A change of skin?

[SCORPIONINBLUE]

Hey!

Guys, I was wondering if you plan on changing the default skin for Avast?  I'll relate a little story to you.  I needed an anti-virus program and like so many other lemmings out there I thought I only had two real choices Norton or McAfee, so I went out and paid $50 for Norton, guess what? It's such a memory hog, that it wouldn't download complete in my Pentium II, naturally I wasn't a happy camper, trust me!  I went to www.download.com and did some research and ran across Avast, I read the reviews by all of the enthusiastic users, and then looked at the screen shot.  Well, I'm going to be honest guys that skin is very unimpressive and I willingly confess that looks do make a strong impression in my mind.
Since Avast didn't look that impressive, I went on to investigate AVG, but they just didn't compare in the reviews I read with Avast.  I think you guys should retire that skin and get something that befits the quality of Avast, why not have a poll among your users, I'll tell you hands down, that my choice would be SZC-KDE by SZ Craftec, it's  really impressive, and lends authority to Avast, and is  very easy to read and use.  I'm sure I'm not the first to mention this so keep it in mind!!

Scorpioninblue

[DavidR]

There is nothing stopping you downloading other skins or disabling skins completely.

avast comes with 3 skins when installed, so it is possible to quickly change skins without having to download others.

[Lisandro]

Scorpion, this was talked a lot in the past (as you've said).
Anyway, a matter of taste... Some users, like me, was attracted to avast because of the skins  
By the way, SZC-KDE is really great!  

[szc]

There is nothing stopping you downloading other skins or disabling skins completely.

avast comes with 3 skins when installed, so it is possible to quickly change skins without having to download others.

@DavidR - SCORPIONINBLUE was refering to presentation of avast! in the public, not which skin is good looking or bad looking. I've also noticed some not-so-great looking screnshots of avast! in the past. Can't recall what was the skin, but it looked pretty plain. I am not one of those that would like to see avast! as a game-console-style antivirus, but something "stronger" than just plain look, as avast! "official" screenshot, would be always welcome. I'm sure it will attract even more people. Packaging design sells the product ! 

Bottom line, that's just one of many things that puts avast! on the top... some people like skins, some don't... some even hate skins, but at least we can tell we have opportunity to change the look of our antivirus... others don't...

Cheers !

[DavidR]

Ahhhhhhhh - now I understand. Having seen some reviews with screen shots, those reviewers aren't going to go to the trouble of changing the default skin just to review avast.

Sorry ScorpionBlue for getting the wrong end of the stick.

[SCORPIONINBLUE]

Yes, my point was that potential customers like myself naturally want to see the screen shot to see what everyone is raving about, an impressive screeshot will  help that person make that decision quicker,  that skin does no justice whatsoever to Avast, as I said before I looked at AVG's screenshot and might have chosen them, but after digging deeper into their reviews they didn't compare so I gave Avast a shot, which I'm damn glad of!!! Now let's face it, appearances are crucial in such a competitive marketplace like yours.  Avast  is heads above  the "big boys'' and should have a better screenshot conveying that superiority,  first impressions are extremely important!!

[Lisandro]

Scorpion, now I understand your point of view. Sorry, I did not at the first time. My fault.
I agree with you, screenshots could make a good impression or the user could go away from the software.

[szc]

Exactly his (and my) point... if you wanna sell something and competition is huge, you have to be and look better than the rest... Of course, quality of the product is always and it will be always much more important than graphical design of that product, but regarding that, I'm not afraid at all for avast!

This antivirus has so huge reputation even if it's presented with low-res skin, but as we all concluded, first impression is very important indeed...

Cheers !

[o2xygen]

Are you saying that the new skin is unimpressive or the screenshot in download.com...
I just seen it and its of an old version...
The new skin of 4.6 is very well refined in my opinion... Better than the old one

[SCORPIONINBLUE]

I was talking about the screen shot at download.com not anything current, that shot is seen by thousands of visitors.

[TAP]

The following things that I think ALWIL should urgently change to improve its products.

1. avast! detection rate and response time to non-urgent malware.

2. ALWIL website, I think avast! website really lacks needed infromation about malware. We've seen so many major threats in a past few months but avast! website was stopped at Win32:Zafi-D, I think ALWIL team should write up a needed infromation about major malware to keep website alive than it is now and when look at Viruses information page so it looks a bit out-of-date and not informative for uses, these all not so good for avast! in terms of marketing scheme.

[xistenz]

Maybe we should hold a competition to see who can make the best-looking avast! skin and then present it to the guys at Alwil and see what they think of it.

[szc]

Well, competition or not, I don't know... we don't really need to "fight" whose skin will be avast! "default" publicity skin (skin that will represent avast! on all those web sites). I am the first one to agree that avast! default skin should be any of those skins Martin Novak (Alwil official graphic designer) made. There is no doubt... it's just, Alwil should use one of his skins looking much better than that blue one (Blue Panel 4.0) often used on those web sites to represent avast! antivirus.

In my humble opinion, Blue Panel 4.0 should be replaced with SILVER PANEL skin immediately. Also I adore my avast! Brushed skin, nice and clean, professional looking, but as I said earlier in this reply, default skin should be the one made by official Alwil skin designer, not someone from "a side".

Right now, I think, it's more important to think how to represent avast! to the internet world in best possible way, than to "fight" whose skin is better... that's just my humble opinion.

Cheers!