TalkFranklin.com

Jeff Fuqua

Jeff Fuqua

Well-known member
I'm creating a board for Historic Franklin, Tennessee. Our city has been listed among the top small towns in America. The goal is to reflect the city's historic roots (Civil War) and unique blend of residents from all over the nation who re-locate here along with life-long residents. We have a growing arts community along with one-of-a-kind restaurants and boutiques. The cities Facebook page has over 8,000 likes and, as far as I know, no places for residents to talk, in depth, about anything.

Features include:
• Responsive
• Direct login from Facebook (no non-Facebook registration)
• Interactivity with Facebook (status, trophies received, etc.)
• Ratings (a ratings area for local attractions, restaurants, etc. somewhat like TripAdvisor)
• Classifieds

One goal is to make this board very easy for those unfamiliar with message boards to understand so I'm looking for this to be simple to navigate and understand.

The header and background images will change after we go out and shoot some photos. There is only one Ratings entry so far and we'll get more in before our June 1 launch.

I've stared at this for so long, I'm wanting some fresh eyes on it. I'd love any suggestions or feedback. Maybe some add-ons which might make it better. Thanks.

TalkFranklin.com
 
Overall it looks nice but I think it needs more contrast. Everything seems to be the same or very similar color and it's hard for my eyes to focus my interest on anything.
 
Any thoughts on a highlight color? Maybe a navy blue?

I wanted to keep a historic (aged) look but I can see how adding another color might be nice.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Is that background something historical or easily recognized to the community? If so I would just take the color overlay off of that and see how it looks. If not then maybe put some landmark that everyone can recognize in a positive way without the color overlay. It is a community site right? Then don't hide the community it's your best asset.
 
Yes, those are images that most people would recognize. I did try them as full contrast but they were too distracting.

I may play around more with the opacity. Do you think they're just too faint?
 
Yes Jeff they are too faint and too much the same color as the site. My eyes aren't drawn to anything since it's all much the same. IMO
 
Well, took advice from DRE by adding some contrast for the highlight color. I also set up the AD Styler which allows members to customize the color scheme for the text and highlight color. I hope to add more color scheme options there at some point.

I left the background alone for now. I see where CM is coming from but having a higher-contrast image back there overwhelmed things for me. Something besides images might be the better route so I may add another style to the mix.

Thanks again for all the advice.
 
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