CE Phoenix Cart Forum

What parts cosmetically look poor/outdated in Phoenix ?

Can we make it more modern, more beautiful ?
What is your thoughts ?

Please, this is not a thread to let us know what functionality might be missing, all shopowners have different views on what is needed and what is not. This is all about the LOOK of Phoenix, both shop-side and admin-side. If anyone posts about functionality, I'll be forced to reply with a icon and a dad joke. ok.

Phoenix did get a bit of a makeover between versions 1.0.9.6 and 1.1.02 (or thereabouts). Some of the changes that were made might not have been optimal, so now's the chance to make it right.

More or less, there was so much going on at the time, that it was paramount to make it a bit prettier ... quickly ... to help with outreach (ie getting people outside the phoenix ecosphere to notice phoenix).

Anyway, what's your thoughts. All posts will be taken onboard and hopefully each post will create a mini discussion.

Design isn't bad, just it's a little too "Bootstrapish" looking. I think Phoenix should have a distinctive look all it's own, with perhaps 3 choices of colour schemes.

I remember when Mag...to was introduced the appeal came from the images. No shop owner knew about code - they just where attracted/impressed by the images and the overall look which was also not really revolutionary .. So use real life images (AI genarated). Both for products - and categories/blog etc.

Also I agree with @frankl a little bit less Bootstrap look - espacially for the buttons (I dont like the (full width) buttons and standard colours). I think two themes will be enough with two colourschemes. One Furnitue theme and one Grocery theme (since we allready use it).

No Pixel images will make a huge difference IMHO

burt wrote: ↑Thu Oct 23, 2025 8:35 pm What parts cosmetically look poor/outdated in Phoenix ?

Can we make it more modern, more beautiful ?

Newsletter manager and specifically the product notification. When you click send, you can indicate which product has been updated. It would be great if you select a product, and the image automatically appears. Then do your thing with the text and send. Out of the box, the email the customer receives is far from modern and outdated, in my opinion.

It is surprising when you look at bootstrap based sites online how many have not changed any of the colours.

Agree with @frankl The look and feel of phoenix is not that bad. The some of the larger cartoonish images dont look that good, but I understand why they are used.

I would say that all is needed is a templating tool so that users can see what css element is set to what colour, with a colour swatch, with an easy way to change that colour. Something similar to what can be seen in developer tools on browsers. It would then be possible for users to quickly change colours. Any changes would need to be saved to user.css or wherever changes will be saved.

I hope this is not going to be classed as a feature that is missing. Would hate to get an icon but would love to hear a dad joke. The only other thing could be a way to beautify the standard store emails, and may be any additional emails. Plain text looks a bit boring. Include logos, images, text and colours easily which would make them better for customers. We have tried an html email addon and that was not easy to use, or not easy to change the look of the emails.

A couple of bits I am not particularly keen on (assuming out of the box standard installation);

1. the extra horizontal menu underneath the main navbar
2. the search in the navbox (I thought a popup search was a good idea, but have had loads of feedback that it isn't)

@burt

I agree about the extra horizontal navbar and the search field.

I have been playing with changing the default template to a more modern stream lined design.

Using the override system and only modding basic template files, the majority of the changes are CSS

https://phoenix-demo.co.uk

I have replaced the products and banners with AI generated products

Obviously there are still a lot more files to override and some that can't be unfortunately but if a cleaner template is standard then it may make more companies and people take up Phoenix Cart due to pure aesthetics

Just my two pennies worth lol

Mark

I have replaced the products and banners with AI generated products

exactly!

So much more attractive!

The only other thing could be a way to beautify the standard store emails, and may be any additional emails. Plain text looks a bit boring

100%

I thought a popup search was a good idea, but have had loads of feedback that it isn't

- well - I don't like it - but that s personal. Should be easy (did not try yet) to make a module with a switch. Out-of-the-box (demo) I would drop it.

tessthepup wrote: ↑Fri Oct 24, 2025 5:33 pm Using the override system and only modding basic template files, the majority of the changes are CSS

https://phoenix-demo.co.uk

I have replaced the products and banners with AI generated products

Obviously there are still a lot more files to override and some that can't be unfortunately but if a cleaner template is standard then it may make more companies and people take up Phoenix Cart due to pure aesthetics

Just my two pennies worth lol

Mark

A nice clean look....very nice Mark.

Dan