The Noosphere

[Noosphere]

We're a general discussion forum that opened its doors w/in the last few days. As you will see we are definitely aiming to a niche market.

We're stiill building various features, and not yet marketing the site or actively seeking new members. Hoping to put the software through its paces for another week or two first with an eye to ironing out any bugs before we get proactive.

Would appreciate objective feedback from anyone willing to take a few minutes to poke around.

Thanks in advance ...

www.thenoosphere.com

[CoffeeToki]

The atmosphere is very mysterious. :) I like the colors and design. It may help to shorten your word count in the forum descriptions, maybe keeping it 20 words or less.

The TN Sphere and the Gallery seems to serve the same purpose, except that the TN Sphere displays the gallery in a sphere. Is that right, or did I miss something?

[Keesa]

Looks good to me.

Here are the things that might be considered criticism
As a designer, I always prefer a sans-serif font as the main font for the page because they are easier to read.

For example, on your page, you have JOINING TN as a link, and I thought it said JOINING IN.

Also, (gosh, don't be mad) I would add more space around the images in the news posts? They kind of butt up against the text and it is a little distracting/hard to read.

Please know, I am an older reader, and things like that bother my eyes. Could be your entire demographic has young and fresh eyes, in which case, these comments are moot :D

My only other comment is to maybe home a more prominent link to your "What We're About" or FAQ thread? I finally found it because your content made me curious and it seems you invite all members, but it was really hard to tell what your site was about.

The Plus side...
I LIKE IT AND WANT TO KEEP READING.

[Noosphere]

The atmosphere is very mysterious. :) I like the colors and design. It may help to shorten your word count in the forum descriptions, maybe keeping it 20 words or less.

The TN Sphere and the Gallery seems to serve the same purpose, except that the TN Sphere displays the gallery in a sphere. Is that right, or did I miss something?
Thanks for taking the time. :)

On the forum descriptions, that's thought-provoking advice. Believe it or not, we've already cut them down from where they started. Will take the comment to heart and look at ways to pare them down more w/o losing the message.

As to the redundancy of the Gallery and Sphere, the answer is yes, they are. That's temporary though. The Sphere was a last minute add-on, mostly because we ran across it like a week ago and thought it was a cool toy. The intent, once we get with the designer on the how-to, is to incorporate it into an active front-page module that can serve as a kind of interactive 3D site index (individual pics will also link directly to various site components, etc.) Might prove to be more flash than substance, though, so not sure if it'll stick.

For the time being it's admittedly just a toy to play with.

Looks good to me.

Here are the things that might be considered criticism
As a designer, I always prefer a sans-serif font as the main font for the page because they are easier to read.

For example, on your page, you have JOINING TN as a link, and I thought it said JOINING IN.
That's bad. :) Will have to play around with that. Reason we chose Comic Sans was simply aesthetic preference---not a big fan of the default fonts. Still, readability and clarity have to trump appearances, so the advice is well taken.

Also, (gosh, don't be mad) I would add more space around the images in the news posts? They kind of butt up against the text and it is a little distracting/hard to read.

Please know, I am an older reader, and things like that bother my eyes. Could be your entire demographic has young and fresh eyes, in which case, these comments are moot :D
How could I be mad? I asked for this. :)

I think I agree on the spacing b/w the blog thumbnail pics and text. As an older reader myself you're talking my language. Will definitely work on that. As to the demographics, truth is we're simply aiming for an "adult" audience---be they 18 or 78. It's more about intellectual than chronological age. Meaning, ultimately, we have to find a graphic balance that works for eyes of all ages. I'm discovering that's a rather intriguing challenge.

My only other comment is to maybe home a more prominent link to your "What We're About" or FAQ thread? I finally found it because your content made me curious and it seems you invite all members, but it was really hard to tell what your site was about.
Excellent advice. Having stared at this thing for a couple months straight, it's easy to lose sight of how it looks to fresh eyes. Don't want to beat people over the head with the "what we're about" stuff, but don't want them to get frustrated and/or bored searching for it and drift away either.

The Plus side...
I LIKE IT AND WANT TO KEEP READING.
Most kind. :) Our focus now (beyond studying some recently-suggested structural tweaks) is on building content, and lots of it, so that when people do find us for the first time they might, if nothing else, be intrigued enough to bookmark us against a rainy day.

Again, thanks to both of you for drilling down into this and taking the time to write up your thoughts.

Invaluable.

[Q-v-n-s-Q]

really nice comunity, keep up the good work :)

[Keesa]

That's bad. Will have to play around with that. Reason we chose Comic Sans was simply aesthetic preference---not a big fan of the default fonts. Still, readability and clarity have to trump appearances, so the advice is well taken.

OOOH!!! That is interesting. I do not have Comic Sans on my computer, maybe that is the problem? It defaulted to Times New Roman, just FYI. I think you can set your second choice font in your CSS after Comic Sans. Heehee, I am a rebel and uninstalled Comic Sans.


It's more about intellectual than chronological age. Meaning, ultimately, we have to find a graphic balance that works for eyes of all ages. I'm discovering that's a rather intriguing challenge.

Oh, I KNOW! A great part of our demographic is teens/young adults and they LOVE the red on black schemes or the colors like this: http://tokiohotel-am-qc.zikforum.com/

I find this site invaluable as well.

http://browsershots.org/

<3

[Noosphere]

Well, clearly the simple fix for the font-choice issue is for you to reload Comic Sans. ;)

Seriously though ... great advice on the second-option font. The thought never even occured to me. I'll put my fledgling admin skills to the test and see if I can make that happen.

Thank you as well for browsershots. What a great service ... though I'll admit it was with some trepidation I dialed up screenshots for every browser listed (fully half of which I've never heard of) and waited for the results. Not sure what I would have done if things were a mess out there!

Happily, the site displays cleanly in all but 2 or 3, and those are among the ones I suspect (and hope) are the least widely used around the web. I will definitely plan to use the service in the future when implementing any kind of substantive upgrade/alteration to the site layout.

I truly appreciate your time and advice. Cheers.

[Noosphere]

Still looking for feedback guys/gals. Any you might have would be greatly appreciated!