As many of you will have noticed, we've changed the look and feel of Patient, to what we hope will be a fresh new bright and vibrant look.
We greatly value our user's feedback and would like to hear your thoughts on the new design.
Rebranding is rebranding - and frequently doesn't achieve what you wanted! Fresh, bright and vibrant has come out as garish and slow. I wouldn't mind if the posts loaded first and the buttons came later...
Seriously though: Is there any way of making the list "You have new notifications" appear the opposite way round? i.e. so the oldest unread post is at the top and it adds new ones at the bottom. At present I have to scroll and scroll to get to the bottom which I can't do until the post I have just written has loaded or it just flashes back to that. I don't want to read the posts starting with the most recent, that loses the coninuity.
We can certainly look into it EileenH - we are planning a proper newsfeed feature in the future, which would hopefully address the issue you're describing. I'm guessing that a lot of the notifications tend to be for the same thread too?
We will be looking into the colour scheme a bit, but I'm surprised you're finding it slower than before - if anything it really ought to be faster than ever. Do you mostly browse on mobile or on a computer?
The 'New Look' was a shock to us all - quite unexpected and like others, I thought my computer was the problem. However, the new look is clear and easy to read which is good and I am sure we will get used to it given time once the problem you have identified with regard to the indentation which appears in responses from some cellphones etc. has been ironed out.
I'm on a computer - it is jerking about all over the place as different bits load. It is far worse than the old one was first thing before it changed the second time I logged on. So while I could put some down to the internet speed, it isn't all due to that. And when I follow the email notification all the garish bits appear a long time before anything else - and it isn't a pretty sight!!
Yes - there will be a load of notifications for a thread that were posted in the USA overnight (for me). I can't start with the most recent one - I've missed the history. And the nesting just makes it far worse. So I have to wait for a reply to be uploaded, scroll to get to the "you have new notifications" box, click on it, wait for the list to load, scroll down the list to the bottom and then wait for the thread to load. ONly then can I read it, have a look at other bits and THEN I can reply. I know I'm difficult - but if it is to be done then it needs to be done right!!!
There is sensible change and change for the sake of.........................
If they (who ever they are) had bothered to check with the RNIB they would have been given advice on colours and size which works for both sighted and partially sighted people, those with glasses, lenses et al. They are so willing to help. We contacted them for our website and they also advised us to put a box where you could enable large print...................it is not rocket science and in particular this thread deals with patients who have GCA.................which means some have been left with partial sight.
I do not want a screaming red 'report this'.
I do not want a screaming Reply to ' Patient' either.
I would like a 'EileenH' top left hand corner just like the Reply to Patient - but not in heavy blue about 3 shades lighter.
I do want a bigger name.
Green is a softer colour and has a calming effect.
Who is the red, white and blue person that has been let loose on this site.
Talk to opthamologists and the RNIB please...
This site has become so slow...............and no it is not my computer. Brand new PC Zoostorm, newly installed fast broadband, Openreach finally got its act together. Firefox etc..........
Would anyone care to look at this site approx 10 years ago..............and just ponder...................Patients.co.uk originally.
We have been asking for repeatedly is an EDIT button...............so simple a request..................will someone tell me why this is not available...........a very very good reason...........not a sop.
That does sound infuriating. We will look into a better way to do this kind of task. Don't worry, you're not being difficult
To add to Lodger's comments - the nicest thing about the old Patient was the muted greenish colours. These shouting red white and blue bits are really quite nasty - not fresh and vibrant if that was your aim. And especially so for people with poor sight.
Accessibility is my middle name - that is why I spend hours every day writing medical-speak as people-speak for the benefit of patients whose medics can't explain to them simply what has happened and how to live with it. And it is all for nothing if that patient then can only spend a few minutes reading what I have written because the presentation upsets their vision. I have good vision - and it's driving me up the wall. The bright colours are distracting - and I can't turn the volume down. I look at what I am typing and the bright blue Reply box interferes and distracts...
Thanks for your feedback lodgerUK - we will be reviewing the colours to some extent to make them more palatable . We won't be returning to green though - sorry.
To respond to your point about an edit facility specifically - we have looked into adding an edit function into the site, but have realised that it's quite a complex task to do properly. The alerts that get sent to users would have to be changed, and there's also the question of what happens if a post is edited after being approved by moderation. I want to assure you that we are looking into it, and it is on our radar, but will take a while to deliver properly.
