Coming in February: A new Design Studio

[Nick Barr]

Hi all,

On Friday, Jonathan posted our product roadmap for the exciting stuff we've got lined up for the next 6 months. I want to dive a littler deeper into one of those projects Jonathan mentioned, our brand new Theming System.

Over the last few months, we've been updating the HTML framework for Ning Networks in preparation for this project. To date, almost all of that work has been under the hood, but it's been necessary to set the stage for the new Design Studio. The Design Studio is a powerful, intuitive, stylish new experience for customizing the look and feel of your site. Here are the new things that this feature brings to the table:

• See a live preview of changes as you make them
• Choose from 70+ hot new themes at launch
• Set a 2- or 3-column layout and choose navigation and sidebar locations
• Drop ads into your header and footer
• Tweak 80 dials and knobs for your site appearance
• Access Developer Mode, where theme gurus can access the Ning CSS and create their own themes

All that is scheduled for February, and we'll have more details in the coming weeks, but I wanted to give all of you on Creators a heads-up about this huge new feature. To make sure it’s fantastic, we’ve already invited several Ning Creators to experiment with an alpha version of the Design Studio. We’ve gotten some great feedback and we plan to expand the number of Creators into the beta later this month.

One thing I want to call out is that if your site looks absolutely perfect already, no worries: The Design Studio won't affect customizations you've already made. We’ll be providing more details as we hit specific milestones with this project, both here on Creators and in email communications to all Ning Creators.

Over the next few days, we're going to be inviting more Ning Creators into the beta. We received a ton of beta requests, thank you! We will try to fit as many folks in as we can.

[JustWrite]

this is great news cause alot of creators I know have been really getting their butts kicked with trying toi adjust theeir images to the side columns with only one side to really edit...lol 

great post thanks!!!

[Eric Suesz]

We'll have more info for you this week, but it will not be today.

[domenica64]

Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beth Owls Daughter]

Could I just go off-topic for a sec?  (and forgive me.. this is a bit long-winded)...

I have been a member on NING for a couple of years now, and started my own small network to support clients in some workshops I was teaching.  But now NING is more important to me than EVER, because having been a Meetup.com Organizer for eight years, I am bailing and bringing my group with me. To NING.

You all may know that last week, without warning, Meetup.com launched their own new system-wide changes, creating enormous problems for their users - so bad it has triggered a revolt from their paying subscribers. Literally tens of thousands of furious, frustrated posts and utter stonewalling responses from MU. It has been Big Drama and very painful for thousands of people.  Still going on. Really, really bad.

So, having made the decision to commit to NING, here I am building my alternative site for my group and I run across this discussion.

At first, it is scarily parallel .. NING is getting ready to launch fundamental changes?? Uh-oh. 

But there, the similarity absolutely ends.

I cannot begin to tell you how refreshing, how healing, how absolutely wonderful the vibe is here, compared to the way Meetup treats their customers. 

I have to say I LOVE the transparency of what is being decided by your developers; the fact that you are sharing your process; you are responding to everyone RIGHT AWAY; you are supporting all three platforms; encouraging creativity, trying to find the happy medium between consistency in a network for folks that want that, without cramping anyone's style. Beautiful! 

Best of all, I love the co-creative discussions I am seeing here.  You are talking to us like we're intelligent!  You want us to be diverse and succeed!

The fact that you are inviting beta testing!  Meetup ended member beta testing last year when the testers had problems with what they were preparing to roll out. MU rolled it out anyway, core problems, bugs and all, and shut down, not only beta testing but even being able to reply in their staff blogs!

So thank you, NING.  A lot of my fellow Organizers are aware of you as they seek alternatives.  I am encouraging everyone I know to pony up a few bucks (instead of going with sketchy freebies), for exactly the culture I am seeing here. Kudos and keep up the great work.

I am SO glad I chose you all.

  - Beth

... we now return you to the actual topic...

[Eric Suesz]

Thanks, Beth. That means a whole lot to us!

[Dave Walkerden]

I'm looking forward to having a wider 3rd column to be more consistent with modern screen sizes and to allow 300px wide ad spots, I hope this is happening (fingers crossed). So far I'm thrilled with the NING Pro subscription that I have and the way NING is actually developing the platform and giving excellent value for money. My site had grown dramatically in 2010 and I was worried that I might have to create a bespoke website and migrate everything across, but the way NING is keeping up with modern CMS's and layouts, I really don't need to. Bravo.

[J.Pedro Henriques]

Hi,

 

Take a look here. But i'm waiting for the new design tool, for a more consistent way to do things.

 

Pedro

[Valerie]

Excited about this one!

[Bulldozer]

Hi. When will you make the forum look better?

 

Like show how many post  a member has done.

Like shoW how many reads the forum.

Give us more forumoptions and make  the first forum post only show on the first page.

[Jerry Massey]

Actually I gave my Plus membership a one-year test run after having to pay for it.  So far, I'm still not making any money to make any upgrade worth it. I'm not going to keep digging in my own pocket.   I've created a similar "free" group on LinkedIn to see where that goes vs having my own ning site.  So signing up for another ning paid year is still debatable for me.  If rates are increased, or if I have have to go to Pro for improvements, I'm kissing ning goodbye. 

[domenica64]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eccellente :-))

[Howard K]

can't wait.