Forum Re-Design

[Brice Burrell]

 I thought from the beginning the welcome/show unread post text should be in its own area, let the logo have its own space. I like the pale green in the alternating colors. What I don't like is the "quote, modify and remove" icons, the colors seem out of place wit the rest of the color scheme. Also, I'm not liking the wider green border, I much preferred the pin stripe look. I'm fixated on the border and now its distracting.

 

[Ned]

Coming together nicely, Matthew.  My screen is 1280 X 1024.

A couple of suggestions - put the Welcome text and links in the right side of the banner back the way it was - with Show unread... and Show new... on seperate lines.  That text still crowds and overlaps the logo.  When it was on four lines instead of three, it worked better, IMHO.

Try the logo in a vertically centered position within the banner, or at least a bit higher.  It's close to the bottom now.

The logo and the Welcome text need to work together.  They seem to be fighting each other right now.

I like the light green shading.

I too would prefer Show unread and Show new on separate lines.  Both on one line encourages you to see them as simple text, not links.

The logo completely fills (vertically) the banner space on both my 800x600 and 1600x1200 monitors.  I literally don't see what David is reporting.

I don't understand "The logo and the Welcome text need to work together."  David, are they physically overlapping, or do you see them as aesthetically clashing, or what?  (BTW, "aesthetically" isn't dismissive, it's one of the major aspects of what Matthew's doing.)

Ned

 

[Matthew Schenker]

...What I don't like is the "quote, modify and remove" icons, the colors seem out of place wit the rest of the color scheme. Also, I'm not liking the wider green border, I much preferred the pin stripe look. I'm fixated on the border and now its distracting.

I'm looking into options for the "quote," "modify," and "remove" icons.  That might have to come into place later.  I thinned out the green border (back to 1px from 3).
Matthew

 

[Daviddubya]

I too would prefer Show unread and Show new on separate lines.  Both on one line encourages you to see them as simple text, not links.

The logo completely fills (vertically) the banner space on both my 800x600 and 1600x1200 monitors.  I literally don't see what David is reporting.

I don't understand "The logo and the Welcome text need to work together."  David, are they physically overlapping, or do you see them as aesthetically clashing, or what?  (BTW, "aesthetically" isn't dismissive, it's one of the major aspects of what Matthew's doing.)

Ned

I'll try to describe what I see in the banner.

The tool photo, an MFT at the moment, occupies the left portion of the banner, pretty much top to bottom.

The logo text reads "Festool Owners Group", and below that "discussions and multimedia...".  That logo text occupies the bottom center portion of the banner.  The "discussions and multimedia..." text is at the very bottom portion of the center banner area.  There is lots of space to move both lines of logo text up, maybe centering it vertically.  It looks off kilter to me, positioned at the bottom of the center area.

The Welcome and the three links text are in the right side of the banner area, and positioned at the top of the banner area.  The third line, which still contains two links, crowds the logo text, although no longer overlapping it.  Another thing to try with this portion of the banner would be to left (Edit: oops, I meant right) justify all of the lines, rather than centering them horizontally.  Right justifying these lines will move them visually further away from the logo text, and will allow the logo text to stand out more, IMHO.

 

[semenza]

Hi,

  I like the green shading. It could be a  little more on my monitor, but it does show.

  I prefer the larger "Festool Owners Group" letters or something in between the two.

  I like the thicker border line, it helps keep the logo from looking like it is running off the top of the screen, somehow the tools just seem pushed up to the top.

  I think stacking up the "recent unread post" etc all on seperate lines works better.

Seth

 

[semenza]

Hi,

    I agree with others that the icons don't look right. Just words would be better  OR

  Maybe the "quote", Modify", "remove" icons could be something Festool-  copy ring,  MFS or Router, CT.

Seth

 

[Overtime]

I also like the green shading, and the "pin striping" of the green lines.

And it seems that the "Festool Owners Group" font has shrunken so much so to accommodate the welcome text. They now compete for top billing. The Festool fonts should be larger and get the space it needs and deserves. Plus it just looked better.  The welcome text ( as important as it is ) comes second, and hopefully can be worked in somehow. Just my 2 cents.

