WinCustomize 2K9: Expanding focus
Thursday, March 5, 2009 by Frogboy | Discussion: Personal Computing
A new WinCustomize is coming and it’s a reunion of much of the original 2001 WinCustomize team with Johanne (Alexandrie) leading the UI design and Pat (T-Man) re-architecting the backend. This time, we have a crack team led by Matt (Orcnbeans) helping create a new way for the site to function that should make it lighting fast.
Much of the site will be XML based which also means that the site will be able to be displayed in lots of different ways (which obviously makes it skinnable).
One of the areas we’re going to increase WinCustomize’s focus on is that it we’re going to expand beyond just talking about how to customize the aesthetics of Windows but also the functionality of it. As Windows has evolved since 2001, so has customization.
Moreover, web technology has evolved substantially since 2001. In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, we want to begin to let users make use of those technologies in interesting ways. We’ll talk more about that as we get further alone.
The new site design is a lot cleaner with an emphasis on fewer page loads.
The galleries are much more straight forward and focused on that gallery. This way, we can add features that are specific to a given gallery. A wallpaper gallery, for instance, will eventually support specific wallpaper sizes, color searches, etc.
The rating system, as previously mentioned, is gone, replaced by the Love/Like system to let people know which skins people love/like the most and letting us filter skins based on that metric.
Navigating galleries will be done through a drop down menu with each section being explained to users.
The Community features will get a major bump and more software will be made available to make it ever easier to interact with other users, find what you’re looking for, and more.
Stay tuned. We hope to launch the new WinCustomize.com later this month (fingers crossed).
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Reply #2 Thursday, March 5, 2009 1:24 PM
Great news Frogboy.
Being skinable would be very nice. 
Reply #4 Thursday, March 5, 2009 1:27 PM
Simple and great...hope for lots of betterment...
Wait for its launch... 
Reply #5 Thursday, March 5, 2009 1:30 PM
Good timing , i say... i just ordered ObjectDesktop this morning, and i'll certainly delve into some Vista interfacing personalization stuff soon enough.
Reply #6 Thursday, March 5, 2009 1:38 PM
It just keeps getting better all the time,it all sounds very exciting. 
I will look forward to the changes.
Reply #8 Thursday, March 5, 2009 2:33 PM
... Yahoo! 
i'm so happy
Reply #9 Thursday, March 5, 2009 2:47 PM
This looks excellent. Speed is always great, and better/improved navigation was one of my (silent) prayers. It was terribly cumbersome/time consuming.
Absolute blessings on this! Great work Alexandrie and T-Man. And thanks to the crew that're working like heck to get it done.
Reply #10 Thursday, March 5, 2009 2:55 PM
The new site's really looking excellent. Great work team!
Mike
Reply #11 Thursday, March 5, 2009 3:02 PM
Will this effect the Sins of a Solar Empire sections??
Reply #17 Thursday, March 5, 2009 6:44 PM
Quite curious to see how a different type of rating system would work, I noticed that only love and like were mentioned. 
I would love to see a an area, some kind of method to foster new talent, as opposed to a thread here or there that usually dies or is buried.
Didn't read the 'later this month' bit till now... Have to admit, I'm looking forward to something new. 
I really wish you luck and hope that you guys pull it off... I'd love to see a great looking, modern, relevant site that people will want to come back to.
Reply #20 Thursday, March 5, 2009 8:12 PM
The new interface looks interesting! I can't wait to see it in action!
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Reply #1 Thursday, March 5, 2009 1:21 PM
Sounds GREAT!!!--THANKS!!