Comments on: Always customise your forum design

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:24:34 +0000

Alvina – Having members choose their favourite skin can definitely be beneficial. After all, you can never please all your members all of the time. Giving them a choice of their own theme can certainly improve their perception of your site’s usability.

I agree with you that the default design should be relevant to the content of the site. It should also be unique, too (in my opinion).

By: Alvina

Alvina — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:27:38 +0000

I added many forum skins for my members to choose from. Some I downloaded for free, others I created myself. I found that this was very liked among the members. Some prefer to use darker or lighter styles, so I added a bit of both. I think the main theme should reflect the theme of the forum. e.g. if it’s a fashion forum, add some fashion icons, if it’s a fishing forum, add some fishing forum icons and so on.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:50:58 +0000

Ryan – If your members like using the default theme, let them carry on with it. Many people are resistant to change; if you had the default theme then changed it, it’s only to be expected that there will be some resistance.

Have a unique theme as a default, but allow existing members the option of sticking with the default view for themselves.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:33:33 +0000

2 weeks ago I uploaded a new theme to my site. It had been the default SMF theme, but I was tired of it plus it seems a pretty common piece of advice that forums should be at least somewhat unique in their designs.

The problem I had is that about half a dozen members have switched back to the default theme, which I’m going to be removing as soon as I at least look into their reasons for switching back. The comment that a couple of them gave was that they weren’t interested in learning to use a new design and wanted a forum design that looked like every other forum because it was easier.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:07:28 +0000

Sara – I love the way you have customised and incorporated some personality into your forum design. Keep up the good work – your forum definitely stands out from the crowd!

By: Sara

Sara — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:29:39 +0000

Well, I definitely personalized my theme and I am creating a brand that has nothing to do with my niche. I have a community for bloggers, but I am branding it as a laboratory because the site is called the Blog Experiment. I wanted to do something different to stick out from the crowd and something fun. Because of my domain name, I chose to go with that idea. Time will only tell if that was the right one!

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:06:57 +0000

Smiley – I like your idea of starting off making simple modifications. Small changes such as changing colours and the design of some icons can really give your site a personal touch without too much effort.

Russ – Your forum design is nice and clean; the fact there are fewer communities running SMF compared to say, phpBB also helps.

If you are having trouble with customisation, perhaps you should consider commissioning a designer or asking the SMF community for help and advice? Spending time working out how to customise your forum really is time well spent.

Biddy – You’re definitely right that the more widely used your forum software is, the more intuitive it is for your site’s visitors. Modifying template colours is one of the easiest ways you can differentiate your community. I would also suggest incorporating your own logo or header image, just as you have done.

Aaron – You are right that many people invest in expensive designs that are a complete failure in terms of usability.

I agree that design should always come second to content – however when it comes to first impressions, the majority of Web users are fickle; if something doesn’t look unique and interesting, they will often be turned off and continue surfing right past your website.

Mike – I am also a fan of your forum design. Yes, design is important but it should never get in the way of usability (as suggested by Aaron).

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:55:03 +0000

I paid for a custom skin for my forum. It is better than anything I could have produced. I think for a new forum, design is important. For a well established community however, I don’t think it matters as much as long as it is easy to read and navigate the site.

By: aaron

aaron — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:50:15 +0000

And that’s kind of what I’m talking about. People will spend hundreds of dollars on a custom forum design thinking that a cool looking forum draws visitors. When I visit a new forum, I completely skip the design (unless it’s just so obtrusive it’s hard to use) and go straight to what’s being talked about. That’s why I register and that’s why I stay. The design should always be secondary and should be something that complements the community. I’m not even sure a complete redesign should happen first. That should probably happen 6-12 months after the community has gotten started. What people should focus on to start out is features that differentiate their community from any other. Have a sports forum? Give me a fantasy league feature that I can’t find anywhere else.

By: Biddy

Biddy — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:53:38 +0000

I did what Smiley did, and changed the colours on SubSilver radically to match the rest of the site. I agree with you that just leaving the absolute standard install is a bad idea, but equally customising everything so that your members have to start right at the bottom of the learning curve is also a bad idea: the nice thing about widely-used forum software like PHPBB is that people probably already have a good idea how it works, and you should take advantage of that: people who don’t have to think about how the site works have more time to create interesting content for you