XF 1.2 Custom Xenforo coding question

[Michael Kinney]

I apologize for the n00b questions. I am no IT guru, though I know just enough to be a danger to myself ... and before I posted this, I looked all around the forums and the search utilities looking for this specific topic, and while finding iterations, I did not find what I was looking for.

I have found an artist that specializes in creating highly detailed, professional gaming website designs. They are not created specifically for any particular platform.

My question would be that if this artist created a themed .psd file, would that be all I need to hand over to a Xenforo expert to code into our existing Xenforo website?

The design is very elaborate, and I'm wondering if a .psd file includes all of the buttons and fields that would be necessary to have coded onto a Xenforo platform.

I am unfamiliar with this process and unfamiliar with what to tell the artist that I need, other than the .psd file that he said he would provide.

An example of his work: http://mrsmi5tt.deviantart.com/art/Royal-Legions-574159782


Any information would be appreciated! Thank you in advance for the read ..

Michael

 

[Robust]

.psd -> XenForo styles is a service offered by many.

Do you plan to do it yourself or hire a company to do it? If the latter, approach a design development company and ask them the procedure on getting it done and pricing. @Russ from PixelExit and @Mike Creuzer from Audentio are a few of the bigger names here that do style conversions, I believe both do them from .psds. @Arty might also do it. I'd say all 3 of them are capable of doing something like what you linked in the OP. Try contacting them. They may also reply here.

If you want to do it by yourself, a .psd might help you visualise different elements of it but I'm not a designer so I don't know to what extent it'd help.

 

[Michael Kinney]

Thank you for the reply @Robust. I don't plan on doing it myself, as that's not in my skillset. My plan is to get the .psd file from the artist and then hire someone to code it to Xenforo for us. I will try to contact the names you listed if they do not reply here, thank you. I just want to make sure that the .psd file that I'm receiving is all they will need.

Thanks again!

 

[EQnoble]

You may contact me as well via convo.

 

[Michael Kinney]

Thank you as well @EQnoble!

 

[Arty]

Sorry, but that's a terrible design. It was created by someone that lacks basic understanding of coding. It does look very very cool, but its useless.

That design makes few key mistakes that should not be done in modern web:

• It requires fixed width. Today users browse web on many devices: computers with wide screens, laptops, tablets, phones. There is no such thing as optimal resolution anymore. That design would look weird on wide screen, ok on typical office computer and laptop, like crap on tablets and phones.
• Design is image heavy. Those images do look very cool, but think of all bandwidth they require. Its not an issue for most users, but its an issue for users using mobile devices. It also slows down page rendering even on high end desktops.
• Dark text on black background. Its not readable. Users will leave that website after a minute because their eyes would bleed from trying to read such low contrast text.
• Bad navigation. Too much graphics hide important navigation items, such as "download" and "registration" buttons. Also huge header would force user to needlessly scroll down to access actual content.

Stay away from designers who can make only PSD files. I've been working with forum designs for over a decade, had many requests to convert PSD into a forum style. So far I've only seen 2 designs that were done properly, the rest were shiny, but useless.

 

[Michael Kinney]

Sorry, but that's a terrible design. It was created by someone that lacks basic understanding of coding. It does look very very cool, but its useless.

That design makes few key mistakes that should not be done in modern web:

• It requires fixed width. Today users browse web on many devices: computers with wide screens, laptops, tablets, phones. There is no such thing as optimal resolution anymore. That design would look weird on wide screen, ok on typical office computer and laptop, like crap on tablets and phones.
• Design is image heavy. Those images do look very cool, but think of all bandwidth they require. Its not an issue for most users, but its an issue for users using mobile devices. It also slows down page rendering even on high end desktops.
• Dark text on black background. Its not readable. Users will leave that website after a minute because their eyes would bleed from trying to read such low contrast text.
• Bad navigation. Too much graphics hide important navigation items, such as "download" and "registration" buttons. Also huge header would force user to needlessly scroll down to access actual content.

Stay away from designers who can make only PSD files. I've been working with forum designs for over a decade, had many requests to convert PSD into a forum style. So far I've only seen 2 designs that were done properly, the rest were shiny, but useless.

Arty, thank you very much for the insight, I appreciate it. We're just looking for something really unique, really colorful and dynamic and something we can call our own. His designs really caught my eye, but I can certainly understand what you are saying.

What about dynamic premade designs like this one: http://gamesitetemplates.com/high-fantasy-web-template.html ??

It offers a Joomla, Wordpress and HTML CSS version ... can any of those be coded for Xenforo?

Thanks again

 

[Arty]

It has same issues.

Stay away from that website. Those designers do have impressive Photoshop skills, but their products cannot be used for any modern website.

 

[Michael Kinney]

It has same issues.

Stay away from that website. Those designers do have impressive Photoshop skills, but their products cannot be used for any modern website.

Okay, fair enough. That would bait the question then: Where can I go to get a unique and graphically dynamic website design that can be coded for Xenforo?

 

[Arty]

Best place to look for designs are websites full of modern themes for WordPress and other blogging software, such as http://themeforest.net/ or http://www.mojo-themes.com/

On those websites most templates are responsive and have decent coding. Even though most of those designs are for websites, you might find something that can be adopted for forum. Then its a matter of coding it into forum layout.

 

[Michael Kinney]

Thank you again Arty.

I wonder if it would be easier to marry a website design with Xenforo forum software. If I just want a unique home page/landing page and maybe some functionality with a button type portal to the forums, would that not be a better way to go than to completely code everything just the way I want it?

 

[Dad.]

Well, what you could do is hire an interface designer to take those designs done by graphic designers, and make an interface from that. The artwork is no doubt beautiful. But as Arty said, not at all good for your forum just as is. Short term you will impress people with the looks, but long term they will hate the interface.