SwiftModders Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Ah, too bad. I had considered doing a mock-up for this, but time was not on my side this go around. I may make one anyway just to see what I come up with and see if anyone likes it. My hope is that this software gets some serious HTML re-working in the near future with this new theme. Will make things easier to theme and adjust in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gears Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Ahh I thought it was Monday this whole time. I was just about to submit it before heading out. Perhaps maybe in the near future we can have a market for templates... For this competition I like MGarden's and Brett's. While I think MGarden's is a nice design and would work well for some people, I like Brett's because it is generic and still looks nice. I would vote for Brett's design as I think it is most appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neobug103 Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 +1 for Brett's design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dotnetrix Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 +1 for ModulesGarden, In the design rules Matt indicated a modern look, that is damn fine work and I think that it would meliorate WHMCS as a billing system in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwiftModders Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 So here is what I created over the past few days. I would like any feedback people could provide. It looks like I missed the cut-off and I haven't gotten word if I can submit it as a late entry, but let's see how it goes: Homepage | Homepage with Account Hover | Dashboard | Services I am thinking of making a support and shopping cart example too. If Matt doesn't want to use this, then maybe I can make it into a nice theme. Here are a couple of notes on the changes: General New navigation bar at the top to better organize the pages and their association. The navigation is different based on your login status (guest or client). Footer is very simplistic with basic copyright information and WHMCS powered by. Considered moving the flag (language) system to that spot if the license is unbranded. [*]Homepage New icons to represent each major section of WHMCS. Latest announcement is featured underneath the icons to highlight news and awareness on what's new. Most Popular and Recent articles have been moved to the right side to create an even area of space. Network status headlines are on the right side to call attention on serious issues with your network. Should be removed if you have no need for network status. Login and register option moved under "Account" to create more room for other future feature adjustments. [*]Dashboard Many stylistic changes to the base of the dashboard view. Added a new "favorites" feature that allows users to star their favorite pages for easy access. Added "number count" feature to the top navigation to help indicate if you have any billing invoices due to capture attention to that area. Priority and status indicators have been changed to promote a more modern look and feel. [*]Services Added the "favorites" star to the top to indicate where you can favorite a page. Removed the "records" language and made it look more like the dashboard for continuity. Integrated the filter search into the header for a more streamlined UI experience. Modified the pagination slightly to utilize both ends of the content area and create more space for numbers. Added an icon system for pending, suspended and terminated accounts with a legend to explain each icon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHMCS CEO Matt Posted September 6, 2011 Author WHMCS CEO Share Posted September 6, 2011 Hi Everyone, Sorry for not getting back on this sooner, this is the first chance I've had. First of all thanks to everyone who entered. We've had some great ideas and entries. I think it's only fair if I reply to each entrant individually here with my initial thoughts on each of the designs, and following that we'll continue taking votes and comments from others to determine the eventual winner. So here goes... anon35: I think the ideas in your design are good. Certainly like the novel approach to the products listing for something different to the standard tabled interface. And making the homepage a login prompt so that it's a completely private client portal area is a consideration. We could maybe have a setting for this kind of thing. Mllprivat: This is a nice effort. Nice and clean look, clear menu, but it's similar in layout to our current portal design, almost like a new skin for that design in some ways. professional: What you've done looks good, there's just not much to it so unfortunately can't really consider this one. Brett: You've obviously put a lot of thought into this design. Of all the entries, I would say that yours meets our brief most of all in terms of being a completely new & different look and layout, that is both good looking on it's own, and easily integratable into almost any type of design. You've also done the most pages of anyone, and there's certainly a lot of great ideas in there. I can quite easily see people taking that and wrapping their header/footer around it, and it wouldn't look out of place for the majority. The suggestion of the CSS framework is also a great shout and definately something we'll try and use for whichever design is chosen as the winner. Driss: There's no doubt this is a very nice design, and it seems to be quite popular amongst the people on here already. My only concern for this as a standard template though would be that it's not going to be that straightforward for people to integrate it into their existing website designs. I like what you've done with the prominent domain search on the homepage though, I think we could certainly use that, and the product & domain details pages are nice too. jeremyhaber: This is a clean & fresh looking design. Probably a little dated for the look we're aiming for with this new template for WHMCS but there's some nice ideas again, particularly featuring a product and having the number of items in the cart shown on every page. MGarden: Again this is a very nice design. But I see this more as a complete website type of design rather than a style that people will be able to integrate into their own. By that I mean if the user tried to change the header/footer to their own as most people using WHMCS do, would the internal sections still be ok. And particulary I'm thinking the boxes may not suit a lot of websites, or the content space they have, and so the fixed size of specific content areas is going to be more difficult for both users and us to work with when it comes to integrating & multiple languages where word/phrase lengths can vary quite considerably. So there's my initial thoughts on the submissions here. Having looked through them all again just now I think there's definately elements in all of them that are good so let's see what some others have to say and ultimately I guess we'll pick a winner within the next few days. Cheers, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehost5968 Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Matt Could you know add a Poll to this thread with the users name - and design name / ref, Then we all can see how it is going? