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Responsive Theme Started by TE · · Read 30762 times 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. previous topic - next topic

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #30 –

Hey just for fudge nuggets n giggles I took a look over at http://www.colourlovers.com/ again to see what palettes they had under "elk".

Jackpot. The first one is named in honour of Spuds! http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/1506097/elk_hunt

Looks rather flash too (unlike Spuds).

Anyway, if thinking about how to make it look different from SMF, this may give some ideas: http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/search?query=elk

I might play with some variants based on these:

http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/1506097/elk_hunt



http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/2301829/Anne_Elk



http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/2691065/Enchanted_elk
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #31 –

Elk Hunt works really well, actually. I'd like to see it :)

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #33 –

Hey quick run around with that palette. Used some bits of it, but not others, just to get stuff that went with the flow and all.

Methinks this is a rather cool look, in general.

ETA: Done a bit more with it:



I recde the js so the header collapse gets rid of the logo etc up top too.
Last Edit: June 11, 2013, 08:14:15 am by TestMonkey
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #34 –

The whole Elk idea is fun, but maybe the images(the on off) and this particular colorset might seem a bit gloomy? That elk symbol reads like a celtic symbol of some sort...I would suggest something a bit more "childish" perhaps, a cartoon elk for example or just something to play on the wordgame.

Though I might have misinterpreted the whole idea behind ElKarte. :D I read it like El karte.Almost like "A la carte" :D If thats the case you should aim for something more elegant in both symbol and colors - IMHO of course.

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #35 –

At the moment they're still messing around with logos. I just grabbed Ich Bin's latest effort and made it green to match the palette, since people seem to be over the blue moose. :D I expect logos will still change.

I like the general colour scheme though. It's not gloomy IMO. It has balls.

Eliana thought it looked pretty damned good.
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #36 –

Damn, there's still no like button.

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #37 –

Oh and this is with header collapsed. Figured get rid of the lot. Peeps over at CEMB are always grumbling that logos are a giveaway when they're trying to sneak on the forum during work hours. :D

Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #38 –

Here ya go, Bloc. More chirpy icons for ya. :D

Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #39 –

ROFL
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #40 –

Ok, just before I trundle off to bed, I had a very quick play with a dark version on the same basic palette. Has potential.



Might play with it some more during the week.
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #41 –

Here's a thought. Traditionally, most light themes had the category headers in a fairly walloping sort of colour, that stood out like dog's balls against the light background. To slightly reduce the sense of being walloped, the bars were made fairly small in height. This is turn means small heading text in them, if its not to look cramped.

That buggers the visual heirarchy in a sense, because it feels more natural (IMHO - subject to change without notice) if the category headings are bigger, with sizes down the heirarchy getting smaller until they reach standard body font size.

The light and dark versions above are a good indication of this. I think the category headers are very elegant and well-proportioned as they are, but on the light background they smack you in the face a bit when there are a lot of them. This breaks up the page and makes it less scannable. On the dark variant, the category headers are still elegant and well-proportioned, but the lesser contrast against the background means the page feels more scannable on the whole.

Conclusion here is that, if you are considering pages where there are likely to be a lot of header bars without a hell of a lot of space between them (board index being an obvious example) you shouldn't have too much contrast in tone between the bar and the background. This was the basic problem with SMF 2.0.x default admin pages, before I broke the longstanding rule that "nobody ever themes admin". :P Ha. Just when you think nobody will do it, some crazy bugger will do it. :D

Anyway, this is going to place limits on theme colour schemes if adhered to, and pretty much rules out the stone age idea of "effin dark blue header bars on a white or, even better, dingy morbid pale grey background".

By comparison, here's something I threw randomly at the SMF guys yesterday after fiddling with the 2.1 Alpha theme a bit more. Works better than what it was before IMO, but could still be tweaked a bit more. I'm mostly over tiny text for the last post stuff.

Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #42 –

I usually don't think too much on these things - just go with the feeling of what "feels right" with bars/colors/texts/etc. :D Design is not an exact science IME.

But you are right in the stuff about contrast - if thats the look you are after(this theme which is rather light looks better with it, true). Sometimes you really want strong contrasts though, to quickly see the board names for example. It all depends on the whole.

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #43 –

Yes but board names are another thing. Point is that if the category headers draw too much attention, then that tends to make the board names less easy to scan.

ETA: Although, having said that, the board index of the light variant still looks better, in terms of visual appeal at a glance, with the dark green bars. It's still less usable on the whole though, because of the distracting effect.

This wont be such a problem for other pages that have very few header bars. Unread and replies (arguably far more important that board index) will be fine.
Last Edit: June 10, 2013, 07:23:34 pm by Antechinus
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Responsive Theme

Reply #44 –

I wrote wrong lol, not actually the board names, but the category names of course. If you use logic to determine if you want dark or light catbars - then having dark ones helps distinguish the categories, like when you want to see the boards about knitting quickly from all the other spare time interest categories. :D Just as much as it distracts if you only have one or 5 categories and they all are about ...knitting in some sense. :P

Point is, light/dark have both heir uses - if you see it logically. Design-wise it all depends on how they fit together with the rest(of course text should readable etc.) Conclusion: light look better here, but isn't necessarily better usability-wise.