Prosilver first impressions? I really like the way the index and forum pages look, but I'm not crazy about the thread view design. If you look at the main forum and topic view pages you'll see that everything has a nice gray outline, however the topic view pages don't follow along with the design. I really think each post needs the gray border just as the forum view pages have.
Also I absolutely hate the avatars on the right. Just about every forum has the avatars on the left and it only makes sense that when people come to a forum with the avatars on the right that they'll feel out of place or confused. Now when I goto this forum I have this really confused feeling just looking at any of the threads. It's not a big deal for me personally, but I have a feeling alot of my forum members won't like it.
lsproc wrote:
The theme thats on Area51 (and on the phpBB 3 betas for a while) is very nice, and looks much better than this.
That is also planned to be included in the final release so do not worry if you prefer that template it will still be available with the final download
I like it -- I think it makes perfect sense to put the poster info on the right.
BUT, I think there is just a bit TOO much going on ... Everything feels quite cluttered and claustrophobic. Too many boxes... particularly viewforum.php. It's all a bit bewildering. I genuinely feel THIRSTY for whitespace.
Some specific comments, from top to bottom for viewforum.php:
Breadcrumb trail: the carats are backwards.... Doesn't make sense icon bar: love it, love the new icons! Forum title: redundant with the breadcrumb trail above. Need to simplify; too much going on. forum rules: too prominent, and Yet Another Box before the content has even started. And a conflicting colour, at that. Why not float right at the same level as title, or, even better: remove title and float to the right of the breadcrumb trail?
Subforums w/grey border: fine, although it just looks cluttered to me. Tiny all-caps headers just add to the clutter... suggest making them bigger. Also, everyting else is pastel pink - blue... where did the darkness come from?
Newtopic* button: doesn't really fit with the style. I see it is supposed to fit with the red element running through the site, but it isn't fleshed out properly... the "New" and "topic" need to be in more contrasting colours... they are two words. Also, what's with the asterisk? Is there supposed to be an asterisk reference somewhere? If not, kill it, for goodness' sake... the style has elements in spades, it doesn't need more.
Search topic: Good idea and I see what you are trying to achieve with it here: getting users to search before posting. However, it's just One More Box, and One More Button to give users a headache -- would be much better off as a drop-down option in the header search IMO.
Whole bunch of clutter to the right: Suggest getting rid of the # of topics here -- it doesn't fit and it's already very busy with each page link in its own box. Why is "Page 1 of X" there? it's redundant. Just put "Pages: " followed by the pretty boxes.
Topic Listing: Fine, although I have the same comments on the grey borders/small heading fonts. The "View Latest posts" icon has a downward pointing arrow: That means "Download" to most people: suggest you fix. Not loving he folder icon animation: Perhaps if the page were less cluttered, it could be pulled off, but as it is, it is Just Another Thing Going On on an already overcrowded page.
Bottom of the page: OH MY GOD, WHAT A RELIEF!! SOME WHITE SPACE!!!!! (nervous breakdown averted). Finally, some much-needed white space/clarity. I WISH the top of the page was mor like this.
In short: simplify, pare down, combine where possible....
The posting page (posting.php) is a great example of how it should be... simple, easier onthe eyes. THAT looks like the vision of the future... simple, semantic, uncluttered.
Thatbitextra wrote:
It's literally a case of making two small edits in the CSS
Can we get a button that just replies to all the posts about the dislike of the avatars on the right side with this quote?
I think that this is a very sharp looking layout. There is great use of whitespace to direct you where you should be looking. It can be sophisticated and just not too"techie." I get a little tired of all the faux metal finishes - reminds me of the overabundance of black or animated night sky backgrounds with mouse trailers from back in the day (shhh I know I just dated myself.) I can't imagine it would be that painful to change the pink to a yellow for those that are having "man issues" about the color.
I am going to second the "huh" factor on the 6 smilies in a 5 by X layout
I wonder how difficult it would be to assign a post background color to an admin or mod group, so that all the posts by an admin would be on a yellow background instead of the alternating pattern. Just a thought to solve the folks that say that they may not notice the post is from an admin because they can't move their eyes to the right without straining them.
Thanks y'all for putting in so much work for us to be able to enjoy! Now, after you enjoy a nice nap, go toss some sugar into the cubies of the folks taking care of squa'tching bugs so we can get these BB3 boards up and running
I like the avatars and user info on the right. As someone said it keeps you focused on the post.
Some things I think could use some improvement.
- The color on the quotes boxes, mess up the flow of the overall design.
- The PM, WWW, IM buttons. Would look better if the button had the same style as the quote button. But I think the blue text color is cool.
- Buttons such as Preview, Submit etc. Another gray design on these with a royale gloss effect would look better.
- Active tab on the Post new reply/topic page. The gray horizontal line at the top would look better if replaced with a blue instead.
The overall design is very good. The above list is just my personal opinion. Keep up the good work.
The question as to whether you, me or anyone else "likes" this style is basically irrelevant. There is the old saying "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time" There are countless templates for phpbb2 some are liked some are not. The same will apply for phpbb3. I am pretty sure that before long there will be a plethora of new styles available to suit all tastes - some being minor variations on this one!
I do however have two problems with this particular style:
1. I do not like the forum taking up 75% of the screen - to me it is just a waste as the other 25% is not used for anything and I paid for a monitor that displays the full page!
2. The "New Post" icon is not clear enough. It took me three visits to the forum before I realised that there were two icons. They look too similar.
I do also have a couple of questions for the style team:
1. Has this style been "run past" any visually impaired groups? To me, not visually impaired, it looks as if they could have some problems - especially the new post icons.
2. In view of the fact that phpbb3 is attempting to be compliant with all of the latest standards does this style comply with the current accessibility guidelines?
David Remember: You only know what you know and - you don't know what you don't know!
I now no longer support any of my extensions but they will start to become available here
david63 wrote:
I do not like the forum taking up 75% of the screen - to me it is just a waste as the other 25% is not used for anything and I paid for a monitor that displays the full page!
That is just because the design of phpBB.com is fixed width. The proSilver you will be able to download is 100% width
Greets everyone, first post in a few years but I think it's well deserved.
subBlue has done another fantastic job with the style. It's certainly very different from all the concepts those many years ago.
I have to agree with others about the info on the right. Instinctively I look to the right for the post, and left for the poster so it's something that'll take getting used to.
The new style looks very good to me.
As stated before the new layout keeps you on the actual postings instead of the info.
for now I can only see a few little things that need to be changed, the size of the username and the 'next' and 'previuos' links should stand out more.
As for the rest of the new phpbb.com Thumbs Up
P.S.: I really like the new 'online' flag in the info box !