UP3 Theme & Skin Concept 1.1

After I posted the UI concepts for UP3 I was contacted by a few people who asked me to give them a hand in translating the static designs into a working theme and skin that would replace the older 2.x theme and skin currently being used in UP3.

Since I'm not a programmer by trade, the only help I was able to offer was to produce a few more screens and other design elements (icons, etc.) that would illustrate how the design could be applied to other views in the portal.

It was actually Shawn Lonas who did all the heavy lifting by wrestling with the code and making the whole thing come together. I've been promised that a link to the source code will be provided soon, so stay tuned.

As for the details, I'm hoping Shawn will be able to fill you in when he gets the chance. I will just say that as for a general approach, we chose not to revolutionize the theme at this point. While I would love to see a new and exciting theme that takes advantage of modern conventions in usability, rich AJAX functionality, and innovative design features, the goal of this theme and skin was to release a visual update rather than a functional one.

I've included a slideshow for those interested in seeing how the other screens will look once the new theme and skin are made available for download. Enjoy.

UP3 Skin Preview
This is a groups manager mockup (not included in the final skin yet) that illustrates how a swap of icons and some simple clean up can help it look.	This is a portlet admin mockup (not included in the final skin yet) that illustrates how a swap of icons and some simple clean up can help it look.	The unathenticated guest view
Main athenticated view	Focused view tempate (puts the emphasis on content rather than skin and header)	Preferences view
Preferences with locked fragment