AA's New Skin...

Hi Guys,

As some of you have heard, we have a new skin in the works for AA 2.0. We have the index designed (but not yet coded) and we would like to gather your thoughts and feedback. Afterall, it isn't worth moving forward if you guys don't enjoy the new style.

View attachment 230
​

Please offer any and all feedback you have in mind. We appreciate it.

 

No need to be sorry; that's why we're asking for opinions before moving further with it.

 

Not Good.


The Bars.....Seem A Lil Too Much.

 

It's 'ok'. Nothing that pops out at me.

 

The gradients and the jagged edge at the bottom put it over the top. If the background in for each forumbit and the sidebar was a solid color and the footer had a straight line instead of the angles, it would better. Heck, you could use a horizontal gradient from silver to black or blue to mark the top of the footer and it would be better.

Over all, I would say K.I.S.S... Keep It Simple Silly.

The header, welcome box/navbar, box headers in the sidebar, even the category listing are all good in my opinion. Then you get to content and there is an eyeball explosion of gradients and rounded corners which is completely different from the tone you started at pixel 0,0 and destroys the look.

Graphics and design for the sake of design is very distracting.

 

The header & navigation menu areas are nice and so is the side panel. However, the jaggered effect needs to go. It doesn't need to be there and keeping it simple and clean without any kind of pattern would look better.

The bullets for the side bar are far to big. The jaggy effect, in the .tcat, and just my opinion I think it doesn't suit and should be avoided. Same goes with the footer with the jaggy effect, keep it straight not the pattern jag.

Another suggestion. add in a 3rd colour to break the blue. The style can have the blue and black, this is fine. The graphics however is your chance to break the theme out with other colours that match the variation of blue.

The jaggy effect is really bothersome, when you have curved areas and a curved font in the header and then those jag things. Key to a style is keeping it consistent and the jag isn't doing that.

Other than that, I like the (as stated above) liking the nav/header and side bar look. Just don't forget there are other colours than just blue and you just experiement with another colour for the graphics that will compliment the style.

 

I, too, love the header part. The login area, not so much. It's a bit too busy. I like the overall color scheme, though, that's definitely a keeper in my book.

The module headers are OK, at best. Last, but certainly not least, the jagged lines at the top of the footer are way too large, in my honest opinion. If you decide to keep them, try making them less-defined, or smaller, to be exact.

 

meh

Not a fan of the jagged edges and the cross hatch areas. To busy for these old eyes.

 

I find the zigzags very jarring. I'm not sure what would be better; boxy is boring, puzzle pieces are the hall mark of That Other Forum, swoops and curves might be a little overdone by now. Maybe a pill shape, in keeping with the Addict theme? But that might be too edgy.

 

The jagged edges, as noted by others, are simply too much. I also like the current version of the logo than the one in the screenshot. Don't know why, just looks more professional while the new one looks...how do I say "bubbly"?

I might also tone down the "What's going on" since it looks oversized compared to the other style element.

Other than that, the rest of the improvements look good.

 

Pretty much agree with the other and mostly I think you should keep the current logo since the new one doesn't look so good.

 

+1

 

I'm not working on the skin, but I modified the example to have some changes that people said like no jaggies, and old logo, and here's what I've come up with.

View attachment 328

 

That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh!!!

 

Wow, very impressive, Patrick! I'm sure the designer will appreciate that. :thumbup:

 

Will it be available full width, without the side boxes ?

 

Yes, I believe our new skin (regardless of how it actually looks) will come with three different versions: sidebar on the forum homepage, sidebar on every single page, no sidebar at all.

 

The width won't be 100%, but it will greater than the current width. The main change is that it will be fixed based on percentage, as opposed to the current style which is currently fixed based on pixels.

We know the current style's huge drawback is it's horrible fixed width... so it is definitely going to be addressed.

As far as the sidebars, I'm not sure if they will be optional. Our current skin has a "no sidebar" version for members to choose, so I don't see why the new one won't as well.

 

Oh, I misread your post and thought you said 'sidebar', not 'sidebox'. But Nick summed it up.