Discussion Lounge: Quick Review
Discussion Lounge
Quick Review by Red Herring
Analysis:
Strengths:
- Pristine Design & Graphics
Without trying to sound like a narcissist here, although I'll most indubitably fail, I like to consider myself a gourmet when it comes to web design. My eyes take great care in digesting every bit of the palette offered to me by a website's design. Optimized and efficient, yet beautiful website design is very important when it comes to being a webmaster. No matter how meritable your website itself is, first impressions will almost always be dictated primarily by its visual appeal. A sad truth it may be, no one wants to suffer through design that makes their eyes bleed with every second they stare at it.
So the question is: Do my eyes suffer indigestion when they partake in the design meal offered to them by Discussion Lounge? The answer: Ho ho ho, no they do not! My eyes are not only satisfied with this delicious eye candy, they are practically drooling over it! This is, without any doubt, the first dark themed website I've reviewed here at Forum Promotion where its dark design has managed to impress and enthrall me.
Why? Well, let's break it down, shall we? From top to bottom; a bit unfortunate considering the header is not where this design shines, but we will get to the parts that do. The header consists of your standard website logo, in this case, one that reads "Discussion Lounge"; using a design that incorporates a bold white casual font and an icon of the earth. While I suppose it fits, I honestly find myself slightly disappointed in the lack of ingenuity with this logo. It feels as though it could've been far more creative than it is now, and currently adds a bit of generic undertones to the forum. The rest of the header consists of its navigation elements. While I appreciate the delightful jQuery/CSS effects they make use of, they're rather awkwardly executed; with all of the navigation elements seemingly shaking out of place when hovering over just one of them. The last part of the header consists of a fixed scrolling toolbar at the very top, a design aspect I always find myself appreciative of. This one is no exception and makes use of a delightful bit of blue textured design. Unfortunately, the text all feels a bit unbalanced, making it feel somewhat cluttered. Pity.
With all of that being said, I do not find myself turned off by the header. It's still rather delectable in terms of design, but I do admit finding myself somewhat disappointed.
Ah well. Moving on to the part of the forums that truly enchant me: the index itself. To put it simply...I absolutely adore the forum design! It's more than enough to make up for any flaw the theme design currently has and then some. For starters, each forum is complete with its own unique 48x48 icon; an aspect that succeeds in adding quite a bit of color to the design. Secondly, all sub-forums are listed on the index and are categorized into columns, which is a design element I always highly welcome and appreciate. To further accentuate this beloved design aspect, sub-forums also make use of icons that make it very easy to tell whether or not a user has unread posts in that sub-forum. Wonderful. Next, and certainly one of my favorite aspects, is that thread/post count is listed vertically in a smooth and curvy CSS box, each fit with their own little icons that mesh brilliantly with the design. And finally, last but not least, last poster information is structured with the last poster's avatar and standard MyBB post information; a standard design element for ThemeFreaks', the creators of this theme. Much like the forum icons, the last poster avatars really manage to add some color to this theme.
Absolutely gorgeous index design. Forums are structured elegantly, with equally elegant design to overlay it. I have no complaints in this regard; not even minor nitpicking.
At this point, I would take the time to critique the footer as well. There is, however, no footer to be found aside from the obligatory branding at the bottom. This isn't a particularly bad thing. Just like the header, I simply find myself slightly disappointed. It's like being given a delicious multi-ingredient sandwich without a piece of bread to complete it.
Nonetheless, the overall theme design left quite a marvelous impression on me, being one of the uncommon that has managed to satisfy my gourmet tastes for web design. Well done.
- Near-Perfect Index Structure
Much like website design itself, there is an element that plays an important part in terms of a user's first impressions. And that element is index structure; aka the categorization of all the forums on your index. Do the forums that currently exist need to exist? Do they add to the appeal of the forum's niche? Does the index structure cover every genre it is required to in order to fit the niche? Structure is very important indeed. Improperly built forum structure will only serve to confuse and misdirect the users, decreasing the overall appeal of the forum. Similarly, it's important that an index be balanced properly. To make an analogy, a forum index is much like a skirt. It should be long enough to cover things up, but short enough to keep things interesting. In other words, it must be long enough to cover any and all topics the forum niche seeks to incorporate, but short enough to avoid spreading itself thin and creating "dead" areas.
