New homepage

Cloud

What DeV said I will re-read through the comments again when I am able to make changes again (am at home so no access here) - but overall apart from a few comments, I'm pleased with your feedback - and things like squiggles and cyan are easily changed if consensus is agreed (cyan came about from HSL modifying of the boards.jp designed icons, so it was kind of accidental; and the squiggles were to differentiate from the boards.jp hexagons, but can go for something else there too). There seems to be a desire for rollover highlighting of icons too.

Remember, I'm not a graphics designer and I'm sure there's load of you out there who could do better. But it does say "boards.ie" I think, as it has evolved from my last design which was in turn based on work by figment and FreaK_BrutheR - thanks Alan and Mark. Here's the positive side:

• It resizes to fit resolutions from 800 upwards (kind of!)
• We can get our latest news announcements (good name DeV, "Magazine") to members more easily on the main page
• We have future proof general categories that anything can fit into (and icons have been designed for those not displayed yet) [1]
• There's the nifty last X (10, 15, 20, whatever we finalise on) posts from the main categories / blogs / polls - okay, it has to be fine tuned because at the moment it only works for forums actually in the main category (not sub-categories), but that's a small thing - thanks Regi for the programming
• Icons (yes, cyan, I know) to get to the main sections. It's like your desktop! Also, there's more icons ready for future sections [2]
• We have Google Ads (more money for us to keep rolling, no pun intended DeV) which I think are less eyesore-ish than before (i.e. what we had yesterday)
• There's a big blank spot beside the boards.ie logo for something - it may look bare, but we may have a Google-type search box or stats or something there soon
• The design can now be integrated into sub-sections like Chat, USENET, Members Web Space etc. - as it uses a header and footer that will work as such, with customisable left sidebar for those sections
• And there's a bit of Irish for the Gaeilgeoirs. Fáilte go dtí na boird. Or maybe it's clár - up the banner!

So, I propose to change the icons from cyan to light yellow, and change the squiggles to something else. And we can add a separate column for forum in the latest posts table. Please continue with the suggestions, we can't please everybody but we can try for most of you...

Go on, get on boards!

Thanks,

John.
--
[1] http://www.boards.ie/images/categories/
[2] http://www.boards.ie/images/sections/

Johnny_the_fox

the 'sign up' icon looks lost near the bottom.. maybe locate it somewhere near the top?

Cloud

It's just alphabetical, but don't we have enough members already?

remoteboy

First up change is good - we like change.

Difficult to sum up what's not right, but here goes -

The whole thing feels 'colder' (probably all the blue) and less friendly/welcoming.

Also, the posts (which are the bread and butter of the site) really don't jump off the page anymore. font needs to be bigger/bolder on them possibly.

seamus

Originally posted by Cloud
[*] And there's a bit of Irish for the Gaeilgeoirs. Fáilte go dtí na boird. Or maybe it's clár - up the banner!

Interesting one. Maybe it could be debated on the Irish board.
"bord" is the direct translation of "board", but it depends on the context - i.e. do we really mean "discussion forums" or "debates" when we say "boards"? "bord" tends to mean table or plank of wood.

Or is that going too far?

Cloud

Again, you're all saying the same things - which is good.

Cyan icons - these will be made light yellow to brighten things up. Also, the forum category icons will be lightened from navy to blue.
Latest posts not visible - adding separate columns for forums and threads (as before) will fix this.
Squiggles (phone wires they look like now) to go.

Seamus - I'm not positive either, but here's some references (1, 2). I'd like to have the correct word for boards (like a notice or bulletin board) so let me know the result from the Gaeilge jury.

simu

Boird

The first thing an irish speaker would think of would be tables!

I think that "fóraim phlé" (discussion forums) sounds better.

Twould be a good idea to start a thread on this in the Gaeilge forum to get more opinions, though.

Sleepy

Would it be possible to do the Google ads in a light gray instead of white? They stand out a little too much.

A light blue might be better for the central background as the combination of the navy and grey is very cold and a bit depressed looking.

