LiveXchange
 

A site geared towards professionals on the technical side of live entertainment (lighting and sound for theatre, concerts, etc.)

Still under development:

http://www.rahlentertainment.com/liv...rums/index.php

I would appreciate any constructive criticism on design, layout, ease of use, etcetera.

Thank you for your time,

Nick

bump

You have an interesting background image, which I think could be incorporated more into the style. The lovely red image is at odds with the blue coloured forums - you might want to consider putting a theme into effect across the site - combining the red/black background with the actual forum style.

I actually quite like it, although you have a number of issues with your portal that will need resolving otherwise visitors will just walk away.

I particularly like the gradient that you are using in the page class. :)

Interesting. In explorer the background is blue whilst displaying in firefox the background is red. Maybe I'm seeing things? or going a little crazy maybe?

Anyway, The navbar area looks clean, uncluttered and the rollover effects are nice and subtle so nice work on that. Logo is simple text but there's nothing wrong with that because it compliments that area nicely.

However, that's were the good points stop. I'm not to keen on the blue and although I normally do like a bit of blue in my styles, I don't think the blue variants compliment each other very well. Maybe put this down to user preference but (for me) it doesn't rock my boat.

Boardmarkers (status icons) aren't very creative and it only adds to that barren,empty feeling on the index page. If you could somehow use the colours from the navbar with a touch of yellow throughout the style then I think you would have one nice style. As it stands the index page alone doesn't look very inviting.

Whenever I style (and I hate styling) I make a point in replacing all default images. So, I think you should take that onboard and replace the default images still present throughout your forum. I noticed in the Whats going on? area that you still have the vb default images on? So, because they are on the index page (and the index page is the first thing visitors look at, that your priority is to replace all the default images on there, then move on to the threadlist area, then the postbit and any other area with default images still attached.

Like I said, If you used the same colours that you used in your navbar (and design in the same theme) with a nice vibrant yellow, I think this would be a nice looking style.

Thank you all for your comments thus far.

I'm not sure why the red background is displaying... the red is for a style that is currently turned off. It should only be showing the blue and silver w/ a blue background.

By boardmarkers you are reffering to the "x"s? The idea there was to stick with the branding of the logo, which features a capital 'X'. Maybe it should be more ornate?

I agree with you on the graphics issue- most of the stock vB graphics are kinda cheesy. I'm not sure what to replace them with though... any ideas?

By navbar, are you refering to the vB navbar, or the site's header?

Thanks again for taking the time to help.

Personally, I like some of the color scheme, but do notice the forum layout is somewhat skewed in regards to the Last Post.

When visiting this page, I was greeted with 4 quick register requests. This may not show up as a logged in user.

I've been trying to get that quick register to show up for days with no luck. I eventually got frustrated and put a '$quickregister' in a bunch of places in the template.

EDIT: Ok, I see it now. apparently theres a different error template for posting when not logged in V.S. viewing the gallery.

It should be fixed now, and only show one quick register form. The layout of the error page needs a little work yet.

Yes, I was referring to the "x". I may have something that will be suitable. Or, you could actually just give the x's a curved feathered (anti-aliased) appearance just so they look more eye-candy.

I wouldn't say they looked cheesy. You really have to appreciate the work that went into designing the vb graphics. that said, If your planning to customize your forum then I think a replacement of the default images is a good thing.

I'll see what I can fish out tomorrow (graphics wise) pending you don't mind.

That would be awesome. Thank you.