The themes look nice and seem an improvement over the default theme.
Some comments:
- I don’t understand the meaning of a circled arrow (→) at the left side of „Our courses“. I assume that it’s either a button to scroll things, or a way to point towards something that needs attention (as in „start here“)
- I’m surprised that the images are so large that only one and half courses fit in the screen. I like large images but they’re so large that it may cause a lot of scrolling
- I like how the design isn’t overloaded with information. However, courses have a variety of information and it would be good to see real examples. Real examples have more options: many enrollment options, certificates, paid courses, already enrolled courses, …
- I like the color scheme (turquoise). The second one will work but it’s hard to classify it: it’s not a light theme, it’s not dark; it’s a combination of white and black, with high contrast. I think it’s good to provide it, since many people will like the high contrast theme (2nd one) whereas others will like the soft one (1st one).
- Both themes require the background image to be dark (otherwise the text would be illegible)
- bright turquoise vs. light green border: I think it’s better with no border, or with some padding but no additional color. I think it’s not worth introducing a new color just for 1 purpose (the border). However, I don’t mind the black border if it doesn’t take too much space: it will be ok if for instance there’s padding just on large screens
- at the course view there’s a play button (circled triangle), probably to play a video. But I find it confusing because it’s located in the center of the screen. If the video takes the full width of the screen, that position is fine, but then the left bar would either overlap the video or disappear (both weird). If the video player doesn’t take the full width, then the play button could look better a bit more to the right, i.e. in the center of the video player.
- the circled triangle may be too subtle to communicate the existence of a video. The page has 3 decorative images and the student needs to realize that triangle isn’t just decoration but a button that will display a video. Compare it to the edX site (e.g.) where there’s a button with the words
Play video. - It looks like the theme doesn’t support showing an organization logo over each course (like in this theme); I’m not sure if it’s intentional. Probably most Open edX users won’t require more than 1 organization
- the user can see (and scroll through?) 1 or 2 courses here („Our courses“) but, after doing that, I don’t see a button to explore „more courses“ (the rest of the courses). The user would have to scroll upwards and click „Explore courses“, which is a weird feeling (it looks like having to backtrack and start searching again). Compare it with the Explore more courses button.
- the left bar is static while the background moves. This creates many situations where the text is unreadable; see image below. I think that the current system passes some of the burden the user who customizes the theme, because he/she will need several attempts to make the images and text colors readable in any position. I’d like the default color+images to always fit, in any position, but I don’t know what would be best for that; a text shadow? text contour? background box?
