Building a Better NikeTalk: What are your favorite website designs/layouts?

Wow, terrific idea Meth. I agree with everything you've addressed.
 I won't delve too far into the mechanics of the site (however I agree on the aforementioned ideas i.e. rep system).

 From an aesthetic stand point, we can do MUCH better. How techy can we get though? Will the coding be as basic as now or do we have greater reach in that area?

I think we should go with a much more modern (even futuristic) look. 




I also think it would be cool to have a cover page of sorts. Just something simple, in a more updated font, with our logo large (and updated), and then a quote or description in a small font.




Here is a snapshot of a site I had bookmarked that I thought was simple, clean and still elegant. Obviously we would include our logo below the site name.

nl5Qm.png


After leaving the cover page I think we should be introduced to the cleaner, simpler, cooler and the more modern Niketalk.




Here is where we could get "techy" and it would be a lot cooler. 




I think we should have our main section names like:

The Vault 




The Kicks




The Lounge




Regional Forums




The Classifieds




and when you click (or mouseover) the options... a drop box will appear for us to enter the subsections like 

Nike Retro

Jordan Brand

General

Music

Sports and Training

similar to this one on Zara: 

yHV68.png


the sub sections could appear in a abstract sort of dimensional way to create a shape...like these steps. 

With the remainder of the space to the side, we could include our logo and allocate ad space.

leKAb.png






Lastly, I agree with keeping the color theme black and red..but I think we would benefit from manipulating a range of colors in the scale.

Grays, other shades of reds, even the golds in these photos look fantastic.




image001.jpg



image002.jpg









that's my two cents!




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Originally Posted by Method Man

Focus Group Guy: [after showing the kids some Itchy & Scratchy cartoons] Okay, how many of the kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real life problems like the ones you face every day?  [the kids cheer]  
Focus Group Guy: And who would like to see them do just the opposite, getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers. [the kid kids cheer again]  

Focus Group Guy: So you want a realistic down-to-earth show that's completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots?  [the kids all chat at once about it being a great idea]  Milhouse: And, also, you should win things by watching.  

Focus Group Guy: [sighs] 

It's difficult to take feedback too literally when we often have difficulty articulating exactly why we like something.  

For many of us, 80's - 90's NBA basketball defined all that we enjoy about the sport.  Those experiences became our standard for greatness.  No matter how great an NBA game or season may be, it can never quite recapture the feeling of watching MJ light up Madison Square Garden.  When we share footage of our favorite games with kids weaned on LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, we're often frustrated to discover that they don't see or appreciate them in quite the same way, just as most of us don't exactly melt at the sight of Dave Bing highlights.  You'd be hard pressed to convince the average 15-year-old that Rakim is superior to Kanye West, that Super Mario Bros. stomps on Call of Duty, or that Coming to America is funnier than The Hangover.  There's a novelty factor that can never be recaptured, and this influences your ideal standards.  

If sports never changed, if music never changed, if movies never changed, they'd have a difficult time attracting new audiences and the existing audience would grow bored of experiencing the exact same thing over and over again.  

The things that most of you liked about ezboard weren't exclusive to or even attributable to ezboard.  You liked ezboard because it was your first taste of NikeTalk.  The posts felt "better" because they were all fresh.  You'd never seen a WDYWT or PYP thread before.  You'd never given someone a stoneface before.  You'd never waited online for a QS sneaker release before.  All of those memories are associated with ezboard if you joined before 2006.  

Internet forums really haven't changed very much since the days of dial-up bulletin board systems.  It's been a glacially slow, iterative process (especially for yuku), but, for that same reason, people tend to assume that the features in place today were "always" present.  

Staying with ezboard would've been like running NikeTalk as a Telnet BBS.  The core would've remained the same, but the world would've passed it by.  Failure to evolve would have cost us the ability to recruit new users and/or offer existing users the modern conveniences to which they would become accustomed.  As stagnant as Yuku has been, it still represents a significant step above ezboard.  Remember, you would not be able to embed videos without Yuku.  Your avatar size would've been 60x60, as the ezboard system was created when the average desktop display was, at best, 1024x768.  Yuku added a WYSIWYG text editor (which is so standard now that most people don't even know what WYSIWYG stands for), integrated image hosting, customized profile pages with friends lists, and enhanced storage capabilities.  Prior to Yuku, each forum could only hold 20 pages of 20 topics.  That isn't even a week's worth by today's standards.  

Before Yuku, we had to store user warnings in a POST.  We had to go in and manually alphabetize entries for the sake of organization.  There was no such thing as a suspension.  

The problems people associate with Yuku (instability, sluggishness, and unreliable search functions) were either present before Yuku or a product of NikeTalk's growth.  Remember, Yuku was just a rebranding of ezboard.  It was essentially a new version, not a separate product.  If we'd had 80,000 members and millions of posts on ezboard, it wouldn't have held up very well to say the least.  

