http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/wp-themes/itheme/

Amazing job guys!!!

The current beta I’m working on is made almost entirely out of CSS, so no graphical navigation. Everything is square, simple buttons. I thought shadowknight would be happy about that detail.

What do you all think about birch wood (the kind at the Apple store) mixed with grey and white?

For instance, on hitting the main page I saw via the ‘hot comment bubble’ that this was a hot topic I should check out. nice visual queue there. I could also see the star rating for this entry – also useful. I think what I like best is the comments area – simply awesome work here.

I am starting to really wonder what all of these people are complaining about…not only was the old design a generic looking WordPress template but it was butt ugly, circa 2001, and had zero functionality.

Good work on the new look guys, don’t change it!

I used to really like the old site, the new one feels like it’s trying to accomplish too much – that’s what was nice about the old layout – simplicity.

I take it changing back is out of the question?

Some examples of work include http://www.airfrostdesigns.uk.to and http://www.airfrostdesigns.uk.to/merrr .

I’m sure I could get an awesome design for this site at a reasonable price…Miles, just email me on tedwinder1(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks!

1. Layout & colors: the older look felt more integrated and solid due to darker background colors and a header that runs the full length of the page. It focuses the attention to the center of the page where the content is. Now there are wiiiide open spaces with the elements floating around. Not good. All that white space everywhere makes me feel like I’m in a hospital room. Plus, the rounded rectangles for everything are really annoying. Elements that fit together and connect are much better than elements that just float around.

2. The sidebar: the previous sidebar was nice because it was, again, made of a nice color which separated it from the rest of the page, and it was in a good place on the page. Now, there’s this bunch of text that’s stuck to the extreme right of the screen. Not pretty.

3. Nav bar: again, the other nav bar was well integrated into a solid design: it was attached to the top header and there were rectangular buttons for each section. Now there’s this rounded rectangle floating in white hospital space, with just primitive text links, aligned right for no apparent reason, that feel themselves like they’re floating inside this floating nav bar.

4. Unnecessary features: rating a blog comment is stupid. People give their opinions in the comments, if they even have an opinion. Having little stars is distracting. Rating comments is stupid: everyone has their own idea of if a comment is good or not, and no one likes seeing their comment being voted down. Avatars in the comments: they just add visual distraction and complexity, and serve little purpose.

5. Other visual “uglinesses”: that flame on the # of comments? Uh? Same for the big bubbles for the comment numbers: big, cheesy, and cartoonish. That forum badge in the sidebar: little explosion-style ‘NEW!’ tags aren’t hip anymore. Plus, why in the world is the RSS feed attached to the forum badge? It looks cramped and weird. That badge is also not the same width as the rest of the sidebar. The “Share” buttons you added also create visual complexity.

6. What’s up with the cheesy “Built for Mac” tagline? The other one simply described what you guys do, and it was much more relevant.

7. The previous font was much more elegant, and the bigger spacing made it easier to read IMO.

There. We like you content, but you essentially trashed a solid, elegant, and professional-looking design for a cartoonish and amateur one. I kind of liked alej’s comment (Ugh. Gross.), but if you want to know why it’s that, IMO it is because of the reasons above.

That being said, I’m all for progress. If the staff here really feels that the redesign is necessary, then continue developing it. But, if that is the course, then please don’t stop with what we see now. Break away from the typical ’see it everywhere’ Wordpress themes. Try some radically different layouts. In the age of Web 2.0, don’t have a redesign that is, by definition, Web 1.0.

Lastly, I’ve just gone back and taken a look at the ’should there be a forum’ poll. The reader opinions were very heavily weighted towards ‘no forum is necessary’, yet now there is a forum. Now, it is of course the choice of the staff, but, the participation of the readers is what makes a great forum community. If it isn’t going to be feverishly supported by the readers, how can it possibly succeed? Nothing is as useless as a languishing forum.

Good luck with the redesign. We, the readers, certainly hope it gets better.

Anyways, just give us some time, as we are all busy with providing content and streamlining our publishing process as well. Not to mention my ‘real life’ commitments. I am making a list of changes from your suggestions so if you have something more intuitive to say besides ‘it sucks’, I’m all ears.

read this –> http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace

it explains a lot. i think it might help you with some key issues instantly found with this site.

Lose the new ‘features’ who the hell cares about stars and voting on comments. The site needs to be trimmed down. Lose the crappy graphics. Lose the overly rounded rectangles and the vile wannabe aqua blue gradient. Start afresh – see what else you can come up with.

I think that the all lower case ‘built for mac’ and apple icon squashed in the bottom right of the footer says it all. Erugh.

then nobody can piss on you guys for trying!

personally,i really like it. nice workd. looks great in safari.

Already we’re tweaking a few things to respond to your opinions, but we really do want to hear more from you guys about what you’d like to see. For those of you that have indicated that you don’t like the new site, what exactly don’t you like? What could we do to make it better? You are the ones keeping us afloat and there would really be no reason for us to continue this if you weren’t reading, so we REALLY DO value your opinion.

Please feel free to give us some detailed feedback and let us know what we could do to make MacApper better!

I mean it could probably use a different background to break up the white monotony, but its not that aweful people. :/