SANE Forums Responsive project: Information, updates & opportunities

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Shaz51 @Former-Member and @Luv2contradance who 'Liked' the original post to get updates sent to them.

As you may have read above, we are involved in a project to upgrade the SANE Forums platform to take advantage of new ‘responsive’ technology and also improve the user experience for members and visitors. This project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.

During the project we will be talking with a number of people to find out about their experience with the SANE Forums. We will also be talking to people who haven’t come across the SANE Forums before, to get a variety of perspectives. This will help us to plan and design any improvements.

What’s involved?

You will spend one hour with our user researcher John, in an interview about your SANE Forum use. John is an independent user experience research professional who is contracted to SANE for the period of this project. He is a specialist in understanding how people use technology and then translating that information into user-friendly online systems.

During the research interview John will ask you:

• questions about how you manage your mental health day-to-day (if you choose to disclose)
• questions about how you use the SANE Forums at the moment, and about what keeps you coming back (or not coming back)
• to visit the SANE Forums and observe what you do as you navigate around the site

The data collected will be treated as confidential and used for research purposes connected with this project. All information collected will be anonymised as part of the project. The information collected will be kept in a password protected file on the file hosting service “Dropbox” and deleted upon completion of the project (see SANE’s Privacy Policy https://www.sane.org/privacy).

None of the Moderators or Community Managers will have access to the name or contact details of those who participate in interviews.

Will you be paid?

As an expression of our thanks SANE will offer you a $100 visa gift card for the interview.

Where will the interviews be held?

The interviews will be one-on-one. You can choose whether you would like to be interviewed in one of two ways:

• In person (in a public location): We will meet you in a place where you feel comfortable, such as the local library or a quiet café.

• Remotely (via video link): For those who prefer or live in regional or remote areas, we will provide you with a link that will allow you to chat and share screens through your computer (similar to Skype).

Who can be involved?

We need to make sure we have a diverse selection of people so that we have a range of perspectives and ways of using the SANE Forums. This will help us understand the different ways that people are using the SANE Forums and design improvements that reflect the community.

We are looking for a variety of people to be interviewed using following criteria:

• demographics (age, gender, location etc)
• forum experience (non-members, longterm members, etc)
• forum access (mobile, tablet, desktop)

We will choose the participants based on ensuring we have the most representative range of participants for the research.

If you are not chosen, please know that it’s not a reflection of you personally or us picking and choosing who we want. There will be other opportunities to get involved later in the project – so stay tuned.

When will the interviews be held?

We will interview our first round of participants between 16 April and 11 May.

Would you like to be involved?

If you would like to be involved, please fill in this brief form indicating dates and times you would be available participate and tell us a little bit about yourself:

(Copy & paste this URL is the above link doesn't work https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TVKZ2X2)

If you would like to receive updates on this project, please hit the 'Like' button on the original post and I will ensure you are @mentioned (and therefore get a notification) for all ongoing updates.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Naivete @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Former-Member

@Afford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who 'Liked' the previous posts.

I thought for this update I would give you an overview of the approach we are taking with this project.

In around five weeks (date to be confirmed) we will ‘flick the switch’ over to the ‘responsive’ version of the forums. The new “responsive” version works much better on mobiles, and while it might take some getting used to, is more modern. You will notice some variations to the current site, which we will update you on before the change over.

During May & June, we are also running the user research. Once this is complete, the research will be integrated into the ‘responsive’ version of the site.

It’s hard to say exactly what this will look like at the moment, as we haven’t done the research, but what I wanted to explain in this update is how and when the feedback would be integrated.

We are taking an iterative approach (part of what’s known as ‘Agile’), where once the responsive version of the Forum goes live, we will introduce enhancements gradually. What this means for members and visitors is that you won’t see all the enhancements at once, but slowly released over time.

Our aim is to give an update on new enhancements before anything goes live.

This iterative approach means we can do small bits at a time, which allows us to get feedback on a small enhancement and make any tweaks / adjustments as we go.

Another benefit of this approach is that it allows us to take our time in making sure we do the user research right and don’t have to rush to have everything done and feedback integrated by the same time that we move to the responsive platform.

