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Over at Quofda the question today is “Do you like 9rules Volume 3?” and I thought it appropriate to answer it here. Feel free to answer this question over at your blogs and the trackbacks will show up over at Quofda.com.

What It Looks Like

If you’re not used to seeing this type of look out of me, don’t worry, other people feel the same way. I always find this interesting — the idea that it doesn’t “look like a design I’d put out.” I’m pretty sure I have a particular style, but it’s not rooted in tangible things you can point to in a screenshot. I’m a stickler for the right padding between elements, keeping things uniform. I like producing a design analogy and using it throughout the site, not doing one-off design elements that never get used again. Beyond that, I like to do something new for each site I design, something that I’ll put in the toolbox and pull out at a future date. Here are some new things I did on the new 9rules:

• Using CSS text-shadow to produce a glowing effect instead of a drop shadow effect. If you have Safari (or WebKit nightly) you’ll see this on the hover effect for the 4 links up in the header. It’s simple to code (search for “text-shadow” within the CSS file) so it was fun to use.
• Deeper transparency effects. If you resize the window you’ll see the elements in the top blue header area are sliding around on top of the blue line background. The “Browse By Community” element looks especially cool with this effect.

Now apart from specific techniques that I used to execute the design, the layout and design itself was important in this iteration because it was a clean break from the past site. The old 9rules was complex and had many moving parts, and since the new 9rules is just member content, it was like starting fresh as far as the information that needed to be displayed. I wanted this new design to reflect the cleanliness and simplified content options presented, so a clean and tight visual design was the goal. Big white content area, wide columns, ample padding between layout pieces, big typography. The visual touches to separate each area are sparse, but noticeable. I especially like the layout of the member grid listing in the left column.

How It Works

The new 9rules is refreshing to me as a 9rules reader because it makes the content more accessible and is right up front. I don’t have to click from the homepage over to the “member entries listing” to find what I want, it’s right there. It sounds obvious, but straight-up usability was the goal from the onset because — dare I say — 9rules.com had been on a usability decline for over a year. Adding new features adds complexity, and we tried to please all types of users who visited 9rules — people who wanted member entries, people who wanted Clips, Notes, profiles, whatever — so the site wasn’t optimized for any particular use case. That would be impossible, because so many different types of users frequented our site. Now, we know what people want when they come to the new 9rules: they want to see blog entries from our members. And we give it to them.

It’s The Best

In my opinion, and in the opinions of a half dozen or so beta testers, this is the best version of 9rules yet. I think this opinion spawns from the visual design being cleaner, but it also comes from the minds of many visitors who never used the new features (Notes, Clips, to name a few) and yearned for a return of the old, singular functionality we used to offer. We’ve brought back the old concept, added some great new features, and dropped it into a cleaner and more usable layout, so I think those aspects combine to make it “the best” we’ve done… so far.

If you’ve got any design thoughts or technical questions, be sure to hit me up in the comments.

One of great things about being part of this Network, is our ever expanding diversity. Travel Dive has recently published an interview with John Boyle and Underwater Film maker.

The interview is really great, and goes into some detail about making films underwater and how John Boyle got started doing so. However, this interview isn’t just for those experienced in underwater film making.

Helen: If you could give one simple piece of advice to anyone starting out in UW filming what would it be?

John: Apart from buy my book:0)?! Do it – diving will never be the same once you have tried filming – it adds so much to your experience. For so many people a dive is simply a walk in the park – follow a guide around a pre-set route glancing at things as they pass. With any camera – still or video – you learn to stop, look and observe – and hopefully to create an image of what you are seeing that you can share.

Its absolutely wonder to read about people’s experiences doing such a wide range of things. Great interview.

More and more people are taking the leap into running their own company. If you are one of those people, Particle Tree has recently written A Guide to Starting Your Own Business. Learn from the experiences, failures, and successes of the Particle Tree gang as they jot down the different steps that are essential to making your company a success.

For many of us, “running the business” is the hardest part of the entire process. If we’re opening a design or development company we know we have the skills to pull that off. But running a business can be daunting, and this guide makes things simple and easy to follow.

Kyle Neath comments on The last 10% of a redesign process and how many either do not focus enough on it or they leave it out all together.

I can definitely say that I’ve been guilty of this myself, and Kyle hits the nail on the head when he points to the struggle it is to have the self-control needed to focus on the final details. We’re seeing this more and more even on the corporate level when we see tons of new products being released as “beta” and staying as such for a long time.

Kyle also notes that by focusing on this last 10%, his site now lives up to his own expectations. Perhaps it isn’t that people get lazy for the last 10%, but that their personal expectations are too low? An interesting topic and discussion.

Kyle’s site Warpspire has many noteworthy articles worth noting - pun totally intended.

The time is now to get your site into Round 3 of English sites for the 9rules Network. Things are sure to get a bit crazy today and I enjoy these submission rounds because I am introduced to a ton of new sites and it seems with every new round (1& 2 and Spanish round) the quality of the submissions just gets better and better. What will Round 3 have in store for us? We will be sure to keep you updated.