New Visual Style for the Forum!

[Son of Hobbes]

Hey everyone we're excited to announce that we're working on a new visual style with a bit of an updated look/feel to it and we're about ready to go live with it; I have the style enabled right now if you'd like to check it out but within the day or so, I will be defaulting the visual style of the site to the new style format. The new style isn't 100% (just a few minor things that have been commented on changing,) but open to feedback as well so we can make this a bit more visually appealing to learn!

Here is the old/current style:

And the new, updated style:

We have all, brand new site graphics and logos being worked on by the extremely (I cannot stress this enough) talented member on here, @Slater ! So we'll be updating our banners/logos as well, exciting updates on that coming soon!

And because inevitably I know some of you dislike change, I'm going to allow the OLD STYLE (how it looked before) to still be selectable for a short period of time. So if you just hate how this new style looks, you can (for the moment) still go back to the old style until we phase it out completely.

To do that, go to the VERY bottom of the screen, whether or desktop or mobile, and look for this:

Change that to the other style listed:

And you're good to go!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

How the new profiles look in posting!

 

[St. Tom]

great job

 

[Eclectic Elle]

*changes over* It's pretty bright! Might be a bit much for stoners LOL. I wonder how a light sage green border/background would look instead of the white... Not as full on as the old one, but not as dazzling as the white.

 

[Autotron]

I agree that it seems a tad bright for my taste. It seems like most of the colors/shades are a bit too similar and blend into one another. A little more contrast between the different parts would look better IMO.

 

[Boradan]

I am all for change, but I think this is not a great change.
Pastel colors like these (with white text) really suck on a pale background and lack definition - especially in areas that use a gradient background-color and/or shadows.
Some examples:

• Scroll up until you see the title of this thread. It is extremely difficult to read - white writing on a pale grey background (that also has a gradient so that the background is varying). Then a green shadow (!) to 'highlight' the text.
• @Son of Hobbes profile beside the post: 'Staff Member' and 'Site Administrator' in white on pastel backgrounds (with gradient) - this applies to all buttons/badges/areas with a pastel color and white text really.
• The second menu below the main top menu ('Mark Forum Read' etc). Hover over each item and it turns into a pastel button with white text and white text-shadow.
  
• The 'breadcrumbs' both top and bottom of the page (Where it says 'Home>Forums>Live Announcements, Intros and Chat>Live Announcements') The Chevrons between each individual link ( the '>') have disappeared making it look just like an additional menu.
• Footer section (Bottom-right of the page) - the XenForo text is barely legible. Also the row above that (Help/AFN Vibe (terms of use)) is a white link when hovered over.
• Generally overall: The white 'background' for all of the text areas, surrounded by a pale grey. This lacks 'definition' between areas making it harder to see the 'Flow' of a page.

With the Pastel colors on a white background, these issues are exacerbated with incorrectly set up monitors - just play about with your brightness, contrast and gamma settings and you will see things appear and disappear as you move the sliders - even just a little change can make a LOT of difference. This is especially not good on a site for Medical information - there are a lot of people with various illnesses/diseases/disabilities that use this site who may have issues navigating around.

Most of these are fairly easy to fix though - Just have a look at the 'Post Reply', 'Upload a File' and 'More Options...' buttons. Black (anything dark, really) text and borders combines with removal of the shadows enables everything to be well defined and not look as 'blurry'

Sorry for sounding negative, but I hope this is taken as it was intended - constructive criticism.

 

[Boradan]

Here are 2 images of the same page.
First one is how it looks now.
Second one is with just a few minor changes.

To me, this is MUCH clearer and easier to navigate - easier to see the separation between each section and the text is much more legible

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Good feedback guys, that's how we get to that "sweet spot." Also why I left the old one on there too lol. Keep up the suggestions and I'll work on a revision, then we'll feedback on that, etc, until there's a general "okay, this will work" vibe. We won't please everyone, but we can work on make it generally good enough for most (and that's the idea.) Appreciate the comments!

 

[Flash]

Ill keep it short and simple not a fan just really to bright. Had to turn brightness down on my iphonex. Kind of a slap in the face hahaha. Not high either haha! But i do like the tabs colors.

 

[Dudeski]