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Okay, so I have this web designer talking to me and he wants to know what look I want. And I have no fucking clue.

I know what I want on the front page, but not how it should look. So I'm again asking for help.

Look for a site that you think would be close to what YOU think HF main page should look like. Post links here and we'll look at them.

Remember, the page has to look professional as we're trying to attract more sites to partner with.

No examples this second but clean and simple. We want it to pull people to the forum, the arcade etc right? So upfront that should be there. An arts section would be cool as well.

It should feel warm, inviting, and just a little slippery.

Welcoming, funny... and a little bit quirky.

And those all look like...what? Any examples?

two words: shag carpet :uhhuh:

Warm to mild colors, clean-looking, not much ornate...

WildSoul said:

two words: shag carpet :uhhuh:

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And a hula girl on the dash!

A fixed color scheme that can be applied across the entire site, which would include the default forum theme. Consistency is key.

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I think layout wise, I would have it look like a webcomic's site.

Replace the webcomic with art from either the artist of the month, or a random sampling of the comics we plan on assimilating (resistance if futile!)

Under it I would have the latest posts or blogs, similar to now.

Nice big link buttons could go on the sidebar like the pictures we had at the last dump.

I sort of imagined it a bit like the old site: some navigation tools on the side, or maybe across the top. Perhaps a large blog segment in the middle, with room for other tools on the right, whether it's a newsfeed, twitterfeed, links to the artist of the month (with a picture of the artist, or by the artist) or other links to not-important-enough-to-go-in-the-main-slot blog/newsposts.

Unless you were looking for more ... I dunno ... adjectives? Shiny is the one I would go with. Or arrange it so it looks like a bunch of panels: light colored boxes for the text and feeds, and whatnot, and a darker background color.

I dunno. I'm just trying to help at this point, but I'm not sure exactly what sort of help you need.

Vytamindi;247418][quote=WildSoul said:

two words: shag carpet :uhhuh:

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And a hula girl on the dash![/QUOTE]

Sure, we'll just make it look just like this:

Just trying to find examples. Maybe sort of like this, but with a darker background, and a bit more colour and a less professional-looking font? Apple has to be professional: we should look more fun.

Cold, clinical, dark, of medium-high contrast.

I whipped up two similar design ideas. They're not full website designs, but just logo's, color schemes and possible button designs. They're also just ideas and it's always good to look at several different design ideas, so I'm not suggesting that we should go with this look right away.



The one on the right is possibly more work-friendly with the blue and grey. I didn't really like the way the small forum buttons looked with the durr smiley, so I also included more regular versions of those buttons.

It needs to be simple and easy to navigate, so I'd imagine whipping up some largeish icons for the various sections would be a good start.

Olorin said:

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The scheme on the right is almost exactly what I cooked up for my company's website.

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Jake said:

It should feel warm, inviting, and just a little slippery.

Click to expand...

North_Ranger said:

Welcoming, funny... and a little bit quirky.

Click to expand...

WildSoul said:

two words: shag carpet :uhhuh:

Click to expand...

Denbrought said:

Warm to mild colors, clean-looking, not much ornate...

Click to expand...

GasBandit said:

Cold, clinical, dark, of medium-high contrast.

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AshburnerX said:

It needs to be simple and easy to navigate

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Like your mom.

Olorin, I really like your button schemes.

Now, for my usual off-topic rambling, let's see if anyone else's mind went here...

"the touch, the feel of Halforums... the forum of our lives"

Jake's color schemes hit the nail on the head. We need cool (temp-wise) colors, brushed metal, that type of stuff. To me, that is halforum.

Those buttons and logo look awesome, but we might have to ditch Serenity as a default theme.

Those designs would make two awesome themes.

Halforums Business for the blue
Halforums Pleasure for the red.

Thanks for the praise I'll try to make some mockups for the forum and main page with this theme either tomorrow or next week.

The dutchie's got some nice things going on.

Indeed he has. Also, the suggestion for a webcomic-like front page... well, it's damn more than anything I could contribute, so I like it ^_^

North_Ranger said:

Indeed he has. Also, the suggestion for a webcomic-like front page... well, it's damn more than anything I could contribute, so I like it ^_^

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Yeah, I think that is a good idea...

Wow, those buttons... we need to use them. whatever scheme and look we go for.. I don't care, we NEED to have the fusioned with our buttons!!

Calleja said:

Wow, those buttons... we need to use them. whatever scheme and look we go for.. I don't care, we NEED to have the fusioned with our buttons!!

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What he said.

whatever happened to "This."? I don't think I've seen it ONCE since we added the extra S.

Calleja said:

whatever happened to "This."? I don't think I've seen it ONCE since we added the extra S.

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This.

I am a HUGE fan of monochromatic blue... so I would definitely go with that color scheme.

Also, the buttons are friggen awesome.

The Buttons look good, but the Red & Yellow is too bright. That blue is much better but far too overplayed considering it's pretty close to the default color of every forum software out there. I'd like to see a more metallic feel to it, a bluish grey. It would integrate well with the Hal Eye too.

Also, it should go without saying since you're aiming for "professional" but I'll say it anyway. The background needs to be light.

I do believe I'm placing another vote for something like the Apple site linked to above. Apple does stylish very well.

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huh.

On closer inspection these are loafers.

No wait, I mean On closer inspection the yellow buttons look way better (they actually look like smileys). If we can get an Apple-ish site with a color scheme that includes those buttons we'd be golden.

I agree with clean and simple designs. Like Google's front page, or how Facebook was before the applications and quizzes took over.

As much as I love blue, I am going to have to agree with Ame. I like the red/yellow best.

It brings out the smiley a bit better. Good job, Olorin!

Vytamindi said:

As much as I love blue, I am going to have to agree with Ame. I like the red/yellow best.

It brings out the smiley a bit better. Good job, Olorin!

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This.

Thanks I also like the happy version better (the logo is also more hal-like with the red eye) but a lot of people mentioned browsing halforum at work, so that's why I also made the blue/grey one to be more work-safe.

Here's a simple mockup of what the forum could look like with the first of my styles:


I just used the default forum theme as the base because most people are familiar with it, it's not cluttered and probably fairly easy to edit.

Edit: I'm not suggesting we put gay asian singles ads on every page, that's just the first ad I got when I took a screencap of halforums

Phew, I was afraid I'm the only one who gets those dreamy eyes of a generic attractive Asian man.

Looks cool to me

Gay Asian Singles?!?

Ah great, now I'm gonna giggle like an idiot for the next hour.

Olorin said:

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Love the banner ad.

Wait, seriously? There's a gay asian singles banner ad?

Why have I never seen it???

More importantly: why am I seeing it quite often ?

Little forum design tip. Don't make too many subboards. I hate a million subboards to keep track of; I don't think I'm alone in that.

Chazwozel said:

Little forum design tip. Don't make too many subboards. I hate a million subboards to keep track of; I don't think I'm alone in that.

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I think we've reached a reasonable size. Personally, I think the Games and Movies/TV forums could be combined. Their combined update frequency would be much better, and they're still all forms of entertainment, so they'd go well together.

Also, most forums I've seen with an "introduce yourself" area usually have it as a sticky on the General forum, or as a subforum in the General section.