Have you ever been the editor of a site or magazine? Then you know how much time is spent brushing up people’s contributions, removing silly errors, sometimes fact checking, and even doing occasional formatting. I know that most blogs allow authors to proofread and publish their posts themselves, and it is good for the content flow, but bad for quality. We’re doing that on The Blog Herald, a site built on news and feature posts being more or less longer news, and it’s the only way to do it. Unless you have a proofreader sitting on standby all the time, it’s just not possible not to have this kind of posting procedure. More

I’ve launched the public beta of the new Wisdump design, client work for the great folks over at Splashpress Media. Do pop over and let me know what you think!

It’s not just Wisdump I’m redesigning, and are involved with on Splashpress Media’s behalf. Devlounge and Wisdump are supposed to work in harmony, and the two sites’ redesigns are of course a necessary step for this.

The first mockup of the new Devlounge design is up, and anyone who thinks stuff can speak their mind in the mockup post.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. You should always make serious decisions in conjuncture with your readership. The final call is yours, and you can’t please them all, but be sure to use their opinions to build a better product.

I’ve been blogging over at Wisdump, Paul “Scrivs” Scrivens old playground, for quite some time now. One thing that the site needs is a redesign, figuring out its own identity so to speak. The legacy of Scrivs isn’t a small one, so it’s important for the blog to find its own voice. Observant readers know that others have tried before me…

Anyway, check out the mockup of the proposed, and later selected, redesign. It’s not final, not at all, but it gives a taste of what’s to come.

Audival - Podcasting Tips & Tricks is a new blog about podcasting. It launched yesterday and is owned by Splashpress Media. Yours truly did the design and my brother actually runs it.

Have a look! It’s a bit short (well, not really) on content but that’ll sort itself out in the coming days.

Another quickie. I’ve done the design for Blogger Jobs, and it seems more or less incorporated. Splashpress Media owns it, of course - who else? Have a look.

Disclosure: I’m involved in business with The Blog Herald owners, Splashpress Media, and also blog at 901am, another Splashpress site.

The redesign of The Blog Herald, where I blogged when it was maintained by Matt Craven, is long overdue. The concept change when the Herald was bought by Splashpress didn’t fit the old layout (by Chris Pearson by the way). Honestly, I think The Blog Herald should’ve gotten some design love under Matt Craven as well, but then again I’m a bit picky when it comes to these things. Go figure.

Brian Gardner is the guy behind a bunch of free themes, as well as a few for Performancing. It looks like this nowadays:

My buddy Tony Hung, editor of The Blog Herald, have got a launch post up. Check it out, and click around a bit. What do you think?

I think they went the right way with focusing on the features to the left, with news in the middle column a little way down. That’s logical since it’s all about the meaty post over at The Blog Herald these days, the road they chose to tread so to speak. The basic layout decisions is OK, but I’m having some problems with this design.

• The footer is bland and unbalanced when it comes to spacing on the top/bottom. It needs a little action and graphic love. Too clean, and that’s from me…
• I think there’s too little contrast between the columns. Spacing, changing the fonts and/or font sized, color alterations… They’re too close to each other in every aspect.
• There are some pixel issues with the menu/main content column.
• I’d like some vibrancy in the header. Going clean gray with a little red is alright, but something to give it a more three dimensial feel.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a step in the right direction for The Blog Herald and the type of content they’re doing these days! Brian did a nice job and I’m sure the site and design will improve during the coming days.