Unanswered posts now bold

[PaigeMiller]

It used to be that when someone marked an answer correct, that post would appear in bold letters at https://communities.sas.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/activity-hub-tbl

Now, unanswered posts are bold (also if I have clicked on a bold link to read the post, when I get back the listing of posts, that post which was bold, is now un-bold, such as the first one in the screen capture)

[ChrisHemedinger]

@PaigeMiller We've been making some changes to the Community home page layout, and in the process we've been tweaking the "power user" experience on the All Recent Topics page. Now, bold indicates "unread by you", while "solved" is still indicated by green text and a checkmark.

Throughout the community on other lists, bold text is used as the indicator for "unread" -- so we've simply carried that through here.

We're still making tweaks though, so now is a good time to share feedback about what you'd like to see. 

[PaigeMiller]

So, if I read a post, and then afterwards, someone else adds a reply, it will stay un-bold. Is that correct? That seems confusing to me. It means not only do I have to scan the bold posts, but the un-bold as well.

[Patrick]

I like that questions I've already looked at get "marked". 

It's a small detail and likely only me but I feel that all this text in bold makes the page look heavy and slightly decreases "readability". It could be different colors but this would exclude people with poor or deficient color vision. May-be a different typeset for text in bold could help.

[Quentin]

Agree, I like the idea of marking read/unread. But all this bold text does feel a bit hard to read, and a bit like "shouting." Maybe I'll get used to it.

[PaigeMiller]

As of the morning of Sunday, August 28, now we have a new font appearing, which I contend is much harder to read and I vote against this font.

The idea of conveying lots of information by changing the screen is a good one, however, finding the right method can be tricky. Right now the needs are to convey several different pieces of information to the user:

1. whether or not the user has read the message (two different states, yes the user has read the message or no the user has not read the message)
2. whether or not the message has a correct answer (two different states, correct answer or no correct answer)
3. whether or not read messages have new posts (yes or no)

Regarding #2, no change is needed. Turning the color green and making the text bold seems to suffice.

I contend that #1 is not necessary ... at least for me. I remember which posts I have read, at least for 24 hours. I do not remember how many messages there were at the time I read it, or who made the most recent post the last time I read that post. So I do need an indication of whether or not there are new posts since I last read the message (#3). I like the system in use at Railroad.net which places an icon next to the name of the post to indicate that there are new unread messages in that thread, and clicking on that icon takes me to the first new message. The other icon, a blue one, also indicates that there are new messages for me, but is not clickable. Hovering the mouse over the blue icon pops up a message that there are new posts. Hovering the mouse over the asterisk icon tells you that you can click to go to the next new message.

So I know I have read the post, and that there are new messages. The line directly below, there are no new messages (no blue icon), so if I have read it that thread, I do not have to read it again.

This leads me to conclude that using different fonts to indicate certain information (as opposed to the font being bold) is not my preferred way to indicate anything. Icons, and colors, work better for me.

Lastly, this new font appears in many places in the forums, and I don't like it anywhere. Example:

[ChrisHemedinger]

Thanks for the feedback @PaigeMiller.

We're continuing to refine this. It wasn't working the way I'd like so I've backed out some of the "bold" for unread, especially on the "All Recent Topics" view. Back to bold/green for solved, kept the envelope icon for unread.

The new font you're referring to is a brand convention from SAS which we've applied over the past year or so. There was actually a technical problem with that font not loading this weekend, and so fonts fell back to a more general typeface. Still, I understand what you're saying here. Communities needs to adhere to brand but not at the expense of usability. We're refining that balance as we go.

Cool to see the railroad enthusiast happenings in WNY. We recently strolled along the canal in Booneville NY, which used to tie into the Erie Canal to ship goods across New York. NYS has a rich transportation history!

[Quentin]

The canal system is super impressive.  I worked on a small cruise ship that was designed for the canal.  The pilot house lowered to fit under the bridges.  And for a particularly low bridge, we'd have to call all the passengers to the bow to lower it a bit.

https://www.workboat.com/passenger-vessels/blount-to-sell-its-small-cruise-ship-fleet