minimalistic style of nexialys.net on review

[nexialys]

Ok, first time seen i think, a minimalistic style for vBulletin...

i was planning a redesign of my style for a long time, but the sudden loss of my main client this weekend made me speedup this development step for my company.

so here it is: http://vb.nexialys.net/

it's a MINIMALISTIC style.. if you do not like pale, skinny minimal styles, please do not post your review, i know what kind of comments can come from this.

Web 2.0 to its best, blog-style based, as you can see from my blog: http://blog.nexialys.net/ ...

it's also a work in progress, that's why i request a review right now, it's time to add or drop some details, and i know that some guys here LOVE to comment on complex styles...

for the curious, there is only 3 templates edited on this site, besides the customisations i apply on my site -- my business... the default vBulletin 3.7.3 you see is what you would have if you apply my style on your site, but you do not have the budget to make it worthy!

If you want infos about the icons etc, like a ton of people already asked, the details are in the Colophon...

[gfxhelp.com]

I would maybe make the background of the forum not alternate, it gets a little confusing as far as what's a title, what's alt1, and what's alt2. If it was white titles with all yellow or blue bg it may be easiest to see what's what.

Also for the right nav, the titles are very visible, but the actual content (Welcome on the new...) gets a little washed out since it's the same bg as the body bg. Actually now that I read it, shouldn't it be "Welcome to the new..."?

# Accessibility
# CSS2 + some CSS3
# xHTML Transitional
etc etc
The text for this area looks very strange in FF3.

http://blog.nexialys.net/category/articles/ , the login button at the top has a strange border.

In the Share and Enjoy: list it's going alphabetically which makes the print icon blend it. It should probably be separated in some way.

Anyways I like it bug it needs more of a color scheme in the sense of each "class" or type of elements needs consistency.

And then of course add a fav icon and have the logo link back home, I noticed the slide show at the top has an alt of "Return Home", I assume that's going to link to the appropriate article once complete.

The links at the very bottom go to http://vb.nexialys.net//index.php and give you page not found.


Edit: actually looking at it again, I would huck the blue bg and make all the forum bgs orange. The blue is a little too cold.

[RedeemedWarrior]

not bad at all, rather classy reminds me of wordpress:P

*notices Redstiletto posts there and waves*

[nexialys]

Thanks Sam, all these critics are important to me, thanks for the details.

some of the details are out of my control, example:

1- the login button is part of the original theme, i will fix it anyway.
2- Share and Enjoy is a plugin of wordpress, i do not plan on editing it as it's updated often, but anyway, their print icon will be disabled, nobody print anymore these days!

i'm with you on the color scheme, i was unsure of what would be the final color, but you are right... it gives me help on deciding which... blue?!. .lol

typo corrected in the right nav, but i have a ton of typos, i'm french first, was teached english by a scotish, imagine the mix. (a chinese cow would have been the same). the bg of the right nav was not activated because i did not know yet what would be the global color .. i will see the result by playing with the theme.

favicon, damn, forgot it.. lol

and the links, sure they will fixed, i have to finish these details... it's a beta theme, as said and indicated in the header... if i forget nothing, it would be a perfect beta, so i would need no critics.. lol

oh, and FF3, on PC... have to install that, IE 8 too... i have just added Windows Vista Ultimate on my other Mac for testing the look (and play a little Halo 2 game) ... i will check that side of the dark world too...

[nexialys]

a follow up of Sam's post...

added a favicon, changed the alt colors to fit, a global color scheme, changed some fonts to be more readable...

[Shelley_c]

wow a new favicon. *shelleys officially been dazzled*:up:

what was you old favicon like nexy I never got to marvel at that 16px by 16px piece of art. :D

[nexialys]

Shelley, you were unavailable for creating me a new favicon, sorry, had to take something left on the shelf.

[Princeton]

PROS:

site colors
post icons CONS:

text color (no contrast or very little offered)
font size
right column (my right) - it looks like you just added a bunch of text to it; it just doesn't read wellFor a support site, I would think you would target your design for the "older" crowd.

It's the "older crowd" that pays the bills. For this reason alone, you should offer more contrast; increase font size.

At the very least, you should design for everyone. The only people who "may" like the design are the younger crowd - which doesn't imply that it will be successful.

[Shelley_c]

Shelley, you were unavailable for creating me a new favicon, sorry, had to take something left on the shelf.

