BuddyPress Sliding Login Panel delivers a fancy, smooth AJAX login experience for BuddyPress users. It also includes an account center with a full user menu. I put this plugin together based on the iRedlof Ajax Login by Rohit LalChandani but have completely re-worked it for use with BuddyPress. The plugin adds a tab to the top of the page to pull down a panel where the user can login. I wrote in a BuddyPress profile and account preview center for logged in users where they will be able to check out a teaser of their new messages and friend requests as well as navigate to other areas of the site.

BuddyPress Sliding Login Panel Plugin Features:

Logged Out Users: The panel displays a welcome message, link to registration, password retrieval, and an AJAX login form.
Logged In Users: The panel displays a total of two new messages with links to the inbox, the user’s current avatar and option to change it, a list of links to the most commonly-used BuddyPress components, and a preview of the user’s friend requests.

Many thanks to the team at quantumactivist.com for sponsoring some bug fixes for this plugin.