We’ve been busy. Kate and I recently embarked on a journey to re-design the Mac360 web site. We started the re-build process from scratch using the latest XHTML and CSS and Mac design tools, and an unorthodox approach, considering that Mac360’s red-design is to objective.
Unorthodox? Yes. We call the project ‘Full Circle’. We’ll build a dozen web sites before we re-build Mac360. That will give us more experience and opportunity to try different designs, layouts, and features.
Stage One of ‘Full Circle’ is nearing completion. The first step was to create a basic design, a code base, with a standardized look and feel that we could use on multiple web sites. The second step was to complete the first site.
I’m proud to say that Kate’s personal site, PixoBebo, uses the code and design techniques, and is off to a successful start with nearly 1,000 visitors a day after only two weeks and little fanfare. It’s sneak peak time.
Think of PixoBebo as a trial run, a shakedown cruise. Stage One of ‘Full Circle’ has a couple of additional sites based on the same layout, design, and code base. NoodleMac will launch next week, and will focus specifically on Mac software reviews. I plan to follow that launch with Toolbotix, which will be my version of Kate’s PixoBebo.
Similar design and layout, different color scheme, different content. Alex was so pleased with Kate’s site that she wants me to build one for her so she can list her favorite free Mac software. Sigh. Everyone wants to get into the act.
If you haven’t looked at Kate’s site recently, we added a Comments feature yesterday, on top of the color scheme changes from a few days earlier. Additional changes and improvements will be ongoing as we expand the code to include more features.
Stage Two will be the launch of a couple of new Apple, Mac, and iPhone/iPod touch sites that we’ve been planning for awhile. The design, layout, and color scheme will be much different than PixoBebo, NoodleMac, Toolbotix, or Alexis’ site, though the underlying code will be shared.
Stage Three will be Mac360’s complete re-design. New layout, new look and feel, completely new code base. Bigger, wider, prettier, easier to navigate, and with a few more features. The color scheme will remain similar, though modified. Kate likes lavender. What we learn and implement on the new sites in the next few months during Stages One and Two will show up in Mac360’s new look, the final stage.
In the meantime, we welcome your thoughts and insights, so don’t hesitate to tell us what you like about what we’re doing, as well as what you’d like to see more of, and less of (besides lavender).
Well, based on what I see of your work so far, good job. Kate’s site is lean and clean, not too cluttered, even with a few ads sprinkled here and there. I’m really looking forward to the other sites, though I’m curious how you’ll differentiate content between them.
I love what you and Kate are doing. I just left Kate a e mail on here new site it went a bit like this and the same applies for you to Ron. The background color is perfect, I love it. I love being able to read in white letters because it is just so much easier on my eyes. I have always had light sensitive eyes and on almost every website I have to keep my brightness turned down. I hate white background on black lettering. I hope you two start a revolution across the world for every website including p.c.’s and mac websites. Face we are Mac users but we still read on allot of p.c. websites (that is when their servers are not down or plagued with malware and viruses).
Sorry I am just now getting around to posting on your new forums, been a bit busy. summer is here and I have been out of the house. (sorry off subject)
I can’t really think of anything to mention to help you build your website because I don’t know all that fancy coding stuff. I am a bit jealous of both of your guys website though! Every time I log into my IWEB I feel like I can do better than this. I asked kate in the e mail I sent her if she knows of any good books to start with web design (the real thing).
Well I guess that is all I have to say. Good Job, keep up the awesome work and a little thought for the day Ron that a wise old man once told me, “ Always finish what you start and never give up” he he!
I have just had a look at the pixobebo web site.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
I have come across this style of web site before and leave immediatly.
There is very little differentiation between topics. An endless screed of writing.
No graphics. The colours leave a lot to be desired too. The stuff of eye disorders.
The only problem I have with the existing 360 site is trying to locate the latest posts.
If they were grouped together instead of placed in their subjects areas they would be easier to find.
I have just had a look at the pixobebo web site.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
I have come across this style of web site before and leave immediatly.
There is very little differentiation between topics. An endless screed of writing.
No graphics. The colours leave a lot to be desired too. The stuff of eye disorders.
The only problem I have with the existing 360 site is trying to locate the latest posts.
If they were grouped together instead of placed in their subjects areas they would be easier to find.
Certainly, there’s no accounting for tastes, eh? And I notice you mention nothing of the content provided, indicating that you prefer eye candy to substance. When you say ‘no graphics’ it’s obvious you didn’t read the articles, which are full of graphic elements pertinent to the topics.
Sigh. Everyone’s a critic these days.
Instead of a wholesale dismissal because you find something unreadable and boring, why not provide some examples of what you like and describe why you like it. Compare and contrast is a wonderful thing.
