Coding Least Favorite Skin Trends

[Keaton 133]

I've been doing web design for a lotta-lotta years, and the annoying aspects I see on forum RP skins have the same roots as the annoying aspects of Tumblr themes, which had the same annoying aspects as LJ themes: Folks who are relatively new to web design missing core design tenets because they're self-taught/still learning and FAR too many coding sites don't really touch on form following function; and, they are following the trends they see everyone else doing. I can remember friends constantly complaining about tiny text on low-contrast sites from the early 00s on, and that one has never really gone away.

 

The giant headers I think have their roots in current general web trends, which is for "fake" splash pages that look slick on mobile, and you scroll down for the main content. I think if employed judiciously, and in a way that's genuinely eye-catching, it could be used on forums — But judiciously is the key. Done well, with proper restraint, on the index page ONLY. I've noticed that it's almost universal that these giant header sites have the giant header on every single page, which is a really hard no for me, and my assumption is simply that in the code, the giant header is in the "header" template (shown on every page), as opposed to the top of the "index" template, which just shown on the home page. (I code for MyBB, but having been a member here awhile and seeing the skins, I am assuming IPB has a separate index template.)

 

Generally speaking, I think there are a lot of inspiring site skins out there, but I really wish that the designers would beef up their knowledge of usability standards. Responsiveness and readability are really big issues I see over and over and over again.

[In Red 16]

I have to say I agree with almost everything already said, but another thing that has been grinding my gears more recently when I've ventured into RPing on new sites is CONSTANTLY CHANGING TO A NEW SKIN. Like... your skin already included all this crazy jazzy stuff that I don't particularly like (e.g all the things listed in this thread so far), but I liked your site enough to ignore it and get past it and now I'm only just used to it and SURPRISE the default skin is different suddenly!

 

Things are in different places!

 

What? You thought the sidebar was on the left? FOOLED YA!

 

You finally figured out there was a hover over here with quicklinks and whatnot? GUESS AGAIN, ITS WHERE'S WALLY TIME! 

 

You've only been open 6 weeks, a month, and in one case even 2 weeks, and you're ALREADY switching things up? Way to show me that the site prioritizes aesthetics over development and growing your brand new memberbase. This is especially true when your new fandangled skin has a different mini profile, and all the effort I went to finding the exact images that you require has now gone to waste and I need to do it all over again.  It makes me feel like an ol' lady who isn't hip with the youth, please stop ;_;.

[NyxDarklore 92]

On 4/2/2021 at 7:55 PM, Keaton said:

Done well, with proper restraint, on the index page ONLY. I've noticed that it's almost universal that these giant header sites have the giant header on every single page, which is a really hard no for me, and my assumption is simply that in the code, the giant header is in the "header" template (shown on every page), as opposed to the top of the "index" template, which just shown on the home page. (I code for MyBB, but having been a member here awhile and seeing the skins, I am assuming IPB has a separate index template.)

 

This is the reason that I'm happy I moved to shrinking our banner/header section when moving off the index on our site. Initially I wasn't going to but it quickly got to be too much and it was the first change I made for accessibility probably a week into the new skin going up.

[Faie 5]

Contained skins. I don't even understand why someone thought this was cool.

[caporushes 8]

Echoing what a lot of other people here have said, but I just have to reiterate: font for ants. I actually saw a site that MENTIONED the font being tiny in their rules or getting started guide or something--and was just like "well if you don't like it zoom in!" Excuse me?? Just don't design a site with 8px font! Who is this for! Who can see this! Nothing kills my interest faster than feeling like I have to zoom in 300% just to be able to read a menu or something. 

 

I'm all for aesthetics, but some of these skins... At least it has given me a very strong idea of what I do and do not like in a site, which is useful. I'd rather a site overall be not particularly visually slick if it means I can find the menu and read the posts. 

[Dale Bozzio 30]

Minimalism and little color in some genres. It won't hurt you to have color beyond a tiny line for accent. Dark skins used to be much more inviting than the ones you see nowadays. Also an excess of pictures since not everyone would want to use bland influencer 567 as a FC.

[Rem 8]

Color clashing, like red text on blue backgrounds. But also skins that are too dark and don't have enough contrast. They're horrid on my eyes.

[FoolishMortal 1]

I really can't stand sites that make me scroll forever past a banner that takes up half the page and for some reason their site scrolls really, really, slowly. 

[AlmightyZiggy 5]

Skins with really dark backgrounds and huge padding in the tables to fill the screen with the forum, and then tiny tiny text in white and in a serif font, usually at 10px. It's so difficult to read and aesthetically I guess I can see why its appealing but practically its awful

[Shayne 5]

I don't like impossible to read text, image-heavy, and relies too much on CSS overlays/transitions etc. I prefer things to be simple and laid out linearly. 

[Lorelai 6]

Location boards that are really transparent and you can see the background image through. A little bit of transparency isn't too bad, but when it's too much then it's just hard to read/see anything. 

[Myarelli 8]

Light skins are the bane of my existence. I won't even look at a site if it has a light skin. Another thing I dislike, and I've seen others say it too, is the gigantic banners. But, to add to that, I also hate when the banner follows you as you scroll??? Let me escape you! Please😩

[Nypromi 1]

I have zero experience in coding. 

 

In fact, I have broken the site often when trying to modify colors for a posting template and have had to have the reply completely deleted because it just broke everything lol

 

But the appearance of a forum does make a huge difference for me. I don't like overly bright forums. Especially given the fact that I am primarily on at night and write well in the dark. Having the sun blaring in my face due to the sites brightness turns me away from it. I enjoy dark themed skins as well as easy to understand and find buttons skins.

 

Come skins are so complicated and finding the setting cog on them is next to impossible. I understand people want to make the site sophisticated and luxurious but you lose all that when it becomes to complicated and hard to figure out at first glance.

 

So I vote for dark, simple and neat.

[Untold Tales 2]

Less is more. Sites that tend to be overrun by lots of visuals or extremely bright tend to take away from the actual content, imo. 

[Lost Boy 18]

3 hours ago, Untold Tales said:

Less is more. Sites that tend to be overrun by lots of visuals or extremely bright tend to take away from the actual content, imo. 

This. I actually sometimes get a migraine from sites that have a lot of neon colors all over the skin or what I call 'water color' artwork that has a lot of different colors running through their graphics. This also goes with places that over use graphics all over their site or they are too crowded like layer upon layers of fog, foilage, face claims, texts, mist, etc etc all in one graphic. A more modern minimalist style tends to draw in more people these days than these old trends that just never died out.