Matt Brett has released the May 1st Reboot a day early. The new design sports the clean white, while keeping to the traditional Matt Brett Grunge style. The design features a lot of dynamic features, including last.fm recent tracks, Xbox Live Gamer Tag information, and currently playing games, as well as tidbits of the most recent comments.
We fixed the bug with next and previous links not working. This should cause no problem to you or your bookmarks. At the very least you may have to update your bookmarks if you experience any problems, but otherwise, everything should be all set.
While Devlounge isn’t associated with 9Rules, we’d sure like to be apart of it (along with every other blog site around), and to do that, you have to prove your blog’s worth in a few key areas. While 9Rules is giving their own tips on making it into the network, we decided, why not?
We’ve had the pleasure to interview and have content contributed by some of 9Rule’s premier members, and we’ve learned from them how to survive in the ever-growing blogging world.
Focusing on a few key points (from what we’ve seen), there are four major areas to keep in mind when submitting your blog to 9rules.
While 9Rules says that the design of your site / blog does not hinder you ability to be accepted, design always play a big role for anyone looking at a site for the first time, so much so, that users can make up their mind within a few seconds of the homepage loading.
If you’re publishing a blog with entries a few times a day or week, you want to create an enviornment for the visitors that interests them and keeps them coming back. You also want to make content available to them once they get to your site. For example, if you’re running a custom (static) frontpage, you may find visitors leaving, simply because clicking “blog” or “journal” doesn’t appeal to them. You need content that grabs the reader in, and keeps them there.
If you’re x most recent posts aren’t on the frontpage of your blog, you can still keep visitors in the loop by offering options for them to browse around find out just what’s going on. Try adding “Recent Posts” and “Recent Comments” to a static front page, making the content that might be deeper in your site easily available from the time they arrive at your domain.
Another important factor is color. A warm, inviting color scheme seems to draw reader in, and don’t focus too heavily on graphics, because it begins to take away from the content of the site.
Next, you need to make sure you’re blog is being updated as frequently as possible, and the content you’re filling it with is meaningful. 9Rules seems to love people who are capable of posting on many subjects, while at the same time, convincing you with their views on whatever the subject may be that they’re talking about.
Stagnent blogs will find it impossible to be accepted in 9Rules, because content is so important.
9Ruler’ Matt Brett is known for covering many different topics on his blog (mattbrett.com), from game reviews to web topics, he always seems to have something to say. During the recent downtime in his postings, he took the time to inform readers that thing’s we’re slowing down because of the May Reboot, and his dedication to working on and completing new designs for both Mattbrett.com & Feedicons.
By providing visitors with a heads up on what’s going on even when content is low, it assures them that all is well, and they tend to understand why the lack of content is there.
With a good blog, comes good community, and great responses to even the most meaningless of posts. It may take visitors a little while at first to leave replies to posts, but when they do, the blogger earns the benefits. Most 9Ruler’ blogs have active discussions revolving around their posts no matter what the topic is. Having active use is a great plus for any blog.
Another thing that seems to make 9Ruler’s bloggers successful are follow-up posts. You may say something, and in a few weeks, having a different opinion. By reposting with your new thoughts, it creates a connection, and shows that the first post wasn’t just for content. Take Matt Brett’s review of EA’s Black. In his first review (before completting the game), he praised EA for their work. Once he had finished Black, he responded with both the goods and bads of the game, and it turned out, the game was slightly less attracting then he originally thought. Follow-ups help provide closure for unfinished posts, and a place for you to answer any questions cropped up by visitors.
By following this guide, along with 9Rule’s own tips, hopefully you’ll have a slight edge over the thousands upon thousands of entries. Best of luck.
Devlounge is not affilated with 9Rules, this list was merely complied using what we’ve seen from various 9Rule’s members sites.
9Rules recently announced it’s fourth round of submissions to the prominent 9Rules Network. The 24-Hour submission period will take place on May 17th, 2006. 9Rules staff have begun posting tips to being accepted in 9Rules, based on what they look for when searching through the thousands upon thousands of entries. In our own article, we discuss what key things to focus on based on our own evalutation of 9rules members and their designs & content.
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Published Wednesday April 26, 2006 at 9:10 pm
By aj with 0 comments
Finally, Devlounge presents the first contest of many. To kick things off, we’re giving away two killer hosting prizes plus advertising on an internet radio site. What a way to drive your mint stats crazy. Interested? Of course you are. Get started. Prizes provided by Developmenthost & Teksterradio.
