What do you think of the new look for the Forum?

[liveart]

Sometimes change is good, sometimes unsettling, sometimes both.

What do you think of the new look here?  Is it easier to read or more difficult. 

I know some would have liked changes to substantive matter like search, but we are also a visual community so how this place looks matters

share your opinions below

[Bernard Bunner]

I'm not against a new look :-) I like changes..

But here I found that some colors are not seen, for example : the time ago you have posted something. This morning it was red, now in gray, I can't really see it. If the mouse came over a picture title, it becomes black, and also you can't see it well.

Text in white is good….

[balaclava_man]

…and sometimes change hurts your eyes! To be blunt, the new look is horrendous. This is what websites used to look like when WYSIWYG editors first appeared and people thought they could do without designers. As Bernard has pointed out the rollover colour is so close to the background as to be almost indistinguishable and on some of the rollovers the typeface changes size as well as colour which serves to make the text 'dance around', very disconcerting. Wallpaper from a 70s living room?  I'd love to hear Mr. Perlows view as he was/is also a graphic designer. Visually cacophonous [ if thats even possible ]. Big thumbs down I'm afraid. : (

[Ian McPherson]

Depends what John's looking for...

This has a retro-woodwork sort of vibe, which is sort of interesting at first glance, but the colours clash with just about every piece of art posted. Bernard likes the white type, probably because it offers the most contrast against the dark brown, but the rollovers on the links disappear (sadly).

It should be noted that white text on dark colours is a comprehension disaster. In print, white text on black has a "good" comprehension factor of about 4%, versus around 70% for black text on a white background.

This is not to say that text should always be black on white, but it pays to be careful.

More: http://ianmcpherson.com/articles/better_results.pdf

As to the look, I find it a bit garish. It tends to clash with the colours in the illustrations.

[Synthetik]

Just wanted to point out that i don't really have anything to do with the visual design of this forum. I'm just the main editorial moderator. The person who designs and maintains the main Synthetik web site also handles the visual design here on the users forum.

But our web designer does read the posts here, so feel free to speak up with your comments.

Readability issues are certainly good points to bring up.

In regard to the 'retro' comments, the designer feels the recent changes give the site a more modern look (compared to before the changes were made).

[Jean Detheux]

When I first saw the new design, I thought my monitor had suddenly gone bad.

I am almost sorry to see that it did not, it's the design!

Many years ago, when I was still in art school, I had a Summer job designing printed material (Letraset and all, anybody remembers?) for a large travel agency.

The owner kept making strange decisions about colours, I could not understand nor agree with him, until I realized he was (a medical condition) colour-blind! Which he knew but would not act accordingly.

I had a déjà-vu experience when I first saw this new design.

So much thought goes into museums and galleries' choice of colours for their walls, they often paint them differently based on the different exhibitions they organize.

I take this site as being a container of all sorts of visual works, I don't think it is a good idea to have such an aggressive colour, it literally clashes with most of what is shown here. 

[Synthetik]

For those of you frustrated with the recent visual changes. I'm certainly open to seeing examples of other designs people think would be more suitable for the forum. So feel free to post some visual examples.

It's a much better way to constructively criticize something.

Keep in mind that you have to live within the constraints of what Ning allows. So ideally, examples of other Ning sites you like the design of. 

If this forum was based on wordpress it would look totally different, more like the look of the main Synthetik site. What Ning allows you to do is very limiting.

[liveart]

from the comments it would seem that the background is an issue. Why not try a neutral gray maybe with a little texturing. light text on a dark background is easier on the eyes in certain settings. Having rollovers disappear is not. 

[Tony Bouttell]

The purpose of the "container" as Jean put it, is not to show itself off but rather to show off the content. This colour/texture is a big improvement. And the roll-overs dont become unreadable either.

[Jean Detheux]

Yep, the container is now much gentler on the eyes and the content shown here.

[Paul Perlow]

While the text is much more readable now with the dark chocolate brown, thye color remains disturbing in a different way. It is harsh and still overwhelms the images. It sucks the energy away. In short I hate it. A neutral pastel color that was not so intrusive would be easier on the eyes and allow the imagery to stand out.