Nokia Beta Labs

How about filters?

We are planning to set up the default view to be sorted by latest activity. In addition, we are planning to implement filters for "Bugs only", "Suggestions only" etc, which would be kind of like having their own separate sections - but not quite. Would this be enough? Or do you feel we should force separate views and provide only one "post new" button for the sake of simplicity?

its a start.

Uhm its a good way to start.
Im just one view, so lets see how others feel. :)
Sake of simplicity would be the priority. For both our sakes ;)

Quicker response seems in need.

Just got back from some browsing, definitely some control would be needed quick. lol.

Anyhow to continue my feedback on the beta portal.......

I noticed an annoying occurrence on the main forum page, towards the bottom where given the selection is given on the choice of few for how many topics my be displayed at once. Well im for one who prefers to view all titles in one page, so its ok to click on the choice for full page once, but it than becomes annoying where i must continue re-selecting the page set up when browsing around. It would be nice if a fix up is possible.

Same goes if say im on the second page(2/4), enter say nokia messaging, decide to go backward it will lead me to page (1/4) an not (2/4).
It's just for quicker access an fluid flow on the user.

Thanks

I totally agree, this goes to my todo list as well.

Image/Video/ User Status

In the past i used an image to show a bug for ovi maps 3.0 on the betalabs feedback comment. Since it was not possible to include in the comment i placed a link from my ovi channel.
Theres not much to discuss about it, you get the picture (literally heh) that it is useful to share images, screenshots, or even mock up images and videos to express visually.

So a system or some set up can be used on the betalabs forum, possibly using ovi links, or better integrated with ovi share template. Maybe use a ovi betalabs profile for upload pics and videos in one center storage.

Whatever the solution may be, i see it fit to have such access and share.

-In my previous comment on this thread "The size of the comment bar is too large for such short text....you can imagine how it would build up."
Well i gave it another taught, and actually it can be quite useful if well set up, Or unless im unaware for its future plans. I am referring to under a users name & picture empty space.
Its our status slot. Device, firmware, possibly 2 -4 devices, depending on user.
His/Her full name( if chosen to make public) same implies for email, webpage, etc. Most importantly i will stress on location, not just country but specific ( if one choose to) because i believe location dependent feedback should be accounted for, and of course it answers the question of why a certain view point.

Again, good ideas

You're right, there are numerous ways how including files would come in handy. Reporting bugs for example. Currently, a work-around is to upload such material somewhere on the net and put a www link to it. I understand that this is a bit too cumbersome in the long run, so I'll write this down on my notes and will think about it.

I also like the ideas you suggest about the user information area on the left. Putting the comments into context is indeed valuable and this could help do that. Will think about this too. So far, we haven't really put much thought on how much and what kind of information we want to collect from our users. This will become more current a bit further in the future when this new site is a bit more finalized.

1.) I agree with above

1.) I agree with above comments to have all threads display and make it customizable via User Profile settings

2.) Would be nice to have an RSS feed for each forum and, if feasible / practical, each topic

3.) Would like to have the signature automatically applied to each post and not 'part' of each post. Especially since I have to manually make a few paragraph breaks to distance it from the body of my comment (to make it look like a signature and not like part of my comment)

4.) Would like to see an avatar / icon indicating which phone we're currently using.

5.) Would like to be able to 'quote' other members' replies

6.) Would be nice to be able to post a thread and have it published in several forums simultaneously. However, any replies will be shown in all threads as well (ie. a topic might apply to both Nokia Chat and Friend View so one thread that's shown in both forums would be ideal

Will add more as they come to mind.

Otherwise, great new layout!! Thanks!!

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All thoughts and opinions expressed above are those of my own and not of any other individual or organization.

Thank you

Thank You Ilkka for the "Innovator" Icon. It actually answered my previous remark "it can be quite useful if well set up, Or unless im unaware for its future plans" in reference to User Status information area, stressing my comment on "Unaware for its future plans"
Great touch, it makes me feel recognized and appreciated, thus leading me to continue providing "innovative" feedback lol, of course in return it helps assists the community and betalabs team.

Just to make a comment which may make it more interactive and beneficial for both parties is a status level indicator for the icons, not in percentage term, but in color scale.

Say for example i received a status icon for my contribution, so next time i will not receive another one in the same area (meaning now my status is static to me an the beta team), so was i a one time hit? How valued is my potential feedback to the betalabs crew with an icon for an area? Im just trying to keep the taught simple, unless if you would like me to elaborate more.

