It's been a while since I had a post in here... this time it is for my new site called "Blamoholics". It is going to be a graphics community and a place for me to show off the stuff I make. Most of the site isn't really done yet, but the forums are near completion. I have done the forums summary, forum page, and topic page so far, and I do plan on releasing the templates sometime soon. Big thanks goes to LK for doing the status/avatar on the header. Anyway, heres the site... just click on the forum link.

http://www.blamoholics.com/

The biggest problems I had with the forums were the text size and when you click on the logo. I thought that the text size was generally too small, and it was hard to read in places (because there isn't very much contrast between the shades of gray).

Regarding the forum logo, it's expected that it will take you back to a home page of some sort when you click on it, yet nothing happens. Sure, there's that tiny little Home button on the nav bar, but it's small and blends in with the rest of the page.

Another knock on the text size when viewing the page in IE: you can't adjust it at all. Luckily for me, I'm a Mozilla user, so I don't suffer from this limitation. However, if I were an IE user, I probably wouldn't stick around the site for long because it's just too hard to read.

Thanks MJ, I forgot about linking the logo, and I'll do that ASAP.

Now for the text size... I like it small, and proabably most users won't like it, so I will see if I can wrok something in to adjust it for some users that do not like it small.

Very helpful, I appreciate it.

Since you like the text size small, here's my suggestion. It's OK to start off with it small by default, as long as people can actually adjust it to their liking. You've got a couple of choices here. You could:

• Provide an alternate style sheet with large fonts; or
• Use a measurement unit for "font-size" that isn't absolute.

Personally, I like the second idea best. Try using percentages or ems--both are units that allow users to make the font larger or smaller. For instance, your description font would be roughly .6em--still very small. And remember, you've got next to no control of font size in non-IE browsers because of the great accessibility features built into them.

I agree for the text size. On the main Page I can't read the dropdown text

Looks quite sharp. I like it.

My only suggestion is to tweak your rotating icon so that it moves a bit slower. The faster an animated gif is, the more likely it will look jerky, as the OS occasionaly pauses to do something else.

My opinion...you've got to get rid of what you have on your home page. Not only do you have no links to your site sections without flash, but you're using mystery meat navigation AND the text is completely unreadable once you mouse over the images. Try to make your page usable, not just good-looking. :rolleyes:

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Originally posted by mattjacob:
Since you like the text size small, here's my suggestion. It's OK to start off with it small by default, as long as people can actually adjust it to their liking. You've got a couple of choices here. You could:

• Provide an alternate style sheet with large fonts; or
• Use a measurement unit for "font-size" that isn't absolute.

Personally, I like the second idea best. Try using percentages or ems--both are units that allow users to make the font larger or smaller. For instance, your description font would be roughly .6em--still very small. And remember, you've got next to no control of font size in non-IE browsers because of the great accessibility features built into them.

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Thanks Matt, I think I am just going to make a second theme with bigger font sizes and install MyStyle. I haven't quite learned about ems, but I will look into it.
The second and fourth frame in the animation are a little jagged, and the faster its going the harder it is to notice it.

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quote:
Originally posted by ScottRoberts:
My opinion...you've got to get rid of what you have on your home page. Not only do you have no links to your site sections without flash, but you're using mystery meat navigation AND the text is completely unreadable once you mouse over the images. Try to make your page usable, not just good-looking. :rolleyes:

Did I forget to tell you that the site is totally under construction, and I have not finished the main page yet. I just put up the flash thing as a temporary menu to get to the forums as I am not done the index page yet.

Hmm.. maybe I will make a different template set to release, this wasn't quite as good as I was hoping.