One of the few styles of your I quite like... Well, it's more the colours I like and the post icons. The text on the right hand side is very difficult to read (screenshot below) enlarge the text perhaps so that it's a little more readable?

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8358/nexyssmalltextms3.gif

I'd also think about designing a new logo. The state of your current logo does not really compliment the style at all. yes, I'm aware you want to keep it simple but you can still retain the simplicity and visually improve upon the logo.

Because of my laziness I haven't went beyond the index page to see what the other areas are like. But like i said, colour usage looks good and the layout even better.

Still can't make out what your favicon is supposed to be though. :confused:

[nexialys]

the favicon is for me a gadget of no use other than replacing the white file icon usually shown...

for the right sidebar, yeah, i'm going to change it, it's supposed to be a place for banners and late news, but i have no idea how to finish it... remember the beta stage!

for the logo, hum, that's something i'm not sure either, i change my logo like 10 times per year, it's just a place where i show what i do with typologos... ;) but yes, you are right, it is not representing the style in any way.

[Princeton]

Your logo should not compliment your style (it should be the other way)

Logos should never be changed - find one and stick with it.

It's all about your "brand" - find it - stick with it - and people will become familiar with it.

In years to come, your "brand" could be worth money.

[nexialys]

lol.. thanks for the vision Joe.

but i do not think my branding worth a penny, so i do not focus on the design to make my name. even if you may think your logo or branding is the best in the world, you may be just missing the point of doing good business because all your clients may find your logo to be aweful and meaningless... the design of a site is important, but if there is no content, forget it. same for the image, if you are just faking it, you will loose someway.

i've done this minimalistic style not as my flagship, but as one of the many styles that are in the background that will be displayed this winter when i decide to open the books of my portfolio... but yeah, you are right, if i have to have an image on the internet, it have to be clean and precise...

I'm in the business for ages, not for me but for others, and usually, i'm good at it. we can never be perfect when creating the branding of a company because we can not read inside everybody's mind. We can evaluate what would interest part of the visitors, and we have to focus on what is our market.

Most of the good designers i know on the internet are not focussing on their one branding but at the opposite use their branding to show their versatility... each month or so, they change the entire look of their site...a good example is Dave Shea (http://mezzoblue.com/), one of the first guy i met on the net... one of the best reference you can have about CSS and design on the real world is also changing the entire design of his site each 3 or 4 months... as a portfolio of his talents. same for Stu Nicholls (http://www.stunicholls.com/), who i met 3 years ago... site rehearsal each 6 months or so.. :)

anyway,. i'm not comparing to these great guys, they do 100 times more work than i do, and i will never be as popular as they are... but if they do it, why not myself... :)

--------------- Added 1223387591 at 1223387591 ---------------

Oh, and btw, some guys posted on my site, asking "why in he*l did you put a sidebar like this, or why you have a strange navigation block on top, etc...

i'll just say that -- without trying to offense anybody here -- but Design is not a question of vBulletin structure... go out of your shell please, people. if you think all sites have to look like vBulletin, with tables and rows, with a login on top right, and a footer in two lines, you may have a need to visit the net a little...

if you want to see some real design, go here: http://cssmania.com/ , or there http://www.cssheaven.com/ , or even here http://designshack.co.uk/gallery/all/ ... and try to find a site that looks like vBulletin, you will find none. and they all have strange structures, original skeletons and bizarre colors and themes.

i'm not a vBulletin themer, i will never create a style for vBulletin that is just changing background images for the tcat or thead... i will never generate a style for a site that is just changing colors, there is already a ton of designers who would charge too much for that... ;)

[Princeton]

Your brand is everything.
If you think it's worth nothing - than I won't argue with you.

David Shea has stuck to the same logo since Dec 31, 2006 (http://web.archive.org/web/20061231104322/http://mezzoblue.com/) .. today: http://mezzoblue.com/
Stu Nicholls - can't confirm as css has changed and not available on archives.
But I'm guessing it's been the same for some time now.

[Brandon Sheley]

It reminds me of a mybb or old phpbb style

[smacklan]

I like your approach to thinking outside the box. This is a good start to a unique design...but not really so much a design but more of a different approach to deliver the same stuff we all see on forums...I like it. Do work on your logo, something fun and unique like your rotating image box in the header. Well done :)