), and now thanks to LikeAFoox it is now available as a selectable skin in your control panel, why not take a look at it?A screenshot is below:
Feedback is welcome
New Define Cynical Skin - Homework Democracy (Available Now)
Moderator:Æron
Over the past month or so I've been working on a new Define Cynical Skin (with the help of a few others too ), and now thanks to LikeAFoox it is now available as a selectable skin in your control panel, why not take a look at it?
A screenshot is below:
Feedback is welcome
), and now thanks to LikeAFoox it is now available as a selectable skin in your control panel, why not take a look at it?A screenshot is below:
Feedback is welcome
Do you believe in Lady Luck Now? Yeah Lady Bad Luck!
It's a nice concept, but I think it needs some work still. My professional opinions/suggestions:
-I get the overall theme, but the implementation feels more like something we'd use at I Read This than here. It needs to be more...cartoony. Nice start, though!
-I like the faded flag-imagery for the post backgrounds, you did a good job making proper background images.
-The logo image in the top-left corner needs some work. Aside from the whole thing seeming a bit too small, the detail of the comic(s) in the background overpowers the sillouhettes, and should be greyed-out a bit more. You want people focus on the sillouhettes first, so they know what they're looking at. Also, the placement of the drop-shadow on the text is an interesting idea, but when the letters are that small, it just looks messy. And, one last thing, the lettering needs more contrast with the background, or it needs something to set it off, like a 1px stroke with pure black.
-The icons on the right need to be at least 50% bigger, if not doubled. The text is almost unreadable, and there are obvious artifacts obscuring the letters further. Plus, the icons themselves are almost impossible to figure out; I wouldn't know what the Gallery image is supposed to be without knowing this comic and its supplemental artwork very well, and I don't have a clue what's in the Comic icon. They also look very out-of-place relative to the rest of the site, in size, placement (try vertically-aligning them to the bottom of that part of the page, and moving them to the left side, next to the logo) and labeling (see below).
-1996 called, they want their website font back. Lose the Times New Roman, it makes the theme look incomplete, especially when the rest of it is sans-serif. Try making the font for the links match what you used for the icons, it's a very nice-looking font (from what I can see of it).
-Ahhh, the colour scheme. Please don't take offense to this, it's a serious question: Are you colourblind? Blue and red do not mix well, ever, especially on a computer screen, since they both tend to be fairly intense, and they're on opposite ends of the spectrum. I understand the significance in this case, but you need to be careful about how you mix them. Red, in particular, makes a very bad background colour, the human eye sees it as more intense than it would normally be. Try using a blue background, making sure to keep good contrast between text and fill, and use red for accents. Or, use a less-painful overall colour scheme, and make a more detailed logo image that implements red and blue in a more symbolic context, as they're typically used in US politics.
-I noticed this after replying, but the New Topic/Reply buttons need some sort of border around them, they look somewhat incomplete without it. A 1px white stroke should do the trick.
-I noticed this while trying to change back to the default, you forgot a Preferences link. Perhaps that was intentional? :-)
EDIT: I see what happened with the Preferences thing. On the default skin, Profile and Preferences are two different pages, but on yours, they're the same page. From a UI standpoint, there's no real advantage to one way or the other, but to avoid confusing your users, they do need to be the same on both skins. I haven't used phpBB in a very long time (at least, not from an administrative point-of-view), so I'm not sure what's causing the difference, but I'm sure you can figure it out.
-I get the overall theme, but the implementation feels more like something we'd use at I Read This than here. It needs to be more...cartoony. Nice start, though!
-I like the faded flag-imagery for the post backgrounds, you did a good job making proper background images.
-The logo image in the top-left corner needs some work. Aside from the whole thing seeming a bit too small, the detail of the comic(s) in the background overpowers the sillouhettes, and should be greyed-out a bit more. You want people focus on the sillouhettes first, so they know what they're looking at. Also, the placement of the drop-shadow on the text is an interesting idea, but when the letters are that small, it just looks messy. And, one last thing, the lettering needs more contrast with the background, or it needs something to set it off, like a 1px stroke with pure black.
-The icons on the right need to be at least 50% bigger, if not doubled. The text is almost unreadable, and there are obvious artifacts obscuring the letters further. Plus, the icons themselves are almost impossible to figure out; I wouldn't know what the Gallery image is supposed to be without knowing this comic and its supplemental artwork very well, and I don't have a clue what's in the Comic icon. They also look very out-of-place relative to the rest of the site, in size, placement (try vertically-aligning them to the bottom of that part of the page, and moving them to the left side, next to the logo) and labeling (see below).
-1996 called, they want their website font back. Lose the Times New Roman, it makes the theme look incomplete, especially when the rest of it is sans-serif. Try making the font for the links match what you used for the icons, it's a very nice-looking font (from what I can see of it).
