Sneak peek: new Magento theme included in the next Ultimento version
June 18, 2011
Hey guys! We’re currently working on a new Magento theme that will be included in the next Ultimento release and I wanted to share some screenshots and maybe even get some feedback 
.
Adding new color schemes to Ultimento (in addition to the existing 3 Magento themes that are currently built-in) is something you’ve asked for repeatedly. So we got to work and started the process of designing, testing, optimizing, testing again, doing more optimization, etc…
The thing is that we’re particularly concerned about performance in terms of SEO, conversions, and load speed. At the same time we want to maintain Ultimento’s extremely broad browser support (the widest browser support I’ve seen in the Magento industry by far) and keep the versatility of the design so that it’ll be easy to customize.
We have tons of great intuition. But intuition is not always enough when you want to achieve really good results under these conditions and criteria. You’ve got to test, re-test, and test again.
We’re experimenting on many different variations to obtain the best possible conversion rates and optimum usability. We’re also aiming for a design that’s not too overkill. The “overkill design” thing by the way is the most widely spread mistake amongst Magento theme designers as they want to showcase their design (in order to sell them) without worrying about whether or not their Magento themes are actually any good in terms of Ecommerce conversions!
Without further delay, here’s what Ultimento’s new Magento theme looks like:
Home page:
Ultimento New Magento Theme - Home Page
Product listing (category page) – grid view:
Ultimento New Magento Theme - Grid view
Product listing (category page) – list view:
Ultimento New Magento Theme - List View
Cart page:
Ultimento New Magento Theme - Shopping Cart Page
We’re working in full throttle to release the theme as soon as possible. If you have any suggestions for a particular theme or would like to share some ideas, let us know via comments below! Your feedback will help us improve before the release .
Maybe having a way to change color themes that way Ultimento would be customized to whatever color you require. Instead of picking from just 4 colors themes if you had a way to have a color picker or some kind of admin function to change the theme colors it would be better. As to the new theme i am not fond of blue background i like more minimalistic themes like your original white with green, maybe a white with orange would look cool. I am about to launch my Ultimento site and thank you for the continious updates and the great extensions. Keep up the good work!!!
Hi Javier – thanks for your kind words!
Currently you can already select directly from the Magento admin which Magento theme you want to use on a given store view. But I totally see your point – a more advanced color picker would be nice
. Also I’m also found of minimalistic design and white with orange would look awesome! We’ll keep that in mind for the next theme.
Looks great! Roughly when is it due for release?
Hi severn – thanks for the kind words! It’s planned for the following Ultimento release (right after Ultimento 1.6 which we’re about to release in the next few days).
The Magento theme is complete but we want to take the time to thoroughly test it with all possible scenarios and make sure it’s 100% production ready. So we’re using the theme on one of our live stores for a few weeks before releasing it. Make sure to follow @ultimag on Twitter and to subscribe to the blog RSS feed to stay tuned!
Awesome, looking forward to it.
Any chance you’ll be able to add the ability to click through (and/or view a preview on mouseover) to simple products from grouped products and also have SKUs/ ISBNs/ custom product attributes displayed on both grouped and simple product pages? It would make selection and processing a lot quicker and more user friendly, imho.
The preview on mouse hover will be definitely included as well as all the other Magento extensions that come built-in Ultimento
.
As for the attributes being displayed on the frontend, it’s an easy customization that can be done on any store but I don’t think it should be displayed by default on the Magento theme. Different merchants will have different needs in terms of product attributes.
Is a red color theme planed ?
Yup! New red and green color schemes are planned. We don’t have an ETA for these but make sure to stay tuned this summer
.
You state “…a new Magento theme that will be included in the next Ultimento release”. For clarification, the Ultimento theme that is currently available (1.6.x) is NOT being replaced but that there will be 2 themes to choose from?
Hi Jason – I’m not following your question. This Magento theme will be included in the next Ultimento release (not 1.6 but the next one) in addition to the themes already included.
Hope that clears things up!