New design mockups for Warrior Forum

I like it. Looks very relevant to the smartphone/mobile era. Nice font. Seems less cluttered. Also, I like the scalable design architecture. Makes future design updates easier.

Looks nice Thanks for not making a radical change

I like the layout. It's much more "breathable" than the previous one. I'm guessing it's more mobile-friendly as well?

I too think it's good...

Sleek looking... Definitely looks modernized...

It looks great! Could use a little bit more touch up, for example the new article forum / want an image in your signature / affiliate program database links below. Feels a little odd having it like that but that could be just me

Hey Alaister

Upgrade your membership...

Where is the "Member Contests & Challenges" section. I like the design, but not if it's going to change the placement of sections which are fine as they are, IMO.

I like the visual appearance, don't see a big need to change though.

I didn't notice the problems hpgoodboy pointed out, but take his concerns into account.

I generally tend to say that if it's not broken, don't try to fix it.

Why do you even bother running a poll? A few days ago you asked if people wanted a new design. The overwelming majority 62% said no to a new design. While obviously you can do whatever you like with your site my question to you is if you dont care what the Warriors say why even bother asking them in the first place?

I like it. Neat and simple

Color should be Apple green This is a best color

I also do not see any reason to change but if it make the site more mobile friendly then keep it as close to now as possible or really annoy everyone and make huge changes?

The look of the mock-ups work in my opinion, and users thoughts or fears have clearly been respected. None of us can or should ask for more than that.

As savidge4 said, some people are going to give you stick, no matter what you do or suggest and they'll be vocal about it. But so far, I like the new features you're introducing, such as last nights WAMA. It was fun and informative. Likewise with the mock-ups. I'm not sure how anyone can have a problem with them.

Onwards and upwards mate.

I noticed that searching previous posts by members using username is not supported since past few days. Was it also part of the new architecture/functionality?

The layout seems fine but the blue. I like the blue the current design has for links. It's kinda one of the identities of the forum. I didn't like the new blue. Actually I would keep the current design. I am curious... Why are you changing it? What are you aiming with this change? Did you previously get feedback from users that wanted a change in the layout?

My questions is, what is the reason for the re-design? I've not yet heard that.

To me there is really not much to be gained by changing the look to the one shown above.

As someone else mentioned, you ran a poll and the majority of your members said they prefer to keep the current design. You need to remember a forum like this lives or dies on its members. Alienate them and they will go elsewhere.

Asking for opinions is one thing... but you then need to listen to those opinions.

To me it just seems you want to change the look for the hell of it. I see no real benefit with the design posted above. It just appears to me like someone has bought a new toy and wants to put their own stamp on it. That's fine and you can do whatever you want but just remember this forum is all about it's members. If you make them feel alienated or their opinion doesn't count then they will stop coming here. Running a poll where majority said no and then turning around a few days later with design mockups kind of slaps the members in the face. There's no point us answering polls if they really mean nothing.

Of WAYYY more importance to me;

1. Get the site mobile responsive. In this day and age it is ridiculous that we are still running on a desktop only website.

2. I noticed the hello bar is now being used to advertise WSO products. You will want to think carefully about that. Do you expect people to want to send traffic over to their WSO on this site only to have your hello bar at the very top of the page advertising some other product? No way. You need to stop that or you'll kill the WSO section very quickly.

In fact the hello bar should really be disabled from showing in the WSO section at all. It's a paid forum section and if you want us to keep paying for those listings then we shouldn't be competing with your own offers shown right at the top of the page, whether they are for a webinar or anything else.

Again, I think these are all things you would learn if you took more time to see how the community is being run rather than being in such a rush to just make all these changes and call it your own. Well, that's how it looks from where I am sitting anyway.

Take a leaf out of Hostgators books. They got bought out last year, changed a whole lot of things right away and hundreds (if not thousands) of customers (including myself) jumped ship. They'll never be the company they once were because of it.

I think it looks good but more like a wordpress site than the traditional warrior forum.
Go for it.

I like it.