-Ahhh, the colour scheme. Please don't take offense to this, it's a serious question: Are you colourblind? Blue and red do not mix well, ever, especially on a computer screen, since they both tend to be fairly intense, and they're on opposite ends of the spectrum. I understand the significance in this case, but you need to be careful about how you mix them. Red, in particular, makes a very bad background colour, the human eye sees it as more intense than it would normally be. Try using a blue background, making sure to keep good contrast between text and fill, and use red for accents. Or, use a less-painful overall colour scheme, and make a more detailed logo image that implements red and blue in a more symbolic context, as they're typically used in US politics.
-I noticed this after replying, but the New Topic/Reply buttons need some sort of border around them, they look somewhat incomplete without it. A 1px white stroke should do the trick.
-I noticed this while trying to change back to the default, you forgot a Preferences link. Perhaps that was intentional? :-)
EDIT: I see what happened with the Preferences thing. On the default skin, Profile and Preferences are two different pages, but on yours, they're the same page. From a UI standpoint, there's no real advantage to one way or the other, but to avoid confusing your users, they do need to be the same on both skins. I haven't used phpBB in a very long time (at least, not from an administrative point-of-view), so I'm not sure what's causing the difference, but I'm sure you can figure it out.
Last edited by Softpaw on Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:43 am, edited 3 times in total.
It's not going to be more Cartoony, I designed it with a more clinical, simple view in mind, the main DC skin is very Cartoony and we need an option to offset that really-I get the overall theme, but the implementation feels more like something we'd use at I Read This than here. It needs to be more...cartoony. Nice start, though!
Thanks-I like the faded flag-imagery for the post backgrounds, you did a good job making proper background images.
I'll have a look into that and get LAF to upload a new image-The logo image in the top-left corner needs some work. Aside from the whole thing seeming a bit too small, the detail of the comic(s) in the background overpowers the sillouhettes, and should be greyed-out a bit more. You want people focus on the sillouhettes first, so they know what they're looking at. Also, the placement of the drop-shadow on the text is an interesting idea, but when the letters are that small, it just looks messy. And, one last thing, the lettering needs more contrast with the background, or it needs something to set it off, like a 1px stroke with pure black.
I like them where they are, their not a main feature of the site, so they shouldn't get prime placement. Also I'll have a look at altering the image on the comic bubble, however size and position-wise their fine-The icons on the right need to be at least 50% bigger, if not doubled. The text is almost unreadable, and there are obvious artifacts obscuring the letters further. Plus, the icons themselves are almost impossible to figure out; I wouldn't know what the Gallery image is supposed to be without knowing this comic and its supplemental artwork very well, and I don't have a clue what's in the Comic icon. They also look very out-of-place relative to the rest of the site, in size, placement (try vertically-aligning them to the bottom of that part of the page, and moving them to the left side, next to the logo) and labeling (see below).
From a standards and compatibility standpoint setting a custom font is always a bad idea, I prefer to use default font's where-ever possible and also there is nothing wrong with Times New Roman-1996 called, they want their website font back. Lose the Times New Roman, it makes the theme look incomplete, especially when the rest of it is sans-serif. Try making the font for the links match what you used for the icons, it's a very nice-looking font (from what I can see of it).
I'll have a look making all the font's match though, it might be some horrible carry over from the basic PHPBB Skin I missed.I like it as Red and Blue, I might have a go at darkening the hue of the Red and see if it makes any difference though-Ahhh, the colour scheme. Please don't take offense to this, it's a serious question: Are you colourblind? Blue and red do not mix well, ever, especially on a computer screen, since they both tend to be fairly intense, and they're on opposite ends of the spectrum. I understand the significance in this case, but you need to be careful about how you mix them. Red, in particular, makes a very bad background colour, the human eye sees it as more intense than it would normally be. Try using a blue background, making sure to keep good contrast between text and fill, and use red for accents. Or, use a less-painful overall colour scheme, and make a more detailed logo image that implements red and blue in a more symbolic context, as they're typically used in US politics.
I'll give it a look-I noticed this after replying, but the New Topic/Reply buttons need some sort of border around them, they look somewhat incomplete without it. A 1px white stroke should do the trick.
I'm using default PHPBB templates, so without knowing how LAF hacked his I couldn't have them the same, I might change the name to say "Account & Preferences" though.EDIT: I see what happened with the Preferences thing. On the default skin, Profile and Preferences are two different pages, but on yours, they're the same page. From a UI standpoint, there's no real advantage to one way or the other, but to avoid confusing your users, they do need to be the same on both skins. I haven't used phpBB in a very long time (at least, not from an administrative point-of-view), so I'm not sure what's causing the difference, but I'm sure you can figure it out.
Do you believe in Lady Luck Now? Yeah Lady Bad Luck!
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Richard K Niner
- Posts:4297
- Joined:Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:08 pm
- Location:On hiatus
- Contact:
Corporate Stance is still my favorite. I like really dark backgrounds. Easy on the eyes.
Who sleeps shall awake, greeting the shadows from the sun
Who sleeps shall awake, looking through the window of our lives
Waiting for the moment to arrive...
Show us the silence in the rise,
So that we may someday understand...
Who sleeps shall awake, looking through the window of our lives
Waiting for the moment to arrive...
Show us the silence in the rise,
So that we may someday understand...
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