UESP Forums

If UESP forums(and wiki) went mobile:

• What would you like to see? / What are your suggestions?
• Are there bugs or features you think would need special attention?
• Do you have a preference for posts per thread?
• What are your general concerns?
• Etc., etc.

This is not a definite suggestion that UESP will be mobile anytime soon, but it is a topic of consideration and thought, so thanks to Eltee's suggestion I thought I would see what users might be concerned for or what their suggestions would be.

Also, I added a poll out of curiosity to see how you usually access UESP. This means 7 out of 10 times you log in or more. Please vote - it's just a general consensus for curiosity! The technology and the times are changing, so we want to make sure everything is smooth for as many people as possible.

Thank you!

I might use it, but most of the time I use my computer, and sometimes my ps3.

computer only, cause that the machine I find it easier to browse with

Are we thinking an app or more of a mobile skin?

If just a skin, definitely the "Jump to" list should stay, and maybe have one at the top and bottom of the page. Also a mobile skin would benefit from smaller margins in the text area, and possibly the poster info at the top of their post instead of a separate column.

Just a couple things off the top of my head I've seen done on other forums.

Oh! I think of this every time I use my phone to post, but didn't think anyone consider it, due to the fact that most use a computer.

All that it really would need is better navigation.

Though, now that I am actually thinking about it for more than five minutes, I think it would be smart to have the:
View new posts
View your posts
View unanswered posts
View active topics

all easier to select. This could be done by making them bigger, but my concern is that when I try to hit 'your posts' I end up looking at 'unanswered' or 'new' posts unless I zoom in greatly.

This could also be done by spreading out the options, or putting them in a different place all together.

I think the posts per thread should take the style of mobile twitter, where you can scroll down, and the page will refresh, but there also being page selections on the sides, so you can access certain posts better.

I used to use it on my old blackberry, but that one became close friends with a toilet so it died. Now my new BB doesnt load fast enough so i use my laptop.

My phone is becoming my go-to UESP machine, so I'd definitely like a dedicated mobile skin, with larger 'View new/your posts' links so that I don't need to zoom in to tap them on my iPhone.

I mainly use my computer, but as Musicman said in a pm he sent me:

Musicman247 wrote:Tsk tsk. Browsing the forum on your Centro at school.

I do it a lot. When I'm on the move, when I'm going somewhere, I'd still like to have access to the forum, which is why I use my phone. As Eltee said in another thread, the amount of posts per page does do murder on a phone's loading time, which is my only concern.

Tapatalk is a popular solution for reading forums via mobile device apps. It's a plugin you install on the forum that allows the app to see the forum.

Although I think a mobile-optimized skin/theme would work very well.

When I browse from my mobile I always end up visiting Musicman's profile page rather than the thread I wanted to look at at least 5 times. So maybe all the new posts could go there or we could use icons or something for the various threads.

To be fair, i mainly use my PC, but at times I check it on my iPod Touch too, and it does become a pain when I apparently do an 'Invalid Search' when using it...why im not sure. Could be a compat issue.

Other than that, making it easier to navigate (such as bigger links and buttons) would be a nice little idea.

As can be guessed from my agitation for this in the first place, I do use my iPod touch for UESP on an extremely regular basis.

Really, there aren't that many things that I find to be overwhelmingly bad about the current situation. I am intimately used to the usage of the forum on a mobile, and the issues I was agitating about are the only ones that consistently present a major issue.

Even on computers, that damn Google Custom Search bar doesn't load for several seconds after the page loads. On the mobile version of the site, for some reason, when the bar loads it grotesquely stretches the screen, but for a few seconds everything's fine. That's how one can tell it's the damn bar that's doing it. The page will load looking quite like the one you're looking at. Everything's fine for a few seconds. Then it loads, OUTSIDE of the screen. This causes the Ipod to have to be able to scroll over to the side when at 100% zoom, something it normally doesn't need to do, and something that makes navigation and scrolling a pain. Also, in an annoying little practical joke the bar enjoys playing on me, when I log on and click on my inbox, the damn bar loads and pushes it aside and logs me out. This is even when I click on Inbox and I'm waiting for it to load.

In effect, it causes me to lose 5-8 seconds EVERY TIME I log on. Now, this wouldn't irk me so horribly if the bar wasn't entirely useless, and neglected by every forumite who I have spoken to.

Rant on that subject over.

By contrast, waiting a second or so when I scroll down because of the page length is a minor issue. Ergonomics don't need to be tweaked too much on the regular skin in order to make browsing on mobile several of orders of magnitude easier.

I haven't even seen a google custom search bar, where is it?

Eltee wrote:Now, this wouldn't irk me so horribly if the bar wasn't entirely useless, and neglected by every forumite who I have spoken to.

Am I really the only one who uses the search bar?

Also: what type of phones and browsers do you guys with mobiles use? When I check out the forums on my HTC EVO (with the standard internet browser), I have no problems. Google bar even loads and is useable!

I use a Windows Phone with IE9. Page loads perfectly and looks exactly as it does on the PC, thus the reason I don't have that many suggestions. I'm happy with what I have.

As I mentioned earlier, I use my Palm Centro. I should be getting an old iPhone sooner or later though. (as my older brother is going to upgrade... the youngest is definitely the one that gets all the hand-me-downs) It loads fine on my Centro, it's basically the same, except I have to scroll down about 7 times more because of how lacking in width the screen is. Also ever since the amount of posts per page has been increased I keep getting an error every time I load a page saying that it is too big to load properly. (It loads properly anyway...) Overall not that bad of a deal I got right now.

Maybe the bar is only a problem for me.

And probably anyone else using Apple products to view the forum.

I have had not any problems with My current Samsung or previous Nokia (other than the size of my fingers).

VirtualWeasel wrote:...Yeah, the wiki.

Just pointing it out.

Avron the S'wit wrote:If UESP forums (and wiki) went mobile

Also, a large-scale site poll is currently in the works (though I think it may had been forgotten during the upgrade) to help determine what we need, with questions relating to mobile accessibility being a high priority for information we want.

Doesn't this site have a tool to parse metrics about what sort of browser/os/whatever people are using to view the site?