New theme in the making. Your help is needed!

kasperisager

Hi all!

I'm currently in the process of making a new and super awesome theme. I plan for it to be modern, aesthetic, minimalistic and clean. I'm using projects such as 500px, Esotalk and Buddycloud as inspiration and would also like your ideas. What features would you like to see in a modern Vanilla theme?

A few technical details; I'm using LESS for all stylesheets, but unlike VanillaBootstrap these compile into one single CSS file – custom.css. The theme requires jQuery v1.7.2 to enable extending it with the newest jQuery plugins. I haven't yet decided if I'll be releasing it as a free or premium theme, this will probably depend on your feedback – if it's something people want, it will be free. If not, I'll most likely have to sell the idea to someone, make the theme for them and charge an hourly rate for the work.

Here's a little teaser:

kasperisager

Update: At the moment I'm trying to find some inspiration for a set of buttons. So far, Google+ buttons as well as OS X buttons are on the table (http://pixify.com/blog/use-google-plus-to-improve-your-ui and http://pixify.com/blog/use-os-x-lion-to-improve-your-ui/)
Other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

kasperisager

So far I've spend quite some time working on the individual discussion pages, which I consider one of the most important aspects of Vanilla. A few screenshots can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/GX6kK/embed

Current features include:

• Automatic drafts have been disabled and replaced by HTML5 local storage instead, using the Sisyphus plugin. This means that you won't have a gazillion useless drafts lying around; all form content will be saved locally every 5 seconds instead.
• FitVid ensures that all embedded videos will be resized correctly to fit the discussion pages. This will come in especially handy if (hopefully when) I start working on a mobile version that will replace the default mobile theme.
• The default Autogrow plugin has been replaced by the much better Autosize plugin by Jack Moore.
• Heavy use of cross-browser compatible CSS3 ensures that the theme will look awesome in all browsers (read: probably not IE<9).
• CSS3 goodies include: Font antialiasing ensures nice and smooth type faces across the theme. I'm also trying to make Vanilla less cluttered by hiding stuff such as form elements (e.g. the button menu on discussion pages, see screenshots) until the form itself is activated by the user. CSS3 transitions ensures that these elements are then shown in a nice and streamlined fashion.

Again, I encourage all who are interested in this project to share your ideas. I'm making this theme for the community and would therefore like for it to be inspired by the community.

// Kasper

422

Just so you know, watching :)

peregrine

You should know better Kasper. :) The only time users generally make comments and request changes is after you locked up the design and completed the coding. You have to say I've completed my "so and so" and it will be very hard to modify. Then you will get the flood of comments for changes. If you request suggestions during the design process, then it is not as much fun as requesting changes after the project is complete.

422

Pmsl. How true

kasperisager

Lol, guess I'll have to find inspiration elsewhere then ;D Too bad though... Any chance of being added to the developer group perhaps? I have quite a few ideas that I frankly can't accomplish by myself.

422

Ask @underdog . You can always email me, i develop full time so always online plus i only sleep 5 hrs / day

Raize

I think you should make the theme responsive, so that it can adjust to any size screen and you won't have to make a seperate mobile theme.. Vanilla lends itself easily to responsive design and it would take the forum to the next level

Sheila

@kasperisager I think I personally would need to see still a bit more (mockups of the whole design etc.) in order to be able to give any constructive feedback and suggestions.

Have to say I appreciate your starting point a lot. Way too many themes seem to focus only on category and main discussions layout & banners, thou after user has registered, those elements become quickly less important and even quite irrelevant. Single discussion view and posts in it are the heart of any forum.

UnderDog

422 said: Ask @underdog . You can always email me, i develop full time so always online plus i only sleep 5 hrs / day

Aaaargh... @423 woke me from my hibernation... kasperisager is added... back to hibernation...

422

You sure it wasnt @424 ? ;)

Sheila

^ Or maybe your little brother @224?

kasperisager

Hehe, thanks @UnderDog!

@Raize: I'll definitely take a look at making the theme responsive at some point. I think the best would be to keep the mobile version though (and make one matching the theme) and then make the theme adapt to different desktop monitor sizes instead.

@Shelia: I'll be back with more mockups sometime then! The idea was that the community was to help design (or inspire) these mockups though.

kasperisager

A small update: This theme is now part of the next VanillaBootstrap build (included as an optional .less file). The theme will therefore be fully responsive ( @Raize ) and include all the features already listed as well as those of VanillaBootstrap. A little sneak-peek, though it's far from finished ( @Sheila ):

...and yes, the header-background is pure CSS3 ;-)

Todd

I looked at this theme a few days ago and am very happy you've decided to go with just modifying default.master.tpl and custom.css.