[Thybag] - Layout Design - Need Criticisms

[GommeInc]

Evenin' all,

As you may or may not know, Mentor left the forum a while ago to work on his site again and bring it back to life after 4 years of not having the time. Well, we have (mostly he has) been working on a layout for the site which we need urgent criticism on to see what people genuinely think.

http://i.imgur.com/uC9Nu.jpg

At the moment it's more focused on layout rather than content (which will be coming soon). The forum will carry the same basic layout in which the IPB forum layout will be integrated with.

You can be as harsh as you want. Afterall, what good is it for a project if people sugar coat what they think? :P

[Calvin]

It's quite nice. You could try inserting some more green into the style to match with the frog on the logo. I'm guessing it's some sort of blog website?

Best of luck to both of you. :)

[GommeInc]

We're trying to tackle the monotonal colours at the moment, but can't figure how :P We tried a colourful background which looked nice, but we're not sure how to re-create our own :'(

[GommeInc]

Edit:

http://i.imgur.com/zz3Tc.jpg

Ignore the random boxes for now, but we've added a bit of green to match Vex (the alien). Does that improve it at all?

[Suspective]

It has a really smooth style to it, and a clear theme. The frog theme and the boxes really make it look professional and brilliant. Good luck with your venture :)

[GommeInc]

Another update:

http://i.imgur.com/ktNLj.jpg

Does that look decent or awful? :P

[Calvin]

Looks much nicer, better than mostly black. :) You could also change the RSS icon to green. :P

[today]

Uhm, I'm gonna be a harsh **** but i know you love me deep down.. It seems all bit too retro? Get with the times and go sleek, modern and you can still get away with dark colours.. Just this seems a little too basic? !! :(

[HotelUser]

I always know a website has an affiliation with your three eye'd frog companion :P

With the exception of the background (I think a gradient would have looked nicer) I quite like this design. It's not over or under done but seems to have a balance of sorts where complexity is concerned. I always love a website with a bar along the top with user tools.

I think--I'm not sure what your plans are for the forum but I do see a link--you should try to skin the forum in a similar fashion or even try to embed it into this layout. I think that would look extremely good.

[Agnostic Bear]

It's like I'm really back in the early 2000s. It just feels like I've stepped back in time and I thoroughly dislike it. Saying that I can't say what needs to be done to fix it but I can tell you I don't like it.

Perhaps it's the endless curves, everything being a jumble of text or just general placement of things being all squashed together. I don't know.

[redtom]

I think the original looked much better with out the green and the darker navigation bar under the frog.
I hope your his eyes still follow your mouse around the screen :P

[GommeInc]

Hello,
Have played around with the colours a bit, resulting in a number of horrific mess's. Of the results would you be able to give me some advice on which direction is probably the one i want to head in, by chooseing the least terrible from the below?

1) http://i.imgur.com/eQT3q.jpg
2) http://i.imgur.com/TCZAF.jpg
3) http://i.imgur.com/uDMev.jpg
4) http://i.imgur.com/gDTaC.jpg
5) http://i.imgur.com/ugD36.jpg
6) http://i.imgur.com/WeZxh.jpg

Thanks :D

Also, that's a good point redtom, we could try that :PAlthough, I think we tried to move away from that because it used flash, but I know nothing of website design and formats, so maybe possible :P

There seems to be a huge mix of opinions :/ The nav bar definitely seems to be the main problem.

[leet15]

Criticism? I'm goona touch that page all over..

Very hot design. (: