PSDFan Extra

PSDFAN Relaunched

Not just a new look

Firstly, let me just open by saying how glad I am to have finally relaunched PSDFAN! It’s been quite a long drawn out process getting the relaunch ready, but now that the new site is live I couldn’t be happier.

I want to stress that the relaunch is much more than a new design. It’s the beginning of the next step for PSDFAN. Trust me, this is one site that you want to keep your eye on for 2009. After building up a good community and fan-base in 2008, I’m now ready to take things to the next level. I’ll be posting more great content than ever before, and really pouring my heart and soul into the website. I should just explain to everyone that the period before and after new year was a bit of a write off… Due to the holidays, university workload (and exams, which finished today), having no internet and a couple of personal crisis’s PSDFAN suffered hugely. I just checked and my last tutorial posted was over 40 days ago! This is CRAZY for me, as I love writing tutorials and contributing to the design community. However, it’s also a sign of how busy/impossible times were during that lull in posting. What’s amazed me most of all however, is the loyalty of the wonderful community here. Despite me being unable to post anywhere near like regularly traffic (particularly direct visits to the homepage) remains consistently high. So a big thankyou for everyone for sticking around and having faith in the site.

But enough with the boring speeches! I expect that you’ll want to know what’s new with PSDFAN!

What’s New

Many things are new in the redesign, but I’ll just go over a few of the main things that you’ll be seeing in the near future with the website.

Drop Down Menu – Some people love them, some people hate them, but after having my new drop down menu live for just 5 minutes I’m already finding posts 5 times faster! The drop down menu is also to cater for the huge amount of content that I’m planning to post in 2009. I’m really aiming to build up a comprehensive library of quality tutorials, freebies and resources, all of which can be easily browsed and located.

Members Area – You may have noticed the links to our new members area. Somewhat unprofessionally it’s not quite ready for you yet! However, it’s definitely going to launch this weekend. I’m just in the process of uploading downloadable files of all my tutorial files for you to download, a process that is taking far longer than expected. I’ll be making more announcements about the new member area soon, but it’s going to be a really cool addition to the community.

Guest Posting – I’m going to be accepting guest posts now, in order to diversify the ‘voice’ of the site, and hopefully improve the overall content. I’ll be posting more on this soon also, but hopefully it can become a prominent part of the website.

Other Design Additions – Other cool design additions include a related posts widget (which should be functioning from tomorrow). I’ll also have a Flickr link feed, and user link feed live by tomorrow, I’m just dealing with a couple of WordPress issues. There will also be a popular posts section to the sidebar in order to promote some of our best content.

Opinions Appreciated

Bearing in mind that the site won’t be 100% done until the end of the weekend, I would absolutely love to hear your opinions on the fresh new look. I realize that I could have gone for something super arty or grungy, but to be honest I wanted to create a functional, usable interface that allows people to focus on and find what’s truly important – the content.

In addition to opinions I’d really appreciate pointing out any bugs (besides those already mentioned), and perhaps any suggestions for the site. I really want to give you guys what YOU want, so if you suggest some ideas for content it’s very likely that I’ll be able to satisfy your demands.

Thanks,

-Tom.


About the Author:

Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

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23 Comments:

  1. Nokadota says:

    It’s not bad, I like the new look. The footer is very pleasing to the eyes, and the drop-down menus are greatly appreciated. The only thing is though, the overlay [for when the mouse hovers] for the items in the drop-down menu are way too dark. Other than that, awesomeness.

    Oh, and the feed counter reminds me of early 90s neon pants and Power Rangers, lol. Ah, the good ol’ days.

  2. Tom says:

    Thanks for the constructive comments Nokadota. I’ll definitely try a slightly lighter menu hover. The feed count is just a standard feedburner chicklet. Is that the bit you’re referring to? :)

  3. crazyhunk says:

    wow…I must say it looks gud… :)

    though the changes seem subtle…. it looks a lot more clean, prof. and wow… no more words…

    keep it going…. :)

  4. Tom says:

    Cheers mate. Yeah, I was going for subtle improvements, I didn’t want to overwhelm people with anything too radically different.

  5. RUGRLN says:

    Not bad…looks nice and simplistic but I have to say it’s not as drastic as I thought it would be, but it’s not bad in any way! Well done!

  6. Andrew Houle says:

    Congrats on the relaunch. Looking forward to see what you have in mind for the members area!

  7. Tom says:

    Thanks guys.

    Rugrln: Yeah like I said it was never meant to be too drastic. There’s a lot of added functionality that should become more apparent though as the site grows.

  8. Andy says:

    Just some quick feedback:

    The text/background colours on the drop-down roll-overs are too much alike (viewing in Opera9.6) Almost impossible to see the text.

    Otherwise, a nice job all round!

  9. Tom says:

    Thanks for the suggestion Andy. I’ll probably darken that up later today.

  10. Vincenzo says:

    nice and well done, interesting nu stuff. glad to see your return in business

  11. Shaw says:

    Great job on the site tom! Loving the new layout. One problem tho, i dont know if it’s my pc but when i put my mouse over the home button and scroll across to the members area, the dropdown sections stay open on each? Just thought ad point that out, also i’m not too keen on the ‘Dig, stumbleupon..’ icons been at the top. But thats my oppinion :P

    Keep up with the hard work, its paying of!

  12. Tom says:

    Thanks for the support guys.

    Hmm that’s really strange Shaw, as the site was actually developed on a pc. What OS/Browser are you using? Thanks a lot for pointing out the bug though, I’ll look into it.

    Btw, I’m back to normal tutorial posting! Just posted the first of many I’ve got lined up.

  13. LBrother says:

    Finally!
    I like the new layout, it looks clean and simple. That was already the strenght of your previous layout, but this one is fresh and just better to the eyes.
    The logo is good, and I like the RSS button and all the other circles (digg…). They’re really easy to see.
    To the dropdown menu: It’s true, the readability should be increased. But I like it because it’s going to be very easy when you looking for a special post that you’ve seen months ago.
    For me, there are too many buttons in the linkbar. I like the categories, but maybe you could have put “Contact, About and Members Area” somewhere else. They don’t really fit there, and they should stand out.

    Still it was worth the work and waiting ;)
    Greetings,
    LBro

  14. MiKeL_zO says:

    Nice layout Tom! keep your tutorials coming. I’m always looking forward for your post.

    Rock om Master Tom! \m/o.O\m/

  15. Tom says:

    Hey LBrother, great to hear from you :) . I’m glad that you like the layout. I will still be increasing the readability of the menu really soon, and also will take onboard your suggestion about the number of links. I guess I could put those 3 links (about, contact, members area) in the footer? I’ll think about it anyway.

    By the way for everyone, I’m still uploading files to the members area but it will be ready very soon!

  16. Tom says:

    Mikel: Great to hear from you too! I’m just starting on my second tutorial since the relaunch, it should be a cool one :) .

  17. Ptka says:

    Really great job, glad to have the site up and running at full strength again.
    Can’t wait to see some of the new tuts!

  18. loswl says:

    Excellent redesign, love the drop down menus and Flickr feed :o )

  19. Tom says:

    Thanks guys! The user link feed is also coming soon, just tidying up the last few bits of the new design.

  20. Matthew says:

    Quite the improvement. The design is easy on the eye and stays clean while avoiding too much 2.0 glitz.

    Well done, Tom and team!

  21. Tom says:

    Thanks Matthew :)

  22. Johnson Koh says:

    Excellent new design :D
    I like the font you chose.

  23. Tom says:

    Thanks Johnson, I’m glad you like it :)

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