Forum Layout
3 posters
Page 1 of 1
Forum Layout
Exie Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:17 pm
What do you think of the site layout? Like it? Don't like it? Have a better suggestion? What about the color scheme? Etc. Discuss.
Exie- Admin
- Posts : 318
Post Points : 352
Join date : 2009-07-24
Age : 34
Location : Inner Space -
Re: Forum Layout
aria Sun Aug 16, 2009 7:08 am
Layout and Usability
The overall layout is very good. Forums are categorized logically, useful information is displayed from the index, and the site is easy to navigate for the most part. I also liked that the site knew I was from Germany, without me having to explicitly set it. There are a few usability issues though. When text fields have focus, their border changes from white, to black. Because the block background is dark grey, it almost seems as if they disappear (the label does too!). Since the site color scheme seems to be black/dark grey with gold, it would probably make more sense if they changed to a golden border, as drop-down boxes currently have (I would probably change those to match the theme as well; gold with focus, white without). Continuing on the topic of combo boxes, their default text color is still black. This should be changed to white, as the rest of the text is, otherwise it is very difficult to read against the dark background. One slight navigation issue as well. When you select a forum category, such as News & Rules, there is no meta-navigation, as there is when you select an individual forum.
Visual Presentation
One thing I like is the lighter text against a dark background. It's a lot easier on the eyes than black on white. However, I'm going to need to mark down a quite a few points here as well. The overall color theme seems to be black/dark grey with gold, as stated earlier. I like it, I think it looks good. However, I think a lot more could be done with it. The borders and separators for blocks are black. On a dark grey background. I think I would have to put forth quite a bit of effort to obtain a color combination that was less visually interesting. The only place gold seems to appear is in the banner image, and the buttons on the index pages. I think using gold trim for the blocks would be a lot more visually appealing, and would enhance the coherity of the theme.
About the banner image itself, I think it looks nice. The only problem is its placement; it's floating in space. It either needs to be embedded in a block element, or given a border (perhaps with a mild 3D effect) which set it apart from the background. I would also make it full width, and get rid of the text to the right of it, which is mildly redundant anyway. The motto 'United by more than our name' should be centered below the banner, or even made part of it, once again as part of a block, and not just free floating in space. I would most likely combine the banner and the main navigation below it into a single block.
And speaking of the main navigation, where did you jack those buttons from? They don't fit the layout at all. Even using text links separated by a bar would look better than white blocks which don't match the layout, and don't even really look like buttons. The last comment I have is the blue background. Why blue? Gold is a 'warm' color, and blue is a 'cold' (yes, those are technical specifications among graphic designers <_<) which clash with one another. If you wanted a little bit of distinction from the solid grey background, it might be better to choose something from the same color spectrum... shooting from the hip, something like #2F270F.
The overall layout is very good. Forums are categorized logically, useful information is displayed from the index, and the site is easy to navigate for the most part. I also liked that the site knew I was from Germany, without me having to explicitly set it. There are a few usability issues though. When text fields have focus, their border changes from white, to black. Because the block background is dark grey, it almost seems as if they disappear (the label does too!). Since the site color scheme seems to be black/dark grey with gold, it would probably make more sense if they changed to a golden border, as drop-down boxes currently have (I would probably change those to match the theme as well; gold with focus, white without). Continuing on the topic of combo boxes, their default text color is still black. This should be changed to white, as the rest of the text is, otherwise it is very difficult to read against the dark background. One slight navigation issue as well. When you select a forum category, such as News & Rules, there is no meta-navigation, as there is when you select an individual forum.
Visual Presentation
One thing I like is the lighter text against a dark background. It's a lot easier on the eyes than black on white. However, I'm going to need to mark down a quite a few points here as well. The overall color theme seems to be black/dark grey with gold, as stated earlier. I like it, I think it looks good. However, I think a lot more could be done with it. The borders and separators for blocks are black. On a dark grey background. I think I would have to put forth quite a bit of effort to obtain a color combination that was less visually interesting. The only place gold seems to appear is in the banner image, and the buttons on the index pages. I think using gold trim for the blocks would be a lot more visually appealing, and would enhance the coherity of the theme.
About the banner image itself, I think it looks nice. The only problem is its placement; it's floating in space. It either needs to be embedded in a block element, or given a border (perhaps with a mild 3D effect) which set it apart from the background. I would also make it full width, and get rid of the text to the right of it, which is mildly redundant anyway. The motto 'United by more than our name' should be centered below the banner, or even made part of it, once again as part of a block, and not just free floating in space. I would most likely combine the banner and the main navigation below it into a single block.
And speaking of the main navigation, where did you jack those buttons from? They don't fit the layout at all. Even using text links separated by a bar would look better than white blocks which don't match the layout, and don't even really look like buttons. The last comment I have is the blue background. Why blue? Gold is a 'warm' color, and blue is a 'cold' (yes, those are technical specifications among graphic designers <_<) which clash with one another. If you wanted a little bit of distinction from the solid grey background, it might be better to choose something from the same color spectrum... shooting from the hip, something like #2F270F.
aria- Posts : 63
Post Points : 43
Join date : 2009-08-14
Age : 37
Location : Stuttgart, Germany
Guild layout.
mollie Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:05 am
I do really like it. Specially the glowing text thing.
But, i am pretty good at graphics, so if you do decide you want to change it (personally i think its pretty spiffy) PM me.
But, i am pretty good at graphics, so if you do decide you want to change it (personally i think its pretty spiffy) PM me.
mollie- Posts : 172
Post Points : 86
Join date : 2009-08-14
Age : 27
Location : Devon, England
Re: Forum Layout
aria Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:47 am
Just wanted to say I think it's looking a lot better now 
aria- Posts : 63
Post Points : 43
Join date : 2009-08-14
Age : 37
Location : Stuttgart, Germany
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum