Among other things, the next major version of CourseForum and ProjectForum will be getting a bit of a facelift. I wanted to share some early work-in-progress screenshots with you to get some feedback. Click on each to see the full size version.
This first one shows how we're attempting to streamline and cleanup the 'post your comments' area at the bottom of each forum page. We're hoping switching mostly to icons will reduce the clutter, but still provide access to all the same commands.
Update: In response to Peter's comment, here's one way that the six icons without labels could be treated. Immediately when you move over the icon the label appears over top (and disappears immediately when you move off the icon), while the traditional browser tooltip appears as usual after a short delay if you keep the mouse there.
In contrast, the image below shows what the post your comments area looks like in the current version.
The next thing that we're working on improving is the look and feel of the various dialogs, and especially the administration areas. The image below shows how things are shaping up so far.
And the last thing to show is how we're making custom themes easier to work with. While you can still do all the things you can now by mucking directly with CSS, we're making it easier to do the simple things like changing logos and basic colors within themes. As a bonus, this will also mean that as we make changes to the standard themes in the future, it's more likely your custom themes will pick up those changes.
So that's it for now. As I said, these are works in progress, and we'd really like to hear what you think!