It has a very modern and clean look about it.

James Scholes

Love the flat design.. big improvement imo.

I've not been on the forum too long, but really like the look of the suggested revamp. Has a very clean, modern look to it. As mentioned above, its a wise move by the new owners to involve the members in which direction the forum is moving!

The new layout maintains the original design as much as possible while supporting access by mobile gadgets. I believe that when the few issues are polished up, the change'll be better!

Looks good. An evolution of the current design. Gets my vote .

[breathes a huge sigh of relief]

While I still see nothing wrong with the current design, I'm relieved that the mockup is not a huge departure from it and the colors haven't been changed visibly.

Seriously ... if that were the case, we wouldn't even recognize the WF after re-design. That's clearly not the case here, and I'd be the first to say that I hated the mock-up if it were a big departure from the current version.

super sexy... i'd marry that any day!

Why do you want to make this site responsive? The overwhelming majority of IMers access the site on a desktop computer. Making a site responsive and changing the whole layout just for the hell of it is wrong.

I haven't seen anyone in "authority" say that this design is responsive or mobile friendly. That was mentioned by several posters that may know but also may just be guessing.

Is it?

Mark

I like the new potential design! It's clean and crisp and more modern looking.

I wonder who will be the first to post a "how to profit from the New Warrior forum" WSO?

I really don't care about design. I'm more concerned with the direction the forum is headed.

I'm starting to feel like a number.

Brent

Alaister,

It's very nice-looking! I think it looks similar to iOS, but that's not a problem at all.

It's basically the same theme, but 'updated'. I like it.

And to all the people who say "why the change?" ... this sounds like the old, "Why do they spend money on building new stadiums/parks/etc. when there are children starving on the streets?" complain, and I don't think they'll all of a sudden drop the plans to change the design and fix other things. And why can't the two (changing the design & improving the functionality) be done at the same time? From what I hear, Freelancer.com is a big company, so they probably have the resources to make it possible.

I voted yes for the change, no for the design mockup.

I like the cleaner look. Is it responsive? Responsive would be better since we all like to access the forum from multiple devices.

I like the new mock up, looks nice and clean. As long as functionality is maintained or improved I've got no issues with it.

Another thing I thought I'd mention, there are currently over 31,000 active users on the site this morning, of which 3,000 of them are registered users. The reality is, most people are not going to read this thread and most people are not going to give feedback in this thread.

We haven't heard from the majority, not even close.

The owners have asked for feedback from the members in this thread and it's good to see the wide variety of feedback and constructive criticism from the members here. Thank you everyone for keeping it civil.

RoD

Not a bad mockup but the first thing I noticed was the grammar which will need attention. Re. "3 people has thanked you for this useful post".

It's so similar to the current design it hardly seems worth effort but kudos to you for asking for opinions Alaister.

Personally speaking, as long as the functionality stays the same the layout and colour scheme are largely irrelevant, but I did vote yes to the new layout.

My point being that any website that changes things that are very familiar to regular users are both annoying and frustrating, unless anything must be changed for the greater good it is best left alone.

My only suggestion would be a more visible search button at the top of each page so that new members can actually see it easily, thus (hopefully) preventing many similar threads being posted, as I believe forums can be pretty overwhelming for newcomers.

I like it, but I think I like the current design more.

I love it!

I think the new design mock-up looks better, but it's almost the same as the old one.

But you plan to remove some categories like "internet marketing producs reviews" and "social media marketing" etc.?

Like some others mentioned, I suggest to improve the search functions: make it easier to be seen by newbies, and make it very easier and quicker to search on the forum, even with advanced settings.

"I have a very bad feeling about this" - Luke Skywalker, Star Wars

When I survey my customers, which I have done quarterly for nearly 15 years, I always do what the majority votes for. I wouldn't ask the question if I wasn't going to take action based on their answers. Just sayin' ... Agree w/Paul's point re perspective is helpful on who owns the place, different responsibilities vs solopreneur; hopefully it all gets sorted out in a way that doesn't corporatize/muck things up. But based on Every single post buyout I've seen things invariable get worse. Hope this time it's different though.

