Coming Soon...
Ahoy there – Some of you might remember a few mock-ups that were posted a while back of MyBubble and the Groups updates which included a new site-wide navigation on them. Well, we’re going to be releasing this navigation this week, so we thought we’d give you a bit of a preview so you don’t fall off your chairs when it happens, explain a few of the changes and ask for a bit of feedback. While this might feel like it, it’s not a “new RedBubble” or a “complete makeover” – we’re just tweaking things to help us help you a bit better.
So here it is:
There’s probably 3 main reasons we’re changing the nav. The first is for consistency among all of our nav – we realised that we’ve had you dancing all over the page to get to different things, so we’re connecting as much of the nav as we can into one spot that stays put! The next obvious change is we’ve moved away from image-based menus which means the nav loads faster and the whole nav can scale with the browser text-size setting, which helps out our accessibility friends. Lastly, we needed to change the way the nav worked behind the scenes so that moving forward, we could implement some of the great ideas we’ve got for updating the site, but faster. All this means that we’re spending less time working around older styles and more time making stuff for you guys! (which really is a good thing right?) Gone are the gradient buttons and the odd little drop-shadow guy that was hanging off the left of the menu, but along for the ride has come a fancy new giant “_you really will notice it_” BubbleMail indicator.
Unfortunately, IE users won’t be seeing things quite as funky as everyone else – but we’ll push out some IE fixes as soon as we can to get it a little closer. Needless to say, you can still use everything in IE, just with a few less curves and you could always grab Firefox , Safari or Chrome and then you’ll get the full-curvy-goodness straight away.
Because of the site nav changes, we’ve had to go through every page of the site and tweak everything to match and fit as some of the pages were relying on the old navigational styles for odd things. We’re getting rid of the gradient-grey background that has been site-wide, and replacing it with a full-white background that’s going to make your images pop a lot more, as well as freshening the place up a bit.
The question we have for you is, what do you like, a full-white page, or something with a white background, but framed in a grey. Don’t get mixed up, we’re not talking about a fluid, expanding page here, just whether you’re more interested in a plain white background, or something like a rectangle of white within a light grey. This isn’t a vote or anything as fancy as that, we’re just after a gauge of what you guys are expecting.
As a bonus, while fixing the forums you’ve scored a bit of extra width for reading and writing:
There’s a few other little things that have changed like the size of text boxes on the Add Writing + Journal screens, the groups + forum search boxes are a little more obvious, we’re limiting the width of images in journals, comments and descriptions, the default site font is standard across all platforms now (sorry Lucida Grande lovers) and a whole bunch more.
Like I said, we’re doing this so that other updates are easier on us and faster to you, and if you find a page that we’ve missed that’s gone crazy with its layout, just let us know and we’ll sort it out – but hopefully overall you’ll like what’s getting released.
Cheers guys – Russ
ps. For those of you keeping score, worry not, we’re still busy fixing up the Group News parts of MyBubble too. We really wanted it to release this week, and while we are putting a Group News feed in your activity feeds, we’ve got a few final tweaks before we get the Group stuff in MyBubble 100% right, so here’s a little preview of where we’re going with it just to keep you up to date:
MuscularTeeth
sounds like great news
Danny
sexy
Tama Blough
Looks good – I can go either way on the page – whichever loads faster.
Lance Jackson
Looks very shiny!
Elana Bailey
Looks groovy babe.
samedog
Like it all, and I’m for a white background framed in grey.
square
sweet. can never have too much ‘pop’.
BackStage at RB replied
So long as there’s a healthy dose of Snap & Crackle to go along with it ;)
Juilee Pryor
mmm mm that looks wonderful … all go at RB HQ…. nice
Colleen Milburn
Cool – looking good, guys!
And as for your query re our opinion, I’d like a plain white background, please, i.e. no gray bits at the side – all the better for images to have less distractions around it!
Colleen Milburn
P.S. My absolutely ‘druther’ would be a black background with white font!!! (and a choice of colours for background and fonts)
Alison Johnston
One thing missing from the new format is a direct link to the Forums, which I would really like to see included. The white background looks Ok to me.
Colleen Milburn
Great idea, Alison!
Alison Johnston
P.S Russ, this is the WWW and lots of browsers exist. IE would probably be one of the most popular along side Firefox and Safari.
BackStage at RB replied
If there’s anyone who knows what browsers exist, you’re talking to him (that’s me Russ replying as backstage) – It’s not like we’re leaving poor IE out of the game, it’s just that for very little effort extra we can make things look remarkable in FF & Safari, whereas to make thing just WORK in IE take alot of effort, so when it comes down to the time, I’d rather design everything to standards based browsers looking fantastic and then bring IE to an acceptable level rather than waste everyone’s time backwards-hacking everything for IE.
alexkess
Yippee love the new plain menu bar. Also I think plain White background is fine. It’ll make the photos pop out more. Group news look great that is exactly what we need to communicate with the members effectively.
