Guest Simon Desser Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 Firstly I just want to say that I don't want to upset or offend anyone, least of all Paul and Midnight. But I do want to give my opinion on the new look of MoDaCo. Whilst I appreciate the effort and artistic skill that has gone in to the new look, I feel it bears no relevance to Smartphones and what MoDaCo is all about? Midnight's avatar/site logo is great, but to me, it represents Grafitti artists, Skater Boys, Breakdancing and general street youth culture? All of this seems a far cry from Smartphones and Windows. As more and more countries embrace the Smartphone platform, MoDaCo is going to become even more worldwide than it already is, this is going to open up the market to all sorts of age groups, and all sorts of cultures, and I wonder whether this is the sort of image that should be portrayed? My Dad who is 61, is very computer literate, and has been waiting for the Tanager to hit the UK after seeing mine. When he gets his soon, I can't imagine him using a site that looks like this? I used to just about get away with using MoDaCo whilst at work, as from a short distance, to most people, it could be some kind of webmail, or similar, but now I've got no chance! I'm afraid I feel the same way about the merchandise. I would love to support the site by purchasing some of the items, but I feel that with the "street culture look", you're immediately alienating a large proportion of the potential market. Like I said at the start, I don't want anyone to be offended, or to take it personally, I just wanted to say how I felt. I must admit, I felt reluctant to submit this post, for fear of being shot down or starting a row, but I felt that the whole point of a forum like this, was to let everyone have a say, without neccessarily agreeing with one another?
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 No flame, but have you ever heard the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover"? :) It's good to hear your opinion though imho, i don't like people that don't say what they think and was fairly surprised when we didn't get a ~single~ complaint over the new look... Also if you're worried about the look being less than conspicous at work, give Ghostzilla a blast...
Guest midnight Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 i think its a fair comment, and this is why it is already planned that we will have multiple skins that the user can choose from. The basic layout will remain, but the colours and main logo will change (and yes, this does include a girlie pink version :)). I even thought of a 'work' skin, that is just all whate background with black text and straight lined tables. The same goes for the merchandise, there will be made available a 'logo only' version of the t-shirts etc that does not include the modaco guy. The idea of the look is not to alienate people but to capture a wider audience and to keep up with the competition.
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 The logo only shirts are already available. I too was pleased that we have not had a single complaint about the new skin! While I appreciate that the 'street' look may not reflect all our members beliefs, I think it has to be remembered that it is just a logo, and to suggest it reflects its members or it's attitudes is a little unrealistic. The idea of a 'work' skin is definitely a good one, heh... The main aim of the new look was to provide a clean yet colourful look, similar-but-different to standard phpBB, and I think this has been achieved. There is definite value to having a recognisable identity, and I think the phone dude also gives us that, a rare asset amongst sites of this type! In conclusion, i'm happy with the site's new look, and if it's the only skin, that's fine by me. On the other hand, if midnight is happy to design alternative skins that can be implemented with only image or style sheet changes, then that'd be great to. Skins with different templates are not practical because of maintenance issues. I'm in a car atm writing this on MoDaCo mobile, so apologies if it's a bit rambling! P
Guest midnight Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 hehe, mobile modaco still amazes me :) yeh, image and style sheet changes only, no actual template changes, not only would it take longer, but as you said, maintenance issues, it would complicate the site slightly aswell, in fact, this version of the site should still be mostly recogniseable from the original modaco, i kept all navigation etc in the same place so you dont have to learn a new site all over again. ok, besides this version, girlie version, and work version, any other requests (keep em sensible, i am not doing a pr0n version ;))
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 The new mobile modaco is even more amazing! :-) P
Guest madu Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 May I suggest "Classic" style? So if you don't like it street pink or simple work layouts, just have something that would work for everyone
Guest martin Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 May I suggest "Classic" style? So if you don't like it street pink or simple work layouts, just have something that would work for everyone Would that classic style be a bit like the original MoDaCo :wink: I think the new MoDaCo has a bit of web cred to it and although this is not going to be to everybody's taste, it definately has a more professional look. How about an International skin :)
Guest midnight Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 May I suggest "Classic" style? So if you don't like it street pink or simple work layouts, just have something that would work for everyone we'll see, i think its a case of 'you can please most people some of the time, but not please all people all of the time' :)
Guest @ngel Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 Well... I think that the new look of Modaco is great...
Guest Arisme Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 Second that :wink: Anyway mobile phone ads are often aiming at a young audience, and the MoDaCo dude looks much more professional than the Xelibri ad (which is funny at least) or the N-Gage ad (can't think of a faster way to kill a product) :wink:
Guest James Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 just be waiting for the work version please! and hurry! got a new 21" monitor on the way!......
Guest Simon Desser Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 Thanks guys :) A "work skin" would be fantastic ;) I decided earlier today, to avoid getting funny disapproving looks, I will start to use "Mobile MoDaCo" on my PC at work. I tried it out before, and it just looks like you're reading emails 8) This got me thinking about the work skin, and I wondered whether it might be a good idea to "disguise" it to look like a popular MS program, like Outlook or Outlook Express etc? unless there'd be copyright issues? Just a thought? Cheers Simon.
Guest midnight Posted July 13, 2003 Report Posted July 13, 2003 we already thouhgt of that, the look will most likely be similar to excel (cos that uses tables), need to discuss with paul a way of removing avatars without changing templates
Guest James Posted July 14, 2003 Report Posted July 14, 2003 i dont think the avatars are a problem.......... just the general layout and overall look..... mostly a white/light grey colour
Guest chickster Posted July 17, 2003 Report Posted July 17, 2003 I am very impressed with the new look and like the fact that all the popular Smartphone sites that I go to are using a similar format (e.g. coolsmartphone.com). I think it is easy on the eyes and is certainly a lot better that grey (although unfortunately my site is grey) Keep up the good work and hurry up with some new tweeks. p.s. midnight - When is your sight going to be back up? :) ;) :D
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