New Community coming tomorrow

[Mark H]

Templates or get rid of white areas or both......

I'm not usually a whinger, but this is literally giving me a headache after 3 minutes partly because my eyesight isn't perfect. Bye for now.

[EdHarrison]

shrink it

I wont comment on the colour scheme (those in glasshouses lol) but the header needs to shrink a lot!

[pinbrook]

Good Grief.... with this thread in mind http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=46388

I opened this forum in full screen with 1600 (i normally pull my browser window back to 1000 ish) I NOW see what everyone is on about...

I take back my comment that i am getting used to it. Flippin Heck

[leehack]

The difficulty for them to gauge is this; is it typical human negative responses to change and people will just get used to it over time, or is it really that bloody awful. The website changes are great on the whole, massive improvement IMO. The forum is a shocker, i'm amazed in all honesty, looks like a part time floristry forum run by June Smith, that has 4 members and averages 3 posts per month.

[Duncan Rounding]

I am getting used to it but I certainly don't like either the forum or the website insipid pastel shades.

I've taken a lot of art classes over the years such as, advanced onc, A level art, various art and design courses, watercolour, life, and many many others and this colour scheme is crying out for colour and contrast - not to mention web readability.

One thing I learnt over the years as a result was not to be frightened of using colour to make a statement. Paint's cheap - use it.

[cbarling]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

We commissioned the design of the new web site from professional designers, had a number of choices, made changes based on various suggestions, then selected one design from an internal poll.

We didn't carry out quite the same process with the community design, instead just asking it to be based on the new web site design.

On a personal note I can't say I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the community design, but I don't find it irritating in the way others obviously do.

We won't do anything immediately. We will let things settle down a bit, then review our next actions.

Chris

[Darren B]

Chris a simple additional to alow users to change the theme is all that is required, then you guys can have your pastals & lilac colours and the rest can choose a colour easier ont he eye.

one feels the same head and sand scenario still exists

[guccij]

Perhaps Chris doesn't spend as much time on here as other people? I find now that I can only spend a couple of minutes flicking through stuff. I just can't concentrate with the colours as they are
Please, please change it.

[pinbrook]

On a personal note I can't say I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the community design, but I don't find it irritating in the way others obviously do.

We won't do anything immediately. We will let things settle down a bit, then review our next actions.

Thats just plain silly.. if you dont mind me saying so.

All you need to do is tone down the colours abit and most people will be satisfied.

Delaying to see how people get used to it is not the way forward, We can all get used to a toothache when we have to.

Simple web usability tests show the colours are wrong, comments from the forum simply confirm this.

I often disagree with others here when they say stuff like head and sand as i think sometimes comments are made idealistically and not with budgets/cost/feasibility in mind, but Darren is absolutely correct - add themes so we can choose. Original blue vbulletin and a phone theme would do.

[guccij]

Darren is absolutely correct - add themes so we can choose. Original blue vbulletin and a phone theme would do.

+1 from girl wearing sunglasses

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Even returning the site to a fluid width rather than fixed width would remove some of the bright white area.

[Mark H]

Hey, that's the new Actinic forum at 1920x1200 isn't it?

[Mike Hughes]

The fading side bars seem to have been permanently fixed in their screen position. I would guess as an attempt to avoid so much white space at the sides.

I can't say I'm a fan of this. When I scroll a page up or down I expect everything to scroll, not for bits to move up or down relative to other bits. The way it is makes me have to think about what's happening to the page which is not a good idea. Far better to avoid distracting people when they're browsing.

So not a good solution for me.

Mike

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

I noticed that also. I assume this is an attempt to reduce the amount of bright white area at the sides, although returning to a fluid width would be a much better solution both for reducing the excess white space and improving usability.

[leehack]

What i don't think they've clicked onto is the fact that if they set the width to say 90-95%, it will fill 90-95% of the available screen, but they will still get their background if that's the effect they want.

I think what's happening is that if they cave in to a number of users all saying the same thing, they think it's weak and an admission they got it very wrong. I understand that process, it's a little old school, but it happens, so little changes are made, slowly moving towards where everyone thinks it should go. What i'd like to see is a company that release a new look and a has a person on hand to react to what customer's say almost instantly, better still talks to its customers before it does it, waiting simply will not improve the look, it's just gets you used to it more.

I like a company that aims to improve things, not rely on time to make things more acceptable, i hope they stop this ridiculous stubborness, sort it out and get talk on here back to the things that really need discussing. Given the improvement on the communication arena, which it has to be said has been pretty immense for them to change, this whole exercise reminds me of what they were like 2 years ago and i am bitterly disappointed, i really am.