WendyJC
sounds like some more wonderful updates!
plain white or partial, all looks good :)
John Robb
Yep looking good. My thought is pain white would work a touch better. Hope you are keeping things to 1024 in width.
BackStage at RB replied
Yesiree – 1024 people are still safe, we haven’t forgotten you yet!
Dorothy Venter
It sounds great. A plain white background will go a long way.
KiwiAna
Looks Good! Maybe white would look cleaner.
valzart
Woot lol! wonderful work you guyz ;}x happy hippy hugglez
adgray
OOOh Peeps you are wonderful!!!
Now you have told us what we’re getting you have actually excited us to get it!
Re the page … UM White is fine to back Visuals but our eyes are going to end up squinting whilst trying to read [not good for readers of writers … get my drift? lol] But I like the grey behind the white page – to define it.
But then I’m a writer I know nothing of photographic popping! lol
Thank you for the pre-briefing!
Chookas! X♥X
BackStage at RB replied
“But I like the grey behind the white page” <—Are you referring specifically to the Written works pages?
Cathie Tranent
Shiny! Don’t mind the grey on the edges … but probably better viewing photographs without it!
Marion Cullen
Very slick, can’t wait to see it in action .
I too would prefer the all white alternative.
Jane Keats
Although the grey looks good in that small pic, I reckon I’ll agree with all white, probably less distracting and easier on the eye.
Stephen Colquitt
White on white for me – looking forward to playing with the new toys
Karin Taylor
Hmmmm nice!
I love all white because of it’s clean look… But ….. The little bit of grey is definately kinder on the eye, and draws you into the image. The eye bounces away from the image due to the stark white I think…it tends to repel the eye, wheras that little bit of grey welcomes the eye in. It’s only a small and probably insignificant observation though
barnsis
Looks good to me – white on white I would say.
prbimages
Looks excellent! You guys are doing a wonderful job.
White background for me, please.
DeviousLili
Sexy is right! White inside a bit of gray has my vote. White on white seems so … purist.
Thanks, all of you! :D
Pip Gerard
DEFINITELY ALL WHITE!!
Exciting changes… I’m an IE user though so won’t see the sexiness of it :D
joan warburton
I like the framing grey behind the white and thanks for all of your hard work.
joan warburton
........... forgot to add, the grey frame is easier on the eyes.
Chris Jackson
I love the new changes. keeping it simple is looking great. Less if definantly more!
I would go with all white for the background. The grey borders make me feel a bit hemed in.
Keep up the good work you guys :@)
Sue Ireland
Looks Great I like plain white easyer on the eyes of us older folk
Anne Staub
Looks like so far, you’ve got the same amount of grey or white preferences. I’ll say grey with enough white :).
All looking very good!! :)
D R Moore
I do like the new look much better than the old.
Fingers crossed that this link my groups will be organized Alphabetically.I like the group news but I would like an rss/atom feed for that. Sorry what I realty mean is I like the all white background.
Great work and I’m looking forward to the new sexy redbubble.
BackStage at RB replied
”...organized Alphabetically” – This may have slipped in with the tweaking ;)
And you might like to get the RSS/Atom feed idea into the feedback.redbubble.com list…
genevievem
I like white.
Mike Emmett
Veeeery sexiful, Russell san.
Al Neaimi
White on white i think it will look nicer , great news, i like the new look .
butchart
it looks like group “avatars” will become visible again.. which is a wonderful thing….. along with a tidbit about each group.. i think it will help boost group participation and give group hosts the ability to incorporate avatars as rewards in challanges and singleing out exemplary work…...... all of this again proves that you “guys” behind the scenes work very hard to make RB a wonderful site and have the best interests of the entire community in mind….......... props and thank you to all of you…......b
(white on white)...................
Paul McClintock
This is looking super sexy. To be honest, I’ve felt that the redbubble ui had been lagging behind the rest of the internet in terms of sexiness… this should fix it good.
Paul McClintock
ps… I’d like to see a plain white background, rather than having grey sides. Just for a change. Grey is yuck.
Sarah Grace
I’m with most everyone else. White on white looks so much better than having a gray stripe on the page. Nice job guys!
Janis Zroback
Please just pure white…they grey makes it busy and I think it looks better clean…in so many of the other art listing sites you can’t find the art with all the stuff on the page…
Janis Zroback
Keep up the great work…
blamo
Looks much more neat and tidy Crack open the champagne
Jonathan Dower
nice. pure white is the best way, though here’s a concept… widescreen version of the site? :D nah i know it would take loads of formatting then be a significant issue for those without widescreen monitors.
but nice navigation bar, looks great, and nice and simple.
