Question How Can We Improve This Forum's UI & Aesthetic?

[Dwayne]

Been meaning to make this thread for awhile. So, this forum's main criticism at the moment is with its UI and aesthetic, some outsiders believe its an eye sore and too amateurish, and to appeal people more we need to update it so this forum is nicer to look at. I have a few ideas of what we can do but I want to hear others opinions too on how we can improve:

• The UI
• Color Scheme
• Board Images
• Forum fonts
• Text colors
• Etc

I was thinking something very Y2K, pirate or 90s rave themed but I want other opinions as honestly if we do want more growth this place needs improvement aesthetically bad.

Also dw the OG forum layout will always be available in the styles chooser if you enjoy its charm, I'm not getting rid of that piece of forum history.

 

[ThirdyAughtSix]

Take a look at the top neocities sites , pick an aesthetic base it off that

 

[Khastle]

Bump

 

[V]

Did you say pirate themed? YES SIRRRRR( idk if a lot of people will like it tho ngl)

 

[Dwayne]

Did you say pirate themed? YES SIRRRRR( idk if a lot of people will like it tho ngl)

I only brought it up as our naming is partly based off the Pirate Bay, a site mainly known for music privacy, so I thought it would be a creative choice but even I'll admit a 90s rave or retro kinda theme would appeal much more

 

[Null]

I'd say that the UI is fine. It just needs refinement, but on what exactly I can't really explain it well.
As for the themes, it would be cool if the boards got their own designs.

 

[Khastle]

I'd say that the UI is fine. It just needs refinement, but on what exactly I can't really explain it well.
As for the themes, it would be cool if the boards got their own designs.

Yeah mostly the biggest concerns are not the UI but the forum's color scheme, fonts, and general aesthetic, it just needs major cleaning up.

Boards having their own design does have potential but that's something I'll look into at a later date as I need to focus on the overall look first haha.

Honestly I might experiment with different styles and themes, and whatever is most popular will be default and the others optional.

 

[Null]

If we're talking about the overall look for this forum with a Y2k/internet thing, the aesthetic of Wired Sound for Wired People could work as inspiration. (And because lain)

 

[playFACE]

Yeah mostly the biggest concerns are not the UI but the forum's color scheme, fonts, and general aesthetic, it just needs major cleaning up.

Boards having their own design does have potential but that's something I'll look into at a later date as I need to focus on the overall look first haha.

Honestly I might experiment with different styles and themes, and whatever is most popular will be default and the others optional.

honestly i like the current aesthetic we have going on right now. its not barebones ugly like some very old forums have, nor is it too much where there are 5000 different categories to look at.

as far as user experience ive only used old forum sites with the basic categories with late 90s to early 2000s aesthetic but overall aside from a few "ok where the hell is this thing" due to my lack of modern forum site knowledge its all good.

i would add in more customization and reply emotes though. maybe a way to allow people to put in their own images for the background and have it hosted locally? im not sure if something like that could work, but i can imagine some time in the future a thread about people showcasing their backgrounds throughout the years and "where were you when this user had porn on his background for mariana bay because of course he would" scenarios

 

[ThirdyAughtSix]

If we're talking about the overall look for this forum with a Y2k/internet thing, the aesthetic of Wired Sound for Wired People could work as inspiration. (And because lain)

this website gave me a seizure

 

[playFACE]

this website gave me a seizure

average lain user experience

 

[jnoj]

As for the themes, it would be cool if the boards got their own designs.

I second this :)

Also few items I could think of:

1. Ensuring the background image transitions or repeats in some way when you scroll down. When I scroll down threads and the main page, it kinda sucks that it's just a solid color on the right and left side and underneath the thread and text blocks.

2. On the home page, where the different boards are, the names of each board are kind of hard to read with the images used for them. A particularly egregious example would be Under Mariana Harbor, Entertainment & Hobbies board... Maybe some kind of gradient or background underneath the header text would improve readability.

 

[V]

I only brought it up as our naming is partly based off the Pirate Bay, a site mainly known for music privacy, so I thought it would be a creative choice but even I'll admit a 90s rave or retro kinda theme would appeal much more

I vote for pirate theme anyway :) I know it’ll not be picked but

 

[Khastle]

honestly i like the current aesthetic we have going on right now. its not barebones ugly like some very old forums have, nor is it too much where there are 5000 different categories to look at.

Thanks, I like it too but overall reception on it is mixed and I think we can all agree a cleanup is needed in a few areas here and there.

as far as user experience ive only used old forum sites with the basic categories with late 90s to early 2000s aesthetic but overall aside from a few "ok where the hell is this thing" due to my lack of modern forum site knowledge its all good.

i would add in more customization and reply emotes though. maybe a way to allow people to put in their own images for the background and have it hosted locally? im not sure if something like that could work, but i can imagine some time in the future a thread about people showcasing their backgrounds throughout the years and "where were you when this user had porn on his background for mariana bay because of course he would" scenarios

That message custom background image does sound intriguing but I could imagine it may make some text real annoying to read. However, I do know of a mod that exists out there, as I've seen it on other Xenforo forums, that allows you to change the background around your profile picture all the way down to the user stats, that's something I definitely wanna look into at some point.

Also few items I could think of:

1. Ensuring the background image transitions or repeats in some way when you scroll down. When I scroll down threads and the main page, it kinda sucks that it's just a solid color on the right and left side and underneath the thread and text blocks.

That is possible and I have the image to color transition to a solid colour to prevent stretching or awkward image repeats. However, in the future I'll turn this off when we get better backgrounds that transition better and wouldn't look so bad on repeat.

2. On the home page, where the different boards are, the names of each board are kind of hard to read with the images used for them. A particularly egregious example would be Under Mariana Harbor, Entertainment & Hobbies board... Maybe some kind of gradient or background underneath the header text would improve rereadability.

I've tried this and believe me it used to be even worse when it didn't have any slight modifications at all, I'll look into this again as I thought I honestly fixed this issue but tbh I think it's more an issue with the backgrounds and when we switch to a more professional looking node backgrounds it shouldn't bring too much grief as the current entertainment and hobbies background is quite loud anyways.

 

[Dwayne]

Cyberpirates.

I'll say no more...