PlaneShift website criticism (extensive)

[acraig]

Again I think there was probably a misunderstanding about the Dreamweaver thing.   Luca probably prefers it was Dreamweaver since it makes his life easier.  

Give every table column, cell, row etc a reason to be where it is. Think of why you need each particular space on your site. Only when every feature has a clear purpose and makes sense, worry about the presentation. And please, keep all the presentation strictly in your CSS. That way, editing .html would be extremely easy for the news updates.

This is why we need somebody to help us develop it.  


I\'ve been toying with different forum styles ( Development ) while waiting for my projects to build.  Mostly playing with different colours of blue.  I will try out the colour you suggested ( and any others you care to offer ).

[Netty]

Well, I made a quick and dirty version for a forum of what I would personally like. Although the forum colors would totally depend on a website\'s color theme in the end. Here is a screenshot:

Forum colors

I didn\'t bother editing every little thing. For example, ignore the color of icons, as I did a quick invert to get white text instead of black.

Also, the regular topic color is a tiny shade down off white. Bolded white can get a bit hard on the eyes for some people. You can either try unbolding the font for regular topics and making it white or keep it bolded and make it slightly off-white.

Don\'t know if your forum software can even let you set it up that way.

Also, I\'d recommend getting rid of the top image, until a more elegant graphic is available. Personally, I think it looks out of place. But it\'s up to you.

Let me know what you think. Does it look overbearing or elegant and smooth? It\'s just a rough idea... I thought it would be a nice change to have a lighter text on a darker background.

By the way, one of the stickies has a double \"Important:\" in it for some reason.

UPDATE:

Just an idea of a more appropriate forum graphic with the colors I picked so far:

Forum  Graphic

Maybe add \"PlaneShift\" to it. But definitely not in \"yellow\".

[DaveG]

I like that theme.  However, I\'d prefer to have one that matches the colors in the crystal logo a bit more.  A lighter blue.  (not like the default forum, but more of a turquoise-ish, with maybe a static landscape background or something)  I\'d also like to carry the crystal blue motif around, but maybe keep the forums a little lighter than the other sites.  (I\'ve never liked very dark colors on forums; makes it harder to read)

[Karyuu]

Pfft, I like our brown theme :/ Blue is too dull when dark. Cherppow provided some really nice forum color schemes a while back in this thread, which all seem quite lovely.

[Netty]

It\'s not \"blue\". It\'s a combination of blue, violet, gray, and a few other colors. It\'s meant to look smooth and cool.

Check your monitor color calibration, you may be using an incorrect one.

If by brown you mean \"PlaneShift-test\", now that\'s an awful and dull theme. But I guess there\'s always someone who might like it. *shrugs*

[Karyuu]

My monitor is calibrated quite well :D Graphic design requires it. Many people like the \"PlaneShift-test\" theme and have it set to their default. It\'s not a tiny minority. Anyway, as opinions go, if we\'re going with cooler tones something brighter would work a lot better.

[Netty]

Hmm, the only theme out of Cherpow\'s that seems decent is the olive motif (3) but the text looks too washed out. The rest have either too much violet and pink, too much brown or rusty brown, or just plain hard to read. For example, I don\'t know how anyone could stand reading text with theme (2).

Even Cherpow said:

Personally I\'m using the default one, mainly because it\'s default. But also because the brown one has some black font that\'s hard to read against dark background

And that\'s definitely a no-no.

EDIT: By the way, Karyuu, according to Color Schemer the colors I picked have a \"harmony relationship\". The website\'s brown one does not, so pffft I know what I\'m talking about.

UPDATE:

Ok, I tried to improve upon acraig\'s development theme and came up with this:

Theme

I know it\'s not a dark text on light background but that\'s how acraig\'s theme was. I wanted to see what it\'ll turn out like. It seems to have all the colors in the logo and even matches the website\'s theme, especially when we occassionally see something other than the overbearing brown. But you still get your favorite brown. :/

What do you think? I\'m thinking the orange should be made a little more orangy like in my first theme.

Will play around some more later.


Alternative 1:

Alt 1

Alternative 2:

Alt 2

Alt 2 uses a soft white for forum topics.

Alternative 3:

Alt 3

Alt 3 uses pure white for forum topics.

Now onto dark text on lighter bg.

[AryHann]

I have already expressed my opinion about the *actual* forum themes in other topics, still I will underline how important is that a scheme doesn\'t just look cool, but must be readable.
I am afraid the \"brown\" is the one that gives more trouble to achieve that functionality...

About the Netty\'s proposals. The first ones, even if really well polished, give me the sensation of a forum for a sci-fi game, if not something with setting in the space.
I think it is the combination of the colors, even though the PS one should achieve to be on the \"blue/light blue\" gamma.

Of the Alternatives: I think I like best the second one. They all 3 look already more \"PS style\", however I think that light orange over blue - even if readable - it is not exactly beautiful...

The upper image, I think, could be moved to the left as logo. It will be less intrusive. Anyway, I think it depends also from the setting of the software for the forum. I guess that are plenty of ones with a better generic layout than this.

[Karyuu]

If you\'re using complementary orange/blue or yellow, it has to be balanced. That blue and brown and orange and yellow just don\'t work.. :> It seems more an attempt to combine two separate styles, but they don\'t merge well enough for that to be effective.

[Netty]

I agree about the orange in the alternatives. I don\'t like it. I used the same one that acraig used to see how it turns out. Maybe I\'ll play around with it some more and replace the orange to something else.

It just seems like everyone wants something different. They want PS logo colors and yet those colors (as I already said in my first post) don\'t go well together. They also want dark text on a light background. Acraig has his own idea with \"development\" test, and so on.

I will try to play some more.

[Karyuu]

This is a very cool experiment, anyway :) Thanks for that ColorSchemer link! I\'m working on something at this very moment that requires various color combinations, and my current tools are one and two, so something that much larger and more formal is a neat find.

[Netty]

No problem

If you guys have very specific colors you like but not sure how to balance them, state them here anyway and I will see if I can make them work together.

[AryHann]

Of course everybody wants to give their opinion on how things should be.
I think the \"approval\" is in the figure of acraig/Talad, but we are just trying to give you our point of views, which might be wrong as well as right.

I personally try to balance experience with personal taste, but it is also because I have an HCI profile in the past.

[Netty]

That is fine.

I\'d like to hear more personal opinions on the following (pick one):

- Dark text on light background vs light text on dark background.

- Every single color from PS logo must be used in some shade or just one or two is enough.

- Which specific colors are your favorite for this forum?

Don\'t worry. I\'ve worked on quite a few color themes for sites and forums, and even if you\'re wrong, even if I hate your choice, it may still be possible to make a certain theme look decent (yes, even brown).

I once had a client who insisted on a whole PINK wedding website, no matter what. Now that was a challenge.

[AryHann]

I go for light text on dark background, even if there is some \"philosophy\" who states that it makes the eyes more tired than the other way round.
I think just a couple of colors from the logo should be used.

I would prefer a light blue tone.