Redesign of Website

I'm running a website that has a very old design that does not scale with screen size. So we have been working on a new site and we also got a new design. But to be honest the design of the new site is too clunky and when we sneak peaked it to our users they don’t like the design or the navigation. So I need a fresh set of eyes on it. [login to view URL] is an old style hardware review site with a big forum. So much of our traffic comes from the user generated content so focus has to be on that side of things. On the current site [login to view URL] we have a feature that shows the current forum posts on the left side of the site. This function should bee retained in the new site as it is a primary driver of our forum traffic. (on the site it’s the boxes called “Seneste forumindlæg” and “Køb/Salg”) The design needs to be scalable from phone usage to Desktop at a maximum width of 1200-1400 pixels. When designing the site the usability of the sites key functions should be the main focus. We have 3 main areas that should be “perfect” Front/landingpage [login to view URL] and [login to view URL] Frontpage of the site, this is where we present all our new articles and its also the place where users can find posts from our forum and our trading section. This should be a modern and inviting site that will intice the user to stay on the site and read on. As well as being a good place to see what’s going on at the site right now. Forum thread [login to view URL] and [login to view URL] This is our forum, most of our traffic is on this page so it has to be inviting and user friendly, both on the desktop and the mobile. The focus is on the content that the user writes so it has to be presented in a good and user friendly form. The way the current site works on the desktop is more or less perfect but need to be updated to a more modern presentation. The sidebar (“Seneste forumindlæg” and “Køb/Salg) must be present on this page on desktop and easily accessible on a mobile device. Article page [login to view URL] and [login to view URL] This is the articles that we write. The main focus on this page is that we have space for the content we write and that it scales to a mobile device. The main difference from the current site to the new site is that we want comments visible on the same page as the review. But the way its done in the new site is not so nice. So this page also need a bit of a refresh. Colors. The colors should be light and inviting but there should also be a clear difference from content and background. We like the color Blue like in the current sites top, so some blue elements would be preferred.