If you’re interested to learn more about this approach, there’s lot of information on ‘iterative approach’ or ‘agile approach’ online to check out.

Looking forward to updating you more soon!

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Naivete @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who 'Liked' the previous posts.

Over the next 3 weeks I will be updating this thread every few days to provide you with an overview of some of the visual and functional changes the Responsive version of the Forums will bring.

You will all be happy to know, the functional changes improve certain tasks and makes things a bit more accessible.

On that note, I will share the first functional change, which is that on the desktop and tablet version of the Responsive forums. is that the 'Login' process will be via a pop-up window (image 1), rather than taking you to another page and back again. Some of the icons look alittle different too (image 2). While the icons and location of the icons are the same on mobile, there will be no pop-up, it will just take you to another page to login.

Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

Hi everyone,

A special shout out @Naivete @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who 'Liked' the previous posts.

Just a quick update to let you know that we have filled the current allocation for the initial round of interviews with forum members.

However, there will be another opportunity in the second part of the project in the coming weeks.

For those who put their hand up for the interviews through filling out the online expression of interest survey, we will keep you name on file is an opportunity arises.

We had an overwheling response - so thank you to all those who volunteered 😊

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Naivete @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who 'Liked' previous posts.

Time for another update on the Responsive version of the site.

In this post we are looking at our profile pic, settings, subscriptions and profile.

For those on desktop and tablet, you will see you profile pic, username, notification bell, logout and Help all on the righthand side of all pages within the Forums. While for those on mobile, you don’t have an image of an avatar, just the notification bell at the top left.

There are some slight changes to this on new responsive site.

On all devices, on every page, you will find your avatar at the top right of the page (nothing new for desktop and tablet users).

When you press on your profile pic, you will see a new and improved menu.

There are two big pros to this menu change:

1. Mobile, desktop and tablet all have the same experience, meaning on mobile you will have full access to things you didn’t before, like your settings and subscriptions

2. You can easily access your subscriptions, something we know many people struggled with before

We are quickly getting close to our switch over time, which at the moment looks like it will be either the last Tuesday of May or the first Tuesday of June. We will keep you posted 😊

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Naivete @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who 'Liked' previous posts.

For today’s update, I’m excited to share some information about the mobile version of the new Responsive site.

The mobile version probably has the most amount of differences to it, compared to the current version. So I will take you through some of the big ones.

1. When you arrive at on the homepage, the images with the four people featured in it are no longer there. Instead, below the organisation’s banner, you will see the Forums blurb and the banner images advertising upcoming events in both forums.

2. The Register and Login location has moved and is now at the top right of the screen, which is the same as desktop and tablet version.

As previously mentioned – on mobile you will now be able to access your profile and your subscriptions. You can access this by pressing on your username and pic.

3. Previously you could access all the Discussion Topics through a drop down under the heading for each Forum. Now you can scroll down the jump into one forum or the other to get the full version of the discussion topic list

This is the view you see from the landing page of the forums, which will give you access to all of the Discussion Topics. The list below is the most recent new discussions (which is what you see on tablet and desktop currently)

View of the Forums, which is reflective of the desktop and tablet version.

4. Previously, it was only on desktop or tablet versions of the site you could see the first 100 characters of a thread, but now this is available on mobile as highlighted under 'Time for a new conversation'

You will also notice a new feature, which is replicated on desktop and tablet version (& that we will go into in our next update), that now you can also see who started the thread & the date they started it, as well as who posted the most recent post in that thread and when they posted it.

5. The ‘Latest comment’ module is at the bottom of each forum

6. You can now quickly access the Community Guidelines and the Getting Started section, which isn’t possible in the current version

Because the responsive mobile version has so many more features and reflects the desktop and tablet version of the forums, we will be officially retiring the Forum app as of June 5. It was removed from the app store some time ago now, but for the small portion who still use it, it will no longer be accessible.

So that's it for another episode of Forum Responsive update. We hope that you're as pleased as we are with the new responsive platform!

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Naivete @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 @Former-Member who 'Liked' the previous posts on this topic,

Today I wanted to give you a sneak peek into what posts look like.

In my opinion, this is the biggest visual difference between our current version and the responsive version.

