What would you change in the layout?

ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
edited June 2003 in Community
Ok.. Im up for taking suggestions on the overall layout of the forums ;)

/me buries head and waits for the mass PMs to start
Would ya like better buttons? What features would you like added? Would you make the tables wider? What don't ya like?

Im not taking requests on forum names or content (so save the "debate blah" ... )

Just visuals please :)

-Shorty (have templates, will modify)
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Comments

  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited June 2003
    They seem fine to me
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Why are different posts various widths? I can live with it , but it looks funny.
    Well, if you want me to get picky.....
    -The smiles box is too wide. It squeezes the reply box.
    -On a forum page (not the front or an index) the headers could be smaller. There are some pages where the first screen is only header and stickys.
    -and don't be afraid to through a little more color in. I like the shade, but a little more variation might help liven up things
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Why are different posts various widths? I can live with it , but it looks funny.

    Because some members post pictures that are larger than the post table. Only way to is to make the whole forum wider to suit (hence my asking the question :))

    -The smiles box is too wide. It squeezes the reply box.

    I can fix that.

    -On a forum page (not the front or an index) the headers could be smaller. There are some pages where the first screen is only header and stickys.

    Screenshot me an example with arrows or pointers.. so I can look into it :)

    -and don't be afraid to through a little more color in. I like the shade, but a little more variation might help liven up things

    Il see what I can do :)
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited June 2003
    The color scheme is very light and airy, but it just doesn't sit well. The more I see it, the more its just 'normal' but I was really taken off guard at first. Maybe some more contrasted colors as accents? I like the clean feel, but something just isnt clicking 100%

    Maybe a different button set or table backgound here and there might shake it up a bit. Overall I'd say its very nice though.

    Also, if you could shorten the main pages overall header 120-150px it would probably streamline a bit more. As it sits, it feels somewhat blocky and almost intrusive at first. Just a slight squeeze in a few areas might give it a new 'feel'
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    The buttons are a fair suggestion. I know they suck.. but I have some time to do better ones. Any ideas anyone for a better button?? ;)

    Il remove the cell padding and move the header up.. and streamline it. I have a new graphic that is more practical as well. Also.. Im gonna streamline and make the welcome bit smaller as well :)
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited June 2003
    Heh, so I'm not alone in my observasion. Also, I think a new button package might shift the color contrast enough to add some taste, depending on what you do. but as it sits, its still a nice design.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Rob.. I made them in 15 minutes :o They are the standard VBulletin buttons with a colour flood ;)

    Im gonna have a play around and get make something better :) later
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2003
    :rolleyes: coloUr :rolleyes:

    The text on the buttons looks fuzzy, kinda blurry.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    mmonnin said
    :rolleyes: coloUr :rolleyes:

    The text on the buttons looks fuzzy, kinda blurry.

    You spell it "color".. the British spell it "colour". Deal with it :p

    Il do something with the buttons! .. Im getting the hint here!
  • maxanonmaxanon Montreal
    edited June 2003
    I like the clean look. Very minimalist.

    I find that there's a lot of blank space. If you want to put ads later, then they're probably required, however left justifying the tables may be a good idea.

    I agree with mmonnin that the text is fuzzy on the buttons.

    I don't know what other colours could be added so that it doesn't look to gaudy.

    Just curious, is there a limit on the vertical length of sigs?
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    teh smilies, teh smilies!! :p

    - add teh ones on the page I made and linked you to
    - rearrange the ones you have, so that the "normal" size ones are the only ones that appear next to the post reply box. The jawdrop and happy birthday specifically need to get moved down the list a ways.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2003
    Yeah I liked how neat it was before too. And do they all have to be the plain yellow ones? Like the green rolleyes one.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    I think we need a laughing smilie again.

    And the color scheme, IMHO, is great. Much better than icrontic. New or old. I like the lightness we get over here. Feels less oppressive.
  • MarkTAWMarkTAW Brooklyn, NY
    edited June 2003
    I agree that the header graphics are too wide - My monitor is 1152 x 864 but I keep my browser at 800 x 600 so I can have several on the desktop at once and because I design sites and want to know what they look like at that resolution. The header images scroll off both the right and bottom of my browser. Then again, that may be the old "learned when many monitors were 640 x 480" fuddy duddy in me. For a site dedicated to computer tweakers, I'm prolly in the minority.

