Wisdump » Wisdump

Presenting the Best of Wisdump

Sophia Lucero — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:25:46 +0000

Wisdump has a lot of content. A lot of great content. It’s been around since 2004 and amidst all the changes this website has gone through, the most important thing is for readers to gain access to these thoughtful, timeless articles that would otherwise be buried in the archives. Ladies and gentlemen, the Best of Wisdump is here.

Now I’m not too happy about arranging these posts reverse chronologically, but for now it will do. But I would also like to know what you think are the best posts on Wisdump, and how we should present them. Should we let readers rate posts? Use a popular posts plugin? Let your voice be heard in the comments!

Finishing Touches

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:33:52 +0000

…and famous last words, perhaps.

I’ve done some minor fixes to the design, adding some icons to the sidebar. The cache might make it look a bit funky for a bit, both browser (Ctrl+F5 for Windows users, Command+R for Mac people), and server caching. Live with it, I’ve had to during this whole process.

The Wisdump redesign is my last effort here at Wisdump. Tomorrow, April 1st (which it might already be where you are in the world, perhaps), Ia Lucero will take the helm here at Wisdump. Treat her nicely.

I’d like to thank you all for being such good sports, no matter if you’ve agreed with me or not. There’s been some nice discussions, a few heated ones, a couple of douche bags, and so on. As can be expected online. No hard feelings, actually, just warm fuzzy ones. I’ve had fun.

So thank you for reading Wisdump during my time here.

Where am I off to then? Well, it’s a secret so I can’t tell you that I’ll be taking the helm over at The Blog Herald come tomorrow…

Keeping quiet sucks, so I won’t anymore.

She’s all yours, Ia!

Wisdump Redesign: Public Beta

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:36:17 +0000

So here it is, the redesigned Wisdump in public beta. There are a few small things left, but I figured I’d get it up there to see what you guys think.

Feel free to compare to the mockup designs I’ve posted previously. They are just that: mockups, which means that the design you’re seeing right now isn’t 100% like them. I never intended it to be, so that’s all good.

Jumbled up? Ctrl+F5 on Windows, or Command+R on Mac, or simply just empty your cache and reload to see the new design.

What do you guys think? Speak up in the comments! I’m all ears…

Show Your Reliability With Weekly Returning Offerings

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Lorelle VanFossen is great. If you’re the least interested in the WordPress community you know this. She’s got a great blog, she is a great interview subject, and she does a great job giving us the weekly WordPress recap over at The Blog Herald. The latest one went online yesterday.

Other blogs should learn from Lorelle, and The Blog Herald, in regards to the WordPress Wednesday News segment. By having a returning column on a given day you’re signaling reliability, and that’s certainly a good thing, especially online, where sites and blogs come and go.

Something to think about for your blog, surely.

With that I bid you a happy Easter. I’ll be back on Tuesday next week. Another thing slated for next week is the new Wisdump design, in public beta. How about that, huh?

Redesigning Wisdump: The Categories

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

There are 29 categories on Wisdump today. 7 of them have 5 posts or less associated, 13 have got less than 20 posts. Several are completely redundant, probably great ideas when Scrivs ran the show, but the Wisdump I took over last year neither was nor is his playground. Categories like 9rules had its place back then, but today it’s a mere archive of Scrivs writing about his project.

Which brings me to which categories next Wisdump should have?

In my mind, you should always keep the number of categories to a minimum. It makes things easier for you, and it opens up opportunities for special styling, branding, things like that. Tags have effectively replaced the categories when it comes to show exactly what something is about, now categories are meant for sorting, and tags does the pinpointing.

So while I won’t delete any categories, which would be silly, I just won’t use them all. I’m thinking something like this:

Advertising
Blogging
Design
Design Critique
Web++ or similar, don’t like the ++ thing
Wisdump

Perhaps a few more, which ones? Here’s your chance telling me what you want more of here at Wisdump. I’m all ears.

Wisdump Redesign: I’ve Decided, Finally!

