Take a peak, and leave your comments (new DMF color / layout style sheet)

[mitt2]

OK, I just created a new non-admin member for me, and I can now see the new theme on racing & trackdays.

mitt

[ducpainter]

OK, I just created a new non-admin member for me, and I can now see the new theme on racing & trackdays.

mitt

I like the latest collapse/expand icons.

[GAAN]

Ok

I changed my mind

I like the new newness

it just took a little time to get used to it

Thanks for all the hard work Mitt

[Spidey]

Thanks for all the work, Mitt & Co.  I know it takes forever to do.  Since you asked for feedback, here goes . . .

In general, I think the strength of the old look/layout was that there was minimal distraction.  The focus was on the discussion forums and not all the other "stuff' around.  The icons weren't too loud, there weren't too many fonts, text types, colors, etc.  The text didn't seem like it was crammed into the boxes.  It has a very simply look, and one worth duplicating.  With that in mind, I'd suggest toning down the current look a bit.  Start by using less white.  It's pretty abrupt on this dark background. 

Some specific suggestions:

1.  Read v. unread threads.  Right now, already-read are white and unread threads are darker.  That's visually distracting.  I like old old blue "new" icons better.  But if you're going to use color to distinguish read v. unread threads, don't make the color choice as stark.

2.  Stickied Threads.  I like that they're bold.  Italics might work better.  Depending on the overall layout, it might even be worth making them a lighter color so that they stand out more.  BTW, I'll keep repeating my mantra:  we have too many stickies around here.  It makes it hard to determine which information is actually important.  See No. 10 below and my posts in Board Suggestions.

3.  Nav board.  Make the titles darker?   People will see the nav board no matter what.  Having them stand out visually distracts from the main forum.  Also, once you click one of the nav board links, it goes dark, but if you haven't every clicked it before, it stays white.  Better to have the links remain one single color whether they've been clicked or not.

4.  Text font & size.  The font in the discussion forums is too wide.  I don't know exactly what's the best solution, but the text in the discussion forums takes up too much space.  It makes the board look crowded.  The font & size of the old look worked well for me, and keep things looking uncluttered.  Mebbe give that a shot to see how it works?

5.  Icons.  The icons to the left of the threads are easier to see than they were before.  But as a result, they make the page look a lot more busy.  Mebbe it's because I've almost never seen any use for them.  I enjoyed that the old them de-emphasized them by making the colors of the icons closer to the background color. 
6.  Collapsing Icons.  The current icons to collapse a category are not as intuitive as the arrows.  While they're more obvious, they also stand out a bit more.  Play around with changing the color to something darker and see if that cleans up the overall look. 

7.  Borders.  I really like the thin grey borders with the black line.  That said, there are a few places where I'd eschew borders or at least get rid of the black and the grey and would just use grey.  The nav board on the left is one example.  It makes it look too boxy and takes away from emphasizing the discussion forum. 

Another place worth experimenting with the borders is inside the discussion forums.  For example, maybe it's worth taking the border away from the icons column and just using color to differentiate the columns.  That might work well.  Similarly, using color only instead of borders and color for the column with number of replies/views might make the forum look less boxy.  The generally idea is limit the number of different boxes people see on the screen and draw their eyes to the boxes that matter.

Also, the white border around the buttons up top (e.g. Logout, Profile, Search, etc). is a little stark.  Maybe it should be the same grey as the other borders?  OTOH, I like that those buttons are easy to see and to use.  Check those buttons out with grey text and grey borders, and then again with white text and white borders and see what works better. 

8.  Logo.  I like the big logo as it was before.   It took up a lot of space up top.  Because it took up space, it didn't seem like the sponsor ads on the other side (which were smaller), were crowding onto the top of the discussion forums.  That worked well, and helped the sponsor ads to (a) stand out and (b) not look like they were crammed into the forum, which is kinda annoying.

9.  Thread-specific buttons.  They looks great in white.  I love the way you made them stand out.  It was often difficult with the old format to see the modify or reply or reply with quote buttons.  They're used frequently and having them stand out is a big improvement. 

10.   Board Suggestion Issues.  Since we're talking about layout, there are other issues I've raised before, including figuring out a common place for our library of information (the FAQ and the Tutorial sections often duplicate one another) and providing a good index of how people can find information and policies, reducing clutter , (including the need for the stolen motorcycles forum), and providing clear direction for new members where to go to get their intro to the board policies, FAQs and the library of information.  More in-depth descriptions can be found in the board suggestions forum.   They've been largely ignored, but since you're doing a board make-over, it might be worth looking at.

11.  Middle finger smiley.  I have no idea how to communicate without flipping people off.  You've just gotta add one, mitt.   