Henry Ford summed it up best...

"If I had asked people what they wanted," he said, "they would have said a faster horse."

Mark Cuban on Why You Should Never Listen to Your Customers | Entrepreneur.com

That design is fine, no big changes so our surf habits will not be molested.

About the ones which still complain about changes, Paul made a great point.

Allen did run this by passion, but he is zipping Martinis somewhere and is not in charge anymmore.

New owners are running this asset on sales and profit figures.

There is no higher priority to a financial interested owner than improving profits, and that always comes with changes (planned for improving things, not always the case).

To make this a positive experience, a takeover plan usually hires the ex-owner into Management for a few month as he "know's" the company from the inside out.

He is somehow the middleman between what the new owners want and what is possible to do without hurting the sales figures.

At least Allan would be my consultant if I would owe the WF today.

I think that Alaister does a fine job till now asking whatever they like to get feedback with. This is 99% done to backup already existing decisions and not to start a new idea.

This is no democracy, but you as member will have a voice to express yourself.

I've decided to stop to moan and see in what direction it will go from here.

It's a bit like TV, if you ain't like the program, switch the channel. Freelancer also knows this, you bet.

G.

One of the best redesigns I've seen.

I don't normally like people redesigning forums I use, but I'll maybe make an exception in this case.

I like the design; very smart. My only concern is that "Mind Warriors" isn't there.

As long as they don't close down the Off Topic forum, I don't really care about the re-design.

The old design looks OK and works pretty good. The new design looks OK and probably works well also.

So, all good.

I like it. It doesn't stray too far from the original and looks more "modern"

The future is always in motion.

And with the vast infusion of what Freelancer.com brings to the table... it would be sheer insanity NOT to take advantage of that.

People complained mightily about FB changes over the years.... changes that ended up becoming staples in the current FB experience.

I for one welcome bringing this forum structure into the 22nd century.

Side note - my techy heritage from Bell Labs and ksh hacking and sendmail.cf rewriting and Sparc Station 690 building loves the fact that a tech company bought the WF instead of a strictly marketing company. Imaging being able to bridge the gap between

Tech folks ==> understanding marketing

Marketing folks ==> understanding more tech

A dream of mine, perhaps.....

That's a really nice design, you did a great job in making the forum more futuristic and clean

I like both designs, I just wish the forum template was coded to adopt a high resolution friendly full monitor width. Considering how much text content many Warriors browse through daily, I expect the user-friendly convenience of less scrolling would bode well.

New design is nice and I like it, the current design is a VB 3.8 design and it's so outdated.

Here are my thoughts:

I voted "NO" to the first poll you did, but now I voted "YES" and here is why: Because you didn't drastically change the look and feel of the forum, you just made it look better, which is fabulous. You have a great designer, if only vBulletin would have your designer. I thought you were going to drastically redesign the forum, so it would look like a blog commenting platform like XenForo (which looks horrific).

It looks great BUT: Would you PLEASE change the color of the grey to a darker grey, my eyes are in pain when I read the grey text. Oh, and the blue link color in the new design should be closer to the old blue link color.

I can't understand this new trend away from 3D. I hate flat design. One of the most fascinating things about modern computing is it's ability to add dimension to what is otherwise a 2D flat surface. Ask the gaming industry how they'd feel about going back to 2D gaming. The graphic effects of a real button sticking up out of the page is not only aesthetically pleasing but an important navigational aid.

3D and other tactile elements are entirely missing from flat design and the world is far poorer for it. It just doesn't make sense to remove all the design out of something, replace it with flat pieces of colour and call that "modern" or even a "design" - let alone a "re-design". If anything, it's a "de"-design. It removed elements of design and replaced it with flat colours. That's not an improvement in my opinion.

