Teg,
Per the board rules on GOAYB, descriptions should only be 250 characters which is about the size of the paragraph called "Specific Content". If you want something specifically critiqued then you can list those things in addition to the description but be brief.
support.proboards.com/thread/3605/goayb-rules-read-before-postOne you downsize, big time, I promise to give your site a critique.
Fixed
Thanks Amanda, Yes, everyone hates me when I make them follow the rules. lol I do appreciate you fixing that, though.
My critique scale: Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good and Excellent or 1-5.
First Impression (well, actually third impression because per other threads, I had a couple quick glances):
GoodI love the design concept but there are a few things that bother me badly at first glance and if it weren't for those things, you'd have a very good.
Layout and Design: Good
First of all, if I went past your header area starting with everything below the: Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register. I'd have given you a very good on the design. It is the header part that ruined my first (ummm, third) impression.
I love the way you styled the category titles. I love that all the boards within the category are very simplistic and clean.
On your home page (custom page), where it says, "Welcome to PromoForum!" the text runs off the pink background and a few other titles are doing the same but I'm sure you are aware of that so I assume making a new image is on your "to do" list.
When I go from the home page to view your forum I can see the text ("Welcome to PromoForum!") adjusting from the left side to be somewhat centered in the gray area. You can see the text moving. I'm not sure what would prevent one seeing that transition but you might want to try moving that particular style tag above all others and see if it helps.
Also in that area, I couldn't figure out why you had "welcome and then two "site name"s until I finally realized you have a tabbed table. Honestly, that looks so much like the boards that I think it might confuse people (not used to ProBoards and the tabbed table) why they can't click on the content like the actual board content. I think that you will have to have some css to make the active tab show differently or at the very least, indicate they are indeed tabs by making them more tab-like (just a subtle change in the background behind the text or if that is out, a subtle change in the hover? I just think there needs to be a bit more to indicate this is not a board but a interactive tabbed table.
I find having two logins and register (Join us) redundant. I'd think I'd just get rid of the login, register where it says welcome guest and maybe move the welcome guest elsewhere.
And I'm sorry, but I don't like your header area at all. It's far too cluttered with too much going on. It like an optical illusion with the menu (white background with home, forum, etc) area looking like it is under the pink on the right and then you move your eyes to the left and now it looks on top of the pink. It's kind of fun in a way but then it started driving me nuts.
I don't like the news feeder there at the top between the two menu items on either side. It just looks out of place and I honestly think the menu items should all be in one place. To me just switching the news feeder and the lower menu items/logo would be much better as it is now. That said, I do kind of like the idea or the indication that the menu/logo kind of fell down and exposed the newsfeeder so maybe that idea isn't out. Let me think about this....
I'm also finding the hierarchy of your text is off. By that I mean, what do you want visitors to see first, second, third, etc. I honestly don't really know where to look so I get befuddled. Nothing is drawing my eye. Typically, the name of your site should be prominent and the things you want them to read next should be drawing ones eye.
Now that I'm getting into this critique, I realize, I may have to do this in two parts because I need to get offline for a while (need to run into the office for a few hours) but I will leave this so you can consider what I'm saying and when I come back, I might have some suggestions on what might make things work better.
And don't be discouraged so far. When someone has a very awesome concept (You get an excellent on concept), there is usually way more to consider and a lot of tweaking going on.
I'll be back....... and I'm sorry, I'm leaving before I could finish but I promise, I'll try to have some ideas and suggestion for you later today and finish this.
Amanda, I haven't forgotten about this, I have just been busy. Sorry.
Teg, Finally I found time to get back to this. Sorry for such a long delay. I've never had to split my critiques into to parts but unfortunately, you were the lucky one where I ran out of time.
I noticed you have fixed the title images and while I'm thinking about it, if you aren't happy with the looks of it when you have tiny titles, you could play around with this code which gives you that angle using purely css. (Not tried on actual cat titles though) That way the pink could adjust according to title length.