Frankly, I really like the lean and clean and elegant look of Kate’s site. It’s highly readable, easy to navigate, somewhat reminiscent of the even more plain looking DaringFireball, which is one of the most popular and well read of all Mac sites on the web, yet consists of a single menu, single background color, one advertisement, and a lonely logo.
Purple is not my favorite color, yet it seems to work. It even works for Mac360, which is unique among Mac site designs, if not a bit outdated.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
I have come across this style of web site before and leave immediatly.
Don’t let ‘em get you down, honey. I know you put a lot of work into your site. It looks fine to me. If you like purple.
Remember that old saying? ”Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.”
-- Woody Allen
You were just visited by a gym teacher, that’s all.
I have just had a look at the pixobebo web site.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
I have come across this style of web site before and leave immediatly.
There is very little differentiation between topics. An endless screed of writing.
No graphics. The colours leave a lot to be desired too. The stuff of eye disorders.
The only problem I have with the existing 360 site is trying to locate the latest posts.
If they were grouped together instead of placed in their subjects areas they would be easier to find.
Well I guess your exercising your 1st amendment. But you sure could put some bran in your keyboard. blah blah blah.
I love it Ron and no I am not kissing your ass. It is a nice web sight and don’t let any one tell you different. Like your article states about rude people, they are everywhere. I guess I had my day or two on here where I was being a jerk so lets give him a chance to shape up. He does have the right to state his opinion but it could have been done in a different manner. Green Horns, what ya gonna do?
I have just had a look at the pixobebo web site.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
I have come across this style of web site before and leave immediatly.
There is very little differentiation between topics. An endless screed of writing.
No graphics. The colours leave a lot to be desired too. The stuff of eye disorders.
The only problem I have with the existing 360 site is trying to locate the latest posts.
If they were grouped together instead of placed in their subjects areas they would be easier to find.
Certainly, there’s no accounting for tastes, eh? And I notice you mention nothing of the content provided, indicating that you prefer eye candy to substance. When you say ‘no graphics’ it’s obvious you didn’t read the articles, which are full of graphic elements pertinent to the topics.
Sigh. Everyone’s a critic these days.
Instead of a wholesale dismissal because you find something unreadable and boring, why not provide some examples of what you like and describe why you like it. Compare and contrast is a wonderful thing.
Frankly, I really like the lean and clean and elegant look of Kate’s site. It’s highly readable, easy to navigate, somewhat reminiscent of the even more plain looking DaringFireball, which is one of the most popular and well read of all Mac sites on the web, yet consists of a single menu, single background color, one advertisement, and a lonely logo.
Purple is not my favorite color, yet it seems to work. It even works for Mac360, which is unique among Mac site designs, if not a bit outdated.
Danny remember that day when you snapped at me and told me to put some bran in my diet? Well I just borrowed that statement if you don’t mind. I did allot of apologizes to people and I think I forgot to send you one. Well I am sending it now, I wrote off my foul mouth months ago and went on. But I took your advice and things sure do flow out of my mind and onto my keyboard with allot more politeness.
I have just had a look at the pixobebo web site.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
As Ron and I have stated adnauseum, we’re doing the Mac360 re-design in stages. The first stage is to set up a code base which we can use for other sites, including PixoBebo, a site for Ron, and one for Alexis. It’s a first stage, obviously designed for web logs, not portals.
The second stage will expand the code base as we become more familiar with XHTML and CSS, and create a couple of portal site designs; more likely traditional, dark text, light background, and a much ‘busier’ look.
The third stage will be to take all we’ve learned and apply it to a full re-design of Mac360, so, in answer to Josh’s implied question, no, Mac360’s new look won’t look much like PixoBebo.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
Almost 7,000 visitors the first week and one finds it unreadable, and so, didn’t read anything. That’s fine.
I have come across this style of web site before and leave immediatly.
Spell Checker Alert!! The only thing missing here is ‘why?’ There isn’t much that’s unique about my site. It’s 3 columns, header, footer, a few ads, a couple of menus, and content sorted by date.
There is very little differentiation between topics. An endless screed of writing.
Again, no examples of what would be an improvement, however, web logs have a certain style that is somewhat standard these days. There is a difference between a portal site and a blog. Choose your poison. It’s the content that counts. I hope.
BTW, I had to look up ‘screed.’
1 a long speech or piece of writing, typically one regarded as tedious.
2 a leveled layer of material (e.g., cement) applied to a floor or other surface.
• a strip of plaster or other material placed on a surface as a guide to
He is right. Reading is tedious.
No graphics. The colours leave a lot to be desired too. The stuff of eye disorders.
That’s obviously subjective. Some love it, some don’t. I don’t claim to be a web designer, so I’m starting with monochrome and hope to improve. A personal site, which is what I hope PixoBebo is, should be somewhat reflective of the site owner, soooooo, I like butterflies and lavender.
