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Need feedback on a theme

edited November 2011 in Feedback
So I recently designed a theme and uploaded it to ThemeForest. However, it wasn't approved, and they said it doesn't meet their quality standards. They also said they couldn't name specifics "at this stage in the design".
They also said it would need some significant improvements.

So, here's a demo of the theme on my site: http://lucasbytegeni.us/vanilla/

Could you guys give me some feedback on where to start improving it? I was thinking possibly a redesign of the content area and the addition of social icons, maybe some CSS3 transitions on the links, what do you think?
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Comments

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited November 2011
    first impressions.

    the search box is not visible firefox 3

    the header bar doesn't always stay on top when you scroll images and text were passing over it.

    I would put some margin between the side Panel and Content it looks crammed.

    grep is your friend.

  • 1. I use Firefox 8, and it looks fine. I suggest you upgrade.
    2. Works fine in FF8.
    3. It was supposed to look attached to the content area, but I'll make it look separate.
  • I test in many browsers.

    grep is your friend.

  • I test in many browsers.
    Good to know :) FF3 is really outdated though.
  • I think some spacing is important.

    grep is your friend.

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited November 2011
    I should have said 3.6 which is 2010 ish I have FF8

    feedback is it I not my taste but some like this style, but I would work at details to get consistent styling for example the size an look of the buttons. Because some are tab, links and actual buttons, either make them the same or differentiate for contrast.

    it is worth looking in browser like safari, opera, chrome, etc.

    I liked your previous themes better.

    grep is your friend.

  • jspautschjspautsch Themester ✭✭✭
    1. I use Firefox 8, and it looks fine. I suggest you upgrade.
    2. Works fine in FF8.
    3. It was supposed to look attached to the content area, but I'll make it look separate.
    It's important to test in many browsers, not everyone uses Firefox and even then not everyone wants to use the latest version.

    Here's a helpful website showing browser usage statistics: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
  • Well I use the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, so I think I'm covered on that. I don't know much about fixing stuff between browsers, let alone multiple versions, so I'm going to stay with the latest versions for now.

    Thanks for the suggestions on the buttons.

    And thanks for liking my other themes :)
  • x00x00 MVP
    edited November 2011
    see
    a.Button {
    ...
    padding:4px;
    }
    increase it to 6px and it is more like the Tab buttons. Those sorts of details, fine tuning.

    Also I like the gradient on the button. I would keep it for active, but perhaps differentiate with a slight different colour.

    grep is your friend.

  • 422422 Developer MVP
    You could use this http://browsershots.org/

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  • see
    a.Button {
    ...
    padding:4px;
    }
    increase it to 6px and it is more like the Tab buttons. Those sorts of details, fine tuning.

    Also I like the gradient on the button. I would keep it for active, but perhaps differentiate with a slight different colour.
    Ah, well it used to be bigger but I thought it looked too similar to the default Vanilla button and my other themes, so I resized it. I'll experiment with the padding a bit later :) And thanks, I'll play with the color pallet a bit.
    You could use this http://browsershots.org/
    Ah, thanks. Things are really messed up in FF3 I see, but people shouldn't use that outdated thing anyway.
  • 422422 Developer MVP
    Mate what people should and shouldnt do is unfortunately out of the hands of developers.
    We are 18 months into a project , in house, and circa 250 grand of dev time. I can honestly say we have had 100's of sleepless nights because we have to make our site(s) cross browser compatible, not so much with forums such as vanilla, because out of the box its pretty much CB Compliant.

    But inevitably you MUST test in all major browsers.

    TIP: when creating a button using css alone, set padding in 2 directions. so:

    padding: 4px 8px;
    text-align:center;
    vertical-align:middle;
    height:20px;

    etc etc ( thats just a example )

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  • 422422 Developer MVP
    I dont mind doing a css masterclass on here, im no expert but i know a few tricks. I code css all day

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  • Well I make it work with Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, just not the older versions. I really hate developing in IE and I don't think I should include support for it because it's so bad, but I suppose I can't make people move to those browsers while satisfying ThemeForest, so I'll work on it.

    And thanks for the tip :) I'll keep that in mind.
  • 422422 Developer MVP
    A typical themeforest reviewer will open your zip.
    He will load it up on multiple browsers. You cannot ignore IE.

    As a rule of thumb, we only support ie 8 and ie 9
    We insist js isnt disabled or we send them somewhere else.

    FF is very forgiving, and to behonest I use it as default. But you can become sloppy because of its tolerance to bad code.
    The rule of thumb is if it looks good in IE it should look fantastic in all other browsers

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  • edited November 2011
    Problem is IE doesn't seem to support text shadow :(
    Also, the file submission form allowed me to specify which browsers the theme worked in, I left IE out, so I don't think that's an issue.
    I will try to get it working ok as much as I possibly can in IE however, it still has a large percentage of the browser market.

    I recently started using Firefox again and I really like it. Chrome has some performance issues with scrolling when there's fixed elements on the page, at least for me.
  • 422422 Developer MVP
    Text shadow can be achieved in ie. Its a bit hit and miss.

    http://www.useragentman.com/blog/2011/06/29/full-css3-text-shadows-even-in-ie/

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • Text shadow can be achieved in ie. Its a bit hit and miss.

    http://www.useragentman.com/blog/2011/06/29/full-css3-text-shadows-even-in-ie/
    Thanks, I'll try that out :)
  • RaizeRaize vancouver ✭✭
    nice looking theme :)
  • nice looking theme :)
    Thanks :)
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