As part of the NodeBB v2 launch and development work towards v3 and onward, we're collecting feedback on what users like or don't like about our standard "Persona" theme, with an eye toward either redesigning this theme, or possibly creating a new theme (or themes) in the future.
Respond to our survey, and you'll have a chance be entered in a draw for a NodeBB t-shirt. (You'll also receive our undying thanks, which of course is priceless! 
)
It should take 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how much feedback you have.
https://forms.gle/37bESFFM2XLkZU7t9
Thank you!
J Jay Moonah pinned this topic on
On a related note: I just ran across this article from the Neilsen/Norman Group on usability:
The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think
Summary:Across 33 rich countries, only 5% of the population has high computer-related abilities, and only a third of people can complete medium-complexity tasks.
.....
One of usability’s most hard-earned lessons is that you are not the user. This is why it’s a disaster to guess at the users’ needs. Since designers are so different from the majority of the target audience, it’s not just irrelevant what you like or what you think is easy to use — it’s often misleading to rely on such personal preferences.For sure, anybody who works on a design project will have a more accurate and detailed mental model of the user interface than an outsider. If you target a broad consumer audience, you will also have a higher IQ than your average user, higher literacy levels, and, most likely, you’ll be younger and experience less age-driven degradation of your abilities than many of your users.
There is one more difference between you and the average user that’s even more damaging to your ability to predict what will be a good user interface: skills in using computers, the Internet, and technology in general. Anybody who’s on a web-design team or other user experience project is a veritable supergeek compared with the average population. This not just true for the developers. Even the less-technical team members are only “less-technical” in comparison with the engineers. They still have much stronger technical skills than most normal people.
This is a bit "dated" at 2016, but I think not so much as to not still be relevant.
Enjoy! 
Note: If this post is a bit too broad for discussion here then please feel fee to fork.
@gotwf Indeed, there are many places in the Persona theme where we intended for the control to be intuitive, but it ends up not being so.
Part of our existing theme review has already uncovered that the top nav icons really don't mean anything to someone unfamiliar with NodeBB. 
@julian said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
top nav icons really don't mean anything to someone unfamiliar with NodeBB
Indeed. It was pretty foreign to me upon first encounter, as I'd given up smartphones years prior and it took my mind a while to become attuned. 
@gotwf said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
I figured prior communications had pretty much covered it but I guess filling out the form helps collate. Will do. As soon as I get a round 'tuit... 
@julian said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
@gotwf anything you tell me goes into the round filing bin
unless it gets turned into a GitHub issue or is fixed immediately
Have mercy!! 
Compared to discourse persona is perfect. The only thing I would like to change is the readability of the posts. The font is too small and there is no separation by the last visit. It is very important. Users do not like to read what has already been read. I am silent about the chat, it is zero. We need to separate the chat into a separate plugin and develop it further. Or use third-party messenger integration. Or both to choose from. Other than that, nodebb is just perfect.
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
The only thing I would like to change is the readability of the posts
+1 for the default desktop/workstation UX. I'm typically hitting Ctrl-+ at least once, and more oft than not twice. Not everybody is twenty something with 20/10 vision, eh?
Edit: But please do not go crazy and over correct, e.g. https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/beginners-guide-to-emacs
A site I expect is optimized for smartphones. I'm typically keying reducing font size a couple notches there. Freakin' extremists!!! I realize with the diversity of screens and resolutions available modern times finding the sweet spot becomes non-trivial.
@gotwf said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt!
The only thing I would like to change is the readability of the posts
+1 for the default desktop/workstation UX. I'm typically hitting Ctrl-+ at least once, and more oft than not twice. Not everybody is twenty something with 20/10 vision, eh?
Platforms like facebook, telegram and others have spent millions of dollars and thousands of usability tests to improve the readability of their posts. And we can use it for free. Just take it and do it. This needs to be improved first.
A few curated thoughts:
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
Compared to discourse persona is perfect.
+1
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
The only thing I would like to change is the readability of the posts.
+1
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
The font is too small
+1
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
there is no separation by the last visit. It is very important. Users do not like to read what has already been read.
