BigBlueBall v4.x Sneak Preview

Hey guys, just some more food for thought. I ran across this interesting implementation of vBulletin:

fring Forums – Questions, Answer, Comments and News

Okay be gentle, remember, I am not in the skinning/building business. I’m in the dry wit delivery and “make pretty pictures’ business.

The first thing that hopped at me is (like Dave) The edginess with the menu and all. I know, I know, forceclick. Goodstuff, so I’m glad that’s handled (I’m a messy mouse handler and sould struggle with menues that don’t forceclick) I’m only curious since this is a mockup how the menu will position. Just because I’ve seen some places that seem to allow too much space between their menu drop and the content so it looks kinda spacy and odd when the menu isn’t down (or will it by default be hanging down on some menu?) I just like playing with stuff, so a mock up is hard to see in action sometimes.

I think it looks slick, overall…if not a bit slippery, but overall it’s alright. I don’t know what it is, but I think I’ve always had an issue with the floating white box of death over a background since it can sometimes make things feel chlostrophobic, but I can definately see how it makes things easier to change for holidays and special events, so more power to you.

I really hope the footer isn’t going to be that ginormous. It seems -really- tall to me concidering just how much content is there ATM.

I love some of the alignment suggestions. The Google search does seem a little awkward where it is since the BBB header is centered in the globe. It makes me feel like one of those paste by numbers geocities sites where someone just aligned everything by top and didn’t take into account that the graphics content is centered differently. I realize that’s how it is on this site as well, but with the colored header, you can barely notice it. Here it’s very prominant.

The lack of separation between the header and the content makes me sad in the pants. I think it’s more of my menu-phobia, but I don’t know. It looks like it’s blending together, I suppose. Just makes things feel a little odd. Right now, you see the visual difference between header and content with color. There is a defined state between header and content…here, because the menu is so cslick looking, you don’t really get any difference. It just makes me feel funny. Like everything just feels like a big block of goo that’s not well defined. But it looks pretty.

The logo/globe looks really really overpowered by the sheer amount of text beneath it.

And a thought, since it was mentioned that the floating white box makes it easier to change the look for holidays and events…could it be possible to set up a contest for some more popular holidays for members to come up with backgrounds for the site? Do it a month or so in advance, have people build for two weeks, vote for a week, then have it featured the week of the holiday?

Feel free to take within a grain of sand…or salt…or other condiment. I just figured that since I’m actually on staff, I should probably -do- something, sometime.

Thanks for all the work, it’s lookin’ slick.

I think we should have a “Join now” or “Benefits of membership” button/link/text near the bottom of the forums page, where it shows the “What’s going on?” box.

Or at least somewhere on the forums page… Because I don’t see one. :p
This may or may not help the “new design”…It’s just a suggestion, and I feel it may help a little with membership rate.

I was just on here and it showed that over 1,300 guests were visiting. I figure at least a few will look down there and will say: “I wonder what the benefits of membership are?” *Click* “What the heck, I might as well join, BBB looks great!” *Sign up*

(See attachment for details.)

Guests already see a message about the benefits of becoming a member (see attached) but currently it only shows on the forum index. I’d like to make it stand out more, like the one at the vbseo.com forums, and I’d also like to set it up so that it appears on every page throughout the forums.

Sounds great Jeff! 🙂

I especially like vbseo.com’s “Welcome, unregistered” box in the upper right, with a “Register” link diagonally above it. That must push people to an extent to register.

Progress update?