<style>
#title_wrapper{height:30px;
position:relative!important;top:-12px;z-index:-1;
background: rgba(0, 255, 255, 0.9);
}
.angle:after { width: 0;
height: 0;
content: "";
border-top: 41px solid rgba(0, 255, 0, 0.9);
border-right: 36px solid transparent;
position: absolute;
right: -36px;
top: -1px;
z-index:100;
}
.angle {
position: relative; top:-40px;
display:inline-block;
margin-top:-8px;
height: 0px;
border-top: 1px solid rgba(0, 255, 0, 0.9);
border-bottom: 40px solid rgba(0, 255, 0, 0.9);z-index:100;
}
#my_title{margin-top:8px; padding:4px;
}
</style>
<br><br />
<div id="title_wrapper"></div>
<div class="angle"><div id="my_title">Text here and it can handle a long or short title</div></div>
Back to the newsfeeder. What if you made it more intentional like angles maybe opposing angles because to me it just looks like you just can't get the coding right and it wasn't intentional. Something like this? (Again, just a suggestion.)
Other than my issues with the header area I think both the home page and forum look outstanding. Very professional, smart and creative. I love your image icons and how they are perfect for each board plus the use of Font Awesome Icons in your menu. For being professional, I'd give you an very good bordering on excellent but you are falling a bit short on navigating your forum and finding things which leads me back to text hierarchy again.
When I visit your forum the first thing that draws my eye is the "New Domian" and that is probably how you like it so good so far. Next I see "Welcome to ForumPromo!" which is the tabbed table. I have totally moved past your forum logo which you really want members to remember. But from that point on, I don't know where to look next. If you want me to read the rules first that should be getting my attention but as it is, you have the rules posted as a menu item, which isn't typical of most ProBoards and thus I was looking through boards to find the rules. Even though you do have rules and guide mentioned in your board description, they are not eye-catching. I would suggest you make them pink like the "Guests can post here" in the following board.
So clicking on the board to read the rules I see "Forum-Wide Rules
" but I was expecting the "Guide" rules to be there as well. So that is kind of confusing as now I'm thinking maybe there are more rules and where is the guide?. Reading the rules, if one doesn't look closely, one wouldn't know those are links to different areas but simply just just text. Links on just about every site has some sort of a hover change telling us they are links you can click so I personally feel that an "easy navigation" system rules over what you might personally like as part of your design concept.
When I did go to the Guide per the top menu, this is what I wish the forum page was like. Off to the side is a great navigation menu and it looks like a menu with links I can click and but even then, one isn't 100% sure if you click, it is a link because of the lack of hover change. But still, that page has excellent navigation and will be a handy tool for some although maybe a bit unnecessary since everything is right on that very page. Still I do love that you have it paginated. The only thing a bit on the negative side is the fact when you are on the General Rules page or Guide, the links to the right side do not correspond to what you are actively viewing. Again touching on the tried and true usage of hover, active, visited concept of css.
So to wrap this rambling up, just think about what you want members to see first, second, third and how you can draw the eye to those things. Although your design is limited on what you can do, text size can do the trick as can color.
Content: Excellent
You specifically asked about the rules and guide.
The rules are just fine. I know there are quite a few rules but when you want to not be moderating constantly, they are necessary. I find no issues with your rules at all. If fact, you had to spend a very long time touching on most everything a member needs to know right at their fingertips.
The Guide is equally done well. Very good explanation of how things work and again, a ton of time thinking everything out so well done on both of those!
I looked around the rest of the boards and I find zero wrong with anything.
And just to add, ...
Design Concept: Very Good Over all, I love your forum and am very impressed despite me nit picking a certain things. You should be extremely proud of what you accomplished and wow, I really appreciate the hard work you put into it. That said, I'm just one person and my opinion is just mine so just take my thoughts with a grain of salt as they are just suggestions that you can reject or consider. Anything I said that confuses you, just ask for clarification and I'll do my best.
Nice job Amanda!
promoforum.net/forum
promoforum.net/forum
