New Theme Testing (New logo preview)

[Allan]

If you go to your board preferences, and change your default theme to 'fizzified' you can see a preview of the new theme that's coming down the pipe. There are some big changes in it, so before I flip any switches, I'd like to solicit some feedback. To help things be a bit more structured, I've broken down the main categories of change:

1) New logo by Aaron Price akprice
Holly won't be completing the logo as planned. Her time was very much appreciated Aaron Price took over and delivered a great logo. The bag panel motif, the m forming a stitch, tying things together; it's simple and says a lot. It works in so many ways I even see the profile of a shoe, with the m being the laces.

2) Grid view home page
List view will come back as an option, but I think listing the forums as a top-down hierarchy keyed by post counts does each forum a disservice. The grid allows you to see more forums, placing less importance on order. I've removed the verbose descriptions, but those will come back someplace, at some point soon. I think the names stand on their own, mostly.

3) Loss of iconography (using color more effectively)
I've removed the default icon for forums for being visual clutter. Instead, red links are used to denote an unread thread. I've been moving in this direction for some time now. Locked icons and others still appear.

4) The Slider
This has been in the projects forum for some time now, and the banners themselves have mostly already been on the forum in the past, just never in this slider format, and not with the videos intermixed.

5) The Background Pattern
This will change. Regularly. Different patterns will rotate through on a "as I feel like it" basis Starting with the wood.

This isn't ready for primetime just yet. I am still working on this. Slowly. But at some point soon, it's likely that this will be the default theme.

Thoughts?

[Tjuggles]

Hi,

Here are some thoughts:

1) New logo by Aaron Price akprice
I like it. One thing that comes to mind is that it itself it not very descriptive, although I guess logos don't have to be.

2) Grid view home page
I am not used to it so can't really say anything yet, although if it were me I would put the names alphabetically maybe?

3) Loss of iconography (using color more effectively)
No comments yet, although using red for unread posts will probably be much easier to see. Good idea.

4) The Slider
Not bad, although I feel like it takes up a lot of space.

5) The Background Pattern
I am concerned that the current wood section, in combination with the slider, and the top banner (i.e., the blackish one with the logo) take up too much space, like 30% of the screen. If it were me I would keep it as tight as possible so that we can see more of the content of the page (i.e., forum links)

Hope this helps!
Awesome!

[Anz]

I like the grid view idea and sliding banners.

Thanks for putting so much of your time into this, Allan.

[Allan]

1) New logo by Aaron Price akprice
I like it. One thing that comes to mind is that it itself it not very descriptive, although I guess logos don't have to be.

I do see what you're saying. But, respectfully, I guess I believe logos shouldn't be very descriptive at all. They're abstractions that should be distinct and versatile in a variety of contexts. This logo translates very well from very small (bottle cap) to large (t-shirt/banner) and takes cues from some classic logo work, while having distinct tie-ins with our sport (granted somewhat insider-ish). Complicated logos that try to do too much generally aren't great as identities.

Logos are also one of those design elements that are almost never good when they're designed by a committee. This isn't to say that criticism is discouraged, but that it's kind of necessary for 1-2 people to make a decision and run with it. That's the tact we took here, for better or (hopefully not) worse.

2) Grid view home page
I am not used to it so can't really say anything yet, although if it were me I would put the names alphabetically maybe?

I'm trying to carefully balance functionality with page load time and performance, but I would like to make the order customizable. As for an alphabetical sort, I do think that we should prioritize some forums over others, so going alpha would remove that flexibility while demoting some important forums.

4) The Slider
Not bad, although I feel like it takes up a lot of space.

5) The Background Pattern
I am concerned that the current wood section, in combination with the slider, and the top banner (i.e., the blackish one with the logo) take up too much space, like 30% of the screen. If it were me I would keep it as tight as possible so that we can see more of the content of the page (i.e., forum links)

At desktop 1280x800 resolution:

(New) Top banner w/grid view forums shown: 16
(Current) No banner w/list view forums shown: 9

Now, granted there are a lot of variables at play. The list view could be compacted to show a lot more. Your screen resolution might be different than 1280x800; things are different at different resolutions, but I put a fair amount of thought into this responsive aspect of things. Both the themes should reformat for standard breakpoints from mobile to 5K desktop, and I've put a fair amount more effort into mobile with the new iteration. I still see that area needing a lot of work, but I'm closing in on it.

For reference:
http://thereisnofold.com
http://thereisnofold.tumblr.com


I think we're currently missing out on a lot of opportunities to highlight much of the great content the forums produce as well as promoting the other great resources of our community, and giving up some top of the screen is quite worth it. We've done it before for brief periods over the years, and have only received positive feedback on it (that I recall).

Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it

[Tjuggles]

Hi Allan,

I agree with you about the logo; I think it's great!

