Need a really short FAQ for diciphering icons
 

I think there are a lot of features in this forum that are obscured by the use of too subtle icons. Could there be a short icon help someplace? It seems that the icons in front of topic areas and threads change depending on whether or not I've read them. But I am having to figure that out by trial and error and careful observation.

Please aim for casual and occasional users to be able to figure out how to use the forum. Closed and open mail envelopes don't say "you haven't read this thread yet" . The tool tip tells me if I've posted in the thread. To me, a colored bulletin board with extra pages doesn't say "there's new content in this area". Now it will, but I was looking for that indicator and it wasn't obvious.

Maybe what would help would be a screen shot of some typical pages with annotations noting what the parts mean. Oooh, something like that would be helpful for any of the Omni apps as well. Something like a map to what's here.

Now I see that there is a key at the bottom of the page for some of these icons. Maybe my (22-inch Apple Cinema) monitor just isn't big enough.

The interface of vBulletin isn't known for it's usability.

You can also hold your mouse over the icon for the title attribute to display.

[QUOTE=bethkatz17582]I think there are a lot of features in this forum that are obscured by the use of too subtle icons. Could there be a short icon help someplace? It seems that the icons in front of topic areas and threads change depending on whether or not I've read them. But I am having to figure that out by trial and error and careful observation.[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure about the meaning of the icons too. Is there a way to change the templates by embedding a "_title=" attribute for the image? That way, a tool tip can pop up that provides a short description.

[QUOTE=eugene]I'm not sure about the meaning of the icons too. Is there a way to change the templates by embedding a "_title=" attribute for the image? That way, a tool tip can pop up that provides a short description.[/QUOTE]

[quote=Forrest]You can also hold your mouse over the icon for the title attribute to display.[/quote]

:confused:

If we're adjusting icons, could we move the expand/collapse icons at the top level over to the left side in front of the names? And please make the arrows look more directional like open and close. Users already understand for file browsers that a right-pointing arrow has something collapsed within it and a down-pointing arrow has an expanded list that can be collapsed. Use that experience to guide the user.