Simple Or Complex Styling

[legionofangels]

As far as design goes for a forum board, do you feel that simple is better or complex is better?

Do you think a richly designed board which is obviously more unique is better than a basic styled board that looks similar to so many other boards out there?

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I thought of making this a poll but don't feel the need. Obviously sites like vbulletin.com and vbulletin.org use very simple designs or layouts of colors and such. They both support a popular product though, and am talking in regards to other boards out there that don't.

So many boards out there have custom styling done to them, but many are popular with or without going into that much styling and design work.

So since both have been successful, which method do you prefer:

Simple styling - most likely white backgrounds with a few colors for categories and black text.

Complex styling - full color skins, unique buttons, custom nav bars, etc.

[Crinos]

Vanilla-looking boards are great if you want quick info and not planning on coming back. Full-skinned boards, especially ones that match the main site's layout, make the experience more personal and actually encourages more people to come back.

But note that no matter how good a site looks, it's still content that determines if people will visit again or not. Even the most vanilla-looking board can have a very active community if they offer a lot to members (prime example for me is my friend's site, http://www.thehelper.net/forums/). Forums that are all aesthetics and not much substance can have the opposite effect.

However, compared side-by-side, I usually come back to forums that reflect the attention to detail that the forum administrator has done, both in content and in aesthetics. I always appreciate hard work, and more so when they think more about the visitor's surfing experience rather than their own desire to cram everything in

- T