12.  Signatures.  I love that the signatures are part of the original post, divided by only a line.  It looks good.   

That's all I've got for now.  I'm sure I'll have more as you go along.  Again, thanks for all the work.

[Grampa]

damn.... all I asked for was a bacon background

[River]

Spidey, are you by any chance an attorney?   

[mitt]

Thanks for all the work, Mitt & Co.  I know it takes forever to do.  Since you asked for feedback, here goes . . .

In general, I think the strength of the old look/layout was that there was minimal distraction.  The focus was on the discussion forums and not all the other "stuff' around.  The icons weren't too loud, there weren't too many fonts, text types, colors, etc.  The text didn't seem like it was crammed into the boxes.  It has a very simply look, and one worth duplicating.  With that in mind, I'd suggest toning down the current look a bit.  Start by using less white.  It's pretty abrupt on this dark background. 

Some specific suggestions:

1.  Read v. unread threads.  Right now, already-read are white and unread threads are darker.  That's visually distracting.  I like old old blue "new" icons better.  But if you're going to use color to distinguish read v. unread threads, don't make the color choice as start.

2.  Stickied Threads.  I like that they're bold.  Italics might work better.  Depending on the overall layout, it might even be worth making them a lighter color so that they stand out more.  BTW, I'll keep repeating my mantra:  we have too many stickies around here.  It makes it hard to determine which information is actually important.  See No. 10 below and my posts in Board Suggestions.

3.  Nav board.  Make the titles darker?   People will see the nav board no matter what.  Having them stand out visually distracts from the main forum.  Also, once you click one of the nav board links, it goes dark, but if you haven't every clicked it before, it stays white.  Better to have the links remain one single color whether they've been clicked or not.

4.  Text font & size.  The font in the discussion forums is too wide.  I don't know exactly what's the best solution, but the text in the discussion forums takes up too much space.  It makes the board look crowded.  The font & size of the old look worked well for me, and keep things looking uncluttered.  Mebbe give that a shot to see how it works?

5.  Icons.  The icons to the left of the threads are easier to see than they were before.  But as a result, they make the page look a lot more busy.  Mebbe it's because I've almost never seen any use for them.  I enjoyed that the old them de-emphasized them by making the colors of the icons closer to the background color. 
6.  Collapsing Icons.  The current icons to collapse a category are not as intuitive as the arrows.  While they're more obvious, they also stand out a bit more.  Play around with changing the color to something darker and see if that cleans up the overall look. 

7.  Borders.  I really like the thin grey borders with the black line.  That said, there are a few places where I'd eschew borders or at least get rid of the black and the grey and would just use grey.  The nav board on the left is one example.  It makes it look too boxy and takes away from emphasizing the discussion forum. 

Another place worth experimenting with the borders is inside the discussion forums.  For example, maybe it's worth taking the border away from the icons column and just using color to differentiate the columns.  That might work well.  Similarly, using color only instead of borders and color for the column with number of replies/views might make the forum look less boxy.  The generally idea is limit the number of different boxes people see on the screen and draw their eyes to the boxes that matter.

Also, the white border around the buttons up top (e.g. Logout, Profile, Search, etc). is a little stark.  Maybe it should be the same grey as the other borders?  OTOH, I like that those buttons are easy to see and to use.  Check those buttons out with grey text and grey borders, and then again with white text and white borders and see what works better. 

8.  Logo.  I like the big logo as it was before.   It took up a lot of space up top.  Because it took up space, it didn't seem like the sponsor ads on the other side (which were smaller), were crowding onto the top of the discussion forums.  That worked well, and helped the sponsor ads to (a) stand out and (b) not look like they were crammed into the forum, which is kinda annoying.

9.  Thread-specific buttons.  They looks great in white.  I love the way you made them stand out.  It was often difficult with the old format to see the modify or reply or reply with quote buttons.  They're used frequently and having them stand out is a big improvement. 

10.   Board Suggestion Issues.  Since we're talking about layout, there are other issues I've raised before, including figuring out a common place for our library of information (the FAQ and the Tutorial sections often duplicate one another) and providing a good index of how people can find information and policies, reducing clutter , (including the need for the stolen motorcycles forum), and providing clear direction for new members where to go to get their intro to the board policies, FAQs and the library of information.  More in-depth descriptions can be found in the board suggestions forum.   They've been largely ignored, but since you're doing a board make-over, it might be worth looking at.

11.  Middle finger smiley.  I have no idea how to communicate without flipping people off.  You've just gotta add one, mitt.   

12.  Signatures.  I love that the signatures are part of the original post, divided by only a line.  It looks good.   

That's all I've got for now.  I'm sure I'll have more as you go along.  Again, thanks for all the work.

