it's a bad thing.

Like Jakg said: "the avatars "pull" my eyes up as i try to read something".

[Suka]

Are we in a bad mood today ?

With the horizontal avatars you could read everything much quicker. You could pretty much ignore them. Now when you read and you go down to the next post you tend to automatically "read" the avatar box. That's why it's a bad thing.

Like Jakg said: "the avatars "pull" my eyes up as i try to read something".

Still, its just opinion. It took me all of a minute to learn to scan over the avatar box.
All in all i think that this change is really good. The site looks exceptionally good.

[Spastik_Roach]

saying it with your "as a matter of fact" "tone" doesnt stop this from just being an opinion

It needed to be said!

[Pando]

I'll repeat what I said in the lock thread: You need to revert to vertical avatars. This is a readability nigthmare. And while you're at it limit the size of sigs. Say to two lines of text.

But, I'm pretty sure that won't happen.

I agree. A one line post with one pic attached and one of those new "big" avatars, looks really terrible now. Unfortunately I also agree that our voices will probably be silenced.

some people have an in-build tendency to oppose to changes. Nothing wrong with that, but most of the time it will happen as you describe. It is a matter of getting used to.

It's not about opposing change in my case, I like improvements. It's taking a step backwards that feels silly. The update brought many improvements, but unfortunately made the forums take a step towards those pics-in-sigs sites. But ofcourse one can get used to anything.

Although, if there would be an option to make the forum look like the "Topic Review" it would be nice (pic attached) afterall, I'd like to think most people come here to read what people have to say instead of looking at avatars and signatures...

You might ask yourself the hypothetical question: Would you have avoided UCP if the forums had always been like this?

Good question. I don't think it would've made a difference in my case, since I got attached to the site before I ever visited the forums... but I remember I always thought it was a really neat looking site in all ways. Nevertheless, if "the old UCP" would've had a link to one of these threads saying it was a new car site, no, my first impression wouldn't be very good. The main site is a totally different story It was brilliant then and even better now!


edit:
also are new members now allowed to have symbols in their names?

[henk4]

I have to admit that I like the layout that you constructed. It gives rise to the question: Do we need avatars in the first place? (to be honest I had no clue what an avatar was in the context of a forum ). Apparently people like avatars so there needs to be a place for them. Thinking along those lines (and please note that these are MY private thoughts) you might ask the question what do we need to see apart from the user name? I can imagine a function whereby with one click on the user name you will get a little pop-up showing all the info that is now permanently displayed.

The horizontal layout of the user data has also created the option to post six thumbnails of attached pictures in one row, in stead of four so far.

[dydzi]

I have to admit that I like the layout that you constructed. It gives rise to the question: Do we need avatars in the first place? (to be honest I had no clue what an avatar was in the context of a forum ). Apparently people like avatars so there needs to be a place for them. Thinking along those lines (and please note that these are MY private thoughts) you might ask the question what do we need to see apart from the user name? I can imagine a function whereby with one click on the user name you will get a little pop-up showing all the info that is now permanently displayed.

The horizontal layout of the user data has also created the option to post six thumbnails of attached pictures in one row, in stead of four so far.

the aim of an avatar is to identify people easier thanks to the images theu're associated with, that's why they shouldn't be changed too often

i don't say the new layout is worse only because it's new, i remember there used to be a similar layout for few days some time ago, didn't like it then as well. i think it's not the most important thing who posts what, and it's less functional skipping people's names and avatars between reading posts