Designing a Simple and Attractive Interface for Live Group Chat

Do you like simple, nice-looking things? You will be pleased to know that Chatroll has just undergone a massive user interface redesign! Right from the start, we have been obsessed with providing the best interface for live group chat available on the ‘net.

Chatroll is the first network of live communities, so the challenges are all new and there is a lot of experimenting involved, but we’ve made some big steps along the way, and we’re very happy to share some of the results with you!

Not counting all the little tweaks and improvements, here are the BIG changes you can see in action on Chatroll:

• New Colors! - Gone are the old blue and gray, and in are new friendly green and blue. We’ve also gone with the “web 2.0″ style of glossy buttons and headings. The new colors make the interface that much more easy on the eyes when you’re online for a long period of time, as you are likely to do if you’re online during the whole UEFA Euro 2008 tournament!
• New Front Page Look - The front page now features 3 of the most popular forums at the top. This gives the front page more of a magazine-style look. It’s a fine balance between displaying as much content as possible on every page, while keeping that content looking its best.
• Flexible Layout - Chatroll now looks a lot better no matter what size of screen you have! Whether you have the biggest new widescreen or that reliable 90’s workhorse desktop with a 14″ screen, Chatroll will look great for you. Forums with a lot of content, such as the Music Videos forum, will appreciate the added space.
• Most Active Users - The most active users on Chatroll are now visible on every page, near the bottom-right. This list is completely live, so you always know who’s online and who’s active. This feature is immensely helpful for meeting new members.

Seeing all your live communities on one screen is a great way to have group chats with others interested in what you’re interested in. Normally that much information would lead to massive information overload. We’ve put a lot of effort into creating the best group chat interface out there, and we hope you’ll find that tracking all your interests live is that much more manageable and fun!

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback and ideas for future improvement. But for now, go check it out!