1 - I think you have that reversed - read threads are gray, unread are white - makes sense to me that the new ones should stick out more.

2 - Stickied - bold title font is the default, I am not going to mess with it.

3 - The color of the titles are controlled by the same css element that controls the other titles on the board, so I can't change it independently

4 - This is splitting hairs literally.  You can really tell the difference in font letter width between old and new?

5 - You are in the minority on the icons indicating poll / read / your post / etc preference.  I have received positive feedback on brighter ones.  The new ones are the same ones we had from 2008 up to 3 months ago.  The ones we have been using with the broke theme might as well of been blank, since they were so dim and similar, it was hard to know what they meant.

6 - The plus and minus signs are actually more universal than arrows.  Does this picture ring a bell?



7 - I must sound like a broken record - each set of borders isn't independent in the default, so if I change one, it will mess up another area of the board.  I played with the border colors a lot just to get to the combo I have now.

8 - The big logo will come back - we just need to get the ads working first

Sorry to deflect most of your suggestions.  It isn''t that I don't agree with some, but unless you are doing the css and php/html from scratch, you are limited in color combos.

Thanks for the compliments though.  

mitt

[mitt]

Spidey - I forgot one - I completely agree that the visited links in the left hand bars should not be gray.  That I think I/we can fix.

mitt

[Spidey]

Thanks for the reply, mitt.  Sounds like there's a buncha places whether there's only so much you can tailor.  Werd. 


1.  I guess I was wondering if it was necessary to have two different colors.  We already have the blue "new" icons to distinguish whether we've read a thread or not.  I thought it would look cool if they were all grey or all white (I think I like the grey more).  It sounds like white is the default color setting for text throughout the board.  Not my favorite on the black background, but <shrug>.  It looks good on the grey background. 

2-3.  werd

4.  Is it splitting hairs?  I *thought* it looked pretty different.  I dunno if its the font type or size or width.  Maybe it's the cell spacing?  It just looks more . . . uh . . elongated and more crowded.  Or mebbe it's the drink talkin'.   

5.  Not surprised I'm the minority on this one.  Werd. 

6.  It's less about whether the icon is a minus or arrow than the color  Do they look good as just a simple grey plus or minus?  What's really buggin' me is they look like little Italian dildos when they're in 'minus' mode.     Mebbe I just have schlong on the mind?    

7.  Sounds like you've done what you can with the borders.  Thanks.  The superthin black shadow is cool.    

The forum seems a a bit dark and I'm trying to figure out why.  Hmmm . . .   On the Index page, if you are technically able, mebbe the lighter grey for the forum cells as well (e.g. the cell that contains "General Monster"?  Would that look good?  And mebbe use the lighted grey on the "started by' column inside each forum?  I know that it'll make it so that the colors are the same for a bunch of the columns, but still they're divided by borders.  And it might make it look a bit less black-on-white? 

What about the middle finger smiley?      Ya know I've been lobbying for one for years now.   

For you . . .

[Spidey]

Are the cells in the index that have the titles for Moto Board, Introductions, Kitchen Sink different colors?  Some look dark/black/shaded.  Others look grey without any shading.  The non-shaded, lighter cell looks better IMO.

Re my earlier comment about the forum seeming dark, I like that grey a lot.  It might be cool to use that grey with the other grey to differentiate cells in the index rather than the dark with the grey. 

[mitt]

Are the cells in the index that have the titles for Moto Board, Introductions, Kitchen Sink different colors?  Some look dark/black/shaded.  Others look grey without any shading.  The non-shaded, lighter cell looks better IMO.

Re my earlier comment about the forum seeming dark, I like that grey a lot.  It might be cool to use that grey with the other grey to differentiate cells in the index rather than the dark with the grey. 

All the ones that I see are shaded, from dark on top to lighter on bottom.  That is a .jpg file that is repeated over and over to make the background, not an actual color.



That can be played with if need be.

mitt

[mitt]

6.  It's less about whether the icon is a minus or arrow than the color  Do they look good as just a simple grey plus or minus?  What's really buggin' me is they look like little Italian dildos when they're in 'minus' mode.     Mebbe I just have schlong on the mind?    

Just have to quote that in case anyone ever searches for "Italian dildos" 

You are the first to mention that, although 'painter said he liked the new icons - sub conscience?



mitt

[Spidey]

Just have to quote that in case anyone ever searches for "Italian dildos" 

I have no doubt that "dildo" is one of the top ten search terms on the DMF.   

[That Nice Guy Beck!]

really looks sharp man awesome laylout and look thank you

[DoubleEagle]

Ay the risk of sounding boring , ........it looks fantastic !         

Great work Mitt.                  Dolph