    The same with the crazy overly-wide sig's. Maybe changing the table width to 98% or something would help alleviate it all around.

    I like the color scheme, it says "I'm at Short Media." It's definately not the corporate "dark primary colors and white" that define nearly every other site on the web.
  • LawnMMLawnMM Colorado
    edited June 2003
    More nudity! Just kidding...well, maybe? Hehe. Nah, its all good shortman. I dunno how it could really get any better...forums are slammin at this point.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    I know they aren't as "pwetty" as some other forums out there.. but these are built for speed! :D
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    I think it's great, shorty. You did a wonderful job!
  • tychotycho Santa Barbara, California!
    edited June 2003
    i think that mostly everything looks great here
    i agree that the text on the buttons gets fuzzy, but i could live with it.

    How about a preview reply button for the reply box at the bottom of a thread... as it stands you have to click Post Reply in order to have the button to preview it before you post.


    Keep up the good work shorty! :thumbsup:
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2003
    Yeah, I got spoiled to having the preview button there for the quick reply box at the bottom of the thread at the old Icrontic. A lot of times I'll start something in it and then decide I want to change or attach something and hitting preview would pop you into regular reply mode.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Don't know if this has been mentioned (haven't read the whole thread), but a dark theme would be really good. After a few hrs the white is pretty hard on my eyes even after turning down the contrast on the montior. I know you guys don't want to look like Icrontic but a dark blue is the best choice. Maybe a dark gray with a white font.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2003
    Submit one. I think anyone is welcome to make a theme.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    shocking.gif Umm....err...... bolt.gif
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    mmonnin said
    Submit one. I think anyone is welcome to make a theme.

    Sure they can submit a colour scheme :)
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Is there a template available?
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Trekky8472 said
    Is there a template available?

    Vbulletin runs almost entirely off templates to build the pages. At last standing there were 450+ templates in this scheme :eek: .. so err. no template really available for the HTML. They are all in the admin backend...

    however...

    I can do a list of the colours scheme options and the current colour codes :) .. if someone has some alternative colours to submit.. then il make a duplicate style (templates/replacements) and change the colours in that style.. as a try out ;)
  • KhaosKhaos New Hampshire
    edited June 2003
    Hey Shortstuff, here's a real simple request that I think we can all agree on.

    When you click the big ShortMedia logo at the top of the page, it goes back to the forum index... But there is a link right below it that does the same thing. However, to get back to the main S-M site, you have to type it in manually, go to a shortcut, or scroll allllll the way to the bottom of the browser window. If you don't go to the bottom or manually open a new window, you lose your place in the forums. Why not make the big S-M logo open www.short-media.com in a _blank?

    Alternatively, there could be a 'home' button in the top row of buttons that I recommended could provide navigation of the rest of the site from the forums.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    Khaos :D

    The parse error will be fixed shortly ;) the frontpage will work.

    Im gonna replicate the header and menu structure from the frontpage onto the forums header. So effectively.. the two sites will link pretty smoothly :)

    I should be able to figure that out before the end of the weekend :)
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    That was my bad on the parse error. I'm trying to redo the logic for the top 10 posts, so sorry about that. The stray bracket has been found and punished. He's not allowed out of his room for the weekend.
  • KhaosKhaos New Hampshire
    edited June 2003
    TD, don't be too apologetic, you've got to let go of some of that hatred for braces, man. Don't bottle it up inside, that's how things get broken (I watch my Incredible Hulk).

    Listen dude... I'm a contributing developer on a 250,000 line C++ open-source project know as eMule, I KNOW what it can be like to find stray braces. ;) You don't have to apologize for it, it happens to everyone. For your sake, I hope PHP debuggers have improved a bit since the last time I used it. Man that was horrid, it would just be like, "FATAL ERROR! FATAL ERROR! PHP has detected that somewhere, somehow you fUxed something up." And that was the end of it. Even worse, sometimes it would supply random, WRONG information about the error or just nonsensical crap that didn't mean anything. God almighty.

    Shorty -

    I like the graphic that is currently over the forums better than the one that is currently over the main page. If it was my call, I would keep the lines around "ShortMedia" going off the side. It would look better if the image was left justified with no margins, like the current graphic on the main page is.
  • MarkTAWMarkTAW Brooklyn, NY
    edited June 2003
    I know I'm a fuddy duddy, but this kind of thing bothers me.
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