Ugly Icons--help!

[Mike]

I think the icons in the index of the forum are pretty ugly. I think they're supposed to be "in boxes", but I don't like 'em.

They change color if you have an unread post in that topic, they look a little different if it's had a lot of activity, etc.

If you've seen icons in another forum that you like, post a link here. I'd appreciate it.

[Jeff]

I'll post some templates with different looks. Here's one that's got very different style icons:

http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=675

[Mike]

To be clear folks, just look at the icons by the forum listings: e.g. read / unread etc.
They're circles with check-marks in the link Jeff just posted.

Those are better than what we have. I'd swap some of them around though. I think the check should be on a "read" forum.

[Jeff]

Shiny button look...

http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=1037

[Jeff]

Maybe something simple like this, but in our colors.

http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=1073

edit: here it is in red: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=1079

[Jeff]

http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=18

[Jeff]

Very simple icons: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=165

[prairierose]

http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=18

I vote for these

[Mike]

Thanks for voting, Rose.

I'd like to reduce the visual clutter.
I don't think the icons have to look like forums, just be simple.
In fact I don't think we need separate icons for all the various categories of locked/subforums/etc. The more icons we have, the more confusing it is for our readers who visit many forums which all have different icons.
Just a simple way to mark it as read or unread is probably all we need.

After looking at all the ones Jeff posted, I actually favor this:

[prairierose]

That was my second choice, I think it would fit the visual of the rest of the new forum

[Jeepster]

... just be simple. ...

There's my vote!!! I'll leave the final decision up to you guys ...

Cheers,
Tom

[Mike]

Here's the current set of icons:

forumIconGuide.jpg (20.79 KiB) Viewed 6601 times

A couple of them still need a little cleaning up.
Popular topics are ones that have 10 or more replies.