Unleashing the All New Learnable.com!

Community
1

For some time now we’ve been busy at SitePoint HQ working on a shiny new release of Learnable, and we’re ready to show it to you. It’s still a work in progress as we iron out those inevitable bugs that suddenly arise when you launch a new site, but we’re pretty excited about it.

For those of you that don’t know, Learnable is our online learning site and it is now the place where you can set up your very own digital bookshelf of SitePoint titles.

The best way to make the most out of Learnable is with a subscription, but you can also buy books and courses individually, and view all your past SitePoint book purchases in one place. Within a week we’ll be importing past SitePoint ebook purchases across. You can find more info on all that stuff here.

If you’re already a Learnable member, you’ll find all the same great content but with a bit more of an adult feel to the site. If you’ve never used it before, now is your chance to check it out.

Bearing in mind the ongoing bug fixes that we’re working through, we’d love you to take a few minutes to take a look at the site and tell us what you think. The more constructive your criticism, the better. :wink:

2

Looks great, clean and clear.
One peculiarity on my machine (Win7 Chrome) is that when the page loads, focus is given to the search bar which makes the page load at that point rather than the top of the page.
If I want to get to the top of the page I have to scroll up! Is that intentional or a bug?!

3

The login doesn’t appear to work without JavaScript being enabled.

The fonts seem rather small in places 9px (which of course is NOT recommended by the Web Accessibility guidelines due to legibility), which also is smaller than; 1 em base font, also not recommended. Plus there is low contrast between the font text and background in one or two areas.

Also some of the icons are slightly confusing in some cases they are hyperlinks and in others they aren’t so by the looks of things ‘basic web accessibility’ seriously needs addressing.

Also it looks like they are charging for: https://learnable.com/books/community1 so obviously it looks like there might be a fault there…?

When you get to: https://learnable.com/store/cart [$0.01] that would be fun getting charged for a book I co-authored that is supposed to be free. (:

4

Thanks for your feedback guys. I’ll have the devs look into your points asap.

5

Regarding Voices of the Community, the online version doesn’t mention who wrote which article.

The overall design of the site is much nicer than before. Well done to the Learnable team.

6

Hi SpikeZ - not intentional, will get it looked at. Thanks for the heads up!

7

Thanks Robert - there’s a problem in the cart with zero rated items so in order for it to even be in there, it had to be .01c. We have that logged as an issue to fix (to be able to have free products). Other things are all valid points - definately needs some more love, in a lot of places!

8

On my screen, the breadcrumbs “fall” off of the left edge of the page. For instance, the “T” in Topics > is truncated when I’m on the PHP page.

9

Thanks! We’ll get our design guru to look into that.

10

Good job! A part from the tiny problems already reported, I Really love the whole thing :slight_smile:
Goes to tweet about it!

11

Really like the site itself and its layout.

But the “Learnable” text logo at the top and bottom of the page appear aliased/jagged to me… Not sure what’s going on there but it looks ugly :frowning:

12

In general, I like it more than previous. I haven’t seen any obvious flaws and/or bugs but I haven’t had a moment to use it properly. It doesn’t bother most of the time, I do agree with @xhtmlcoder ; in relation to the small fonts and the lack of contrast. When my eyes are tired, they do need a larger font and more contrast. My eye condition is kind of specific. I start the day (most days at least) with a good sight but as the day goes by, I see less and less… so every little (improvment) helps :slight_smile:

13
Off Topic:

Try resting your eyes a few times a day by cupping your hands over them and letting them relax fully. Works well for me. (Although, don’t let anyone see you doing it, or they’ll think you’ve had terrible news or something. :slight_smile: )

14
Off Topic:

Did you go to see an optician? Maybe you need computer reading glasses. These are reading glasses that have a slightly futher focalizing distance (is that correct english?) than normal reading glasses, because the computer screen usually is further away from your eyes than a book or newspaper.
Even using normal glasses or normal reading glasses at the end of the day you still can get tired and burning eyes.

And of course, take a regular break from the screen.

15
Off Topic:

I went to see the doctor and I have regular checks. I have scars in the macula so I already have certain problems (as an example, I can’t see a straight line. Either I don’t see it at all or if I do is full of curves. Kind of annoying, as the only way that I see the border of an object is thanks to the differences of color between the background (the floor, as an example) and the object itself) I also have the risk of lose sight to the point of getting blind. If that will ever happen, nobody will know until my eyes get naturally tired due to age (something that’s starting to happen now). In my case, something as annoying (although natural) such as eyestrain is a huge problem. I already have bad sight and reading is not as easy as it used to be