For context, here’s what people complained about in the default theme, and thus what I tried to fix:
- Too plain.
- Too much empty space.
- Not enough info onscreen at once. They wanted higher information density.
- Unclear sometimes what page elements can be clicked on… like the start/end dates in the timeline widget.
- Unclear sometimes how page elements relate to each other… like posts, embedded posts, and quotes. Some people thought there weren’t enough visual cues to indicate the structure.
- Not enough visual separation between page elements. Everything appeared to be printed on one continuous document.
- People specifically requested 1-line topic list rows and tiger striping.
So I went for something more compact, more colorful, more three-dimensional, with more explicit visual structure… like a stack of cards instead of a single continuous document. Basically, the opposite of the flat minimalist style which has been popular lately.
Minimal themes are a good default since they’re practical, accessible, and neutral. But for people who want an alternative to that, I made something … different. 