The thick blue borders left and right of page ? Don't know what it is about it - color ,thickness, too heavy? etc - but it's a little distracting.

Thanks for all the work going into this - it is really looking good, first rate ! 

 

[Daviddubya]

...And it seems that the "Festool Owners Group" font has shrunken so much so to accommodate the welcome text. They now compete for top billing. The Festool fonts should be larger and get the space it needs and deserves. Plus it just looked better.  The welcome text ( as important as it is ) comes second, and hopefully can be worked in somehow...

I agree.  I think the font size of the words "Festool Owners Group" is part of the problem I was trying to describe above.  Perhaps the size of the photos can be reduced to make a bit more room for larger FOG text?

 

[fidelfs]

I normally don't read a post with so many reply's I get so confuse. I didn't make an exception to this so If this has been address before sorry.

I don't see the links in the new forum: "Show unread posts since last visit.", "Show new replies to your posts.".  I don't know if there will a new functionality to replace those but I don't see them in the new forum.

If you include those links could you also include them at the bottom of the page as well.  When I am reading several post and I want to read a different post I have to move to the top and click the links.

==== +++++  UPDATE +++++ ======

Let me take that back.  I found the links but they are hidden in the right top corner.  They are not ease to find and also they are black.  A different color/font would be great.  They change color when you hover the cursor over them, but you need to find them first  ;D

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
I asked Andrew to re-design his logos so they are smaller.  I had thought that would be better.  However, it seems that his original, larger, version, works better.  I re-uploaded the larger ones to the test forum.

I also right-justified the "Welcome" text as David suggested.  In addition, I created a very thin, light-gray line around the "welcome" text, in order to make it stand out -- but not too much.

  I like the thicker border line, it helps keep the logo from looking like it is running off the top of the screen, somehow the tools just seem pushed up to the top.

I agree.  So I thickened to green line in the top of the forum, while leaving the line thinner in the left, right, and bottom.  See if that works better.

Matthew

 

[Matthew Schenker]

...What I don't like is the "quote, modify and remove" icons, the colors seem out of place wit the rest of the color scheme.

    I agree with others that the icons don't look right. Just words would be better  OR

  Maybe the "quote", Modify", "remove" icons could be something Festool-  copy ring,  MFS or Router, CT.

Those icons are easy to change.  All I need to do is create 22x22 jpg images.  If anyone wants to submit suggestions for these icons, feel free!

Matthew

 

[Daviddubya]

Everyone,
I asked Andrew to re-design his logos so they are smaller.  I had thought that would be better.  However, it seems that his original, larger, version, works better.  I re-uploaded the larger ones to the test forum.

I also right-justified the "Welcome" text as David suggested.  In addition, I created a very thin, light-gray line around the "welcome" text, in order to make it stand out -- but not too much.

Matthew

Matthew - Each revision is a bit better.

I cannot see a line around the Welcome text.  It is invisible on my screen.

Once again I recommend placing Unread Posts... and New Replies... each on a seperate line, rather than combining them on one long line.  The right justification works well, IMHO.  With the right justification, the two links on seperate lines will be well away from the "Festool Owners Group" logo text, allowing the FOG name to stand out.

Thanks for your efforts.

 

[Dan Clark]

Matthew,

Overall, I like the new forum format a lot.  It's a significant improvement over the current format. 

I'd like to make one suggestion about the use of green - limit it's use to the logo and the "functional" parts of the forum.  I.e. things that do something - buttons, links that highlight on mouseover, icons that are active or indicate someone is online, etc.

IMO, bright green is a great color IF it is used in moderation as an accent.    By making borders and post backgrounds green, the green accents loose their impact.

Look at the Festool products.  Except for the bare metal parts there are only two main colors on the products - a very light gray-beige and a blueish-black. 

Everyone talks about the Festool "Green", but it is used only on the logo and the functional parts - switches, knobs, connectors, and latches.  IMO, the green color's impact comes from its limited use! 

I decided to try out my ideas...

