If you wander around Astereo, you may happen to find to preview the currently in progress Devlounge design. Just thought I’d let you know, you know, if you’re bored or something. Keep checking back for more updates. For now, that’s all from the redesign HQ.
Friday Focus #33
This is a special edition of Friday Focus, as it the very first one (out of 33 weeks, which is pretty incredible) that is being published on the first of the month. This gives us an odd and rather rare chance to explore the month ahead (in what will be a very big and productive one), rather than looking back on the weeks past. And since for us in the State’s, this week was a very short week with Memorial Day on Monday, it makes a bit more sense to hype up some upcoming events.
Digg Weekly
But first, we will start off with our usually top Digg picks.
Design – Hey Ya Typography Animation
For those that remember, we featured another motion text flash video a while back that matched a scene from a movie with moving, animated text. This is a similar experiment, this time matching some background music.
Programming: Google Maps gets upgraded
It hit the Today Show today, and now you can have a look for yourself. Google has updated Google Maps to provide actual street views of some major cities and locations. It’s very cool and fun to play around with.
That mystery illustration
And now to announce who will be designing a whole new set of illustrations for the upcoming redesign. Mr. Fernando Lins, who I have been a long time fan of since first seeing his portfolio, will be putting together some great abstract illustrations for us in the coming weeks. It will definitely help keep the artistic touches fresh around here, something so many have people have said they would hate to see us lose in any type of redesign.
Timetable for Upcoming Updates
These dates are not yet so in stone, but use them to estimate when the new design and content will be arriving. Depending on when the launch is will depend on when other events occur, but if an event is 2 days after the launch, you can expect that to remain constant regardless of the actual launch date.
- Wednesday, June 20 – Launch of the newest Devlounge design, along with many new features.
- Thursday, June 21 – Devlounge version 2 will be released as free WordPress theme.
- Friday, June 22 – Devlounge “Hub” goes live.
- Sat, June 23 – In the Making – An extensive documentation article on the recreation of Devlounge, how statistics were analyzed in constructing the newest design, and an overview of new site features.
- Sun, June 24 – Three interviews with some “major” people in the design / development field will go live.
For Designers, Developers, Entrepreneurs, and You
Yes, that will be the slogan for the next release of Devlounge. The main point in the whole slogan being the emphasis on you. Have an idea for a topic you want us to cover this month? Let us know, we’d love to write about it if it would benefit you.
New Homepage Tomorrow
Not that homepage. With the main focus for the next few weeks going to be on completing and coding the next Devlounge design, as well as testing out new parts and features (along with juggling finals), the content department around here will essentially turn off, with the exception of new Friday Focuses. To prevent the homepage from becoming too stagnant, I will be introducing a lightweight temporary homepage tomorrow or Friday at the latest that will spotlight some of our favorite posts, interviews, and article series. The rest of the site will remain fully functional, without any visual changes. I’d say I’m about 3-4 weeks out of launching the next version. Comments have been mixed, but don’t just go with what that Flickr teaser may have shown you, because the final design will have plenty of nice touches no one has yet to see. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to our rss feed to stay on top of updates. We thank you for your patience and understanding during this transition and slow time for us.
Friday Focus #32
It’s incredibly hot where I am as we enter into the last weekend of May, a three day weekend for many of us. As May draws to an end we get closer to the new Devlounge design and a surge of new content. I want to personally thank Ronald, as his WordPress plugin series (which I promise will be getting it’s own “table of contents” page this weekend) has restored Devlounge visitors to what they were a few weeks back before we began the decline. If you’ve been following the series (which he has left a note about at the end of this week’s focus), please leave your comments in the series finale on how helpful the series was to you. We have had a lot of trackbacks, but little comment feedback on the series itself. It’s always nice to know our readers appreciate the effort of hard working writers.
Let’s kick this weeks focus off. Enjoy the weekend everyone.
Sites of the Week
Up first this week is StayDecent, the personal portfolio of Adrian Unger. For this one, I love how the display of work is put together. There is also Ajax used here and there, and lots and lots of big, bold fonts.
Next up is another portfolio, this one for Jason Julien. The portfolio is neat and clean, and there’s is a very nice collection of work that goes along with it. Worth a look.
Digg Weekly
Favorites from the past 7 days
Design: 60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs
From the list-creating-masters of Smashing Magazine comes an entirely new list, this time with 60 “visually appealing and elegant designs”.
Programming: The top 10 dead (or dying) Computer Skills
While not directly related to design, most of us understand computers a bit more than our average friends, so I thought it might be interesting to know what is and isn’t needed anymore.
Up and Coming
Software – 10 Open Source Apps You Can’t Live Without
A nice collection of open source apps including the usual suspects Firefox and Open Office.
Design – 20 Killer Resources Every Good Web Designer Should See : May
Within the post are twenty resources from icons, to CSS, to Web 2.0 layer styles.
Design Dilemma
What would be your approach for finding a color scheme if you are color challenged?
WordPress Plugin Spotlight
The Devlounge Plugin Series is drawing to a close with the last post scheduled to be published Sunday. It has been quite a journey and a few people have e-mailed in saying that the series has been helpful. If you have yet to check out the series and are a WordPress user, please start with the introduction.
Friday Focus #31
Here we are with only a few more weeks left in May, and we get closer and closer to the brand spanking new Devlounge design and a ton of new features. Friday Focuses will play a much bigger impact in the next version of Devlounge (slated for early – mid June), so you can continue to expect even bigger things in the weeks to come for FF. Let’s get started, and enjoy the weekend everyone!
Sites of the Week
Starting off this week is 18Seconds from Yahoo. The purpose – to get people to buy new environmentally friendly CFL light bulbs and help the world wide global warming issue while doing it. Check and see how helpful your state has been in conserving electricity and helping the environment.
Next up is The Big Noob. After being dormant for a very very long time, our buddy Ryan Sims and crew have relaunched their blog called The Big Noob. Now that they are back, I’m sure you can expect a lot of (great) fresh stuff.
And rounding out this week is Design By Grid, another niche design gallery from Every5Weeks creator, along with design help from Climax Designs.
Digg Weekly
The best of the last 7 days in design and programming
Design – Rediscovering the button element
Button styling constantly goes forgotten in the standards-driven world we live in today. Don’t let your poor buttons take on their own styles based on browsers and operating systems – style them today.
Programming – 14 Rules for fast Web Pages
A lead-in page for a very long Powerpoint presentation featuring 14 rules for optimizing your web pages. Powerpoint was created by Steve Souders of Yahoo’s “Exceptional Performance Team”.