My proposed solution as mentioned would not be a percent margin, but color based. In the Innovation icon, it is dark green. Say lets color code it from light to dark as a status indicator, the more recognized feedback the darker it becomes ( it can also apply both ways for neutrality and well, honesty. Scales of time always shift). Or consider in this case the light bulb starts from a low lighting image to a stronger light image. Kinda funky i think, lol.
A number scale is too crude but a color coded leaves a good positive look.

@COMMENT #2
My vote goes for this;
"In addition, we are planning to implement filters for "Bugs only", "Suggestions only" etc, which would be kind of like having their own separate sections - but not quite."
Rather than;
"Or do you feel we should force separate views and provide only one "post new" button for the sake of simplicity?"

Like i said, lets see what other have to speak bro, thx again.

Jamaal, snowy

@Jamaal: good suggestions. We'll see which ideas we can implement and with what kind of schedule. Stay tuned.

@snowy: About the badges, I agree. One time hit badges don't really motivate in the long run. We have thought about this and have come up with something very much alike what you are suggesting. Unfortunately, I cannot promise anything about when this would be implemented. But we are planning it!

As long its in conseideration

Hey Ilkka thx again for pointing out future works. Its nice to know certain aspects have been taken into consideration for the future and informing us. Saves us both the time.
Most importantly i will stress on is that you have made the effort in informing us for future plans in the work an what is considered at the current moment.
As long as ideas are express across both ends of the board, its cool to know.

For future reference this certain style should be implemented with betalabs and applications. Similar to what has taken place with Nokia Email. Users were informed where they stand, where the project stands, whats being the current development and focus, and what the certain feedback is requested, while still acknowledging what is considered at a later time.

Helps brings things into perspective of what is "Now" & "Tomorrow".
A good natural filter IMO ;)

Absolutely right

A lot of the possible threats I see in Beta Labs can be significantly decreased by simply doing the communications part well. I have to admit, I still sometimes forget this, but I'll try not to :)

Another one

Heres another one for you Iikka.....I am trying here to implement the ideas and examples you have placed by the way.

Say i leave my "Suggestion" (the best example), it is open for review and comment from both parties(beta team, beta users).

Now would u consider a rating system? Maybe one for forum members, one for beta team?
Like i said im sticking with ur themes........
So say it will appear on the bottom right corner of the where the "reply" & "report this page" are located, with an easy one click "I like idea". Very simple as you like and users would respond to such an approach.

I am not done there yet.....I dont think EVERY post should have it, but say a feature to include in the post if choosing to.
It will follow the idea u have created with the way the applications status are color ranked. I dont see it beneficial as seen in other sites to report a plus & minus selection and displaying the results. Replacing the plus and minus selection, maybe say strongly agree, agree, not agree, then represented in color factor or scale of some sort, if a suggestion is not widely accepted it will say return to a neutral level, not a negative value as i dont see that helpful nor innovative.

I mentioned one for you guys and one for us, just the simple fact if i was in your position maybe i would care to have the views divided.

A real life example:
"Suggestion"
Hello Beta Labs, i would like to see an application called Ovi Calender for the my S60 Device.
One that will replace the old one, have a fresh OVI look and feal, more advanced and customized and better integrated with Ovi sync service.
Something i see will fall in the line of competition with googles services, offering end users a free service and reason to join ovi. Goolge has built a strong service line with their google docs and sorts. An S60 ovi Calender can truly be my personalize mobile, internet, space, desktop life.

{click here "Strongly Agree"} {click here "agree"} {click hree "ah whatever"}

LIke that Iikka, just took me 5 minutes to think of beta labs next project ;)

They Just keep coming

They just keep coming like hot fire.

A nice "gesture" for topic thread would be for example ovi maps;

Ok i open Ovi maps forum, lets say its empty. pretty much no direction for the user we can agree. second its left in the air for the user to decide his topic title, which usually is not well picked, to specific or whatever.

My suggestion would be provide some preset topics. Leave some general topics like (maps on Ovi)
Discussion GPS
Discussion UI/GUI
Bugreport Search
(of course im just tossing up topics)
The added bonus will be the beta labs team can decide on a topic that they see fit for specific feedback.
So for every project their will be a certain preset choices of topics to join in that will fit betalabs "guideline"

In essence it quietly sets a course of direction.