As much as people remember ezboard fondly, they also appreciate the additions of Yuku that everyone takes for granted.  If you love Coming to America, odds are it's not because you prefer VHS to Blu Ray.  

NikeTalk is going to change.  It has to.  The key, I think, is to ensure that future incarnations continue to deliver the same core experience.  Facebook and Twitter serve a different purpose than a message boards.  Message boards are essentially affinity networks.  You didn't join this board, initially, to interact with people you already knew.  You came here to learn about and discuss topics of interest and meet others who share those interests.  We're not going to lose touch with why people enjoy our community or try to make it into something it's not.

Unlike a lot of the imitators out there, NikeTalk actually embodies a set of founding principles.  We can use new technology express the same founding vision, so that the site can add functionality while retaining the same unique sense of place and character.

The front page is going to change.  It's been a glorified text menu for a decade.  It's inaccessible for new users.  It doesn't operate as a useful hub of information.  It doesn't direct your attention to quality content.  It doesn't help you keep up with the latest news.  

Content organization is going to change.  Subforums and a mediocre keyword search aren't enough on their own.  They aren't adaptive.  The existing search tag system isn't standardized and is, therefore, useless.  That's not good enough. 

Step 1 to improving NikeTalk was to upgrade the hardware - and that's been accomplished.  The software is next and, one way or the other, we expect and will accept nothing less than meaningful, if not dramatic, change in that area within the next 12 months.  

It'll still be NikeTalk.  It'll still be black, white, and red (though, at some point, we may offer additional themes as we did with this year's moon/sun toggle.)

It will be different, but hopefully we can build new features over top of what has proven to be a pretty resilient structural frame.  

 
Agreed, an app is useless, ISS developed one and it was the biggest piece of garbage ever...in all reality I browse NT 80% from my iPhone with no problem and that's on 3G....if I'm hooked on wifi...we flyinnnn
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I've commented on the mobile situation before, and our plan has always been to push for universal mobile optimization first and foremost.  NT is serviceable on the average phone, but far from ideal.  
The layout isn't properly formatted for small displays or touch input.  You shouldn't have to scroll horizontally AND vertically to browse a topic list.  If you look at the forum listing as a table (which, technically, it is) you should be able to touch anywhere within the cell to read a thread, not tap the text itself.  

We're not into this faddish "me too" obsession with dedicated apps.  There has to be a purpose to it beyond putting a glorified NT shortcut on your home screen.  Local file storage is a pretty weak excuse to install an application to your phone.  There are legitimately compelling features that can only be realized through a mobile app, but I think everyone would agree that the priority list should read as follows:

1.  Fix the main site.

2.  Create an optimized mobile layout for ALL portable devices.

3.  Create a cross-platform mobile application. 

I've spent a lot of time lately communicating with developers to conceptualize the next generation platform on which NikeTalk will run.  Whether that vision winds up being realized through Yuku or something else, however, remains to be seen. 

For those that are against a new look ^^^ http://niketalk.com/topic/311780
 
Originally Posted by Method Man



We want to make NikeTalk better for EVERYONE, and in order to do that we'd like to learn as much as we can about what you enjoy - not only about NikeTalk, but about websites that you only visit on a "casual" or "passive" basis.  
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this type of talk gets me nervous....hope ya dont overhaul da site to try to appeal to casual cats that are here today, gone today....
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http://www.pinterest.com is a major source of design/layout inspiration lately. http://www.dribble.com is good too. These are image heavy sites, though they have similarities with their simplicity, strength of typography, and modern look feel. I'd be interested in hearing what the landing page could possibly turn into. The fact is that niketalks landing page isn't different than any others, and not because of yuku, but just forum overall all have the similar layout. Whether its vbulletin or phpbb or whatever, each forum has the same kind of layout at its core (wireframe wise) with just cosmetic differences. I saw kanyetothe forums mentioned, and they are very clean and easy to use, but honestly implementing that kind of design is not too difficult if starting from the base theme. The search works well, they can handle a ton of users, latest posts are clearly visible and easy to find. But again, thats a product of the software being used, its nothing too new that they've implemented. But it works. http://www.oddfuturetalk.com/forums/ has a similar idea in terms of layout but you can clearly tell that theirs feels more busy.

http://www.macrumors.com/ does a good job of integrating blog/forum in that the home page news stories are in fact all from a forum from within the vbulletin site. There are many sites that use the same approach. All comments in the article are from the same thread in the actual forum, but on the home page it feels as if they are blog comments. I'm not sure if theres a requirement for the initial post to be emphasized as if it was a blog post, but that could work. And condensing comments to take up less space on a page as if they were comments to a blog, may make sense, but could also take away from the community.

I deal a lot with user experience/design related projects and would be willing to contribute further thoughts/input. I think it would be smart to list out the different personas, as you may already have them. Catering to many different users is important, but you have to make sure you don't go too far in attempting to cater to an audience that is not part of the core strategy.

