PHPClasses.org, one of the most popular websites for the PHP and web developers community has launched a new design theme. The new theme was chosen during the first version of the PHPClasses.org design contest.

The contest was developed using their own site design theme editor created by PHPClasses. In this first edition the work of the designers was focused in the CSS files and the editing of the icons and background images. In this eddition it was not possible to drastically change the html layout of the site, so the result could be called as a “facelift” of the previous looks and feel, but it is not a totally redesign as all the PHP Community hope for future editions.

From the over 600 users tried the site design editor around the world, 34 users submitted design proposals that were voted in the election. InterGraphicDESIGNS (@igdonline) won the first turn with 20.98% of the votes, and we classified for a second turn with Guilherme Rivas from Brazil. In this second turn we got the 51.43% of the votes.

At this point, we want to say thanks to PHPClasses.org to give us the opportunity to participate in this contest and let the users express themselves visually. We also appreciate a lot all the feedback we received from users around the world, specially all the nice messages from the Costa Rica PHP Group.

InterGraphicDESIGNS interview on PHPClasses.org

PHPClasses.org also gave us an interview in the official blog to talk about this experience. In this interview, Ifat Amit, Ricardo Arce and Guilherme Rivas talk about the contest benefits and limitations, the exposure of this nice experience, and our suggestions to future editions of the design contest.

The before/after picture of PHPClasses.org

PHPClasses.org facelift

El sitio PHPClasses.org, uno de los portales más populares en el ambiente de desarrolladores PHP ya abrió el período de votación para seleccionar cuál será su próximo diseño web. El proyecto es muy popular por todos los contenidos que facilita a la comunidad y por ser un excelente espacio para compartir recursos, preguntas y productos entre los desarrolladores; sin embargo, a nivel de apariencia el proyecto requiere un rediseño completo, por esta razón, decidieron abrir un concurso en el cual actualmente participan más de 30 diseños enviados desde diferentes partes del mundo.

El concurso cuenta con la particularidad de haber recibido sólo aquellas propuestas que se ajustaran técnicamente a los requerimientos planteados por los administradores del proyecto (uso de tablas, evitar manejo de algunos elementos, deshabilitar javascript, etc),  fue necesario para esto utilizar sólo las herramientas que phpclasses.org facilitó a los participantes y así cumplir rigurosas medidas sobre qué partes del código era posible modificar.

Por esta misma razón nuestra propuesta sufrió algunos ajustes de última hora que hubiésemos querido evitar, sin embargo, tenemos la esperanza de poder seguir trabajando en la propuesta en caso de ganar el concurso para ajustar cualquier detalle pendiente. Por esta misma razón queremos aprovechar nuestro blog para publicar nuestra propuesta tal como la soñamos inicialmente, así como el enlace para que usted apoye esta iniciativa y pronto podamos ver un rediseño completo de este proyecto.

El concurso finaliza el 31 de diciembre, en caso de que ninguna de las propuestas gane con más del 50% de los votos se iniciará una segunda ronda de votación. Para InterGraphicDESIGNS sería un gusto ganar o avanzar en la competencia y participar en el desarrollo de tan alta exposición y calidad como PHPClasses.org

English user of PHPClasses.org?

Well, if you are reading this post, probably it is beacause you want to add some feedback to our design theme. In general we have seen most of the users like the elePHPant, the colors and the nice background. We also know there are some details that we must fix as the menu icons, the IE incompatibilities and more. We hope to have the oportunity to work on that if we win the contest, for this reason we also want to use our blog to show the design theme as we dream it at the beginning, in some moment, our design was accepted, but then the icons were visible again (for contest rules – and we didnt notice -) and well, some text alignment and issues appears but we hope to fix if you give us that oportunity giving your vote to this theme.

Important: This theme at http://www.intergraphicdesigns.com/clients/phpclasses/ is just a sketch, it is possible not all the features we show here could be developed at phpclasses.org for contest rules, but it is just the way we have to show our design capabilities and ideas for the project if PHPClasses.org give us the oportunity to continue working on that.

Thanks for all the nice comments and feedback we have received.

Some comments of PHPClasses.org users:

BEST OF THE GROUP. This is the most striking of all the designs. The 3-D panels and logo look to the future and make things pop. The colors are bold. I like the dark menu panels, but they don’t dominate which is good. The top login is very clear. Perhaps some other buttons could go there as well. I’m not so sure about the side pattern panels, but their color works. This is the standout submission.

Mike Blevins

NICE ELEPHPANT. It probably will, for me it’s the best .

Ioan Chiriac

GREAT JON: I really liked it 100% your template man. Congrats for that!

Fernando Martin