What are your taught's? of course some more discussion can be needed.

Certainly things to consider

We have already thought about implementing a rating system, much like you propose. And certainly the views between Nokia staff and BL users are to be separated. Implementing such a system is not very high on our priority just yet, but I do see its potential. We just have our hands full at the moment. Guiding the users to discuss about certain specific topics can often add value, and we do that already by asking for specific kind of feedback trough a blog post. Again, this kind of feature could be maybe "nice to have". I'll have to come back to these when we get the more urgent issues out of the way, like fixing bugs and improving user experience of the site.

Understand

Thats all good to know. I do get ahead of myself at times. Ill try an focus at whats at hand.

I am required to verify my nokia account say about every 7-10 days when logging to beta labs.
I will be logged on, but unable to participate till i re-verify my nokia account.
This must have been the 3rd or 4th time.
Keep it Active. Address Todays Questions. Most Importantly Keep it Tidy and Fit Comments to its Attended Topic. I Welcome all Questions!

Re-verifying

This sounds like something that could possibly be a bug in the Nokia Account itself. So do you mean you need to go trough the email / SMS verification process? I will have to forward this issue to the Nokia Account support... I guess it is possible Beta Labs could be the cause of this, too.

From the forum reports it

From the forum reports it seems clear that sometimes the profile information including the verified status gets wiped clean. This is a safety measure to stop a nokia user with different id and previously used username to access wrong profile information. This just made it to the most wanted in our bug hunt - with the reason for unnecessary relogins and disappearing post types..

For me, sometimes just

For me, sometimes just clicking on the sign in link does the trick and am signed in automatically.
But sometime, clicking on the sign in takes me to the Nokia Account login page.

I guess it might be a cookie issue and the way betalabs handles the cookie :)
Hope it helps.

BTW, thanks fo the Innovator

BTW, thanks fo the Innovator badge illka :) I though it had something to do with post count, when i read yours and snowy's conversation in this topic. A nice touch.

exactly

It is exactly as you put it, re-verify by email and sms.
Also today i had to re-do it. No biggy for me.

Yes and maybe a bug on Nokia account. I will give you an example.
In my Nokia Account profile my name is in caps lock "JOSEPH ASMAR"
So i went on and edited it, also ticking for their ovi subscription.
When i return to verify my account all is returned to original form then what i have edited.
Just was an extra tidbit for you while you speak with nokia account team.

Hmm i also just realized when i am prompted to re-verify my account status i do also loose my beta labs profile status. I understand this has been mentioned, but there possibly may be a correlation just to suggest.

-Iikka off topic, but see if possible to add page selection on top page of topic, as it can become a tedious effort to scroll to bottom page to select "next page" or "page number"

Topic Label

While in a thread, it is not possible to recognize under which topic label it has been assigned.

Example would be currently there is no way for me knowing this thread is a "discussion" Topic, unless i looked over the forum page.
It would help in the future as a double check, if say im under a "bug report" topic to stay with in the comment parameters.

page selection on top

agreed and added to to-do list

projector in mobile

I own E71 and it would be great if nokia can embed it with world's smallest projector so that I can even use it for presentation.
url for projector: http://www.gearlog.com/2008/10/inside_the_worlds_smallest_pro.php
or
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2080442,00.asp

cheers
sushant

Catch Up

Hey Ilkka been a while since last chat.
May you provide an update where the current beta lab forum road map stands following the previous discussions/suggestions taken place in the forum.
As i understand much more is to come. Although improvement is to follow from discussion/suggestions that may have yet to show.
Basically just an update of what will come or show up that spurred up from previous discussions rather than wondering will it show up.

On that note i hope a kinda tally up system will show soon. As we chatted for a way users can fly by and click i like this suggestion or a bugreport where a click will mean hey i had that to.
In my opinion it will help the beta team recognise potential suggestions and re occuring bugs.

Next topic is the forum branch root (sorry i dont know the correct word).
Example, look towards this top page and notice "Graduated>Nokia Betalabs>Forum>`topic´ (this is what i intended to refer to)
Well it becomes difficult to toggle boards with this layout.
Try selecting forum to intentionly return under "nokia betalabs" forum topic will divert to general forum.
Try selecting nokia betalabs maybe this will keep under the forum for betalabs topics, actually be directed under beta page where the general description is given.
So on and so forth.

