everythingiCafe Redesign

[cmeinck]

For the past few years, I had been using a modified version of the default template. Before that, I was using Flexile. I've been consistently watching third party template development and was intrigued by @Audentio's UIX. At first, it was a bit unruly for me, having spent so much time with the default theme. That being said, I stuck with it (broke out of my shell) and started to love it, so much that I've purchased a branding free option. I've put a considerable amount of time customizing it. I was going to wait for the new release (with fancy footer), but was too excited to wait.

I'd love to hear any feedback you have about everythingiCafe.

 

[Null]

The design looks fantastic, well done! @Audentio's framework surely is awesome .

One thing that I personally would change is to have legacy/older iPhone models under a single node, having a node for every single iPhone (and iPad) model will at some point get out of hand

- iPhone 6
- iPhone 5S
- iPhone 5C
- iPhone 5
- Legacy
     - iPhone 4S
     - iPhone 4
     - iPhone 3GS
     - iPhone 3G
     - iPhone

 

[cmeinck]

The design looks fantastic, well done! @Audentio's framework surely is awesome .

One thing that I personally would change have legacy/older iPhone models under a single node, having a node for every single iPhone model will at some point get out of hand .

Example:

- iPhone 6
- iPhone 5S
- iPhone 5C
- iPhone 5
- Legacy iPhones
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone

Thanks!

I made that move, but users did not like it, nor did search engines (one of many things unfortunately on my site). I was using a thread prefix for each model, but members didn't make use of them. Moving things back was not easy. At some point, I guess I could nest them under a main topic.

Appreciate the feedback!

 

[cmeinck]

For those wondering about the old design, you can still access it by selecting the Off Topic forum.

 

[Russ]

Looks good one of the better versions of UI.X I've seen great job .

I did notice a tiny thing, not sure if it's a problem with the framework or custom css on your style maybe @Audentio
can look at it:

 

[Dad.]

Absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for using the product, and I am very impressed by the job you did customizing it. Great stuff.

Looks good one of the better versions of UI.X I've seen great job .

I did notice a tiny thing, not sure if it's a problem with the framework or custom css on your style maybe @Audentio
can look at it:

View attachment 64549

Will look into this! Thanks Russ.

 

[Lawrence]

Looks really good, professional, not overwhelming, easy on the eyes. Easily one of the best XenForo styles I have seen,

 

[Code Monkey]

Looks very nice. UI.X is so easy to work with.

 

[cmeinck]

Just completed a redesign (of the redesign). This was more of a refinement of the original design, both of which are based on the awesome UI.X theme, which I absolutely love. Next up, adding @Brogan 's featured threads.

I welcome any comments or feedback.

 

[Drew Turnbow]

I think the overall design/colors are great.

Only thing I would suggest is to turn descriptions on for your forums, I think it would look a lot better.

 

[Ingenious]

This looks superb! I don't agree with Drew above, I think it works better without forum descriptions - they're viewable on hover over anyway; it helps keep it clean and simple. Circular avatars seem to be the current fad (and IPB4 is going there too) and look nice. I like the node icons, there's just enough variety to keep it visually interesting when you scroll down, and just before I start to think it's a bit too simple/clean, you have a great footer which injects some colour and balances it out. You have also resisted the temptation to grove back to 1979 and overload the avatar area with bloated stats, well done.

You're not far off a million posts, that's pretty awesome!

Be interesting to see what your members think about featured threads. I actually hated this over on TAZ. Admin kept featuring threads I had no interest in and it seemed clunky removing them (I'd have liked a user option to opt out). But maybe on a niche-specific forum like yours and Brogan's it works better because any featured thread is within the scope of all the forum users, if that makes sense? (Example on TAZ, featured threads on software I don't use or own).

But anyway, superb job on your forum, well done.

 

[Paul B]

(I'd have liked a user option to opt out)

Off topic but I provided a solution to that a loooooong time ago, over six months in fact.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/cta-featured-threads-user-preferences.2834/

If admin's choose not to implement it, there's not much I can do about that.

 

[Ingenious]

Nice one Brogan - they didn't mention it when I suggested a way of turning it off, that was some time ago. As a user-optional feature I like it.

 

[cmeinck]

It's always a blast to customize UI.X. I've made some major changes to the design.
http://forums.everythingicafe.com

Any comments and/or suggestions are welcome.

Note: You must view from a desktop browser. I'm still using a legacy design for mobile devices.

 

[RichardGaspa]

Any comments and/or suggestions are welcome.

@cmeinck Nice site, Like the skin. I notice you're using an ad addon. It looks good. Which one are you using and do you recommend it? I take it your home page is wordpress? Can a member log on to your home (wordpress) page, jump over to the forums and then jump back to your wordpress page without using the back button? I also noticed that you cannot reply without logging in as a member. I always wondered about doing this. Do you feel you lose traffic doing this or would you say it does not make a big difference? Love your site.

 

[cmeinck]

@cmeinck Nice site, Like the skin. I notice you're using an ad addon. It looks good. Which one are you using and do you recommend it? I take it your home page is wordpress? Can a member log on to your home (wordpress) page, jump over to the forums and then jump back to your wordpress page without using the back button? I also noticed that you cannot reply without logging in as a member. I always wondered about doing this. Do you feel you lose traffic doing this or would you say it does not make a big difference? Love your site.

Thanks! I actually custom code all of the ads using conditionals mentioned here by @Brogan. I am considering a move to Audentio's ad system. Right now, I'm forced to use and support multiple templates. I use an add-on that will push a template based on device -- so mobile ads are shown to mobile users, etc.

The homepage is Wordpress. Years ago, I tied in the blog with the forum. It was a major hassle and I didn't see any great benefit, at least not for my site.

As for the ability to reply without being a member, there is an add-on here that I would like to use. Ideally, I'd love to see someone offer this. Registration is always a big hurdle.