This image is a screen shot of the test forum exactly the way it appears on my screen:
[attachthumb=1]

This image is a copy of the first image, except that the green border lines are changed to dark gray.  What is interesting (and surprising) to me is that the green band also looks like it changed color.  (The band color was NOT changed.) 
[attachthumb=2]

This image is a copy of the second image except that the green band was desaturated and the luminance increased.  I.e., it is actually a very light greenish gray. 
[attachthumb=3]

This image is the same as the third image, but the band color is less strong:
[attachthumb=4]

To my eyes, the third or maybe the fourth image is the best.  They are better because I think they are the most readable, easiest to navigate and have the most impact. 

In the third and fourth images notice that the wonderful (IMO) green elements in the header are now more prominent.  "FESTOOL OWNER'S GROUP" now pops out at you.  Your eyes are drawn to the controls in the Domino.  Notice that the green "Online" icon sticks out and other icons seem more visible.  And most importantly, the text content pops out. 

My personal preference is obviously the third image because it is most readable.  From a pure attractiveness perspective, I find the second image to be the most attractive with the greatest impact.  The fourth image is a middle ground between image 2 and 3.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Ned]

Clear and reasoned presentation, Dan.

The third image, with the monitor set to 16-bit color, looks OK.

I like the third image, too.

Ned

 

[Daviddubya]

Ned's (Edit - oops - Dan's) screenshots made me realize that the text for the links in the right portion of the banner is even more of a problem on his size screen than it is on mine.  I can now see why the links won't fit well into the banner on seperate lines.  I don't have a specific recommendation, but I do think the links need to be in a position that does not interfere with "Festool Owners Group", IMHO of course.

 

[Ned]

Ned's screenshots made me realize that the text for the links in the right portion of the banner is even more of a problem on his size screen than it is on mine.  I can now see why the links won't fit well into the banner on seperate lines.  I don't have a specific recommendation, but I do think the links need to be in a position that does not interfere with "Festool Owners Group", IMHO of course.

I'm confused.  I (Ned) haven't posted any screenshots.  Most recently Dan (same letter count, different guy) did.  Yet the mention of screen size makes me wonder if something in David's post does have to do with something I did.  But I don't know what.

Ned

 

[semenza]

Hi,

        I think I figured out why the logo and the whole page in general seems to be jammed up to the top of the screen.   The thin/ thick green line is not enough of a separator.  It looks/feels like the page is not at the top to me. I keep wanting to scroll to get to the top.  I think it is because it is not framed. If the Festool dark blue page frame went across the top as well as around the sides and bottom , I think that would do it.  Look at the current forum- the frame goes all the way around.

        Try going to the bottom of the page , and then back to the top. It looks like you are at the bottom but not at the top. Also if you are using windows try toggling F11 (full screen) it makes the effect show up even more.

        Would it be hard to put the green top line back to thin , and put the blue frame across the top, the same width as it is on the sides?

Seth

 

[semenza]

Hi,

    I see Dan's point about keeping the green to a minimum to maximize impact. And I like the idea of it being used in the way Festool does for functional items. But I prefer the green lines to grey, and the green shading to grey. I don't think that either are overdone.  To me those things are nice highlights , and the grey is just a little to dull when combined with the other grey stuff on the pages.
    As far as keeping the green in the  functional  vein goes. We could mentally consider the green lines to represent the guide rail strips.  And the green shading could be the FOG.  Also I can find two places on Festool equipment that the green is simply informational or just a company highlight as opposed to actually functional- One being the green stripe on the Systainer labels, the other the rings on the AS hoses. 

Seth
   

 

[semenza]

Hi,

    Could the "unread posts", etc. simply be removed from the logo area and put somewhere else?  Like in the top grey navigation bar if they were abreviated or shortened?  The more I look at it they seem out of place in the logo field anyway.
    If something was neede to fill that right side area how about an actual logo. Like something that could be made into a members patch 8)

Seth

 

[Brice Burrell]

Dan, I like the look of the green pin strips lines, however, your gray line do make the page easier read. What I don't like about the gray lines, they seem a bit too dull in color how about black instead?

Seth I think you are right about the top of the looking a little out of place and I like your idea of trying the blue border at the top.