| Giving FUDforum a new look [message #168871] |
Wed, 31 July 2013 18:48  |
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cpreston
Messages: 160
Registered: July 2012
Location: Oceanside
Karma: 6
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Senior Member |
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I am extremely happy with the internals of FUDforum, but the front-facing look and how it is presented needs a major facelift. I am not the first to say this.
In addition to looking newer/fresher, like its competitors, it also needs a table-less design. Doing layout via tables has been a no-no for a while now, and i think FUDforum having a table-less design could give it a big marketing boost. (One of the things I'm going for.) I'd also like to add some features like "Most recent posts" on the right, like some of the other forums have. (I plan to make those modules that can be turned on/off in the Admin panel.)
For those of you not familiar with me, I have submitted a total of three enhancements to FUDforum in the months that I've been associated with it. I'm also finalizing development of a Joomla/FUDforum bridge that will be released soon as well. (It is developed and has gone through one QA round so far and has been resubmitted to development to work out some bugs. It is coming soon.)
Toward this end, I am going to pay a developer to create a table-less design that meets the objectives above, and then I'm going to submit this template back to the community. I need this for my websites where I am going to use FUDforum, and I believe FUDforum needs it to continue to market itself as a modern forum platform. So I will finish what I started.  (I say this because I see some posts from others that started this process that then disappeared.)
Why am I telling you this now? Because I'd like a few volunteers to take a look at the mockups as I go through the development process. I'd like to get your input on the design before I actually pay the developer to build it. It'll be better for all of us.
If you want to volunteer, respond to this post. Since I don't always get email responses from this forum when someone responds to a post, please also drop me an email at curtis at truthinit dot com.
Sound good?
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| Re: Re : Giving FUDforum a new look [message #168883 is a reply to message #168882] |
Fri, 02 August 2013 18:51  |
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cpreston
Messages: 160
Registered: July 2012
Location: Oceanside
Karma: 6
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Senior Member |
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Also, what do you like/not like about these other forum layouts/designs?
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php
http://community.invisionpower.com
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewforum.php?f=49
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/
One thing I like is that the menu system is left to right. That's pretty standard, and I've never understood why FF puts the menu system (Members, Calendar, Search, etc) on the right.
I really like vBulletin's style. Clean, crisp, and bright.
I also really like IPS community. Different than vBulletin, but still bright and cheery.
I think phpBB's style is kind of the opposite of that. I think it and FF's border colors are dark and foreboding.
Note that all of them use only two colors in their sites (not counting the multicolor phpbb logo). Everything is a shade of one color or the other.
I know these colors can be adjusted. I'm just focusing on the default colors and wanting them to be very pleasing, because I think most people don't change them.
One feature that FF has that none of these have is the ability to collapse forums. Not sure how important that is to you guys.
Do you have any other fora that you've seen that you like the design of? Post links!
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| Re : Giving FUDforum a new look [message #168885 is a reply to message #168884] |
Fri, 02 August 2013 20:54 |
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cpreston
Messages: 160
Registered: July 2012
Location: Oceanside
Karma: 6
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Senior Member |
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I don't think the issues that people are having with vBulletin have anything to do with its default skin, though.
There are a few consistencies between the ones you point out:
- The use of blue as the other color (except your custom skin)
- The use of rounded corners
Interesting that XenForo uses that yellow/orange color instead of a gray variant as their other color.
XenForo also gives some interesting ideas on other modules we can put in the plugins column. (Who's Online, Forum Stats, Social Media)
[Updated on: Fri, 02 August 2013 20:56] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Giving FUDforum a new look [message #185340 is a reply to message #185333] |
Wed, 19 March 2014 19:46 |
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cpreston
Messages: 160
Registered: July 2012
Location: Oceanside
Karma: 6
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Senior Member |
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Alright. I've got him working on it now. It'll take him a while to wrap his brain around the tempting system, of course. My goal is to have this new template really take FUDforum into its next life. I think it's a great forum system that just looks really old.
[Updated on: Wed, 19 March 2014 19:48] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Re : Re: Re : Re: Giving FUDforum a new look [message #186641 is a reply to message #186561] |
Mon, 20 October 2014 19:11 |
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cpreston
Messages: 160
Registered: July 2012
Location: Oceanside
Karma: 6
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Senior Member |
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Here is the mockup of the new look. What do you think?
A few things to note:
1. The main menu has been moved toe the left the way most other programs are
2. The angel and text logo has been replaced with a place to put your actual logo. There's still room for a banner and the search bar.
3. Note the boxes on the right. Those will be plugins that can be enabled/disabled and displayed on the left or right side.
4. Colors can change. Right now he's using the colors of the logo.
5. The design would be fully responsive.
6. The login menu option has been removed in favor of putting the actual login up there.
This is just a mockup, so if you have suggestions now's the time.
[Updated on: Tue, 21 October 2014 10:07] Report message to a moderator |
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