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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164440 is a reply to message #164439] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 18:57   |
The Witcher
Messages: 675
Registered: May 2009
Location: USA
Karma: 3
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The CSS styled buttons would be a nice change, its something that has already been mentioned favorably several times.
"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164441 is a reply to message #164440] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 20:14 |
Ernesto
Messages: 413
Registered: August 2005
Karma: 0
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With your proposed layout you will waste a lot of screen realestate. The whole idea behind keeping the poster info above the post is to maximize screen usage and to keep the layout modular.
It is quite hard to design for dynamic content, you have to put thought into every piece, why it is there, etc.
It's quite the huge job to do the whole thing, it will take you hundreds of hours to do a proper full restyling.
Anyhow, hope you manage to finish it, I have one restyle in progress, 20 hours into it, just too lazy to wrap it up ehhe
Ginnunga Gaming
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164442 is a reply to message #164441] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 22:03 |
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Lirodon
Messages: 21
Registered: February 2011
Location: Canada
Karma: 0
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Ernesto wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 14:14With your proposed layout you will waste a lot of screen realestate. The whole idea behind keeping the poster info above the post is to maximize screen usage and to keep the layout modular.
However a horizontal postbit can take up a lot of room on a widescreen monitor, and can also effectively restrict how big avatars can be made (since they stretch the top of a post), and some communities would desire the ability to have such large avatars without it goofing up the page layout.
I don't think a 100-150 pixel loss of horizontal room for posts isn't a total loss since this theme we have now is a percentage-width layout, the width of the content area is determined by your monitor.
So, I have taken this into account by slimming down the top part a bit more and compromising with a now definitively L-shaped postbit. The L-shaped area helps identify it more definitively as a part of the postbit, and gives a compromise layout combining elements from both horizontal and vertical postbits. The dropdown next to the user name would most likely contain the current "add as buddy"/"ignore" functions, among other things. Or, it could retract into a customizable "info pane" in the future.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 February 2011 02:25] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164453 is a reply to message #164452] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 17:16 |
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Lirodon
Messages: 21
Registered: February 2011
Location: Canada
Karma: 0
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Btw, all the other forums nowadays just use PHP's time functions to produce those actually. We don't need JS-based ones (however that can make a good extension)
I've also mocked up some design tweaks to the header layout. Firstly, I moved the search out of the top left of the header and moved it down to the menu bar below it. I did some minor changes to the layout of the buttons themselves and added a search box, but its no biggy.
Now, the biggy, is what happens below it. The way the "quick searches" (unanswered, unread, etc) is layed out is a little odd and thrown in-looking. The menus on the left for the topic list would manipulate the views (and if we ever add sorting to the topic view, which by the way should really be done, that could be a drop-down pane coming from a button like that, "Sort Options"?), and the ones on the right deal with the forum itself. The "star" would either be a button with an actual star on it, or a "Watch" button. I feel the word "subscribe" has too many connotations with paying, so I'd re-brand subscriptions as "watching" a topic or forum. And also, I don't get the purpose of the "message navigator", it just seems like an alternate search page. Those could be incorporated into the main search page.
And on tables, while they are good for stuff like topic/forum lists, we shouldn't use them for layouts.
And on the buttons themselves, note that going to CSS buttons does not mean that we cannot use icons on them.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 February 2011 17:19] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164457 is a reply to message #164455] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 18:11 |
The Witcher
Messages: 675
Registered: May 2009
Location: USA
Karma: 3
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Ok, and from the looks of it creating different colored themes should be relatively simple to implement. But would it be compatible with current themes?
"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164459 is a reply to message #164458] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 19:32 |
The Witcher
Messages: 675
Registered: May 2009
Location: USA
Karma: 3
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There are only a dozen or so themes that I am aware of and most of those are mainly modified via the CSS as opposed to any real changes to the overall forum structure. You are right about compatibility with older themes but that will always be an issue.
I would be more concerned that the proposed changes would be beyond the comprehension of the average user admin like myself, to adjust to.
As for Gitorious I could care less, I'm just now becoming familiar with Source Forge so that would be a naudefj issue to decide for or against, otherwise I'm not much into "What's in right now" if I was I probably wouldn't be using FUDforum.
One of FUDforums major draws for me is its uniqueness but I see some users who see it as a draw back so dragging it forward might not be such a bad idea.
"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164461 is a reply to message #164460] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 20:20 |
The Witcher
Messages: 675
Registered: May 2009
Location: USA
Karma: 3
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If I understand it 3.0.3 isn't slated until summer of 2011, so I assume you're speaking of this being completed sometime in 2012. But by that time would your proposed changes be outdated, or do you believe they would still be in sync with common usage?
I see people still using versions 2.7.6., 2.7.7., 2.8.0., 2.8.1., and 3.0.0. Most of which are rather established forums which have been modified on their own and I doubt the Admins plan on upgrading to 3.0.2 anytime in the near future.