Flat design is something we had to use back in the day when bandwidth was thin and images were a luxury and had to be small. Now that bandwidth is much fatter (and getting fatter) designers should be free to make even more use of images and 3D to provide depth, volume and a "feel" that brings forth new design in a richer way. Stripping the 3D out of a design is (in my opinion) a design crime. It's a trend which doesn't make sense to many and I'm no Luddite when it comes to design. I love and am fascinated by design but when I see flat 2D "design" I don't see design - I see lazy short-trend driven designers desperate to justify their existence, a flat sketch with single coloured geometrical shapes. Yuk.

And of course along with the flat disease comes it's ever present partner in design crime - the light grey font. Light grey font has no place in a reading place like this. The eye (when reading) needs contrast and the more the better. If full black is too harsh then one shade towards charcoal is about as far as you can go before it really starts to affect the eyes. Please reconsider the use a light coloured grey font against a grey font.

3D vs 2D is one thing but when it comes "why change the design?" I have to agree with others. Why? If it's an economic decision than playing with the design would an unnecessary element of financial risk (as is the new advertising bar). If a re-design is because of a need to "stamp your mark" as a company and mark the start of a new era then that also should be weighed against the financial harm it could do to change things around for no good reason. This isn't like a flashy new page for a downloaded product. This is a place that people come to stay and read and they/we/I like things to be familiar and undisturbed (too much).

Everything must be geared toward the visual and making this easier not more difficult or unsettling. Removing 3D and making the font harder to read sound like very risky propositions to me. There are very good, sound financially responsible reasons to leave everything as it is until you can make a solid and sensible decision taking everything into account including how it will impact even one member (who speaks up - others will just stop coming back).

Yes, we are that fickle and we have a right to be. We come here to enjoy, read and learn. If it's not that enjoyable or it's harder to read or we're being distracted by change while we're trying to learn - we'll just leave. And the reason why that upsets us (me) so much is that we really like it here and we like the way it looks and works.

It's not about people kicking up a huge fuss over something small and none of the nay sayers need to chill or be told to "move with the times". This is a matter that drills down to the very essence of what this place is and deals with the fundamental question of "why do people come here?". We come here to read. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I spend more time here than I do anywhere else (apart from my own websites). It's a daily ritual and I take the way my eyeballs are treated very seriously. There's a reason the overwhelming majority of books are black text on white paper.

There are forums that I just can not visit despite how good their content is because the layout, colour scheme or even font colour puts me off so much that I can't focus. There are no visual 3D clues, some strip out underlines from links and use very subtle colour change for a link while others just like changing things around.

We're all very much addicted to coming here. To disturb even one single pixel without carefully considering why and how could not only be very financially risky but a shame and sadness for my eyes. I'll tolerate or consider some minor changes but you don't pull your race car in for new paint while it's winning a race. You let it keep winning and this forum is winning - be very careful what you change. Sometimes doing what we think is cool ends up dropping kerosene into the cake mix and it only takes one drop (one thing to really piss a member off) and they're gone.

I know what many are thinking "Bill, we wouldn't miss you or the other whinging members" and of course 1 member out of 100,000 might be not too much of a loss...unless you're that one member.

That looks so much better! I can't wait for it to be implemented.

Thanks for switching the hosting (I haven't received an "error connecting to database" message in the past week) and for modernizing the theme. It's definitely improving my experience here

I voted no in the original thread because I thought there were more important issues. The most serious of those seem to have been resolved, at least from my own experience.

I also wrote in that thread that I was open to changing my vote.

After reviewing the mockups, I'm changing my vote. Subtle changes that, to me anyway, make the forum interface the same but better. The functionality stays in the same places, with the same general layout, but seeming easier for some reason.

I like it. This time I voted yes...

Definitely like it.

Love it!

It's about one of the best forums on the planet got a makeover!

I was looking to see if Lexi has been around the other day and came up with nada, then stumbled across a post. Also went looking for a particular WSO, couldn't find it.

I like it. Flat design.. however there is nothing wrong with the current design.

But I guess you guys want to keep it modern so yeah go for it. I'd like to see it on here!

Yes I have noticed that too! Thought there was something wrong with it! lol

That would have to be a priority..


Stuart