Banzai, great work! However, one thing we need to keep in mind is that the theme really needs to be something that will appeal to the widest userbase as possible. Everything from the color scheme to the icons and design all must be scrutinized so that any user won’t complain about it. Granted, this is impossible to do...you can’t please everybody...but you can do some things to greatly reduce this effect.
For starters, getting too monotone with the theme may not be a great thing. Too much green can flood the theme with a specific color and could possibly cause the user to get confused. When I started working on my own theme, I browsed the ColourLovers.com site and found this color scheme:
http://www.colourlovers.com/index.cfm?section=palettes&view=display&palette=7756. The primary reason I picked it is because it’s a scheme that is softer and more appealing to the eyes. Think about it...people will be using MODx day in and day out. The worst thing we can do to them is give them a theme that has alot of bright, in-your-face green. Softer is better since it’s much easier on the eyes...especially after staring at it for over an hour. Heh heh! Banzai, your theme doesn’t have as much green in it but I do think we need to watch how much green we use and use different shades when appropriate.
Icons are another thing to watch. Banzai, you’ve been doing great work and I applaud you for it. However...(damn I must sound like Simon from American Idol!)...I’m not sure about having a bunch of icons that closely match the color scheme of the theme. Personally, I prefer icons that don’t necessarily match the theme. The reasoning is that they stand out alot more and thus allows the user to identify them much easier. The trick is to design or find icons that, when placed in a given area, stand out in such a way to where the user can find the section they want just based on the icons alone. After all, the primary reason for having icons is that they are visual cue and representations of a specific task or area. If they don’t stand out then they simply loose their purpose.
What I’m really talking about here is two things: Marketability and Usability. These are two very important things we need to think about for a default theme in MODx. If we miss the mark on either of these then we end up with something that could very well be the thing that would cause someone to not pick MODx as their CMS of choice. So...on that note...let’s put on our marketing caps and start picking away at this and see what we can come up with. I’ll be making some changes to my own theme for review that will incorporate some ideas that both Banzai and Mark have put out.
MODX Staff
