New Zbrush Forum, is this a big step backwards.

[dogbone]

I'm somewhat shocked to discover today that one of the best designed forums has overnight become a contender for the most ugly and unusable forum, although the content is unaffected.

Now there are gradients, buttons, flash titles, and high contrast lettering all piled on top of each other. It's a mess. This is a perfect example of 'if it ain't broke then don't fix it'.

http://pixolator.com/zbc/forumdisplay.php?f=2

 

[angelneo]

Erm.. I don't see any gradients or flash stuff. Everything is in black/grey/white, and an occasional orange button/star. Are you sure you are not looking at a customised skin or something?

 

[dogbone]

Well for a start the banner that simply says Zbrush Central is now a Flash graphic. I suppose you needed to see it before its makeover, but I don't have any shots. That bright orange Start Thread button used to easy to see yet unobtrusive. The changes aren't drastic but the overall effect is distracting.

Take that column of Z's that form along the left edge and create so much movement. And the way all the various headlines and copy merge into a sea of light grey type.

 

[Lixivial]

I'm going to go ahead and say that, in general, forum structures/designs (especially slight vBulletin template changes) are out-of-bounds and archaic in the first place.

That said, I don't know how it used to look but it's way too crowded. The colors are all so similar it's difficult to immediately orient where my focus should be by just immediately flipping to the page.

While MR has the same basic structure problems as indeed most forums do, at least the colors are varied to the point that I can differentiate headers, columns, and various cells. I honestly feel visually overwhelmed when I look at the link.

EDIT: I must say, though, perusing through shows that there are some mighty fine and talented people there. Very neat!

 

[Mac Kiwi]

Ya I prefer the old layout as it was as well.


Any guesses on how many months the Mac ver of ZB3 will take to be released,after the Windows version is released?...I seem to remember the 1.5 - ver 2 for the Mac took ages.