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Honest opinion: the styling is clean and looks good, but it's hard to say much since from a UI perspective it doesn't do anything new, and I suspect it isn't responsive (which I would consider a must-have in a modern theme, but your client may think otherwise).

I think you could lose the "welcome back" message and just show the username. And the icons for notifications and PMs need to be in their own space, not under the text. The nav alignment also seems weird; the left side is in too much and the right side is out too much.

I also think that using the precious real estate at the top of the screen to show such a huge image carousel is counter-productive. My opinion on hero images or other huge content blocks on the top of the page is that you should only use them:

1) If you have REALLY AWESOME content to show
2) You want to quickly communicate what your community is and what its value is. Example from my defunct site Harajuju:



Anyway, I hope this was helpful.

I suspect the carousel is to feature really good original content. Or that it should be for. Because otherwise yes, it is making the page unnecessarily large.

(2016-08-12, 03:32 AM)Omar G. Wrote: [ -> ]I suspect the carousel is to feature really good original content. Or that it should be for. Because otherwise yes, it is making the page unnecessarily large.

If the blurred background is a CSS effect, it should go either way. Big waste of space.

(2016-08-12, 03:50 AM)brad-t Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-08-12, 03:32 AM)Omar G. Wrote: [ -> ]I suspect the carousel is to feature really good original content. Or that it should be for. Because otherwise yes, it is making the page unnecessarily large.

If the blurred background is a CSS effect, it should go either way. Big waste of space.

What a superb write-up and a great bit of help! 
The carousel is, as Omar states, intended for original content and competition wins (such as design of the week, etc). The blurred effect is purely to show how big it could go in terms of where I am wanting the restrictions. However I am thinking that I might just transfer this to a hero image with a join button - can I ask what Harajuju used to do with this when such users were registered? 

As for the "Welcome back" I thought that this might add a nice personal touch to make the site seem a little more user-friendly (again, just a small idea I had).
Nav alignment I appreciate is shocking, I will be fixing this in later versions (and when the design is finished).
The idea of using a seperate space for the icons for notifications and messages is a good one - I will absolutely be doing this now! 

Also to clarify, the design will be responsive once the design is done, and I find a developer that would be able to help me with coding the design. (Hope that this makes sense?)

I have always liked the appearance (although admittedly, it is slightly outdated now) of Harajuju, and this has been used as a small sense of inspiration. I will be completing version two once I return home from my vacation.

With all the above said, I hugely appreciate your comments as they have been a massive help and will definitely help me with my later editions of the theme. (Which by the way, to clarify, will be my own - not done for an external client).

Ah awesome, I'm really glad the feedback was useful for you. I'm working on redesigning worldbeyblade.org right now and plan to do a breakdown of its development and features like I did with Harajuju too

I get what you mean about trying to make the site friendlier with a welcome message ... I think there's potential, but it would need more impact. I was working on this design that I ended up abandoning that had something similar on the right side:



But generally, I don't think it's necessary. Everyone uses software and apps now, so being welcomed back doesn't have the same novelty it used to!

Quote:can I ask what Harajuju used to do with this when such users were registered?

We used template conditionals to display the block only to the guest user.

Quote:Also to clarify, the design will be responsive once the design is done, and I find a developer that would be able to help me with coding the design.

Good to know, but you should start thinking about this sooner than later, in my opinion. If you design the desktop version without considering the mobile version, you'll definitely run into situations where content doesn't adapt like you'd hope.

(2016-08-12, 05:47 PM)brad-t Wrote: [ -> ]Ah awesome, I'm really glad the feedback was useful for you. I'm working on redesigning worldbeyblade.org right now and plan to do a breakdown of its development and features like I did with Harajuju too

I get what you mean about trying to make the site friendlier with a welcome message ... I think there's potential, but it would need more impact. I was working on this design that I ended up abandoning that had something similar on the right side:

But generally, I don't think it's necessary. Everyone uses software and apps now, so being welcomed back doesn't have the same novelty it used to!

Quote:can I ask what Harajuju used to do with this when such users were registered?

We used template conditionals to display the block only to the guest user.

Quote:Also to clarify, the design will be responsive once the design is done, and I find a developer that would be able to help me with coding the design.

Good to know, but you should start thinking about this sooner than later, in my opinion. If you design the desktop version without considering the mobile version, you'll definitely run into situations where content doesn't adapt like you'd hope.

I totally get what you mean by people using software constantly, so the welcome actually might be best being removed. 
Great idea with the template conditionals for the hero image - I might steal this idea; if you wouldn't mind! 

With regards to the responsiveness, I honestly wasn't sure how's best - I was going to contact someone who could code my theme for me and see what they would suggest in terms of responsiveness, but actually it probably would be best to design a mock-up of how I would want it to look.

I thank you for your answers and help Brad-T, massively helpful!

You could move the carousel to the sides. On a desktop the side space is abundant. Since you plan it to be responsive it shouldn't be difficult to move it to where it currently is (top of content) and even remove it if the space is not enough (even smaller screens).

I do this in my forum, and believe is an important concept of responsive designs; you move around the elements depending on the size of the screen and remove them completely if it is necessary.

(2016-08-13, 07:31 AM)Omar G. Wrote: [ -> ]You could move the carousel to the sides. On a desktop the side space is abundant. Since you plan it to be responsive it shouldn't be difficult to move it to where it currently is (top of content) and even remove it if the space is not enough (even smaller screens).

I do this in my forum, and believe is an important concept of responsive designs; you move around the elements depending on the size of the screen and remove them completely if it is necessary.

That's a good idea, but I worry that the content might look odd on the sides - since it would be graphic design features such as signature of the week, etc. Though a good idea! I might look into that one

Thanks to iAndrew, you can now see this in action here:
http://creatorswave.com/forum