So might it be worth considering making the switch in one fell swoop leaving version 3.0.3 a transition version from Classic FUDforum over to the Modernized design and look, it could be re-branded at the same time since there has already been discussions of renaming it to remove the perceived negative connotation associated with "FUD"?
I've been trying to visualize your proposed changes against the "Classic view" of the forum as it is now and it really does not seem to be all that radical, of course it's hard to visualize at this point.
"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164462 is a reply to message #164461] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 20:25 |
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Lirodon
Messages: 21
Registered: February 2011
Location: Canada
Karma: 0
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Okay, but hmm, a 10-year anniversary version should probably be a "major" release rather than a minor one. Which is another thing, maybe more frequent "minor" updates would be a good idea too.
Now, of course things will really become noticable once I begin mocking up the actual theme itself. Then, the real fun will begin. However, we'd need a more dedicated outlet for collaborating on this, like a dedicated thread and/or wiki pages.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 February 2011 20:35] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164463 is a reply to message #164462] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 21:54 |
The Witcher
Messages: 675
Registered: May 2009
Location: USA
Karma: 3
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A 10 year anniversary sounds like a good idea, as for more frequent updates that would again be a naudefj issue, The same applies to a dedicated forum or wiki.
"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164705 is a reply to message #164685] |
Wed, 02 March 2011 10:34 |
Ernesto
Messages: 413
Registered: August 2005
Karma: 0
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You are definitely getting there, a skin like that would be better than the current one I am sure. I'd still feel that your design is still a little old, sort of 2006.
Also note that text-shadow does not render well in chrome if you have cleartype enabled (which everyone has nowadays) and it doesnt work in most IE browsers. Using .htc files to fix that is not a good way.
Ginnunga Gaming
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164725 is a reply to message #164429] |
Thu, 03 March 2011 04:29 |
Ernesto
Messages: 413
Registered: August 2005
Karma: 0
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Typography
Texturized backgrounds
Subtle Shading on elements
Large icons / buttons
Indicational navigation (IE, tabs v 2.0)
"3d" borders
Examples. Some are not pretty per-se, but they all use 2011 webtrends:
http://typophile.com/forum/4 - This one is pretty
http://www.macheist.com/forums/ - Dark, but shows well the shading and textures
http://www.teefury.com/forum/ - This one uses alot of the "web 2.0" elements, IE, influenced by twitter, facebook, etc
http://www.designforums.co.uk/ - Not so pretty, but tries to use all the trends
http://www.webdesignforums.net/ - Yet again web 2.0 look, reminds a lot about metaplace.
http://www.yourdesignforums.com/ - incredibly 2011, I don't like all the beveling though and the forum isn't completely skinned 
Typical 2006:
http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/phpBB2/
While the design presented in the above post IS pretty and follows one trend that is really strong, that the web should look like a desktop application, it copies the look of desktop applications from 2006. IE, Crystal for linux and the likes, which in their own right are pertty for sure, but it is not new. With new I do not mean never-seen-before, just not "modern".
Please please, do not get me wrong, the design presented is tons better than what we have, do not let my criticism disturb in any way, its a HUGE job to completely re-skin a forum. Your efforts are much much much appreciated!
Ginnunga Gaming
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164742 is a reply to message #164666] |
Fri, 04 March 2011 10:57 |
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andy_scouser
Messages: 76
Registered: June 2003
Karma: 1
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carlton wrote on Fri, 25 February 2011 09:29Could definitely see this forum being a great resource if you had a homepage with more how-to type articles and news/developments on FUD.
id second that !!!
its been a great forum to use over the years, but for us mere mortals, a little more 'higher level' howto's would really help.
Is there any *we* can help at all? testing releases even, if you have test plans we could follow....even maybe write?
[Updated on: Fri, 04 March 2011 11:01] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164750 is a reply to message #164725] |
Fri, 04 March 2011 22:53 |
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Lirodon
Messages: 21
Registered: February 2011
Location: Canada
Karma: 0
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Ernesto wrote on Wed, 02 March 2011 22:29
While the design presented in the above post IS pretty and follows one trend that is really strong, that the web should look like a desktop application, it copies the look of desktop applications from 2006. IE, Crystal for linux and the likes, which in their own right are pertty for sure, but it is not new. With new I do not mean never-seen-before, just not "modern".
I did kinda notice that it looked a bit like ClearLooks, ooops!
Anyway, here's a new look, kinda went for more of a soft metal motif. And, I also hid profile info away in a new pop-up "miniprofile"
I would expect copious amounts of jQuery in such an end product, an I right?
and yes, I do agree we need more involvement. Distributed version control can seriously help. I think you can do git and hg on SourceForge too though. But I'm not sure of their GUI cloning implementation is as good as Gitorious and the like or not.
[Updated on: Sat, 05 March 2011 01:56] Report message to a moderator |
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