News

More Details About devot:ee: Writing, Designing, Launching

January 16, 2009
by Ryan Masuga

A couple details about devot:ee, and a word about the state of the site from the design to a “formal launch”.

h3. Just Articles? No. We are not aiming to be a one-trick pony. There are other (very important) sections of the site in the works that will be a benefit to developers, and helping to facilitate development. When we do publish articles, will we publish articles daily? Probably not. The thinking here is that "More is not better. Better is better." We'll publish when there is good stuff to share. This will be less of an "issue" when the other areas of the site are available to you, and articles/news aren't the only things you have to focus on. h3. News? Not So Much Devot:ee is currently only one person (who _really_ likes ExpressionEngine), and I'm trying to focus on more in-depth articles related to ExpressionEngine, not necessarily what's "news". There are other sites where you can get your fix for news, including EE's own forums. The feedback from the signup form is very clear: People really just want to see how things are done, but avoid the "easy" tutorials and don't re-hash what's out there. Show "code, code, code". It looks like most of the people visiting devot:ee to this point already know what a weblog:entries tag is. That's the information I'm going on and is helping to direct what will be offered and written about. So, at least to begin with: news--not so much. h3. Devot:ee's Design What you're seeing right now is _not_ the final design. Nor is it anywhere near the final design direction. I just wanted to get that out there in case you were thinking you're looking at a "finished product". The current site is a quickly cobbled together layout so that I could start publishing some articles that present ideas for you to (hopefully) utilize in your own work. Speaking of design, this leads me to the next point: h3. Devot:ee Has a Big, Interactive Unit You heard that right. It means devot:ee has hired "Unit Interactive":http://unitinteractive.com/ to work on the overall design of the site. You may have heard of them. Unit recently redesigned their own site, and did the brand spanking new redesign of "woot!":http://www.woot.com/ to boot. You may have heard of it. Devot:ee is lucky to have Unit on board, and we hope that soon enough it can be said "Devot:ee. You may have heard of it." h3. A "Formal" Launch The only thing I can tell you about a "formal" launch is: I'm aiming for as early into February as is humanly possible. So let's just say February 2009. Back to article writing, among other things!

7 Comments:

Mark Bowen 01.16.09

Mark Bowen

All sounds great Ryan. Can’t wait to see what you come up with and I’m intrigued to see what Unit do with the design.

Best wishes,

Mark

Zac Gordon 01.16.09

Zac Gordon

Loooking forward to what develops.  Unit’s redesigns looks clean and creative.  Good choice ;)

Philip Zaengle 01.16.09

Philip Zaengle

Thanks Ryan! really looking forward to see what you’ve come up with!

Sean 01.16.09

Sean

Definitely looking forward to your launch.

Eric 01.21.09

Eric

This has already been a great resource; I love seeing what other devs do with EE.

Re: the new design. The two sites from Unit that you mentioned don’t fit in a 1024px viewport — will devot:ee? or is it too soon to tell?

Ryan Masuga 01.21.09

Ryan Masuga

Eric: devot:ee’s layout width will work for the content—however it ends up being formatted on each page. We’re not starting with a predefined width. Unit is looking at what I want to do, and the necessary width will come out of that discovery. But it is definitely too soon…for me to tell anyone anything.

Judging by the stats I’ve gathered so far, almost every person interested in devot:ee uses a Mac, browses with Firefox or Safari, and has a large screen resolution. I knew everyone was cool.

I’m glad you’re finding this a useful resource already.

Rob Morris 03.19.09

Rob Morris

I think it’s great there’s one more solid resource on EE. Having recently converted to EE I’ve found there are way too few atm. I’ve written a bit of a basic primer on EE for anyone thinking of moving across.

http://digitalmash.com/journal/articles/expression-engine-quick-dirty/

Look forward to reading more from you!

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