This is what a thread looks like on the Responsive version of the Forums:

As you can see, the main differences are:

• The LIKE button is to the left of the post
• Reply & Quick reply are more to the right
• Each post is its own box to separate it from the rest (rather than a line above & below)
• After the first post it shows how many responses there are and gives you an option to go to the next discussion or return back to a list of discussion topics
• The name and profile pic appear slightly differently. Images are now in a circle and the username is next to, rather than under, the image
• The date appears on the right of a post

You may also notice that ‘Report Inappropriate Content’ and the ‘Edit’ button are not within the post. You can now find them in the drop down menu to the right ‘Post Options’.

Some of these options are new and some already exist, but have been added to this menu.

Edit post: You will only see this option if you are the author of the thread. This allows you to edit the content whenever you like.

Mark as new: Many of you would have noticed that if you haven’t viewed a post before, it shows a little [New] label next to the title within a post. By choosing this option, it doesn’t remove the label.

Favourite: On the current version, this appears as a star within the post. Using this option will add it to a list of posts you want to keep easy access to within your profile.

Subscribe: This simply subscribes you to the thread the post is within.

Permalink: This provides you with a very specific URL, which not just links to that page, but specifically to that post. When you select this, the URL changes slightly (the last few numbers) so if used again, it will take you straight to the post.

Print: This was previously an option represented within the post as a printer icon. This will print the specific post.

Report Inappropriate Content: This option use to live under the username of the author of the specific post. It still serves the same purpose. It will open up a new page for you to insert information on a post that you feel is inappropriate.

It did take a little getting used to, but it’s so interesting that now when I come back to the non-responsive version of the Forums after playing with the Responsive version, the non-responsive version feels really clunky and crowded!

Later this week I will update you on responding to a post and starting a new discussion

Hi @Former-Member @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who 'Liked' previous posts on this topic.

This is just a short (but exciting) update that we will officially be moving to the responsive platform on

🥁🥁🥁🥁DRUM ROLL🥁🥁🥁🥁

Tuesday 5 June

At this point it will be at 2am AEST - we will confirm this soon and there will be information in the Forums banners to keep you updated.

We are allowing up to an hour of down time, meaning that the site won't be accessible until 3am AEST. There is a good chance it won't take this long - so it might be accessible sooner.

Super excited!

Hi everyone,

A special shout out to @Former-Member @Nessy @Appleblossom @Shaz51 @Luv2contradance @Darias @Stafford @NarelleMc @Minelli1984 who liked previous posts 😊

Today I wanted to give you a sneak peek of:

1. What a list of theads / discussions look like

2. What posting is like

1. List of threads / discussions

What I really like about the list of discussions is the added info you get. Now, not only do you see when the post was last updated, but you can also see who started the thread and on what date, AND who posted the latest update and on what date

As mentioned previously, mobile is very similar, if not identical, to the desktop and tablet version; This isn’t an exception. On mobile, you can now see the first 100 characters of a discussion / thread. So you can get a quick preview of the content before choosing to view the whole discussion.

There’s a couple of new symbols you will notice too.

The image of the pin on the right, means the discussion / thread is pinned to the top of the list.

The image of the lock means you can read the discussion / thread, but can’t respond (like this thread)

2. What it's like to post

In terms of posting, most of the functionality options are exactly the same, but they look a little different. The biggest change to the icons is the ‘Insert image’ icon. It now looks like a camera.

There’s also slightly different process to uploading images. This is the screen you see when you choose the 'photo' icon to upload an image:

But it’s still quite intuitive and if you look at the top of the screen, you have the same options as were previously offered.

Excitingly, mobile gives you more options that there is currently

Including to upload an image.

You will notice the ‘insert video’ icon is no longer there. We found that most people copy & paste a Youtube link directly into the post anyways – which you can still do.

Only a week until we migrate over to the Responsive version. I’m really looking forward to you being able to use it 🤗

Hi everyone! Today is the exciting day - our new responsive site has gone live. You will notice a few things look a bit different, and you can read back through this thread for more details around this and navigation tips.

If you have any questions or notice any bugs/issues please check here, read through and post them in this thread if they haven't been already been addressed!