Dr. Dre

I like it in it's entirety, particularly the little logged in panel at the top.

tman

like, hello!
could it BE any more BLUE???

seamus

Actually, it just occurred to me to look at it not logged in. The username and password box seem a little stranded.

Not sure what you could do....centre them and put the Login button underneath? :dunno:

Exit

I think it looks great, but then again I never use that page so why listen to me?

zAbbo

bump it upto 20 latest posts at least, its growing on me,the aul blue has a great calming effect

sionnach

I agree with simu, the first thing an irish speaker will think of when seeing "boird" is tables. I like the new layout and design of the centre of the page, but the rest just doesn't "fit in", especially the colours used for the buttons on the left.

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

nosmo

It'd be nice if the post list and the forum the post is in were more obviously divided

Draupnir

Its grown on me anyway, and now that Ive gotten home, it looks great in Mozilla. Good job.

Only things I dont like are the cyan and the boird thing seems a bit tacky. Yellow sounds great.

Love the way the google ads almost disappear into the background tho.

Maybe replace the spaghetti things with a thin line celtic pattern?

WizZard

Deadly look. Well done:D

ZENER

Originally posted by The Muppet
I'll probably grow on me.

...there's exercises you can do for that ya know !!

Sorry guys I don't like, I keep expecting aran jumper clad musicians to appear with mandolins and fiddles and shoutin' " gwan ya boyya !!"

ZEN

conZ

I dont really like the look of the Thread Title section on the front page.
Could ye centre the Thread title and have the Forum it's in on the left.

At the moment, it's all over the place.

Spunog UIE

I think the colours on the nav bar on the left are not great. Maybe a white background for them? Over all I don't like the whole background being blue. I think it would look better with something else.

When you scroll to the bottom of the page it just has a contact us bit. Maybe close off the center table, have a gap of blue under it in some form.

I like the latest news bit, it looks really well with the colours and avatars maybe even have it above latest posts? although that probally wouldn't suit some.

Out of the 3 designs, I prefere the old one, then the abandoned one, then this.

G'luck.

m0rt

A broad public interest site such as this should really adhere to web standards and accessibility guidelines.

Why not take this opportunity to do so?

Rabies

To many replies too read through. So will if I'm repeating the same stuff over again, sorry.

I like the new front page.
Loading time is good.
Maybe tone down the blue a little, very strong.
The google ads are fine. Hardly notice them.
Where are the awards logos gone? Web spider or something
I like the way the latest posts table is spread out.
Blue lines running down the side

Over all, good job.

jesus_thats_gre

The layout is grand.

Its a bit dark overall.

The neon blue colour should be changed to white on the icons down the left hand side of the screen.

Maybe consider changing the light greys in the background of the icons at the top too.

Consider changing the background from light grey to white also.

Explosive_Cornflake

That was odd, first time i was ever using a mac online today, and i went to boards.ie, and I was like WTF. Thats was just odd.
It'll probably gorw on me.
I'll reiterate a few points made though.
Needs more latest posts.
I don't like the centre align on the new posts, i find it harder to read, left align please ?
Split the which forum, and topic up, its just hard to read as it is.
It is a bit dark for my liking, There's a lot more colour on the old page.
Other than that, i don't know, i like the new welcome to... horizontal part, that's more prominent.

Victor

Originally posted by feylya
We fear change.

Agreed.

Originally posted by Pablo
its a bit dark , no ?

Yes, not enough "Cloud" black.

ROFL....
Them squiggles remind me of small intestines ... or their contents :eek:

Paddy20

Nice, yes hmmm, have to agree with myself on this one. Got a nice surprise :cool:

CuLT

What is with the "Get On" slogan?

Where's "Now Ye're Talkin' "?!

radiospan

Originally posted by CuLT
What is with the "Get On" slogan?

Where's "Now Ye're Talkin' "?!

Yeah, I was just about to ask about that too.

Had ye any other ideas for a new slogan?

I think the old one had a more Irish feel to it.

DRakE

Like it, no complaints.

Is there a new theme for boards with these colors and gfx? I'll use it