Coming in February: A new Design Studio

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.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on January 24, 2011 at 4:00pm

Great news! Will it be available to both Plus and Pro networks?

Permalink Reply by Nick Barr on January 24, 2011 at 4:08pm

yep!

Permalink Reply by Tony on January 28, 2011 at 8:12am

Please start keeping more things pro.. I feel like I'm still competing with non pro sites..

Permalink Reply by M on January 28, 2011 at 9:40am

I would agree.

Permalink Reply by Tony on January 28, 2011 at 9:44am

Thanks Morgan... I mean what's the point of having pro if everyone is going to have same features basically. I paying pro to differentiate myself from my competitors on ning itself..

Permalink Reply by Writer Chick {Diane} on January 28, 2011 at 12:28pm

I don't agree. If this were available only to Pro accounts I'd be majorly pissed off. Being able to have a nice looking and professional site should be something available to all plans (even Minis, although I could understand where it would be very limited in their instance.)

Frankly, way too many of the new features that have come out recently have been totally useless to me, and I'm about ready for something meaningful for us Plus people.

Permalink Reply by Uschi Ronnenberg on February 1, 2011 at 7:45am

Diane, I agree! And I'm still in the duty to explain to my (Plus-)Members, why they don't have their beloved music any more - which they had, before they paid for the network...

Permalink Reply by Hippy on January 30, 2011 at 11:29am

Sorry U think this way ,

Its not suppose to be a Competetion,

You make your Network ,

You OFFER what you have,

Your PRICING for it is on you,

Plus Networks do not get what Pro gets ,

They are Limited to where you are Basicaly not,

And for the Most PART NING was Made and Offered

as A FREE SOCIAL NETWORKING Platform for People

to Socialize FREELY With out all the BULL of trying to be SOLD SOMETHING,

Its all going down Hill now,

In the Begining we came Here to get away from all the Selling Networks ,

and Just have a Place to Just Socialize and not have to put up with

Always having something SHOVED in our face to Buy this Buy that,

Theres already too many Places on the net for that,

Looks Like many of us will have to find a new NetWork just for Socializing

without having someone trying to always SELL you something,

I know my spelling might not be up to par for some ,

BUT I'm sure you get my POINT,

I do wish you the Best in what you are here for ,

But for myself and Many others, Ning is getting more and more

not a Place we are going to want to be in very much longer,

GOOD Luck to You and Ning,

We sure miss the Old Ning and what it was first Based on !

Peace to all and may you find a way to Keep Love in your Heart,

The World is going Down Hill fast ,

But maybe If you Keep these 2 things from Disappearing ,

The World will still Have a chance to SURVIVE !!!

Permalink Reply by Keltic Fae (Jersey Girl) on January 30, 2011 at 11:53am

Wonderfully said Hippy. I am in total agreement with you. Bravo

Permalink Reply by Star-Dust on January 31, 2011 at 9:28am

Permalink Reply by ROBBCORP.COM on February 1, 2011 at 2:39am

Permalink Reply by Elena Salvator on February 8, 2011 at 8:18am

Finally someone said it ning is getting more and more complax i built my net work to give a secure place for people to make new freinds and spend time with there old ones i dont gain wealth off of it i actually pay for the 19.99 package out of my pocket every month i dont charge members because i feel thats just plain wrong you shouldnt have to pay to be with freinds