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Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:32 pm
by JAB Creations
After several months of hard work (and a lot of Red Bull as well as very much appreciated help from a lot of great folks here at DevNetwork) I've updated my website to Version 2.8 Preview V. The main point of the post is of course the Color Scheme Editor which most of the changes to the back end that were made allowed me to support it even in a more business-like environment.

Any way I'm interested in what everyone thinks about the editor, if it's easy to use, if anything is confusing (presuming you make the effort to read directions, JavaScript alerts, etc), and most of all I'd really like to see some exported CSS "data" make it's way to a reply on this thread if you guys wouldn't mind. :wink:

Ok...have fun and let me know what you guys think please! :mrgreen:
http://www.jabcreations.com/blog/?prompt=themes-editor

*Edit - The editor does not work in Internet Explorer though it will work in Gecko 1.8+ (Firefox 2+), Opera 9.0+, and Safari 3.0+.

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:59 pm
by matthijs
Hi, your site is currently "down". You should change your doctype to html, the xhtml is sending me a yellow screen of death ...

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 8:28 am
by JAB Creations
I was pretty sure everything was working though I didn't click my own link. I'm surprised you didn't figure what the issue was. Any way I've fixed (and tested) that small problem out.

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:11 am
by Oren
Whatever you did there... to me, it seems like the most exactly_opposite(user friendly) thing I've ever seen.
Honestly, I was so confused and just tried to click on random stuff - which turned out for not being even clickable... which means that I couldn't even recognize what was just some text/image/design element and what was a button/link.
I don't want to sound like the bad guy, but to be honest, you need a totally re-do of the site, design, layout, w/e.

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 4:17 pm
by JAB Creations
Matthijs seriously with 2K posts I'd expect you would have commented about the referrer in some form or fashion and not just point and say it's broken.

Oren, that was so far OT from my original point of inquiry that you might not realize it but your post was completely rude and uncalled for. I've had about a dozen people including a sixty-something grandmother who does little besides check her email on her computer and she was able to use it without a problem. I see now no IP's coming out of Israel or IE user agents with this thread in the referrer. So if you don't want to sound like a bad guy to me I'd appreciate some clarifications on why you were unable to click on well over 200 anchors as it's clear you and I will likely participate in other threads in the future.

Any one get as far as using the export option? I'm not talking about design here people, I'm talking about functionality.

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:38 pm
by Benjamin
Simmer down.

You did a good job on implementing the functionality, I'll give you that. But as Oren said, and I know you don't want to hear this, the site is not user friendly in the least.

I know you spend lots of time working on your site and compatibility issues with different browsers, so the last thing you want to hear is that it's not user friendly, but if you ask for opinions here on devnet you are going to get honestly.

I'd encourage you to read some books on usability, your effort would be well spent there.

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:51 am
by matthijs
JAB Creations wrote:Matthijs seriously with 2K posts I'd expect you would have commented about the referrer in some form or fashion and not just point and say it's broken.
Sorry to disappoint you Jab. I've never used real xhtml (only the pseudo text/html version until I switched back to html) so I only knew it was something about validating the code. Didn't think it was needed to point that out to you.

Re: Color Scheme Editor

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:23 am
by matthijs
JAB Creations, I used the editor for a few minutes. My first impression is that it is a nice concept and functionally it works, but it is confusing. I think it is because of the many options/items to customize. The idea of being able to customize a site is nice, but if I were you I would greatly simplify it. Say, provide only the options to change 1) text color 2) background color and 3) link color. Or something similar simple.