Sorry Iikka if it may not sound clear nor the fact i did not use links to provide a visual. I am currently on the n810, first time use.
Just ask me anything.....

Catching up

The forum improvements are in the works as we speak. The current system is based on Drupal's own forum engine and it can be customized only so much. Therefore, to fulfill the wishes, the forum needs to be constructed from scratch, which takes a bit more time. Luckily, we should be getting pretty close and missing only some final UI work. After this, we should have different forums for curren/archived/graduated applications and will only show one type of forum posts in a view (bug report / suggestion / discussion / review).

I talked with Tommi about adding a button to say "I had this too". This topic turns out to be not as straight forward as it might seem. Our current belief is that this button will not help teams to prioritize bugs, as they try to sort out all bugs in any case. Adding such a button to perhaps show a suggestion's popularity might be dangerous: there are bound to be very popular suggestions which we cannot / don't want to implement for some reason, which then could lead to discontent among users. This kind of popularity per se does not guarantee feasibility. Check out the N-Gage user voice forum's most popular ideas.

The next thing: I found out it's name is breadcrumb navigation. I agree with you. Do you feel the correct path to the application page and its forums are e.g.
Current » Contacts on Ovi
Forum » Current » Contacts on Ovi
What do you feel are the most intuitive breadcrumbs to use?

Thank You. Concerning

Thank You. Concerning breadcrumb navigation(such a fitting word) i will need to do some trials on a desktop for a proper response.
Second thank you for taking time away for the reply.
Third thank you again for explaining why it can posse not beneficial as a click agree system. I was thinking along the lines for beta team not users but your statements showed me a better insight.
Its a shame though, back to the drawing board ;).

Ahh! Colors, such a

Ahh! Colors, such a beautiful visual identification.
Our forum "type" color coded based on bug/suggestion/discussion.

So lets say we are under forum beta labs, to our left is collium "type" informing us its type of thread.
Lets color code that baby; bug-red, suggestion-yellow, discussion-green.
Now its a breeze to sift through the topics, beta team & beta testers ;).

Illka, how about Sticky

Illka, how about Sticky topics or Announcements?
Like Kee is having to post in every topic that a new beta is to be released in a few days, if the forums could support announcements which were displayed on top of the forums, then quite a lot of such question posts could be averted.

The announcements could be regarding the usually asked questions, like the probable date for next beta, or acknowledgment of a serious bug.

Like when the Maps 3 was released and would not work on N85's when the Maps 2 had been updated using a Sis file, so many users came back perplexed as to the reason. For such a scenario, announcements being displayed on the top of every thread of a particular forum would help.

Sticky topics are

Sticky topics are implemented, just nobody had used them yet :) I made the "hello from maps team" sticky for the maps forum for now, but will contact Kee to ask what he would like to have as a longer time solution.

Cool. Also, think about the

Cool.

Also, think about the announcement way too. That way, a note could be displayed at the top of every forum page.

I will

I will

Illka, please prioritize the

Illka,
please prioritize the "Last Post" view to be the forum default. With the forum's going to 2 3 pages now, many times the unread post is on the 3rd post!
Gets irritating!

Also, the icon for the sticky topic does not change if that topic contains unread posts. The icon makes it easier to notice on the other topics.

I'm waiting to get the

I'm waiting to get the improved forum running, which should tackle the user experience issues we are currently having. It has been in the works for a short while now. I was hoping we could have it implemented already, but seems it is delayed a bit.

Iikka nice :) will provide

Iikka nice :)
will provide the usual feedback soon ;)

Looks better than before,

Looks better than before, but still a long way to go.

I have provided my feedback via this review as well as a bug report thread.
You can view them here -

Review - http://betalabs.nokia.com/forum/topic/928

Issues with the new update - http://betalabs.nokia.com/forum/topic/932

Suggestion for topic selection

Ilkka very nice transition when creating a forum topic. Very cool looking, straight forward while advising the user to better select the topic choice and text entered.
To go on and further this filter process add a search provided box. Like say typing in the subject line a pop up box would display relevant topics already created. Showing the member if previous topics are already in session and a link to the post for easy access and to start immediate communication.
If i was not so vivid let me know to provide in better details.

Topic icons

Nice on the topic icons(bugreport, suggestion, etc). Well animated and stands out, including the color use.
One more thing i mentioned before was to use color in the text description ;)