Design Change?

[Ian]

I'm considering updating the design and upgrading the forum software here on Mac-Help. It's not a certainty, but I'm going to mock up a test and see how it works .

Have you seen a forum or Mac site that has a colour scheme or style that you really like? I'm looking for ideas for inspiration for the mockup, so please do let me know if there's anything that you particularly like the look of.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Ian,

I find the forum very good in all respects and very accessible on my iPhone which I'm on at present. And it has a good colour scheme easy on the eyes.
Looking around the web for Mac/Apple sites there does not seem to be a great variety of colour schemes.
Have seen grey - red - and blue, and each site seems to stay with one colour excluding white of course.
Sorry not to be very helpful but defiantly looking forward to your mockup. I for one fully appreciate your time and energy spent behind the scenes, that gives us such a great forum platform.

 

[Ian]

Thanks oldscribe, I'll get some pics of the mockup posted once I make some progress.

 

[Ian]

Here's a few mockups I've made - they are just quick ideas to see what you think.

If you read this, please let me know your thoughts/comments on them, as it would be a huge help to me.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Ian,

Personally I like all but if it came to the crunch No 1 of the four.

 

[Ian]

I had a little more of a play around and adjusted the colours a little bit. How does this one look?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Ian,

The last one has a thumbs up from me, I do like the colour scheme as everything stands out so easy to find what your looking for.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I quite like the blue skin & updated purple skin.

Having said that & FWIW, I really am perfectly happy with how it all looks right now. mac-help is unique in it's design but I'm happy that if we went with either of those skins, I would consider the unique look of the forum had been preserved, which is important.

 

[Ian]

Thanks for the feedback guys

 

[Walrus666]

Hi Ian,
The old setup is fine. However, I must admit that I would like the blue and the purple skins if they didn't have lines and boxes on them. If you can smoothen out the gradients or use solid colors, I think that they would be more appealing.

 

[Ian]

Thanks for the feedback . Do you mean the purple boxes behind the logo? The screenshot isn't doing the background much justice at the moment because of the JPG compression, but it does look a little better on the real version. Perhaps I'll do a 2nd template that allows users to choose between.

I'm holding off a couple of weeks on the upgrade as there's a new version of the forum software coming out any time now - so I may as well code the new design for that version.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Ian,

Perhaps I'll do a 2nd template that allows users to choose between

Looking forward to seeing the template.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Thanks for the feedback . Do you mean the purple boxes behind the logo? The screenshot isn't doing the background much justice at the moment because of the JPG compression, but it does look a little better on the real version. Perhaps I'll do a 2nd template that allows users to choose between.

I'm holding off a couple of weeks on the upgrade as there's a new version of the forum software coming out any time now - so I may as well code the new design for that version.

I didn't notice the cross-hatching look and if they're just jpg compression artifacts then it's all good. Me too cannot wait

 

[Walrus666]

I'm sure that they'll turn out fine.

 

[Ian]

It looks like the new version of the forum software may still be some weeks away, so all being well I'll upgrade these forums in the next few days (and then just do a mini-upgrade to the new one upon release). I'll keep you all posted .

 

[oldscribe]

Thank you for the info.

 

[Ian]

Just a quick update - it looks like Thursday will be upgrade day if all goes well .

 

[Ian]

And we're done . Hope you guys like it - I'll post more on it in a moment in a separate thread .

 

[pjonesCET]

I had a little more of a play around and adjusted the colours a little bit. How does this one look?

Very Much!

 

[Kaveman]

Great that Mark Forums Read is on the top level, boo you have then click anther button.

Can't we have a colour picker for the style?