The first phase of the SideReel site redesign is live and lookin’ hot! We’ve got a new logo, a new template skin, and a whole new attitude. Sure, we dug the old design – she suited us well for the short term to get the site out to Public Beta. But we’ve decided to liven it up a bit with more feature pics on the homepage, some bolder colors, and a fresh face for our user base (which is growing exponentially).

The new logo:

The new homepage:

And the best part: The fresher, bolder new look for the homepage and the skin is only the beginning! Coming soon: New wiki pages with a new Watch Box module for housing links, and much more.

A lot has been written about the notion of BETA and the web 2.0 tendency to launch to public beta and stay there indefinitely. However, I’ve found most of the negativity centered around this phenomenon to be limiting and perhaps a bit closed minded – let me explain:

The notion of Beta comes from the traditional software development model – develop a product, enter into “alpha” inhouse testing, launch to public beta and give the public an opportunity to respond and report bugs and other usability issues that an internal team might have missed – then after a set time in public beta testing, the full version (dubbed “omega”) is born and available for purchase. One problem with this model though – the product is never going to be bug free, nor the pinacle of user interfaces – because a bug free totally usable product does not exist – there are just too many variables. So versions are created and upgrades made available. So it was never really “omega,” right? The greek system is flawed (and I ain’t just talking about college kids hazing eachother and drinking too much cheap beer)…..

When it comes to web applications I would advise developers and critics alike to get the Microsoft-esque stick ouf of their ass….this delineation between products and versions is not really as necessary – first off, you’re not buying software – web apps live (as one might expect) on the web and have a different distribution and capital model altogether – and unless you’re talking about browser add-ons and widgets, you aren’t downloading anything that needs a .03 tacked on the end of it, or any other decimal for that matter.

When authoring web apps, hard launches are not the key here – I would argue that, in a web application, subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) extension/addition of features and consistent bug removal is more important. Product evolution can be much more fluid and should continue to change to meet demand over time. Read the rest of this entry »