Show S2 how you would redesign it

[cpawfan]

<font face="book antiqua,palatino" size="3">At S2, we believe in our motto of For Sports Fans By Sports Fans and we want to give everyone a chance to show us what you would like to change about the site. Please use your favorite graphics program and produce what you would like to see. Feel free to critique as much or as little of the site as you would like. If you don't like colors, show us what you would like. If you don't like where things are displayed on the screen, then please show us where you would put them. There are plenty of things we haven't thought of yet, so please share what you would like to see. I can't promise that we'll use every idea that is presented, but we certainly review all of them and take everything into consideration. </font></p>

<font face="book antiqua,palatino" size="3">Please use this thread to post your layouts. </font></p>

<font face="book antiqua,palatino" size="3">Thanks, </font></p>

<font face="book antiqua,palatino" size="3">cpawfan</font></p>

</p>

 

[Denny Crane]

http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/entry...;entryid=159570</p>

We're leaning toward something like this.</p>

Your thoughts?</p>

</p>

 

[Denny Crane]

My take is</p>

1. The menus may not fit when we get all the sports we plan.
2. It's missing the top story. I want to replace the one top story with a fader that dynamically changes the top story every 5-10 seconds so we can have more than one.
3. Top story needs "comments" kind of display. We want to encourage people to read and post.
4. Points/Income/Sportsbook and other leaders could be in a fader type thing as well.
5. I like the site stats top right. First thing people want to do is evaluate how big the site is and decide if it's worth their while to see what the buzz is.
6. The team selector is awesome. It needs a tab system to choose the sport you want to select a team from.
7. It's missing "members viewing this page."
8. No login/register button.
9. The Recent Activities should also be tabbed: global/whole site, NBA, NFL, etc.
10. We want to promote blogs. So a bit to show the latest blog is missing.

</p>

 

[TucsonClip]

I really like that format and layout with the adjustments you are planning on adding.</p>

Heck I cant even see anything I would like changed on that layout, I will have to look it over for a bit.</p>

 

[ZAE]

Yeah, that looks really nice.

 

[CelticKing]

Looking good Denny,</p>

as for the menus, how about if we had two rows? wouldn't take a lot of space and that way we would be able to fit all sport or most (and then drop down for all the leagues, teams, etc) </p>

 

[Weasel]

<font color="#000080">It looks real nice but it is hard to tell if it will be user friendly from a screen shot. Make Petey test it out. </font>

 

[speeds]

Very attractive screenshot, Denny. A layout like that would make the transition for gobbled-up forums much smoother, I think.</p>

 

[Denny Crane]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Weasel)</div><div class='quotemain'><font color="#000080">It looks real nice but it is hard to tell if it will be user friendly from a screen shot. Make Petey test it out. </font></div></p>

At RoboSpeed</p>

</p>

 

[shookem]

I like it but points 7-10 need to be addressed before putting it in place.

 

[gambitnut]

I like it, I think it is a good start, but I agree with Denny Crane's 10 points and all of the comments so far have come from the first members here and I want to see what others have to say, expecially the ones who have complained about the layout we have now.

 

[Premier]

I like tab lists for news [NFL, NBA, etc.], and SportsTwo stuff [recent posts, recent blog entries, site features, sportsbook]. I like fixed width. I like faders. I like featured blogs, etc.</p>

Rough layout sketch I made with MS Paint a few days ago to convey my thought [ I am definitely not a designer

]:</p>

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/6696/layoutvo8.png </p>

</p>

 

[DP]

Omg! I love it! Except for the logo try makeing the colors blend more, it goes from the lighter gray to the darker gray. I suggest useing a gradient tool and starting it from the top of the box to the bottom and it will blend much better. Other than that I love it.

 

[Denny Crane]

http://sitepointstatic.com/contests/contes...61499-large.png</p>

That's the latest, and it's looking really close to what I want to see.</p>

With all the terrific blogs going on, and more surely to happen, I wanted to make sure we can highlight those on the home page, too.</p>

</p>

 

[Real]

That looks really great Denny.

 

[CelticKing]

Very proffesional. </p>

</p>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing)</div><div class='quotemain'>as for the menus, how about if we had two rows? wouldn't take a lot of space and that way we would be able to fit all sport or most (and then drop down for all the leagues, teams, etc)</div></p>Your thoughts Denny?

 

[Denny Crane]

I think as we add more sports over time, we're going to have to come to grips with how to fit it all on the menus ;-)</p>

For NCAA, we're shortly going to have standings/schedules/stats/etc., for like 1000 teams and for virtually every conference. All that's not fitting on a menu... </p>

</p>

 

[CelticKing]

Well you could have Basketball then from there show NBA, NCAA, european ball, etc and then once you click one of them, another drop down menu comes (nba with their teams), and NCAA with the conferences, etc etc. And then once you click a conference it takes you to their page where you links to teams and stuff like that.

 

[Denny Crane]

My thinking is we add NCAA basketball as one link to the basketball menu.</p>

There you get the top 25 list</p>

Click on a team, get the team forum.</p>

And we'd have a standings page that would have like all the conference standings on it</p>

So you could get to a conference from... 2 or 3 clicks.</p>

</p>

 

[CelticKing]

I like that. </p>

How about soccer, all the leagues under soccer? and then once you go to a league you have the teams. </p>

French league starts tomorrow. </p>

 

[Denny Crane]

Yeah</p>

I'm trying to get NCAA football up asap</p>

Soccer is next on the list</p>

</p>

 

[Petey]

Bump!</p>

Here are some additional prints.</p>

-Petey</p>

 

[shookem]

Looks good.</p>

Any idea on what would appear in the bottom right corner of the front page?</p>

Will team forums have the team's colours?</p>

 

[Denny Crane]

yeah, forums will be custom colors. I'm hoping we can add some video content and/or photos and that'll need room on the pages.</p>

</p>

 

[ATLien]

The photographs look incredible.

 

[Denny Crane]

Just so everyone knows the process...</p>

The designer made the page layout with a graphics program. Easy to move stuff around and try to get it the way we want. Once we approved it, he's been working on converting it to HTML. He's partway done with the home page, and a bit more of it has gotten done each day recently.</p>

Once the home page HTML is done, I'll work on getting the home page converted over. It's not just putting up the skin, it's making all the bits of it work - like when you click on a tab.</p>

The whole site is going to take some time to convert over. This isn't like a standard msg board (vb3, ipboards, etc.). We have all kinds of pages like stats and stories that need to be programmed to the new look. Bits and pieces of the pages will probably have the new look sooner than later.</p>

I'm enthusiastic about the look and look forward to us enjoying it as part of the S2 experience as soon as possible.</p>

</p>

 

[binz]

It looks really good. I can't wait till everything is done.

 

[S_Gurad]

You are looking at a hell of a lot more people joining this site if ahem* when that layout gets done. I like those mockups.</p>

I'll try to add my input when i get time. Excellent job to all of you anyway. </p>

</p>

 

[Denny Crane]

I'm working on the new home page right now.</p>

It's going to be SOOOOOOON.</p>

</p>

 

[JCB]

Awesome. Can't wait.