What Appeals to You?

[StormWolfe 557]

Heck! I'm not shy! I'll kick us off before I have to go out!

 

What appeals to you aesthetically?  Lots of forums, dark colors? Are you all about the layout and ooooh shiny?

 

I like nice and clean with some interesting features. The site needs to be easy to navigate. Since I am in the elderly RPer crowd, I also need dark backgrounds, prefer gray text, decent contrast and avoidance of strobing colors. I am about the writing, the IC forums and really don't care about the OOC stuff at all beyond the bare minimum needed to operate an RP site.

 

My sites, I guess, tend to be rather bland with the fun in the features and on the backend. Easy forms, no posting templates, as few forums as possible and, on my IPS sites, you can choose your background which also subtly changes the overall color scheme although it will not change it to a totally light theme. I still need to do a light option, but not in a hurry 'cuz it'll make me blind.

 

Am I dissing those of you who love and glory in the light? Absolutely not! I've seen some gorgeous light themes. I just cannot read dark text on white or low contracts on light backgrounds.

 

If @Jones and @Morrigan do not mind, maybe we can showcase some our sites somehow without making it about advertising?

[c.widow 123]

I have slowly came around the bend, I think maybe it’s just me getting old, where I prefer sites that put mobile functionality/thought into them. For example hovers are one of my biggest dislikes on mobile, now hovers of non important information is okay but if you put important stuff in a hover and I’m mobile there is no way I will ever find it.

 

I like when I have an option between dark and light themes, best of both worlds depending on my device. Such as here I use the light theme when mobile I use the light theme, when on a desktop I use the dark.

[Jones 177]

In no particular order, the most important things for a skin in my opinion are loading speed, mobile friendliness, easy navigation, and attention to the small details. I'm a mom of 3, with 2 of those being under 5 so home full time. Browsing is done in short bursts. Lol. I need to quickly adjust to the layout of a site and I like having the info I need most quick and easy to get to no matter what device I am using. I like using new things too. Unexpected layout choices, new ways of displaying the necessary info, etc. But it's really the little things that count. Tidy auto post templates, fancy profile pages, and when mini-profiles adjust per membergroup to only show relevant info, I LIKE THOSE LITTLE THINGS! Gifs on the main page make me irrationally angry. They also make me dizzy. If I click on a site and there are more than one or two gifs wiggling around I X out before the scripts are done loading. 

 

Oddly enough, I am on the opposite bandwagon when it comes to dark themes. I'm not one of the 'young ones' either, I'll be 28 this fall. I use the light theme on just about everything. Dark colors play tricks on my eyeballs and I get lost very, very quickly. If there are pop colors on that dark background the effect is almost tenfold. I just cannot get my eyes to focus. My laptop has a yellow light for night option that I use so the light skins aren't too much on my vision when I'm browsing in the evenings. Black text on light to medium tones are my comfort zone.

 

Also, @Stormwolfe sharing images/screenshots of design details from our sites would be fine by me as long as Morr is cool with it. That way it's not "here click on my site to see X, Y, Z" which could potentially get out of hand. 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Jones

[Arceus 1,082]

Disclaimer: I am picky as anything.

 

CAN I READ THE THING????

If I can't, I'm immediately gone.

 

I like me a good pattern. Seamless, not too wild, just enough that there's a pattern there but it doesn't give me a headache, and actually used in a way that enhances the design. Colours are a big thing, too, easy on the eyes, not too many. Generally somewhere around the middle, if not a bit toward the 0 end, of the saturation spectrum is good. If someone's trying to have too many main colours at once, I'm probably going to have a headache and be unsure where to focus. Any gifs anywhere on the front page, or in important sections/topics, I hate them I hate them I'm epileptic please stop doing this to me. One site almost gave me a seizure by virtue of just having so many gifs not because the gifs themselves were bad. Literally every image on their board moved (I got a gif blocker pretty soon after). General rule of thumb folks, moving things are often a bad bad bad idea. Bad idea. Stop. It's not cute. It's lethal. One or two here and there, fine, but good lord, when nothing on your site is static, you got a problem and potentially a deadly weapon.

 

(Along similar lines: rainbows and glitter are also not a good idea. Stop. Let it die. I've only seen a rainbow done well once, and it was mine.)

 

Banner and header images that have too much going on. Hey, background images that have too much going on. I like nice, well-blended graphics that work together; even if they're the same "style," sometimes, they clash anyway and it vexes me. Banner/header images that someone obviously put some thought and work into. I don't mean those banners with the three different angle shots of the same model with some pretty colouration layers over it, I mean actual effort, if I get on a site and their banner is a manip of ... of a chick to look like a ghost petting a dragon, that is cool, that's gonna get my attention. Grid/multiple column layouts are kind of a weird grey area; done well, I actually really like them. Otherwise, they anger me. Sad-angry. Yes.

 

I don't have anything against light themes, often I really like them; the issue is, I hate the seeming current running trend of making light themes basically white with a splash of something else. Straight up #FFF and straight up #000 should be used sparingly, if at all, to me, because they are too intense to be using them consistently, and it make my eyes strain far too hard. Otherwise, as long as there's a good contrast between background colours and font colours, and the font size is decent, I don't generally have much issue with choosing between light or dark, I can stand them both okay. I do tend to have an easier time with light themes that have darker backgrounds/containers, and light content areas (ergo, the body and wrapper are both dark coloured, but the post areas themselves are light with dark text; I don't know why, but my eyes read that easier than it all being light). I will gravitate toward darker themes if I have the choice.

 

Navigation: straight-forward, logical, nothing overdone. Ergo, please name your dang boards what they should be named and not after song lyrics, okay? Okay.

 

Oh, and purple, or yellow. Good usage of either of these colours will make me oooOOoooo... at it.

[Kit the Human 758]

7 hours ago, Stormwolfe said:

Am I dissing those of you who love and glory in the light?

 

I think you are! 🤬

 

🤠

 

I prefer dark themes (is late 20s old now?) Bright things can trigger a migraine (not reliably so, but I've noticed it can make me more susceptible.)

 

The usual accessible stuff that I've ranted about everywhere now. But basically, user experience (use) drives design, not what cool trick I learnt this week.

 

I prefer themes that are a little more discreet with their image use. But I do adore subtle textures and patterns.

 

Ooo and minimalism. Minimalism is sexy.

[c.widow 123]

13 hours ago, Kit the Human said:

Ooo and minimalism. Minimalism is sexy.

 

^ yesssssss! The more chaos the harder it is to figure out where things are.

[Morrigan 1,826]

Go for it. That's sorta the point right?

[Bishop 172]

Clean lines, uniform fonts, and easy on the eyes graphics.

[Muse 121]

Some light themes can be nice, but I seem to prefer dark themes.

 

I'm a minimalist. Keep it simple. Make it easy to read (I'm old, dammit), and give me a nice balance of image and text.

 

No tiny text. (I want that tiny trend to die in a fire.)

 

Because I am often on my phone, yes, mobile legibility is important. Prioritizing that makes me happy.

 

I'm a graphic designer by day so I'm pretty damn picky, aesthetically speaking.