Choosing a style for your forum

Every forum out there has its own style, whether theyre using the default that came with the software or a custom one they paid for or designed themself.

Many forum owners will want to pick a style which is readily available and would like to customise them themselves a little to their needs.

When choosing a readily available selection always consider the following:

1. Does the style suit the niche of my forums.
2. Does the style validate and is it coded to standards.
3. Is the style easy to navigate.
4. Are the colours applicable to my niche and will my members like those colours.
5. How long the style takes to load. Is the style image heavy or does it make good use of CSS.
6. Is the style table cladded and will it load fast.
7. Does it render more or less the same in all browsers.
8. Will the style be simple for yourself to work with and edit to how you like.
9. Can I get the equivalent for free elsewhere and edit it to the same myself.
10. Is the author of the style a good style maker and will it be updated as other versions come out.

Many forum owners make the mistake of adding a new style to their forums which nobody likes and end up changing it again and again and again which becomes very annoying for their users.

When choosing a style choose something your audience will like, not only yourself and make sure the colours apply to your niche for example, dont buy a black skin when youre own a forum that is about painting. There is a world of colours out there, use them.

Never release a style until it is ready and you and others have fully tested it and are happy with the end product. If you are not happy, more than likely your members and potential members wont be either.

Always choose a skin you feel comfortable in editing if you plan on editing it. Skins which have "extras" for example Jquery sliders may take extra knowledge and editing.

Tools and Resources

Pingdom Tools Test how long it takes to load the different styles.

[ws] Webdesigners Tools | Webdesignerské nástroje Helps you choose complimenting colours for your forum.

Google See what others in your niche are doing

vBulletin Styles - vBulletin.org Forum Free vBulletin skins made by the members of vBulletin.org.

vBulletin Skins Premium skins

Themes by Design Free and Custom Styles

Free PhpBB Templates, Themes and Styles - themesBase.com phpBB Skins

Free SMF Themes, SMF Templates, SMF Layouts, SMF Skins Free SMF Skins

MyBB - Free PHP and MySQL Forum Software MYBB Resources

Thanks for reading

This post has been promoted to an article

 

Great article - you may also want to add MyBB - Free PHP and MySQL Forum Software for MyBB users.

 

Thanks Tom, I couldnt find something for the mybb users when writing. I will add that up now.