Potential Front Page Revamp?

[arn]

Ocelot's efforts:

http://homepage.mac.com/ryanrafferty/Mr3.html

thoughts?

arn

[jelloshotsrule]

i like it. but to be honest, i'm easy to please.

[3rdpath]

nice..not too radical...just a little spiffing up.

[Royal Pineapple]

I vote yes, but i would like to see the resent threads on the right side again, and it would prolly look alot better without the ads :D ahh the pleasures of Demigoddom.:D;)

[Mr. Anderson]

Ha! Not bad - but I think the red is too dark. Lighten it up a bit and it be fine...

Remember this from last year....

D

[medea]

I like it though I agree that both the red and the blue are too dark.
nice to see a possible change.....

[Kwyjibo]

I think it looks cool, it makes the simple great ui look a bit nicer....the only issue i see is a bit of the fisher price xp look..... thats just what it reminds me of....not trying to offend anyone


is this going for like post wwdc implementation?

[scem0]

ohhhhhh............. yummy.

I like it. I think any change would be good though.

This site has a great layout. It's just old. ;).

http://www.my-smileys.de/signs/cdcb35acd7902df97d2eb5e6c320263b.png

[CaVoLo]

i think it looks great just keep the sidebar with the links to the forums....i enjoy that :-)

[vniow]

I like it, not too heavy on the graphics but definately pleasing to the eye.

[richie]

Looks good, but the bar with the link to the Poll lacks panache ;)

It should, imo, either

Echo the news boxes, so just have an outline in that red colour, with a light background, or,

Simply have a black line across the top of the bar and a white background (and maybe a grey line under the text) so as to give the rest of the page the feel of being a tab/sheet, if you see what I mean :)

Edit: Just quickly did this, as an example of what I meant (yay for css) http://richie.bz/mr.jpg

[Steradian]

I think it looks great although it would be better to have the Polls and Page 2 rumors link stand out a bit more, perhaps a different shade? Hmm coming along nicely however :) good job

[AmbitiousLemon]

nice subtle change. I agree with previous posters regarding the lightening of the red and attempting to highlight the page two/poll links better. Also the images used could be touched up a bit so the edges are less grainy (i'd guess they are gifs from the poor edges).

Though I must admit that when I saw the thread title I was hoping someing more drastic was being suggested. Nothing wrong with the current design, its just that change is refreshing and exciting.

[MacBandit]

I like it but.....

When I first saw the page my eyes went all blury and I couldn't figure out why. The 3D effect on the title bars is too overdone with too much gradient from top to bottom it screwed with my focuse. I think if the colors were a little milder and the 3D stuff were toned down this would be a good upgrade or progression or minor change what have you.

[ibookin']

I like it. The 3D effect on the red bars reminds me of apple.slashdot.org. I especially like the new gray bar at the top right of the page.

[solvs]

It's okay. Looks nice. But I agree, too dark. I like the current looks, but if you want to make a change, this is a step in the right direction. Subtle is good, nothing too radical.

Seems lately you're busy enough Arn, when do you sleep?

[wrc fan]

i don't like the title bars, they look too much like Win XP, but the rest of the changes look nice.

[job]

Looks nice. If the red title bars were more 'flat' similar to the grey navigation buttons at the top, then it would look very sophisticated.

[celaurie]

Not bad at all - looks clean and isn't radically different from what we're used to, which is good!

So often when websites get revamped they become almost unrecogniseable from previous incarnations and somewhat less functional in a bid for more eye candy which usually results in less functionalitly (take Lycos Mobile (http://sms.lycos.co.uk/mobile/) for example)

The 'new look' takes a little longer to load, but that's fair with the increased graphics load.

Oh, one thing I would like, if it's possible, is to have access to the User CP directly from the homepage...

Chris

[Zaid]

I like it,

Especially the [home][submit a story] etc menu

The blue and red seem a bit dark, and the bevel seems a bit over done.

I think if you brightened the red and blue up a bit and used a flatter gel effect it would be great.

Nice job though

[pinks]

Pretty good.

I like that it keeps the basic structure of the page which I think is more intuitive and straight-forward than some other fora that i've seen.

I agree with earlier posters that the links to threads should be maintained at the right-side of the page (but I think they've been missed because of their absence yesterday - when this sample was being developed).

I think that the Home > Submit a Story >About >Advertise, etc... bar at the top is really nice and has a greater impact that those links do at present.

The Mac Rumors logo ie. Apple and ? looks great - perhaps the red needs to be slighty lighter in tone. This would look great in the Dock as the icon for MR Chat (which should have a solid-background). The text though is, I think, either too big or too bold and looks a little clumsy.

The grey stripe running horizontally across the page (which contains 'Daily Poll' and 'Page 2' info) could also do with being a few shades ligher in tone.

My final thing (and probably most significant) is the Thread title-bars which look a little WinXP-ish as they are currently proposed. I don't know whether the 3-D effect is too effective on that particular background colour. The shape (more rounded corners) is an improvement but I'd be tempted to keep it more simple with a 'flat' colour - moving away from the current dark-red, though.

Anyway, I clearly have too much time on my hands. Thanks for the opportunity to offer opinion.

Edit: yeh, what Zaid said!

- Al.

[Megaquad]

I like it, there are only 2 things that IMHO should be changed.

I think MR logo should remain as it is, simple and nice, not aqua and I also think those home-sub.story-etc. buttons on top look too much ripped off from apple.com, maybe they should be aqua.

[MacFan25]

I like it. I think that its time for a change. It looks fine now, but something different will be nice. :)

[szark]

I think the other posters have covered just about everything, except that the tabs should match.

Having the active tab 3D and the inactive tabs 2D just doesn't look right to me.

[pseudobrit]

I like more drastic changes. The kind where everyone hates it at first but after a week can't remember how they dealt without it.

All in all, it's a nice restyle, but it needs more Aqua consistency. It looks like random aspects of Aqua were picked up for certain items, while Aqua itself is more consistent with its styling.

[Rower_CPU]

It's OK, but I'm with the people who are looking for something more daring/new. It also doesn't validate as proper HTML.

[scem0]

Originally posted by pseudobrit
I like more drastic changes. The kind where everyone hates it at first but after a week can't remember how they dealt without it.

All in all, it's a nice restyle, but it needs more Aqua consistency. It looks like random aspects of Aqua were picked up for certain items, while Aqua itself is more consistent with its styling.

i fully agree. It is better than the current style, but the whole thing need to be 'aquafied', or no aqua at all.

I think aqua is a redundant theme within the mac community, and moving away from it will be a breath of fresh air.

Some sites that have great design:

something flash oriented:
http://www.xeofreestyle.com/

something with more complicated scripts, but not quite fully flash:
http://www.whoswestudios.com/nutshell.html

pure HTML. Simple, original, looks good:
http://www.phpbb.com/index.php

Also HTML driven, great looking:
http://www.artofgregmartin.com/

Cool site:
http://www.crankbunny.com/

I think something a little more visually stumulating is in order. Making the site aqua is better than what we currently have, but it certainly isnt the best possible.

http://www.my-smileys.de/signs/cdcb35acd7902df97d2eb5e6c320263b.png