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:20:47 +0000

I’ve finally decided which design I’ll work with for the next version of Wisdump:

It won’t look exactly like that, there’ll be some fixes in the sidebar, change in the whitespace, and some other things that might or might not appeal to the grid fanatics out there, but it’s a start. Actually, it might differ quite a bit, it sort of depends on how things work out for real, and what I finally decide to put in there. You see, mockups for clients are one thing, but this is a project where my word is final (although I obviously want to hear from you guys, the readers), even though I don’t own Wisdump. So we’ll see how close I’ll be to this mockup, some things will change for sure, like the slanted button design.

Do check out the three redesign concept posts if you’re interested.

Wisdump in Japan: What do you want to see?

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:06:47 +0000

I’m leaving for Japan on Thursday, Osaka to be precise, and naturally I’ll do my best to flavor my blogging gigs – such as Wisdump – as much with Japanese design culture as possible.

In other words, I intend to do commentary posts on advertising, store design, branding, things like that – either some inspiration for you lot, or as a basis for commentary of sorts.

However, is there anything in particular you want to see from Japan? Any special kind of advertising, a cultural phenomenon that you think would be interesting? I don’t know, I’ve never been to Japan, and I won’t have unlimited time or anything, but if you know that there are things I should be on the lookout for, do let me know.

Wisdump redesign concept, part 3

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:23:41 +0000

First of all, I’d like to give a big thank you to all of you who’ve been speaking up on the two redesign concepts I’ve posted. Your comments are appreciated, and – as you’ll hopefully will see – duly noted. I don’t always agree, but then again you won’t agree amongst yourselves either, so that’s fine. What would design be without a bit of controversy, eh?

That being said, the third redesign concept is here, with two different W logo solutions, and a brief explanation regarding the slanting design that you apparently either like or dislike.

So let’s start there. The whole idea with the slanting block behind the W logo, which I incidentally would like to preserve, is to reuse the form throughout the design. I don’t like to overuse forms, but this one resurfaces in submit buttons, read more links, and so on – both of those are in the concept, as you’ve probably seen. This brings life, not only sticking to the expected rectangles (or rounded corners, not many of those here, and that’s not just because I think they’re overused in design today).

In short, the slanted elements bring character to the design, because they are irregular. That’s more needed since the color scheme is almost non-existant.

Speaking of which, I do intend to use colors for hovering links, and, as been pointed out in the comments, strong images for headlining posts will certainly stand out in a design like this. I’ve made the content area a little wider than I perhaps would have under other circumstances, to give more playroom for images. I don’t think the white, grey, and black scheme will be dull, because images will lighten it up. And ads of course, although I won’t rely on them to add color.

The concepts

Enough talk! I’ve got two concepts with different logos below. They are not final, but I’m starting to feel comfortable with them, which is important since I’ll be sticking with the new design for quite some time. It’s the front page we’re looking at, no images in the mockups, you’ll have to imagine those. A simple footer have been added. Naturally, there should be more posts in the listing, I’d say five instead of the three, but I didn’t want to make the images too big.

First concept, with slanting logo design.

Second concept, no slanting logo, just a simple rectangle plate falling down from the top.

As you can see, no circular version. It just doesn’t fit into this design as it does in the current one.

What do you think?

Wisdump redesign concept, part 2

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:53:26 +0000

The Wisdump redesign concept I posted previously have been updated. It still follows the same basic premise, but is now populated with more content, and the sidebar top isn’t as heavy.

Compare the version below with the previous one. The image is a bit distorted, but you get the general feel.

Feedback is appreciated. What do you think?

Wisdump redesign concepts

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:47:55 +0000

As I’ve hinted before, there’s a redesign of Wisdump – by yours truly – coming soon. I thought I’d share some elements from this design with you. Overall, the idea is to stay true to the whitespace look, but do a better job placing ads and such. Also, Wisdump will be sub-networked with related Splashpress sites, more on that later on.

It’s still fairly early, but the general feel is there.

What do you think?

Wisdump » Wisdump

Presenting the Best of Wisdump

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Finishing Touches

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Wisdump Redesign: Public Beta

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Show Your Reliability With Weekly Returning Offerings

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Redesigning Wisdump: The Categories

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Wisdump Redesign: I’ve Decided, Finally!

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Wisdump in Japan: What do you want to see?

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Wisdump redesign concept, part 3

The concepts

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Wisdump redesign concept, part 2

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Wisdump redesign concepts

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