MoxieNox
Awesomeness! Keep up the great work, guys! And I’d rather be looking at white than grey.. Pink isn’t bad either…. Or purple? lol.. Just kidding!
adgray
I wasnt but now you are offering …. :O)
I’d love to bring COLOUR to the written work via the page shade …. pale shadows like you propose for the grey shadow behind the page …. could we have choice of colour? Pale of course – a nice faded brick red or luscious green or sea blue …. it may make reading our black words on white page a little more enjoyable. perhaps even back grounds for inclusion in the art category: like my Hush in the Bull Rushes poem
eg:
I’d also love the written pages to be wider – say another 6cms to this with ability for tabs & full spell check [synonyms, program-able etc] – Bread & Butter tools for writers! – gives poems the right LOOK [poetry being about the look of it as much as the sound of it – written art!]
well you offered :O)
But you guys just give us so much I love this site! ♥☼♥
stevengeer
All white please…
coppertrees
White is cool I like Black as well.
Isa Rodriguez
you guys are my secret love.. this is rocking…. white on white is perfect..
Eva and Klaus ...
The grey looks more elegant BUT I actually prefer the pure white – it looks more generous.
Thanks for all your hard work!!!
felinemind
I like the grey as it really focuses your attention on the white area.
Jo Hoden "C'...
looking good
Tania Rose
great!
Can we also have a direct link to the forums PLEASE
As for either greay or white, 6 one way – half a dozen the other.
Mary Campbell
I like the full white page better than the framed one. So is this going to be the standard for the whole site, all pages will look the same. Looks good on the activity page, will it effect the user’s gallery page too? How will the customers know when they click on Art that it’s not your art it’s taking them to, but All art on RB? I also, see a shopping cart is replacing the send it button, what happens here?
Too bad IE is not working as that’s the browser we have at work. I guess I’ll have to see how it all works once it’s cut over.
Mariaan Krog
It can go either way on the page.
Whichever loads faster.
Terri Chandler
I’ll sing your praises if I can still at the very least get on the sight once the change takes place…....I.E. user and as much as I love you guys, I’m not “loading” a new browser. ;o(
Sorry.
ROUBLE RUST
A full-white page please!!!!!!!
Good work guys – they all look really great, really.
RiSH :
Love the text based navigation bar.
Also think full white pages make things look better.
The new links under my bubble tab are perfect,
but I think calendars (if not journals) should have been included under main horizontal tabs.
Also there shoul be a product based navigation option (like card, poster, framed print)
Another small thing … th new bubble mail notification giant is welcome but nt beside my bubble, can you place it at top (beside cart) ... pending cart items and unread bubblemails will give red signals, otherwise cart and bubble mail notification should be plain text linkd on simple white.
cinquain
I really like the grey. It gives the page contrast. All white makes my eyes bleed. :(
Sorry if I missed it in this post, but when is the new group overhaul going to take place? I’m excited to spruce up my group page. My impatience is making me itchy!
yobbo
go with the white, it looks cleaner and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of space. Some would say its design.
Sharon Mau
Aloha Russ,
It was the first thing I noticed when I logged on tonight, the page is cleaner, brighter, and well organised. It seems as if a different font is used, and in some cases text is larger. I love the new tabs, and the artist’s bio data field on each image. No more “play nice”, the RedBubble Etiquette wording is more professional.
There are many wonderful new changes with the group pages as well.
Overall I like the new look very much.
I would love to have a black background, it would be sensational! Otherwise, I opt for white on grey, it is much more aesthetically pleasing than only white.
MayaEidolon
I prefer the all white, not the white with grey borders. It looks more professional.
Also, I don’t especially like the new upload image page. Now I have to scroll down MORE than once to upload each image. What gain is there to offset the annoyance of needing to scroll down several timesto complete the uploading of each image?
Foxfires
Wonderful!! Love the white on white page!
memac
Go with the white – the gray detracts. Thanks for all you RB people are doing for us! memac
(aka M. Elaine Macdougall “Sunny Days Originals”
Barbara Applegate
I love the new look, I think white only is good its crisp and clear
Keith Richardson
A special request – the Calendar pages – my calendars look so small – readers are not able to see some of the text, for example, that I have incorporated into the images such as here, and there is no way they can enlarge the image to see.
Many thanks for the wonderful development of RB that keeps on happening! Keith
BackStage at RB replied
Thanks for the comment Keith. You might also put in the ideas forum – where we’re trying to keep track (and prioritize) all of these suggestions.
synthpaintann
If its to do with fast loading of image.. I’m all for it!!