This summer seems to be flying by so fast its been a while since I've blogged on the various activities back in "FreePBX Central." In December we [url=/news/2011-12-14/server-progress-and-plans] took our first steps updating the website and mirror infrastructure[/url] and with over half a year behind us, the new and redundant environment has proven itself to be a great success! Thanks again to Schmoozecom Inc. for all the help and support on that big feat! With that behind us, we're embarking on the second phase of our upgrade!
The current site is comprised of two primary components, the forums, blogs and documentation which reside on a very dated version of Drupal, and the ticketing and source code system running on trac. Our plan is to refresh the Drupal website with the newest version of Drupal and give it a compete facelift. On the trac side of things, we have some thoughts and plans for big changes but will focus on the website look and feel for this blog post!
In the spirit of this project, we want this facelift to be something that our community stands behind and has a lot of fun with! For those who don’t know him, we thought it was time for our favorite mascot, tango to be a big part of the new design where we can start to have a lot of fun with him! So … without further ado we would love to hear your feedback on the following design concept generously offered up as a starting discussion point by Shaun, the VP of Creative Design at Schmooze Com, Inc.
Let us know what you think and any ideas or other feedback that comes to mind for this!
Reply here with your thoughts! Like it, don’t like it, feedback and suggestions about the concept, etc! We want to hear from you! Keep in mind this is a concept so don’t sweat the small stuff, there’ll be plenty of time to fine tune it, keep consistency, etc. Once we hear back we’ll take your feedback to move this in the right direction to a great and refreshing new look! Bring those comments on!
I really like the design, the colors are very vibrant and appealing. Layout seems logical too. Links are easy to find at the top and bottom of the site.
Thanks for the feedback so far to those who have chimed in!
As far as when is it going live, the above is simply an early conceptual design that we want to get the community feedback on before going down the path. There’s a lot to do from that design, to getting Drupal updated and then a new theme and lots of CSS work to make something like that real.
For now, a few of you have chimed in but I know there are more people out there with opinions, thoughts, feedback etc! So let us know what your thinking so we can take those next steps, or do some refining if that becomes the consensus, or …
Wow. I really like this concept. The 3D look is top notch - Tango in his pose with the catch phrase is great. I like the feel on the natural leafy header. Could you incorporate more of that in the psd adjacent to the body of the page? The black boarders are clean, but could have a little more green in it from the tree above. Seems a little too dark with the black.
Also, I would like to see how the branch would feel behind the menu a bit, then increase the font size of the menu. It seems like there is too much space to the right and left of the menu options, so maybe space them out a bit more with a larger font choice.
I don’t hate the dark red site map on the footer, but if it coordinated with the red above in the “Download FreePBX” call to action button a little closer, it might be nice. Even a green should be looked at.
I would like to see Tango wearing the grad cap near “Need Training”. I think I have seen it before, but it would be neat to have there. Maybe even holding the newspaper too. I wonder if it would be okay to refer somehow to, “Tadpole Training”?
Not wanting to criticize, just offering up thoughts. If it stayed the way it was, I would still be quite impressed with the solid design. Great concept!
that level of detailed feedback is fantastic and highly appreciated!
It’s discussions like this that really help fine tune things, regardless of what the final out come is. It’s exactly why we put it out there as we know that there are lots of different opinions and eyes, some possessing much more design talent then others, etc.
I think I speak for Shaun and the rest of us when I say thanks for putting so much thought into it and to everyone else reading this, thanks in advance if you care to chime in as well!
As Andrew (tm1000) points out, the forum will be Drupal, at least initially since we will be upgrading to a newer version of Drupal. We are looking at other considerations then trac on the SVN/Development side that may provide some other benefits as well.
We have discussed other forum software as an option but we have decided that any such change, if it were warranted, would come after the Drupal and Development side were moved. It costs roughly “nothing” to just move the forums forward and there may be a lot of improvements on never versions of Drupal. Once we are there, we can evaluate if there are benefits to consider another component and more evolution on the forum side…
WHAT COLORS IS CONCERNED. NOT EVERYBODY HAS 100% EYE SIGHT AND IT WOULD BE APPRECIATED IF YOU WOULD CHOOSE COLORS THAT CAN EASILY BE DISTINGUISHED.
EXAMPLE: THIS LIGHT GREEN AND SMALL LETTERS, ON A WHITE BACKGROUND, IS VERY DIFFICULT TO READ AND OFTEN OVERSEEN COMPLETELY.
Design is not too bad… I don’t know if I would go with black/dark colours on a technology based website. light colours like blues, oranges and greens encourage thoughts of reliability and comfort. (So a designer told me the other day, but I tend to agree).
Hey, you guys should check out the Drupal advanced forum module. It really helps improve the core forum module of drupal.
I don’t know if I would go with black/dark colours on a technology based website. light colours like blues, oranges and greens encourage thoughts of reliability and comfort. (So a designer told me the other day, but I tend to agree).