I am most pleased to report that Discussion Lounge's index is just the right length of skirt. The forum index is balanced beautifully. Nearly every category sticks to a three to four forum count and uses sub-forums to make up for topics they fail to cover. Furthermore, everything a general discussion forum could hope to envelop is incorporated, with discussion for general topics, debates, life, sex/relationships, gaming, media and computing. That's about all anyone could want from a general discussion forum, and it executes everything very well. Excellent work.
Weaknesses:
- Disorganized Side-Boxes
In just every website design, there is always a black sheep that muddles the design in some fashion and prevents it from being perfect (or near-perfect). It's certainly nothing to be ashamed about, as it's quite a difficult task to design a website theme that excels in every possible way. However, that does not mean one shouldn't strive for improvement and address any potential black sheep it may have.
In this regard, I would honestly have to say that the black sheep in Discussion Lounge's midst are the side-boxes. I will admit that this is a bit of personal bias on my part and will likely not reflect in everyone's opinions. However, I really must express that while they do add some color the forum, it's at the cost of disorganization and really imbalances the beautiful aesthetics that I am quite fond of in Discussion Lounge. They are not lined up properly with the forum index, although that would be a very difficult element to achieve, but they also extend past the index itself which creates a displeasingly wide gap between forum statistics and "Who Is Online" near the bottom of the index.
The primary issue, however, is that these side-boxes are also genuinely helpful. Removing all of them would drastically reduce efficiency and functionality, something one should desperately avoid doing. Instead of removing all of them, I recommend removing only a few. Specifically, "Find Us On", "Sponsored By" and "Advertisements". Incorporate the ones you remove in some other fashion than side-boxes. You could, for instance, redesign your header as well as design a footer and incorporate them into those. Take a look at this footer designed by effone [CLICK HERE], for instance. It's beautifully designed with social networking buttons, branding, an advertisement banner, Twitter feed and utility links. You could easily fit advertisements and social networking options onto it. Not to mention it would look much more aesthetically pleasing than three side-boxes.
- Still A Bit Lacking In Identity
I will admit, I am very much scraping the very bottom of the barrel for a weakness here. Discussion Lounge is by no means a "picture-perfect" forum and can very much stand to improve on several elements. However, it certainly is not rampant in terms of weaknesses and flaws. In fact, weaknesses are few and far in between. The few flaws I can find would be considered minor nit-picking at best or based on personal opinion and bias.
Nevertheless, I do feel that Discussion Lounge is lacking somewhat in personal identity. Even with all of the unique design elements, it still manages to feel sadly generic; the most glaring example of this being the Discussion Lounge logo. As I mentioned, the logo does fit, but it doesn't fit in a way that cements the Discussion Lounge identity. The white text is slightly blurred and lacking in design elements, and the most important part, the logo icon, is just an image of the Earth. That's about as uncreative and generic as you can get. A logo should be truly unique, a banner that you are proud to fly overhead. The current logo only seems to state "Well, I guess I'm Discussion Lounge..."
Icons and such could also do to be a bit more unique. Especially in the navigation elements within the header, all of which appear as though they were taken directly from a Google Images search or icons website.
I will reiterate in that it certainly isn't lacking in identity as much as many other forums are. As I mentioned, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel here. That being said, it could do much better.
Final Remarks:
Herring's Grade: C+
I am very ecstatic to report to Kingcool that my visit to Discussion Lounge was one of my best experiences, in comparison to all of the other websites I have reviews with Forum Promotion thus far. Discussion Lounge comes equipped with a pristine Themefreak MyBB design comprised of fantastic design elements and forum icons to add color. It's a design that most light-theme users would not be unhappy with, as it's incredibly gentle and easy on the eyes. It is, by far, one of the best MyBB themes I've seen thus far in terms of structure, and the best dark themed website I've reviewed. In fact, Discussion Lounge would be the best website I've reviewed thus far overall. I'm certain if this were a full review rather than a Quick Review, it would be the first website to score a 6X/100 from me.
It does have a few kinks to work out. The disorganized side-boxes are particularly grating to me and unbalance the index quite a bit. The header is mediocre, the footer is practically non-existent and both could do with a redesign whereas the side-boxes could be reduced in number somewhat. Lastly, the website does suffer a bit in that it lacks a bit of identity. The logo is incredibly generic and unfitting for a design as beautiful as the one it currently uses.
But hey. Nothing is ever completely perfect. Everything has some kinks to work out, no matter what it is. I was very pleased with what Discussion Lounge has presented to me, and I very much hope it continues to improve. Best regards, Discussion Lounge. Whatever road you take, whatever path you travel, I wish you the very best of luck.
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