Also, i'd stray from adding too many new features. Most are unnecessary, and the great thing about this site is its highly focused. Users love it because its something new to interact with, but in terms of layout it mostly clutters the page and detracts from the main point of interest. Its most important for us to list out all of our problems and figure out how to best solve those problems. Finding inspiration helps, but another sites form may not serve well to our functions.
 
Originally Posted by Tr1ll

I would like hot links at the top of each page. That way I can jump straight from a thread in Gen, to Retro, to Music and back to Gen without having to click on the "Niketalk" link.
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I think this is a great idea.
I think one like huff posts or 2dopeboyz.com would be great on here.

a few ideas i have off the cuff:

how abt a "like/dislike" or "thumbs up/thumbs down" feature for each post?

i feel like that can cut down on a lot of the re-quoting/"qft"/"qfe"/"/thread" stuff that doesnt really add much to a topic.

i dont know how practical this is but how about a way to tell what threads have been created since a users last visit?

in-board instant messaging system similar to FB chat? sometimes when i get a DM i dont notice them until weeks have passed and i feel like a douche for not responding in a timely manner.

I dont visit any other boards. What's a "rep system?"
 
I would also like to point out http://www.kanyetothe.com/forum/ as a few others have

Very nice layout and there's a handy feature that updates in real time at the bottom of threads when new replies have been added and you havent refreshed yet.

Also push notification for quotes and PM's are very useful. One of my favorite forums to browse simply due to the layout and features.

I also think we would benefit from a reputation system but then we'd also have to deal with clowns trying too hard just to get rep points and things of that nature.

Glad to hear the OG color scheme will stay, it is a must 
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Originally Posted by DCAllAmerican

Originally Posted by Dimelo

I think niketalk is fine the way it is
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Yep. The basic nature of Niketalk makes NT what it is. We don't need anything else cluttering up our smooth sailing basic loading screens. It is fine the way it is.



I would like a, "Go to first unread post" link to the left of each listed thread though. That would be nice.

If you add any other skins, please allow us to keep this same Vintage NT skin for those of us that don't want to change.
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thats about it....... everything else is perfect
 
Just do away with the wizard. As far as visual improvements, NT needs none. But like dude said, if you all do decide to add new skins, leave us the option to choose the current one.

The black background with the white and red font is dope as is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
If they move to the Drupal platform it may be better but with the kind of hits nt gets it won't be free. Post counts wouldn't carry over to that but the forums and stability would get better.
 
I think theverge.com does Forums decently, but I really like the UI on the site as a whole. As some others have said, I'd love a constant bar at the top showing me new notifications from threads that I commented in, and maybe you could put a button that could allow us to mark the thread to leave later. But if I had one suggestion above all, is that we need MORE PICTURES. They draw people in and keep them coming. The Verge, to bring it up again, has a newspapery feel to it and it looks great. I know a lot of those elements won't be brought into NT due to it mainly being a tech website, but some of the elements could make this site a lot more pleasing to the eye.
 
USAToday has an app on my TouchPad similar to the HuffPost app design. I'm a big fan of that for a landing page of hot topics for example. To your point, Meth, it would be difficult to establish a photo for all of the key threads, but not impossible. I have yet to see how that would play with a mouse and not touch.

Someone through out Windows Metro tiles ... another interesting way to view data. In reality, I'd love to see live tiles that update based on threads you have either visited or posted in, with key data points on number of unread posts in that thread for example.

In reality, I want a dashboard at the front, showing me the last 3-5 topics I have posted in and what has happened since last time I saw them (i.e. # of new posts). From there, I can decide if I want to get updates on those threads or find something new via the forums. That's where the visual design comes into play...I should easily be able to choose a new forum by clicking a tile, or within a specific forum/tile, see the popular topics and be able to click straight into them.

Some other thoughts:
-- Automatically go to first unread post as others have mentioned
-- Better polling system as I never see it used here...it's a must on other forums, generally sports related
-- Popular topics for each forum highlighted in some form
-- Rep (it works for all other forums I'm on, I think NT could adapt
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)
-- # of Views for topics included on top of # of posts
-- Hot topics where moderators are posting
          // Always thought it would be interesting to see the threads where mods are posting heavily, don't know why.
-- Photo albums for users
         // It would be fun to be able to rep the individual PICTURES just like you would rep a user or rep a post. Structured like pinterest perhaps ... would be interesting to be able to rate pictures (shoes, vacations, photography, sports whatever) and shine a spotlight on our user base who have some amazing skills. Perhaps that could be tied back into the home page somehow too.

Glad to hear on the colors staying the same and obviously a lot of things people ask for come with a cost. I have been here a long, long time and am interested to see where this goes.
 
I'm glad most of you say leave it as is. If the admins are really dying to make a new layout, at the very least have an option to switch between the new and the OG version.

The main issue with the site is the search function and other technical issues, beyond that I got no complaints.
 
Honestly I think we have a very easy settup. Nothin wrong but the search function is broke. black and red colorway is a MUST though
 
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