I'm trying to carefully balance functionality with page load time and performance, but I would like to make the order customizable. As for an alphabetical sort, I do think that we should prioritize some forums over others, so going alpha would remove that flexibility while demoting some important forums.

I like the idea of making the order customizable for sure. Also, I think we should keep in mind that prioritizing some forums over others will be subjective, and so I wonder which criteria would be best?

At desktop 1280x800 resolution:

(New) Top banner w/grid view forums shown: 16
(Current) No banner w/list view forums shown: 9

Now, granted there are a lot of variables at play. The list view could be compacted to show a lot more. Your screen resolution might be different than 1280x800; things are different at different resolutions, but I put a fair amount of thought into this responsive aspect of things. Both the themes should reformat for standard breakpoints from mobile to 5K desktop, and I've put a fair amount more effort into mobile with the new iteration. I still see that area needing a lot of work, but I'm closing in on it.

Good point; I'm sure there are a ton of variables to consider, and my comp is probably not the norm in terms of resolution. I'm not that knowledged on programming using anything other than R (and maybe C), but my initial thought when I saw the space being taken up was to decrease the padding, if the changing banners were text inside of a cell (which is the wood background). Does that make sense? Like there was too much extra banner that wasn't needed.

I think we're currently missing out on a lot of opportunities to highlight much of the great content the forums produce as well as promoting the other great resources of our community, and giving up some top of the screen is quite worth it. We've done it before for brief periods over the years, and have only received positive feedback on it (that I recall).

I say experiment and try new things, especially if you are enjoying it. You are awesome. Also, I'm sure you know this, but all of my thoughts on this are me thinking out loud to get some ideas flowing, not a 'change it now damnit!' sort of thing.

[Kylescook]

In regard to the new theme. I noticed the link up top to one of Kens videos links to a video that was removed due to copyright claims (in the US anyway). It may be a good idea to link to a different video or possibly a different source for that video(not sure how difficult embedding vimeo in that way is).

Edit: But I would like to say that the I really like the new theme, adding color gives so much relief to the constant strain of white and black on the eyes. the new logo and links to the facebook group and popular videos was a great addition. I also like the grid setup as opposed to list.

[Asmus]

The video is also blocked in Denmark and here videos rarely get blocked, so it is probably blocked everywhere.

I really like the new layout but I do think the wood texture looks a little cheap and template-like.

Good job Allan!

[Allan]

I really like the new layout but I do think the wood texture looks a little cheap and template-like.

Hm. Well, the idea here is that the background should change on a semi-regular basis. And my idea was also more specifically that the background should be the surfaces that we play upon. The next one up is concrete...

I would absolutely *love* it if we could get some contributions here. If anyone has a background they think might be cool, post it up in here and we'll go from there Keep in mind that these should generally be patterns or an image that doesn't take away too much from the logo & banners (as well as being light/small from a full-size perspective), though I'm game to try more creative things too.

[Allan]

Is the concrete cooler Asmus ?

[Asmus]

I like how much it reminds me of http://bsos.it/

It does look cooler but I don't really think it adds anything special.

[Add Block]

Would it be possible to include the website with Badges in the top right corner with those 5 useful links?

[Kylescook]

Would it be possible to include the website with Badges in the top right corner with those 5 useful links?

I second this

[Allan]

Thanks for the feedback Asmus Means a lot to me.

Next background will likely be something like a close up of facile/bag material ...

Would it be possible to include the website with Badges in the top right corner with those 5 useful links?

Yeah, the badges, Ianek's moves list, and the shred shoe finder originally had a more prominent presence in the new theme, but I removed the menu until I could fit it in better. It'll come back soon, whether as banners in the rotation, or somewhere else cool

[Asmus]

Suggestion: There should be a suggestion thread in this subforum.

Actual suggestion: I just saw Ivan posted a new video and I want to see it but I am at work and can't. Would it be possible to make a "read later" or "bookmark" function?

[Kylescook]

Suggestion: There should be a suggestion thread in this subforum.

Actual suggestion: I just saw Ivan posted a new video and I want to see it but I am at work and can't. Would it be possible to make a "read later" or "bookmark" function?

I second both of these suggestions

[Allan]

1) I'll (or anybody else could) go ahead and create a suggestions thread
2) there is already a bookmark function at the bottom of every thread page. I'll see what I can do about making this more prominent. You manage your bookmarks from your control panel...

[Kylescook]

1) I'll (or anybody else could) go ahead and create a suggestions thread
2) there is already a bookmark function at the bottom of every thread page. I'll see what I can do about making this more prominent. You manage your bookmarks from your control panel...

We have been fool's, foolish fools.

[Asmus]

Thanks Allan!

[Kylescook]

First time logging on in a few days. The new header looks great. Thanks for all you do allan