What's the matter with green? I have always found it easy on the eye, it's scientifically proven to be so - and when you spend a lot of time on the computer that is important. But it just occurred to me - make the FLAG red, you don't need an enormous red box saying Report, it can be in plain type..
I read quite a few blogs - and several of them change a background and typeface colour at times - and then ASK about problems for the visually impaired.
Hi Eileen,
You have more control with your browser than most people think.
I use Firefox, but the following should work on any browser:
1. I need to scroll to the last post?
1. Answer: Above your scroll left, right, up and down - there is the Page Cordination Keys. If you hit 'End' then the browser will instantly go to the end of the last post. Home will take you back up to the 'Top' of any page.
2. If your eye-sight is bad and you find it hard to read the text, then you can easily Zoom in and out of pages, using the following key combinations.
[A] - Zoom in, make Text larger on a page. Press and hold CTRL key then press the + key.
- Zoom out, make Text smaller on a page. Press and hold CTRL key then press the - key.
[C] - Reset Text Size. Press and hold CTRL and hit Zero
Hope that helps some people!
Regards,
SteV3
Thank yo for the opportunity to provide pfeedback. Further to other comments made on the PMR thread, I think what I miss most about the appearance is the restful green. I know the idea is probably to get things undated and clean and spiffy, but sometimes we need something more gentle and less clinical. i think it needs to be acknowledged that the people posting here are of course mostly sick people, some of us with disabilities, some of us just getting older, and we need our comforts!
And there's an example of the need for an edit, or recall button - I saw my "yo" which should have been "you" in the split second after I pressed the reply button!
Oops! That message hit the 'Bold' parser in the Editor.
What I would like to see is an 'EDIT' button for the Post's, many of us mentioned this years ago. Even if had a 5 or 10 minute timer it would be better than what we have now, which is nothing - ending up with many people writing correction posts.
Regards,
SteV3
No - not in the thread, I know all about that and I don't have poor vision, I'm thinking of others. The site Lodger mentioned was designed with them in mind - because it is a PMRGCA site and many GCA patients have impaired vision. Because of GCA. I can see anything - they can't.
I need to read the posts in the order in which they were posted - and the nesting set-up on this forum means there are likely to be posts I haven't read in the middle of a thread as replies to an internal nest. The place I have to scroll to the bottom to find the oldest post I haven't read is in a side bar and is a never-ending list of all the posts ever. The first x are marked as unread. I need to be able to find the oldest of them - and the only way is to scroll down the list until I can see it. Keystrokes don't help.
The most important part of the post is the post itself. The other thing is the names of the participants. To make both Report and Reply boxes alarmingly more dominant is counterproductive. As soon as I have my own computer again I will be dimming the screen brightness as I always do, but for now I completely agree with those who are finding the appearance far too garish and tiring.
And I am voting for green. If you want to freshen things up, why not a different green? A gentle spring green to replace the autumn green you used to have?
One of the most important factors with changing colours is that many people suffer from bad eye-sight either from having to wear glasses or to take medications that cause 'blurred' vision.
It is also a proven fact that starring at a LED flat screen all day will damage your eye-sight. This is due to staring at the 'cold-blue' light given off by all white areas of a screen. I change mine to 'warm-orange', and leave it like that.
The trouble is many websites tend not to this in to account, and it is businesses that will be 'footing' bills for employees eyes.
Unless you using Microsoft Windows 10 Creators Edition or Apple iOS 9, you can not change colour warmth on screens. There is a third-party program you can use if you are using older computer systems, but you will need to Google it.
Enter the following in to the Search Bar:
flux software to make your life better
The first result should be flux to decrease 'cold-blue-light' that damages your eyes.
And, now we have more white parts on this website which to me is ironic. A website used by many patients that can cause eye damage. I find this totally wrong.
The Developers should be notified of this matter.
Regards,
Les.
Basically what's happened for me is that I will no longer be able to check into a long thread, quickly read through all the new to me posts, and then tick them as read on the notifications list. Will now have to go through them one by one on the list. Incentive to keep up, but there are other things to do in a day! Just off, now, to watch Tall Ships parade. 
Ah, can we "bold" the whole page? That might make it easier to read.
Thanks SteV3 - nice to have the expert input! Says it so much better than I did!