I’m not completely sure what is meant by ‘no graphics’ since there are plenty of graphics, images, screen shots, even a few photos.
The only problem I have with the existing 360 site is trying to locate the latest posts. If they were grouped together instead of placed in their subjects areas they would be easier to find.
All the latest articles are listed at the top of the home page. It’s always been that way. It’s a rather common layout.
One of the design philosophies we adopted early on was to reduce the number of clicks to get anywhere on the site. The home page is always a single click away. Each category of articles is only a single click away. Ditto for the Forums, About pages, and so on. With nearly 2,000 articles on the site, it’s difficult to categorize in such a way that any single article is only a few clicks away. I don’t know of an easy way around that.
If Josh didn’t like my site, he’s not likely to enjoy Ron’s site, or, our collaborative site, or Alexis’ site. I can’t show you hers yet. But it’s red. Very red. And yellow.
I have just had a look at the pixobebo web site.
I hope that is NOT the style you intend to follow.
It is virtually unreadable and totally boring to look at.
I don’t find http://pixobebo.com/ unreadable. In fact I do love the layout and the lavender or lavendish color. I am not a webmaster or a programer, However I assume that creating and maintaining a website take lot of time and lot of work. Critics are sometimes good. Remember “nothing improves without change” But if you have to propose something…
It certainly seems fine to me. Personally the sites that annoy me the most are those with all the embedded graphics and java and flash crap that makes the page take forever to load. I like a few pics here and there but I also don’t want the page to take 10 minutes to load. Eyecandy doesn’t make for a good site, content is what matters and both mac360 and pixobebo have good content, that is what keeps me coming back.
I’ve kept out of this discussion because, well, I have nothing to contribute to it. That doesn’t seem to stop everybody, though, so for my two cents: I have to go with Bunsen. Please, please please avoid Flash like the plague! (An unpleasant morning’s browsing triggered this outburst.) Java use seems to be declining, so I don’t suppose I have to enter a similar plea on that subject. If you want a Horrible Example™, take a look at NASA.
As for the color scheme on Kate’s website: hey, it’s her website! If you don’t like the color, enter Universal Access and click on “Switch to White-on-Black.” All the colors will be replaced by their complementary colors. If you don’t like a given color, surely you will like its complement, right?
I should just take my own advice, I guess, but I know I’m not the only one who finds this recent trend towards white-on-color or white-on-pastel or pastel-on-slightly-darker-pastel lettering virtually unreadable, so If I had to enter one request, it would be: stick with black-on-white for at least the main text windows. I’m probably living in the past, though. Like Bunsen says, it’s the content that keeps us coming back, anyway. Keep up the good work!
First, Ron and Kate, what a wonderful job you’ve already done! Kudos on the rather unique Mac360 update-in-stages approach! I’m excited about, and so looking forward to, stages 2 & 3!
Now to my question: Why on earth, with but 1 post here, was this “joshsand66” person bestowed with so much attention? In my opinion, if this person never posts on Mac360 or related sites ever again, it’ll be too soon .
First, Ron and Kate, what a wonderful job you’ve already done! Kudos on the rather unique Mac360 update-in-stages approach! I’m excited about, and so looking forward to, stages 2 & 3!
I’m excited, too, but tired. This CSS stuff is a bear. Ron is handling the backend code for ExpressionEngine, and what little XHTML we have on PixoBebo. That means everything else is CSS. HTML is easier.
I’ve been using CSSEdit which opens any page on the site and lets me modify the CSS in real time, though it’s only on my Mac. When I’m satisfied with a change, then I login and copy and past the CSS into the site. The changes are live in an instant. If only it took an instant to figure out what changes to make.
Now to my question: Why on earth, with but 1 post here, was this “joshsand66” person bestowed with so much attention? In my opinion, if this person never posts on Mac360 or related sites ever again, it’ll be too soon.
There’s one in every crowd. He was the one in our crowd.
I don’t mind an opinion or two but I’d like it with some semblance of substance, instead of a cursory, ’That sucks!! Ugh.’ Anyone can do that. Putting some reasoning behind it is beneficial.
I’ve been making subtle (and not so subtle) changes to the site each day. It’s a learning process. NoodleMac is ready to go, too, and will work the same way. We start with a basic, simple, somewhat elegant layout and design, then add to as content increases.
I love what you and Kate are doing. I just left Kate a e mail on here new site it went a bit like this and the same applies for you to Ron. The background color is perfect, I love it. I love being able to read in white letters because it is just so much easier on my eyes. I have always had light sensitive eyes and on almost every website I have to keep my brightness turned down. I hate white background on black lettering. I hope you two start a revolution across the world for every website including p.c.’s and mac websites. Face we are Mac users but we still read on allot of p.c. websites (that is when their servers are not down or plagued with malware and viruses).
.
