Time’s are changing. I’m changing… and this site is coming with me!
Fused Reality Studios must be one of the hardest sites I’ve ever had to design. It was the first ever domain I purchased and I hope I shall have it for many years to come–but I feel it’s just now that it’s getting used for it’s original purpose.
Focus
My focus has shifted dramatically since I launched fusedrealitystudios.com back in 2003. It’s even changed in the past six months! Back then I considered myself as a student with little worries and when comparing myself to my peers–and I thought it’d be fine to sit back and watch things go by. I’ve had the cold water splashed onto my face, and I’m doing my best to work on my freelance career.
There are other things; things I’ve been meaning to change for a long time. The site is much easier to update and above all, is tied in much better with the CMS of my choice. Essentially the time for a redesign had become essential; it’s happening because I was frustrated. But this is a good thing, since it means I’m redesigning out of necessity and not just for the sake of it.
It’s not finished yet
Although the site’s live, my work is far from over. There are numerous things that have either not been implemented or tweaked and most if it hasn’t been tested at all in any version of IE. But apart from that usual post-launch stuff, there’s some specific things I do have planned:
- Store. It may sound a little weird to have a store built into my website but there’s a purpose for everything in this little world. I intend to expand and do more work on premium Wordpress themes as well as a few other products and services–of which I will soon be providing.
- Extra-cirricular activities. I hope to be able to have some aspects of other websites that I use and what I’m doing. But I’m trying to find a way of creating this without impeding on the use of the site with prospective clients.
- Improved comment display. I still need to do a little tweaks to make inline comments work in a way that I feel looks good. Soon.
- Better navigation between posts. Journal entries don’t even have previous/next links yet. I hope to add a few features so people will find posts that are similar and popular.
- First Contact. The contact form I was creating isn’t ready yet, but I’m making it fit with the rest of the website’s aesthetics.
- Search. It needs to be implemented, but it’s on it’s way.
I ain’t afraid of no criticism!
I’ve talked enough. I’d love to know what you think, and if you have any requests or feature suggestions, so please leave a comment!
8 Responses toI’ve redesigned. Here’s why.
Richard said on August 21st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Great work Craig, really like the CSS3 touches. Oh and of course I have to comment to check out how the comment is displayed, you said so :P
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Craig Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Cheers Richard. I’ve added some of the reply features but it’s going to be pretty basic till I have some time to work on them next week.
:D
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Richard Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Looking good to me, see what you mean, probably more with the replies to comments – I like the style of the first in a chain :)
I launched that F1 site I showed you at FOWA yesterday [f1-fans.co.uk] – didnt bother implementing threaded comments there, seemed a bit much work when comments arn’t used too often at the moment.
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Craig Reply:
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
Ah, so it’s finally out of the woodworks. I’m going to have to get into F1 so I’ve got a reason to visit!
You’re right that comments aren’t being used that much yet. But I’ll repeat your statement–you launched it yesterday. I’m sure that, after a while, your visitors would like a little threaded comments. But I’m sure there’s other higher priorities to do first–and it’s not exactly life-or-death to have it or not. :)
Eliphas said on August 21st, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Designing his own site, working on his project is always hard, as you mention we change, our life, priorities changes and so a project we had before becomes less interesting with the time and one day not sure it comes again to life.
Nice design though i like it very much, great work!
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Craig Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Tell me about it… I’ve abandoned so many projects.
Thanks for the kind words. :)
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Corinne said on August 22nd, 2009 at 9:06 am
I’ve seen it on the drawing board time and time again, But there’s something about this one that brings peace and calm into my day…I think it’s the color selection.
I absolutely LOVE the bottom “Start your Project”, “Client Support” etc…wonderful layout and very easy to read.
I see what you mean though about the comments and what you want to change and still have to do. I know that you do wonderful work on Wordpress as I see when I get on my own personal site everyday and it makes me Smile. I can’t wait to see “the store” and an easy post navigation system would be useful so as you practice new skills you can journal about what you can do and people can see your work.
Have you ever considered turning some of your artwork and photographs or even your Fusedreality Logos and promotional memorabilia into clothing options and “geek gear”…Such as Cups, T-shirts and Computer accessories.
If you are interested in doing something like That I would be more than happy to help you design and to implement some things on cafepress.
Get back to me Love!
Anyway, Love the site and in all you do I know that you have the talent to Succeed!
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Craig Reply:
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 am
I may do, but I feel it’s utterly early for putting my logo onto things. We’ll see though. I have created merchandise before but it’s only really been for my own use–I find it very hard to think that someone would want to purchase something like that. I may, however, play around with making some good looking t-shirt designs at some stage and sell them off. :P
Thanks darling, your positive comments mean so much to me–as I know how hard it is for you to admire any sort of change!
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