Microcosm appreciation... the aesthetics, the design etc.

As a non-techie thought it worth commenting on the look.

The alpha seems uncluttered with clear large writing and great white space on the page. I assume that this will all be customisable later.

I like the simplicity

It will be customisable in three ways:

1) Theme picker for site owners... you get to pick which colour schemes you would like... but with the same font and basics as the default (which is the one you can see).

2) Theme designer for site owners... you get to pick custom fonts, different sizes of everything, but fundamentally the layout is the same, but you can change every size, colour, font, etc.

3) You can take the open source front-end and host it somewhere and change everything, including the HTML.

Good
Saw what rogan (God) did.

1. is good
   and 2. even better so long as it is easy(ier than, say, wordpress)
   

Microcosm design looks like wordpress in font, buttons, layout, feel, style
Intentional?

There's a big trend at the moment towards something called "Flat UI". You're just seeing similarities as a result of a design trend that makes all of the sites feel modern.

Which means they'll all look dated pretty soon

Should probably stick with a classic like comic sans.

Think everyone should be thankful they weren't involved with the new look at Digital Spy.138 pages of complaints in less than 24 hours.

Forum design feedback - General Discussion - Digital Spy Forums

Heh, that's what is going to happen on LFGSS in a couple of months.

This is why we're working really hard to make it nice.

I'm sooo tempted to share the design too soon, and it's still being refined. But you will all get to see it before it comes along and those doing the UX testing have seen sneak peeks.

Lots of grey on grey and blocks of white I hope.

I've downed tools for the holidays, happy to pop in and give feedback if required...

I bet it'll all be in 6pt font size.

I'll do some more UX testing next week I think

Heh, that's what is going to happen on LFGSS in a couple of months.

This is why we're working really hard to make it nice.

I'm sooo tempted to share the design too soon, and it's still being refined. But you will all get to see it before it comes along and those doing the UX testing have seen sneak peeks.

I'll do some more UX testing next week I think

You are testing... From the look of DS they launched it without testing and then are modifying things based on the complaints.

They'll have a hard time of it. They're just modifying a vBulletin setup, and the template system doesn't allow them to do a great deal.

They've dug a hole.

I bet they revert to the older style.

or wait and move to microcsm. perhaps pitch to them?

i'm gonna be unemployed and available/free in Jan. Might force me to get out of my pj's.
if you want it, I mean, no pressure coz i've been a bit shit with helping 'n' stuff.

We want.

We even have a desk and a computer.

How is the timetable looking? I'm looking forward to starting to use a microcosm based forum!

We're on track for the new version (new design and features) to be completed this side of Christmas and integrated and launched in January.

We then have to say farewell to our contract designer and the developer who is helping, and Matt and I then need to focus on the import and export tools.

We hope to finish the import and export tools by late March, with an optimistic goal of having it completed in February.

At which point LFGSS will be migrated.

But... it will be possible to create fresh, green-field sites, on Microcosm in January.

So that's our launch window, and the import of existing forums is something that follows.

The import/export tools allows fora of other formats to 'merge' to Microcosm?

The export tools will allow someone who administrates an existing forum, to export the entirety of the forum (including attachments, private messages, etc) to a standard file format (based loosely on schema.org structures).

The import tool will allow someone who has an exported forum to then import into Microcosm.

Thus migrating an existing forum from whatever they're using to Microcosm.

Then, another export tool will be built to allow Microcosms to be exported to that standard format. Which fulfils data-portability and not trapping people into our product.

We're starting with vBulletin 3.8 (LFGSS), but then will listen to demands from forum admins to determine the next one we write.

We'll publish the schema we use, so even if we don't write an exporter, someone else could.

So where do I look to comment on the design of the future lfgss/microcosm.app?
This?

There's nowhere public that currently shows where we are with what we're working on and where we hope to be.

The public websites are about 3 months behind the design that we're working on, though the API is actually bang up to date.

If you have time this week and can pop into the office above Smithfield market then I'd love to share what we're doing, otherwise you'll see in early/mid January when we launch it.

It's a big leap to the design of the interface currently in use. Which, we now admit is quite embarrassing.

Can't make it over I'm afraid but thanks for the offer. Will look forward to seeing it next year.