Should diaspora* jump into the "flat trend" bandwagon?

@seantilleycommunit If Loomio is based on Bootstrap 3, then I love it.

@goob Good idea, I think it is best to tweak one thing at a time, but do it well. I personally think the Sign In page is Diaspora's best design feat so far (even though it's not really 'flat') The header should be the next thing. Especially on the pages in which the "Sign in" link has kept a HTML link look.

@gillesphilippemori Loomio is based on Bootstrap 2, Bootstrap 3 is even better :-P

You can allways create a skin: http://userstyles.org/styles/browse?search_terms=diaspora

I like diaspora design and I don’t like flat, is boring.

Flat sucks.

Since I hate fashion, I'm all for custom styles. That doesn't mean we can't have a trendy, attractive default one. Flat sucks, yes, but if it's what's needed to catch potential newcomers, why not? Hope it won't linger for too long...

Custom Styles can be achieved with Stylish (like @albertoaru proposed). Maybe it's even useful to show some ideas.

For me, flat design isn't that attracting. We have to think about, wether it fits diaspora*. Is it in line with the message we want to send?

Otherwise we would have to follow everyyear's trend. Not very useful. Especially with our constrained designer staff in mind.

But I'm for "Content First". And I guess, this is doable without applying a flat design.

Especially on wide screens (you know, desktop PCs or working stations with a second screen) there's lot of blank space :-S

I don't understand what you mean by "flat" perhaps you could explain further or provide some links?

Flat Design on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Design

See also Gizmodo: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/05/what-is-flat-design/ and http://fltdsgn.com/

Hi! I work as a visual and UX designer, please let me contribute with my point of view.

I think the way the question was formulated is pretty biased.

Flat design is a trend, as thin fonts right now, or just as any other trend (remember "Web 2.0 glossy buttons"), you can follow a trend and be unique, just don't copy others.

As a trend, it can be emotion-less or not. What makes a design cozy? That's a challenge for the designer to play with.

When you say "it feels cold/unwelcoming/barebones for some" I think you are expressing an opinion. A client recenly asked me to change their whole site to "flat" because the current one looked to "heavy". That's the way trends affect people.

Opinion is subjective and not so good for user experience. The real factual disadvantage of flat design is that it loses visual hierarchy: users sometimes don't know what is clickable and what not, because a button ends up being just a colored square.

But that's not even a problem of flat design, it was a problem of Windows Metro UI mostly (Windows 8), that went too far.

In art, all trends tend to go to far, and then step back a little, if they are real trends. Flat is a real trend, glossy buttons not so much. What makes flat a trend is that it has a backing philosophy: content first.

So, flat was good in introducing that concept. That's it's contribution to the design world.

In order to have an updated look, you have to follow trends a little.

I would go with something more modern, cleaner, but not-so-flat. I like to have some volume in my buttons.

Current design looks a little old, I have to say, that's just the way things are in this crazy web era, 2 years old is old. 4 years is ancient history.

I think the problem with the current design is not cleanliness, it's that it should be more solid, consistent, and that should be achieved with consistent margins, paddings, font sizes, borders. Bootstrap will provide a better foundation for that.

I think the next challenge will be to come up with a design that looks more modern, but unique, rock-solid and appealing to new users. Any designer can log in into the site and immediately notice that it needs a more solid visual language. I think that's the next challenge, flat or not.

I agree with @goob @hola @ryunoki