I am unclear whether you are referencing individual posts or threads with new posts here? NodeBB alerts authenticated users to the latter under the "inbox icon" which have been posted up since their last visit. Selecting a particular thread then takes one to the last read post in that thread.
What about this is difficult? Seriously, would like to know. Are you asking for a filter feature that only lists unread posts themselves? Then with some kind of thread context added later? 
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
We need to separate the chat into a separate plugin and develop it further. Or use third-party messenger integration. Or both to choose from.
+1 on the both to choose from. Developer resources are limited, however, and I would prefer them to be spent on integrated chat than third party plugins.
Okie, dokie, let the flames begin... 
@volanar said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
We need to separate the chat into a separate plugin and develop it further. Or use third-party messenger integration.
I have no objection to this at all 
@julian Right... As my dear departed uncle used to say; "We? What's this we crap? You got a turn in your pocket?". 
Moving beyond the snarky...
A keen point of contention may well be whether chat functions even belongs in fora modern times. Once upon a time? For sure. Now we have multiple alternatives. And therein lies the rub. Who is going to maintain all this? Hence, cold facts are that the field of possibilities will be limited to orgs or diy devs itches.
Chief among the pros is to offload potential, and increasingly it seems too oft the case, chat management headaches to a SaaS offering tuned for dealing with such.
Cons include that history does repeat and these outfits make juicy targets for cyber mischief. Terms of Use also too often times change over time. So you may well be best served by in house SME's.
Lots, lots more can likely be collated from sysadmin/bofh stories of community operators at large. At the end of the day it goes back to challenging the premise whether chat should even continue to exist as a essential to fora platforms.
After some head scratchin' my druthers would be:
I want chat functionality.
I want chat to be managed under NodeBB/ACP.
Choice is good. Ideal world would supplement/compliment the above with third party options.
My objective here is to perhaps stimulate a bit of free style discussion and brain storming from NodeBB's' greatest resource. Feel free to share your thoughts.
Que' Sera, Sera.
hmmm
Why not, but we have to think about users using what already exists.
For example, I use the Global Chat plugin to generally chat with my users who use NodeBB's internal chat function.
If you move/delete this chat functionality in a plugin, it will have to work as it was originally or imagine something else.
Frankly, going through a third-party provider is very boring for the user. Grouping the user functions in one and the same place is in my opinion the ideal, it avoids multiplying the interfaces.
It's just my humble opinion.
@DownPW said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
Frankly, going through a third-party provider is very boring for the user. Grouping the user functions in one and the same place is in my opinion the ideal, it avoids multiplying the interfaces.
I agree here. I use the PM function on https://sudonix.com so that users can provide me with sensitive information they'd rather not post in the forums. It also provides the additional compliance that the data they provide is on my server, and not elsewhere in the cloud.
Thank you all for the feedback thus far. We are still collecting responses, but I want to commit to involving the NodeBB community in our new design.
As our designer iterates on our (and soon, your) feedback, I'll be posting them for additional feedback. We might not take every suggestion into account, though, since everybody has an opinion 
@phenomlab said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
I agree here. I use the PM function on https://sudonix.com so that users can provide me with sensitive information they'd rather not post in the forums. It also provides the additional compliance that the data they provide is on my server, and not elsewhere in the cloud.
+1, fer' sure, fer' sure. This, I think, is a too oft under appreciated concern. Until you get bit.
@phenomlab said in Please take our survey on the Persona theme... and maybe win a t-shirt! :
I agree here. I use the PM function on https://sudonix.com so that users can provide me with sensitive information they'd rather not post in the forums. It also provides the additional compliance that the data they provide is on my server, and not elsewhere in the cloud
You misunderstood me. I am only for my preservation of information on my servers. But if you separate the chat from the core, then you can develop the chat not only as a separate chat, which is already fine, but also as an integration plugin with other platforms that can be installed on your server. And you can import data to a third-party platform without losing content. No third-party services. That is, if there is a chat plugin, but it can simultaneously integrate with third-party platforms without data loss. This is the evolution of chat into a messenger. But if someone wants to stay with the chat, then let them stay