CSSRemix is a recently launched css / xhtml gallery site similar to Unmatched Style, Cssbeauty, etc. We got the chance to find out just how cssremix works and how it was put together on Wordpress.
DL: How are you doing John? Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us on CSSRemix and your own site.
DL: What brought up the idea for CSSRemix? There are many other similar sites, most well known being Unmatched style and CSSVault, but CSSRemix has its own unique flair.
I got the idea from being rather unimpressed with a lot of the site showcases. Most weren’t updated very often, some weren’t specific to CSS-based design, and others showcased mediocre design. CSS Remix was intended to showcase ONLY the very best in CSS Design AND be updated frequently. I wanted to place strict emphasis on the sites (i.e. no news, recommended reading, etc) and I really tried to maximize that effect by placing A LOT of sites right on the homepage.
When I created CSS Remix, I created it with designers in mind, by providing the content and features I thought they would actually use. I want to put an emphasis on this fact, that CSS Remix was created for all the web designers out there. I like to hear their feedback and constantly incorporate new stuff on the site for them.
I should point out, that based on recent feedback, CSS Remix is currently undergoing a few new changes which will be implemented over the next couple of days. Some new features will include a more polished look and an AJAX rating system for each site. Stay tuned for the updates!
“Sites that get my attention are ones that are exceptional in terms of XHTML/CSS, Graphic Design, and Information Architecture”
DL: In CSS Remixes’ short time, you’ve featured many great uses of css on sites. What do you look for when deciding what sites to accept and what ones to omit?
In web design, the devil is in the details. Sites that get my attention are ones that are exceptional in terms of XHTML/CSS, Graphic Design, and Information Architecture. No site is perfect, but the ones that stand out above the rest in these terms get my thumbs up.
DL: Remix is another great example of Wordpress used in unconventional ways. Did you find it easier to use Wordpress as the backend, and how long did it take you to make all the customizations?
I used Wordpress because it does a great job handling a lot of little tasks I didn’t feel like implementing and generally automating everything, as any CMS would I suppose. I chose Wordpress because of the extensive support and community surrounding it (not to mention its free:)). I’ve been very impressed with how Wordpress allows such an advanced level of customization. I was able to create a customized template for CSS Remix in about 3 days, but its been on-going process since it first launched in mid-April. There are so many plug-ins and additional features to tap into that really make it a great tool.
DL: As for the gallery on Remix, did you use a wordpress plugin, custom or pre-made gallery script, or simply use Wordpress posting to get the image thumbs displayed like that.
The gallery of CSS Remix is merely a modification of the Wordpress posting system - each site displayed is a post.
DL: On a personal standpoint, how long have you been designing? And were / are you involved in any other projects?
Strangely enough, I graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a double major in Business Administration (Marketing and Managing Information Systems), and am completely self taught in the fields of web and graphic design, which I’ve been practicing for about 5 years. Up until now, I’ve mainly been involved with small, personal web and graphics projects, and I’ll soon have a complete portfolio of my work on my homepage, jpp3.com.
Currently, I’m the senior web designer at UW-Milwaukee Graduate School, where we are planning and implementing a major redesign of their website.
DL: What sites have inspired you and your designing habits?
The CSS Zen Garden is what really opened my eyes to the potential of great web design. It was after viewing some of the great submissions on here that I began to design all my sites in Photoshop and then convert them to XHTML/CSS. I also really like A List Apart and, just recently, Vitamin (thinkvitamin.com). Both of these sites are a great resource to any designer.
DL: Thanks for chatting with me!
This guide is probably useful if you’re in the process of building a web application. I will go over a few topics that involve the development of web applications and what you can do to your application to receive maximum output and efficiency.
If you’re planning on distributing your application so other people can use it you’ve really got to make the installation process an easy one. I have seen quite a few applications that make the installation for un-experienced people quite hard, Drupal is a great example for this; it doesn’t have an installer, you have to import the tables into MySQL and edit a few files.
If you’re going to develop an application it’s because you want to make the life of a user easier, if that wasn’t the case we would all be programming our own applications and stop using ones that have already been written and are ready to use. Remember, simplicity is what users want, make your installation process easy and try to avoid making users edit files.
If you actually want someone to use your application you better get things straight and design an elegant user interface. I know that what really matters in an application is its functionality and features, not its design. However, let’s say you have both, functionality and design; this would make your application perfect.
Try and keep things simple and less bloated. I have seen so many applications out there that are so bloated and make it so hard for a user to use. Users want something that’s simple, easy to use and gets the work done straight away.
