We are proud to tell you that FFW is going to Ver 1.3! Most of the changes to this has been under the hood and also with the ultimate aim of making a visit to FFW a better experience. Here’s a brief outline of what is coming up..
13 January 2008- FFW ver 1.3 (alpha release)
- Launch V1.3a (for internal testing and reviews)
- Commence re-formatting of older articles
- Build up knowledge base/faq sections for new release
- Tweak CSS codes to be compatible with IE6
27 January 2008- FFW ver 1.3 (beta release)
- Launch V1.3b (go live on www.fivefootway.com)
- All articles up to November 2007 re-formatted to new format
- New editorial sections in FFW to be introduced
10 February 2008- FFW ver 1.3 (full release)
- V1.3 to be fully operational with changes fully implemented.
- Commence reviews for building into 1.31
Having said that, here’s what you can expect from it.
Easier on the eyes.
We haven’t gone on a major visual revamp (at least not for this version). But some notable changes are still in place.
- More information on the front page. An excerpt of 3 latest posts from each section is now on the front page, giving more exposure to each article
- The different sections of the magazine have a new look. When clicking on a section such as ‘Feature’, the articles are now listed with a thumbnail and a short excerpt of each one beside it. This more compact view allows more posts to be viewed on a single page.
- We’ve tried to ensure that formatting of the various posts in FFW are now cleaner and more consistent.
A Better Reading Experience.
We would like you to enjoy walking on the FiveFootWay. So, we’ve introduced the following:
- Share an article. It is now easier to do it with the “Share on Facebook” option, “Email to Friend” option and also old school “Print It” option.
- When reading an article, you will see that a list of Related Posts and Latest Posts now appear on the sidebar. Useful when you want to keep on reading more stuff in FFW.
- Paginated Posts. No one likes reading and scrolling down a page that lasts forever. So, we introduce paginated posts to you.
From the Editorial Desk
We’ve always believed that FFW should be about quality articles and a great community so, we’ve taken this opportunity to introduced some changes and improvements into FFW to move towards achieving that aim.
- Group@Facebook is now live. Go on, get on Facebook and join the group! Share photos, upload videos, discuss and just network. (we are discontinuing the FFW network at ning. com and migrating everything over.)
- Want to get to know more about the people who writes for FFW? We thought you might so we’ve got Author Information better integrated into the site.Now every article comes with an excerpt of the author at the end. Also, when you click on the author name, ALL the posts that he/she have written will be displayed for your reading pleasure. Also, the option to email the author is also now available.
- We’ve also included more information on FFW more accessible to the readers. All easily accessible from the sidebar.
- Watch out for new sections in 2008. Dedicated sections on Building Technology, Sustainability, Criticism, Studio Tours and others will be introduced in phases.
The Hidden stuff
Not all the work that we’ve done so far is clearly visible. Here are some that are well hidden but we thought you might find interesting.
- Improved CSS has been the mantra for this phase of development. The quirks are being sorted out which involved a re-building of the entire css structure. New changes in the future should be more easily implemented from now on.
- We used to do a lot of things manually but we’ve made automation a key feature in this version. The slideshow that you see on the main page is dynamically generated and so are a host of other snippets of information that you see in the site.
- With the introduction of tag support, we are now capable of using these tags and exploring more ways of organising the information from these posts for a better reading experience.
