*** From the Archives ***
This article is from April 12, 2015, and is no longer current.
Welcome to the New CreativePro!
Greetings and welcome to the new CreativePro!
If you’re a regular visitor, you might have wondered why the site was quiet over the last few weeks, with only a few bits of new content. I’m happy to now reveal the reason: we were working hard in the background to refresh, revamp, and reboot CreativePro! And with nearly 11,000 articles spanning 15 years, well, there was a lot to refresh.
Fellow blog admins and web devs, you’ll appreciate this: A huge part of the process was converting the site from Drupal to WordPress, which is what our other sites use. How sweet it was to see the above screen shot in the WordPress dashboard!
I really hope you enjoy using the new site. Personally, I find that it is quicker, easier on the eyes, and simpler to navigate. And because it’s responsive, it looks great on a phone or an iPad now.
Getting Around the New Site
For navigation, you’ll see four categories that you can browse from the home page: Fonts & Type, Layout & Illustration, Photoshop & Photography, and Print & PDF. Some articles didn’t fit into any of those categories, so if you don’t find what you want by browsing, search the site (top right corner of every page), or scroll down to the footer and use the Site Map.
You can also use the breadcrumb trail at the top of an article to browse related content.
Click an author’s name to find all the articles written by that person.
And at the end of articles, you’ll find authors’ bios with links to their websites and other work.
No Need to Log-in
Presently, there is no need to create a user account (or log in to an account that you created on the old site). As we continue to develop and add new features, it’s likely that we will enable a system of user accounts. But for now, just think of it as one less password you have to remember!
Never Miss an Article with Our Newsletters
You can get the best of CreativePro sent to you in our weekly email newsletter, along with subscriber-only special offers. Just enter your email address on the home page, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Our complicated newsletter sign-up process
Existing subscribers don’t have to do a thing, you’re all still subscribed.
Quick and Easy Commenting
Another thing that I love about the new site is how easy it is to add a comment at the end of an article. In most cases, there’s no annoying captcha to deal with, all you have to do is enter your name and email, and click the checkbox to declare that you are not a robot (we’ll take your word for it). We made it easier to comment because want to hear from you!
Note that if you’re browsing in Private mode (Incognito in Chrome), you will see the usual, more complicated kind of captcha.
If you want to send us a general question or comment, there’s a link to a contact form in the footer of every page. Down there, you’ll also find links to the aforementioned site map/archives, plus the privacy policy, live events, and the other websites in the Creative Publishing Network group.
We’re Just Getting Started
And the best news it that we’re not done yet. We have a lot of fun stuff planned, including the return of monthly contests where you can win some awesome prizes! And we’ll continue to work to improve the design and functionality of CreativePro in the days and weeks to come.
So take a look around, kick the tires, let us know what you think of the new CreativePro.com—and what else you’d like to see. Thanks!
 |
Love the new layout on mobile in general. Loads quick, scrolls smooth, and everything seems easy to find and use.
The only “issues” I’ve noticed so far is on an iPhone 6+ in portrait mode (and I suspect any smartphone in portrait mode), the Search box drops down below the Logo and covers the “Latest” ticker. And, the sponsor ads don’t align very well at the bottom of the page when they stack—which is an issue you probably can’t fix due to different size ads, but I thought I would mention it anyway.
As for the desktop version of the site…
I would really love to see more white space between content blocks. As it stands, the main content nearly runs into the “In The News” column on the right, as well as the three content blocks below them. It all just seems to be a bit crammed. This extends to individual article pages as well. More margin space on the side and between content and sidebar would greatly improve readability.
And speaking of that “Latest” ticker at the top… not only is it pointless (since everything in the ticker is right below it in giant sliders and headlined content), but it just looks out-of-place—like it fell off a Geo-Cities page from 2001 onto your new design. It’s a gimmick, and a completely unnecessary one that exists simply because it can.
I would also drop the Author block at the bottom of the post pages. You already have a link to the author in the article byline at the top. The block at the bottom adds more clutter than usefulness. And since we’re talking about authors; what up with that overly-corporatized, non-personal About page? You have a Contact page, so move that info to it – where it belongs. Then use the space to expand on who you guys are, etc. Many of us have been following you guys for years. But we’re getting “get off my lawn” old, and these new hacks will want to know who you are.
Overall, I think it’s a very nice re-design. I’ve gone through these major overhauls before, so I know how much goes into it that isn’t even seen by the users, let alone what is. Congrats!
I am interested to read you converted from Drupal to WordPress and was interested in the reasons behind it. I mean Drupal is much more of a “powerful” beast than WordPress, so was it because your other sites are in WordPress or was it something to do with Drupal.
James: Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback. There are some great points in there that will help us make CPro cleaner as we move forward. I don’t entirely agree with everything, though. For example, I really like having information about the author at the end of each article. Most people won’t go as far as clicking on the author name to see their author page, so this makes it clear: This was written by a real person! :-)
Jane: I’m not sure I agree with your comment that Drupal is a more “powerful” beast than WP. I have a lot to say about Drupal, but very little of it is positive, so I’ll just keep my mouth shut. I guess I will say that there are certainly some sites that would probably benefit from Drupal, but as far as I can tell they are few and far between… and they are certainly not us.