Although you may be the only developer of you application you always have to think ahead, what if you need someone else to join you and aid you with the development of future versions? Now that you’re starting to code it’s always a good idea to add comments so you know what your piece of code is actually doing.
Moreover, try and keep your code efficient. When I say efficient I mean use the least amount of code/lines as possible. If you’re using PHP (For example) you should develop some kind of framework, use headers and if you have the skill or ability, OOP. Keeping your code efficient will make your application lighter and faster.
This is quite obvious, before you even publish your application so users can use it you have to test it out. However, when beta testing it’s better to keep the testing private, why? Well, from my personal experience you get too many users downloading your application which means more emails coming in saying “So and so doesn’t work”, at the end of the day you’re going to have quite a few emails that have got to do with the same bug.
So, what do you do instead? Invite a couple of people to test your application, depending on all the features and functionality your application provides you should decide on a number of people that can get the job done at a satisfactory rate and on time.
To summarise this whole post, keep your applications simple and design a basic and clean interface. Moreover, try and keep your code organised by using some sort of framework, functions and headers. Make sure you application has an installer and that it’s easy to use and doesn’t require users to modify many files or import anything to any sort of database. Finally, keep your beta testing private and only invite a couple of users to test your application.
- Contributed by Prash of Xirgo
Building a website is never an easy task, even to experienced designers and coders, there are always new issues that arrives and different things you have to worry about throughout the desing and coding process. In the first of a two part series, we breakdown the design process itself with examples of the various stages of work it took to complete version one of Devlounge.
First things first when you’re designing. You want to have an idea of what you want the overall layout of your site to look like, and have some sort of favorite color scheme you’re really into. To get yourself motivated, it’s always good to go browsing web designer forums and looking at site showcases,. as well as looking through google for some of the hard-hitting, well known designer portfolio. Get a feel for what you want to do, and open up Photoshop or similar graphics program and play around with possible layout ideas. This can be done just by using text and boxes, and it will give you a very good base to begin working with.
One of the most important things to know and keep in mind throughout the whole design process is exactly what you are aiming to accomplish. If you want to focus on simplicity, then keep your mockups to minimals at first, and slowly add additional things. Don’t get carried away with graphics down the road. Understand what your site is showcasing, and make a design that fits it. If the focus is content, then a highly developed flash site isn’t the best idea, because all the fancy design features will distract the user from the content itself.
In most cases, even the best designer never gets a design perfect after just one time working on it. In Devlounge’s case, it took 10 revisions of the original design to get things right, and even after the design was finished, things were modified on the homepage to improve the overall look.
As you can see below, the first revision of Devlounge was very simple, and we left a lot of details out in the first mock. We knew we wanted to archive a simple, web 2.0 look without the fancy graphics and heavy load times.
Ahh, it’s always so nice when spring comes along and you can open windows for the first time since the fall, clean things up, and start fresh.
Starting fresh - it’s just one of those ideas you can almost smell.
Fresh was the idea behind Mint, the javascript stats package that was a continuation of Shaun Inman’s popular little program called Shortstats. Mint’s mission was to be a no strings attached, straight to the point stats program, that used advanced techniques and technologies to track more then just hits and uniques.
Mint accomplished just that, after launching in 2005 and receiving a warm welcome in the designer community. Mint had trully shown in was a revolution in statistics logging.
Right from install, mint provides you with the most friendliest and cleanest looking green and black scheme ever. It truly makes you want to have a mint (or a few). Installation, well, let’s just say it melts in your mouth, being in nearly 2 minutes you’re seeing the mint admin panel for the first time, and seeing the very beginning of a greater look into your visitors.
Mint allows you the chance to break down your visitors, and find out where they’re coming from and where they’re going once they get to your site. Mint also allows the recent referrers to be exported through rss, so others can know exactly whose linking you.
Another benefit of Mint is it’s User Agent 007. UA does what most common stats programs such as Awstats do, but ten times better. Mint tracks your users resolution, what version of flash they have, browser, and operating system. This is greatly beneficial during future designing, because you know what the majority of your visitors can see in terms of screen res and browser compatibility.
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Published Thursday April 6, 2006 at 8:16 pm
By aj with 0 comments
Everyone is wondering, where is the content? Well, as you know, this week has been about making under the hood changes and stuff. Everything has been going over pretty smoothly, so this weekend you can expect many more articles to be posted. We are also still in need of content writers (can’t do it all myself), so get in touch via the contact form. For now, add Devlounge to your favorites, join the newsletter and check back for much more content starting this weekend!
