Posts by sfov

Can’t anyone make a theme where the slider is maybe at the bottom? or to be able to move the already existing slider to the middle or the bottom? almost like a personalized version of the site.

Seems that any theme here with a slider has the slider taking up pretty much the top three quarters of the page.

Here’s a thought.

Make a vertical slider, placed on the side of the page You know like the columns in Wordpress? except exchange one of the columns for your slider container

or can’t that be done?

Lot’s of great themes with sliders, but after awhile, they all start looking the same, Most of them are to showcase photo’s or already produced work, so placing them at the bottom, leaves room at the top for what your site will be trying to get across

Placing them at the side, will allow for complete access to the site without having to scroll down for the links

Just a thought…discuss amongst yourselves

I’ve run into a couple of problems with purchased themes this past couple weeks, and wanted to post this, only because I’m just a bit miffed, and done fighting with themes.

If you include documentation with your theme, then make sure that the instructions for that particular theme are explicit.

If you’re a developer, and can code/hack/manipulate, then you pretty much won’t read the instructions anyhow, so this really isn’t directed at that consumer group.

Once you’ve created your theme, and documentation to be included with that theme. and BEFORE you post it here or there for sale:

Pass it along to one of your friends, preferrably someone that doesn’t develop, and is more of the end user. Have them follow the included instructions to see if there is going to be a problem.

This will allow you, the developer to provide the end user with a much more pleasant experience, which in turn may provide you with additional business.

Be Explicit:

• Include ALL the Plugins they need to go and get and to use to make the site look or act like the demo they just saw
• Include how to change colours, links, Logo’s, Text
• Include how to implement social networking icons.
(This one is a major one, as almost 60% of the sites here don’t have/include them)
• If you include PSD , Flash, make sure to lay out how to change colour’s text, in them

The best Instructions I’ve seen, are the ones that have different coloured text in the coding where I would tend to make my changes to make the site work my way.

I think you see where I’m going….make it as easy as possible for someone to implement a site quickly….the end user really doesn’t understand wrapping an img in div tags.

Coders/Developers’ minds don’t work the same as an end user

Oh…if you support your site answer your emailed questions about the site if you don’t? state it in your instructions

Nothing worse than asking a question about a purchased site and how to do something and having to wait around for someone for almost a week to get back to you.

Thank you.

How much experience should we assume template buyers will have with modifying PSDs?

In our documentation do we need to walk them through steps such as modifying a clipping mask using their own images or should we assume they can figure that out on their own and focus providing information on the workings of the theme?

I’m trying to find the line between too simple and too complex. What do other designers on themeforest do?

I’m not a designer, coder but an end user, and I would have to say that you can’t really go wrong with explicit instructions.

If someone already knows how to edit/modify, then they wouldn’t be reading the instructions anyhow….

My suggestion (I’ll be starting a documentation thread similar to this) We all know someone that is Joe User/Limited Skilled Sally, so ask them or give them the instructions, and have them follow them to see if they have any trouble.

If they do? then enhance the instructions so that they can do whatever they need to without too much trouble.

Thanks ADesign1

hate to drone on about ModX again, but the answer is EASY .

Yes, I actually went and downloaded this, to have a look at it… it installs easily enough…and the demo looks slick, so now I can play with it and won’t matter if I break the page or not, at least it’ll be trial and error which is a good thing.

Now comes the learning curve, but it does seem simple enough…a little off the norm of what I am used to, because it’s building it from the ground up so to speak..but

I tend to like what it looks like it can do…

Thanks again, I would never have looked at it had I not come to these forums.

Great Thread…..

The designs and creations here are quite appealing, and as others have said, not all can view them properly, they don’t look the same after purchase and sliders taking up the top 3/4 of the screen.

These are some of the things I’ve seen over the past week that could use improvement. (only because i’m looking for templates now for a client)

• This is 2010, everyone is pretty well aware of social networking so, please include the most popular networking icons (twitter, FB, etc) or at least make the template that the user can place these with minimal trouble. Or have them there and they can be turned on or off as need be. This should be pretty much a standard now don’t you think?

• Blogs…Please? pretty self explanatory I would think. I’ve come across several nice templates that would work, and no blog link….and no way to determine how simple it would be to include another page for your blog…other than emailling the author. I’m tired of emailing an author only to be told that “If you’re good with php or css or whatever, you can add one yourself”. I don’t want to, I”m not a coder, nor a graphic artist (hell my stick men are fat LOL )...I come here to purchase a template to install with minimal fuss.

• Galleries: If I have a need for a gallery, then I should be able to separate that gallery into categories. Lot’s of those templates don’t do that here, or they need extensive coding in php and mySQL in order to do so. (See previous comment), there’s an opportunity for the author to make a little more money by offering to do this for the purchaser.

• Cross Implementation: There are templates here dealing specifically with photo’s nothing else, so it would be nice if you had a theme that couldn’t do photo’s as previously stated to use one of those sites, and somehow integrate it with the theme…maybe there’s a way to do that, but can’t tell.

• Log In Screen: If you have a Template that is gorgeous, that has a log in for it for whatever reason, why would you NOT make a log in screen for this template. I purchased a template, installed it and it worked great, simple easy to use…when I clicked LOG IN , it took me to the generic Wordpress Log In page…sort of takes away from the website as a whole now doesn’t it?

• Shopping Cart: Need more templates with a shopping cart that takes one out to paypal upon checkout

• Documentation: This is a big one to me…The authors need to quit assuming that the purchaser knows what they’re talking about. The documentation should be laid out simply enough that someone with no experience can install this. Not all of us understand what wrapping something inside the div or images tags are, or where to even do that because the documentation sucks.

• Plug Ins: Other than wordpress, I’d love to see someone come up with a generic template with none of the links in it, and people can then purchase what they want/need for that template. Need a blog? purchase this, need a Forum? what kind, Yabb, phpBB? purchase this. All add on’s that integrate seemlessly with each other.

There’s some other things that I see..but these are the big ones for me anyhow, I’ve had clients turn down templates because of the above, especially since they, on the surface deal with the public at mass

thanks for pointing that out…. I’ll change that right away….

Thanks again

I’m sure those that are graphically inclined will be able to answer this quickly. [Ok..I can’t even draw a stick person without it looking fat ]

Don’t know how much time would be involved, but am trying to get an idea of cost for:

1 twitter bird, facing you, slightly turned. 1 football helmet WITH logo of NFL team 1 possible football uniform of NFL team.

I had a couple thoughts on this actually. using 1 bird, and having interchangeable uniforms and/or helmets. that way the bird would remain constant.

If this could work out, then I’d also like the nhl teams. Same bird but with hockey sticks, and jerseys, and/or helmets

Feel free to email me with any particulars or if you require more info.

Thanks