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Matt Could you know add a Poll to this thread with the users name - and design name / ref, Then we all can see how it is going? +1 for this idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 anon35: I think the ideas in your design are good. Certainly like the novel approach to the products listing for something different to the standard tabled interface. And making the homepage a login prompt so that it's a completely private client portal area is a consideration. We could maybe have a setting for this kind of thing. That would be amazing! I have the same thing happening on my website - https://manage.giverepair.com/ I have all of my registrations done on my main site and the user is created and updated via the API. That would allow me to hack the template a lot less then what I do now. Brett: You've obviously put a lot of thought into this design. Of all the entries, I would say that yours meets our brief most of all in terms of being a completely new & different look and layout, that is both good looking on it's own, and easily integratable into almost any type of design. You've also done the most pages of anyone, and there's certainly a lot of great ideas in there. I can quite easily see people taking that and wrapping their header/footer around it, and it wouldn't look out of place for the majority. The suggestion of the CSS framework is also a great shout and definately something we'll try and use for whichever design is chosen as the winner. Matt Thanks for the compliments Matt. If anyone has any questions about my design, please do not hesitate to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojahed Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 (edited) That would be amazing! I have the same thing happening on my website - https://manage.giverepair.com/. Just want to remind you that not all of your WHMCS Pages are available only for registered customers https://manage.giverepair.com/submitticket.php http://manage.giverepair.com/knowledgebase.php You should Modify the template file of these pages to make them available only for registered clients. Edited September 6, 2011 by professional Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Just want to remind you that not all of your WHMCS Pages are available only for registered customers https://manage.giverepair.com/submitticket.php http://manage.giverepair.com/knowledgebase.php You should Modify the template file of these pages to make them available only for registered clients. Thanks for the heads up. I have those completely edited out of my template since I don't use those section and there is nothing that links to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wirenine Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 I really like MGarden and Brett's work. Driss works feels like an edited theme of the current client area, doesn't look fresh at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSG Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 IMO it's now between McGarden and Brett. Both are excellent designers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fwebs Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 some good designs in there. One thing I would have to say though is that any new design should allow us to completely remove sections that we do not use via check boxes in the admin / setup area. For example, i dont use the affiliate section and have to manually remove any trace of it each time we upgrade. I also dont offer domain registration or hosting accounts to random visitors but only to my own clients. Being able to switch any feature on or off would fix this once and for all and should not be something awkward to incorporate into both the back-end or any future design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtduarte Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Hello Guys, I agree with everything Matt wrote, I also like a lot MGarden design at least as a skin, I would love to have that design to my site , but with that design maybe we will all have the same site look... I also agree with Matt about the end line for design delivery, but considering all the work that SM-John as done with whmcs in the past (the template he shared for a long time with all users, even making it compatible with each whmcs new version), I think we should open and exception to him as to me his design is so far the best. Regards, David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 I just wanted to share a couple more pages that I have done. Customer Ticket - make sure to click the reply button http://giverepair.com/whmcs/client_tickets.html Customer Login http://giverepair.com/whmcs/default_login.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mt. Nick Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 (edited) I love both MGarden's versions because of the layouts (especially love the quick order idea) and I love Brett's simplicity. Why can't they both win something nice? and get both coded? Edited September 8, 2011 by Mt. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driss Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Driss: There's no doubt this is a very nice design, and it seems to be quite popular amongst the people on here already. My only concern for this as a standard template though would be that it's not going to be that straightforward for people to integrate it into their existing website designs. I like what you've done with the prominent domain search on the homepage though, I think we could certainly use that, and the product & domain details pages are nice too. Thank you Well I think it's not that hard to customise it.. everything over the main menu can be changed easily and the footer can be totaly removed since it doesn't contain anything critical. But I agree that when I've made it.. I didn't realy think of the custom header/footer aspect I really like MGarden and Brett's work.Driss works feels like an edited theme of the current client area, doesn't look fresh at all. Yeah that's the idea behind my theme... just adding as much improvements as possible and keep the core aspect of the old themes so users don't get lost... And for the design, I used only one font wich is present in whmcs's website, admin etc.. (Lucida) and even if I used the default "blue" color as the main one... u can imagine having any color to fit any hoster's identity... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driss Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 To illustrate this... here is a little preview of this theme with a little modification... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzlyware Josh Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Thank you for your opinion Matt. We have created it mainly to be a complete website, so by default, users will have very modern and complete client side. However, I can't agree that the integration to the layout would be so difficult. The afraids you have are just understandable, but its just taking a step forward to the new web standards The width of the content is made as a 960 px standard . Also, text in the boxes is only our suggestion, so we can always change it. However, it is obvious that it will require a lot of testing to be compatible with the most users. We , as a company can always help you with that if you will need to as we are very experienced in that stuff. Edit of the template will simply require to change the same elements as now: - header - footer - style - some minor data on other templates. This is why we have created a sample integration, that may look like. Also, pay attention to the login box. Its also our idea, that this should be made like a big hosts do - click to stick out login input area. Design 1: http://redsunflowerstudio.com/whmcs1/integration.jpg Design 2: http://redsunflowerstudio.com/whmcs2/integration.jpg Let us know if you have any more doubts. I'm in love with this design... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cape Dave Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 To illustrate this... here is a little preview of this theme with a little modification... Driss, I totally agree with your philosophy. The idea here is not to come up with a totally unique and change for sake of change design. There are many good things about the "old" design. Just add improvements until there are no more to add! Congrats, I really think you have nailed it pretty good I have tried many of the other skins out there and keep on coming time after time back to the original, because there are more things that I like about it especially after being away from it for a few weeks. You have my vote! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwiftModders Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Here is the latest addition to my entry (would like to know if I have been officially entered into the contest?). This is a basic mockup of the shopping cart checkout section. Let me know what you guys think. I also added a breadcrumb example as I realized I didn't include this in my earlier mockup images. I will re-upload those to reflect the breadcrumb as appropriate. Shopping Cart - Checkout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 Here is the last page that I will be posting - Knowledgebase http://www.giverepair.com/whmcs/cleint_knowedgebase.html Thanks everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InterServed Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 This is weird ... they should post a winner today , but i haven't see any voting poll as stated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoilodiaz Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 waiting for the winner or for vote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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