New site made for my apps. Much better

StusApps

Hi all,

The first time I published an app over a year ago I suddenly discovered I was supposed to have some sort of web presence. At the time I very quickly threw together something in iWeb, which looked bad. As time went on it grew into a slow loading horrible mess that I couldn't find time to redesign. Recently I have been making separate sites for new apps as I hated the main site so much.

So, I finally got round to changing stuff and wanted something simple that could integrate the stand alone sites my recent apps have used.

It is finally finished, please have a look at:

http://stusapps.com

Also check out the stand alone sites for the latest few apps (I particularly like the latest one for Mathical). These are all integrated by just clicking on that app, those that don't have a stand alone site launch an iTunes app box.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Stu

gyroscope

Hi Stu, I really like it; works well, and a neat idea opening the iTunes previews. Couldn't quite gather: this is still made in iWeb, so the zooming iTune preview windows are made with HTML Snippets, is that right?

A suggestion: on the main page, between the heading "HI! WELCOME TO STUSAPPS" and the game icons, a few lines of type, something like "A progressive game-making studio aimed at providing great family entertainment". OK, that's rubbish, but some sort of friendly byline to make the home page more personal/friendly.

All in all, really good, I think!

:-)

StusApps

gyroscope said:
Hi Stu, I really like it; works well, and a neat idea opening the iTunes previews. Couldn't quite gather: this is still made in iWeb, so the zooming iTune preview windows are made with HTML Snippets, is that right?

A suggestion: on the main page, between the heading "HI! WELCOME TO STUSAPPS" and the game icons, a few lines of type, something like "A progressive game-making studio aimed at providing great family entertainment". OK, that's rubbish, but some sort of friendly byline to make the home page more personal/friendly.

All in all, really good, I think!

:-)

Thanks,

No iWeb anymore. This is just html with javascript and ajax now. iWeb makes exceptionally inefficient code.

I did actually have some text between the title and tiles but then was in a minimalist mood and got rid of it. Will probably put it back in time.

gyroscope

StusApps said:

iWeb makes exceptionally inefficient code.

Ah, that's a bit worrying; I'm in the middle of getting my website together, using iWeb... offline test it all seems to run OK - perhaps mine isn't as complex as yours and will be OK when online. I guess I'll wait to see.

BIG_THINKIN_APPS

i would use Wordpress or weebly they are both better then iWeb

gyroscope

Hi ipodco, thanks for your advice, appreciated. The only thing is, I've 5 pages with quite a lot of stuff already done in iWeb, that'd be a pain to redo using something else; plus I did look at weebly but couldn't get on with their design wizard (I do prefer iWeb's designing environment by far). I haven't checked out Wordpress though; if I run into trouble with iWeb, I'll consider that to redo the lot again.

Thanks again. :-)

PS Best of luck with your website, Stu; here's hoping it generates many more sales for you.

I'll now hand back your thread to you... ;-)

BIG_THINKIN_APPS

ok

StusApps

gyroscope said:
Hi ipodco, thanks for your advice, appreciated. The only thing is, I've 5 pages with quite a lot of stuff already done in iWeb, that'd be a pain to redo using something else; plus I did look at weebly but couldn't get on with their design wizard (I do prefer iWeb's designing environment by far). I haven't checked out Wordpress though; if I run into trouble with iWeb, I'll consider that to redo the lot again.

Thanks again. :-)

PS Best of luck with your website, Stu; here's hoping it generates many more sales for you.

I'll now hand back your thread to you... ;-)

If you are going to use iWeb then I highly recommend using a piece of software called webcrusher http://www.ragesw.com/products/optimize-web-sites.html

It optimizes your code and images really quite well.

gyroscope

StusApps said:
If you are going to use iWeb then I highly recommend using a piece of software called webcrusher http://www.ragesw.com/products/optimize-web-sites.html

It optimizes your code and images really quite well.

Hey Stu, thank you very much for the heads-up there; looks spot-on software.

Really appreciated. I'll definitely be using that.

:-)

StusApps

gyroscope said:
Hey Stu, thank you very much for the heads-up there; looks spot-on software.

Really appreciated. I'll definitely be using that.

:-)

No probs. Hope you get it looking how you want it.

:-)

svn

Wait. If you make a site with iWeb do you have to pay some web hosting company like FatCow for a domain name or something?

SlickZero

You gotta pay somebody, yes.

There are some places that have free type hosting, but you get what you pay for.

StusApps

svn said:
Wait. If you make a site with iWeb do you have to pay some web hosting company like FatCow for a domain name or something?

Of course. If you are selling apps, you are running a business. You should at the very least have your own domain and simple site.

gyroscope

svn said:
Wait. If you make a site with iWeb do you have to pay some web hosting company like FatCow for a domain name or something?

For interest, I signed up with MacAce yesterday - a UK-based host. Got my domain name through them as well. Should get my FTP details, etc., when the weekend is over. I'll post the website address in the Forum early next week, if people want to check it out.

Rob2

Main page looks good on an iPad in portrait mode but using large popups rather than new pages makes navigation very odd.

StusApps

Rob2 said:
Main page looks good on an iPad in portrait mode but using large popups rather than new pages makes navigation very odd.

Yeah, iPad is a bit of an issue at the minute. It renders perfectly on an android tablet or phone, but iPad doesn't quite work right yet. It's something to work on.

Rob2

Kind of the same on a 15" MBP - you end up with two vertical scroll bars and no way back !! Not trying to be negative but the smaller wide screen (laptop) experience is not good. You normally get things pretty bang on so I thought you would want to know.:)

StusApps

Rob2 said:
Kind of the same on a 15" MBP - you end up with two vertical scroll bars and no way back !! Not trying to be negative but the smaller wide screen (laptop) experience is not good. You normally get things pretty bang on so I thought you would want to know.:)

I'm on a 15" macbook pro now. Not sure quite what you mean. I have a safari window open that is only about 1024px wide and it shows the box with an inch or so either side to click off the box. Also there is an X at the bottom to close it.

I made it to work with a screen size of 1024px as I figure this to be a reasonable minimum for computer screens.

Oh, and just to say I don't see it as negative at all. I appreciate people looking and any comments are a help (good or bad).

keweworkshop

Looks good! I like the simplicity of it. You can see what is going on versus sites where you don't even know where to look. My 2 cents, I would like to see a "who we are" section or page. It helps customers attach to the company.