The new forum update looks pretty good overall for most of the visual layout.
However, I think gradients are overused and it produces a lot of visual interest at the cost of visual appeal. It does nothing for the end user and doesn't look that great either (which I recognize is my personal opinion rather than objective fact).
I appreciate the intent of having it be a gradient between blue and green, which is also the logo's colours.
I think there's a couple of good uses of gradients, such as the 'active' area on the main forum bar or when posting a suggestion;
Another good use is the gray-blue gradient on the latest posts sidebar:
. . .
However, I feel like the blue-green gradient is overused and there's a couple of places where it should not be applied. It's visually unappealing.
Namely:
Page titles - these should not be gradient at all, but rather a flat, neutral colour;
Forum banners/shoutbox - these should also not be a colourful gradient at all. Either do flat colours or use the same gradient that was used for the sidebars. If you still really want to use the theme of green and blue, you can use green text & blue banner or blue text & green banner. Not sure which would look best of the two. But this doesn't look that good to me;
In conclusion:
Forum looks nice.
Some of it could look better by scaling back the use of gradients.
Post-suggestion pondering:
Depending on how it would look if my changes were implemented, the green-blue gradient on certain buttons may end up looking out of place stylistically as well. So I guess look out for that if you trial any of these changes.
However, I think gradients are overused and it produces a lot of visual interest at the cost of visual appeal. It does nothing for the end user and doesn't look that great either (which I recognize is my personal opinion rather than objective fact).
I appreciate the intent of having it be a gradient between blue and green, which is also the logo's colours.
I think there's a couple of good uses of gradients, such as the 'active' area on the main forum bar or when posting a suggestion;
. . .
However, I feel like the blue-green gradient is overused and there's a couple of places where it should not be applied. It's visually unappealing.
Namely:
Page titles - these should not be gradient at all, but rather a flat, neutral colour;
Forum banners/shoutbox - these should also not be a colourful gradient at all. Either do flat colours or use the same gradient that was used for the sidebars. If you still really want to use the theme of green and blue, you can use green text & blue banner or blue text & green banner. Not sure which would look best of the two. But this doesn't look that good to me;
In conclusion:
Forum looks nice.
Some of it could look better by scaling back the use of gradients.
Post-suggestion pondering:
Depending on how it would look if my changes were implemented, the green-blue gradient on certain buttons may end up looking out of place stylistically as well. So I guess look out for that if you trial any of these changes.
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