[quote=@Mahz]
30% of Guild users (and growing) access the site on a smartphone and 15% of users use a tablet, so my go-to UI paradigms have been forced to change.

I've always been a fan of tooltips, but there is no mobile equivalent of a desktop-user dragging their mouse cursor down a bunch of list-items thus sending the [code]hover[/code] event to each one. While I can overload tooltips so that they display/dismiss on hover and click/tap, it's not something I can depend on anymore since you can't have a tooltip on a link or button that changes state.

I need to set aside some time to study UI paradigms for small/touch devices. :lol
[/quote]

Desktop:

[IC (5 New)]

Mobile: 
[   IC
 (5 new)]

Make the 5 New a different color. Bold it. Make it gold like the normal Last Post button is now. Make it blink, flash neon lights around it, hire girls in low-cut shirts to gesture seductively towards it.

Honestly, I don't know the best way to make new features immediately obvious to people who won't try things.