david a mcclain (blog) | Home

Just a quick update on what I’ve done so far. As I said in the last post, I had some functional changes to do to make things a little easier on the user.

Archive/mp3s: I merged the Archive and mp3 sections into one called music. I relabelled the mp3 blossom to music, and switched off the archive blossom. In the future I’ll probably make that into the shop link. Now when you click on the link there’s a intro page explaining the section, a latest section where I can highlight the newest item, and along the bottom there’s a very simple navigation to the albums/singles/EPs that is present on every page. When you hover over a streaming mp3 I’ve added some very simple user feedback that lets them know something is happening. It also states on the page whether the mp3s there are downloadable or not.

Latest: I still haven’t updated this section as I’m not sure I want to. I prefer the idea of putting together a little email newsletter to having this section be a mini-blog.

People I Like: I decided I didn’t like this section so I got rid of it. Right now I don’t have or want anything to replace this section.

Wallpapers: Wallpapers hasn’t been updated yet because I can’t decide on the correct solution to the problem of having bigger thumbnails or easier previews. There’s still some head scratching going on there.

Contact: I changed the email address to david@… and I’ve made the newsletter sign up easier. Now there’s a text box to enter your email address and when there’s an address present it gives you the option of signing up or unsubscribing that email address. I wanted to keep this process as simple for me to administer as it is for the user. When it came to managing the mailing list I had lots of choices but I didn’t think many of them were worth the time and effort so I went with Highrise from 37signals. Essentially the process is that your email gets forwarded to Highrise - Highrise creates a new contact from your name and hey-presto you’re on the mailing list. If someone wants to unsubscribe, that request gets attached to their record - Highrise notifies me and I delete that record. It’s simple and it works nicely for me. You can learn more about Highrise here.