The New Avsim

[erols]

Hi guys,As you know, a few days ago we were able to use the new Avsim website. For some reason, the new website was turned in to the old website. When I first saw the new website, I wasn't really dissapointed of what I saw, it looked good and simple. When I finally went to the library, I was dissapointed. It looked good, but I had a lot of trouble finding what I was searching for. When I started to use the new website, I noticed that many things were changed. Some of the things had become better, but a lot of other things were not prefered by the users. The old, dynamic Avsim was gone, the headlines were not the same and the traditional 'Actions on the Apron' were changed. The new website went offline, just when I started to get used to it! But when I saw the problems and the opinions of FlightSim fans all over the FS forums, I understood that there was something we had to do.When I understood we had to do something to 'fix' Avsim, I decided to send an email to Tom and asked him if I could design the new Avsim again. He approved it and now I'm working on a New Avsim, with nice colors and shapes, but above all, a good usability! Like I said, searching the library was nearly imposible and getting used to the new, less dynamic and informing homepage was the biggest problem for most of the users all around the world. I'm now involved in the design of the New Avsim and I'll keep you updated by adding progress updates here on the forum. Tom also told me that they were going to create a forum strictly dedicated to the new design, so maybe the posts here will be replaced to that forum. But untill then, keep checking this forum and be patient to see the new and much more amazing Avsim!PROGRESS03/11/2011 - Today, I started designing the new homepage. I'm working on the 'shape' of the homepage. This means that I'm looking at what I have to put on the homepage and how the positions and shapes of these things are going to be. This is actually very important, because this will be my design of the usability of the website. After I'm finished with the 'shape' of the homepage, I'll make all the other pages and after that I'll add all the colors and extra things to it.

[Fitz505]

If your already a user of Avsim, how come you only have 1 post and shouldn't Tom be making this announcement? I guess I'm getting suspicious of everything in my old age.

[Cessnaflyer]

If your already a user of Avsim, how come you only have 1 post and shouldn't Tom be making this announcement? I guess I'm getting suspicious of everything in my old age.

Probably because he is a new webmaster and not a flightsim enthusiast?

[erols]

I totally understand your comment;)Tom is traveling at the moment. He sent me an email about that and told me to post this in the hangar. That's the reason I've posted this and not Tom.As I said, Tom will soon make a forum strickly dedicated to the new design. Maybe that will make you belief this?:)@Cessnaflyer: I'm a FlightSim enthusiast and a webdeveloper. This combination has brought me so far to be able to design the new Avsim:)Regards,Erol Simsir

[scott967]

Thanks for the update. I think it is certainly possible to make AVSIM better than ever.scott s..

[Tom Allensworth]

If your already a user of Avsim, how come you only have 1 post and shouldn't Tom be making this announcement? I guess I'm getting suspicious of everything in my old age.

You can holster those six shooters. This is legitimate. :(

[Robert W]

Today, I started designing the new homepage. I'm working on the 'shape' of the homepage. This means that I'm looking at what I have to put on the homepage and how the positions and shapes of these things are going to be.

What program are you using to design the website? I'd like to be able to keep the reviews in the same style. Will I be able to link directly from the Front Page to a new page in the same format, or will my link take me to my own Dreamweaver template as I'm currently doing?

[erols]

What program are you using to design the website? I'd like to be able to keep the reviews in the same style. Will I be able to link directly from the Front Page to a new page in the same format, or will my link take me to my own Dreamweaver template as I'm currently doing?

Hi Robert. I'm going to make a link to the review page. The link will have a slide menu with the following links: - Payware Add-ons -> Aircraft, Scenery, Utilies- Freeware Add-ons -> Aircraft, Scenery, UtiliesSimple as that! I think you'll be able to use your Dreamweaver template, but that also depends on what the programmers want or can do. If you want it this way, we'll do it, why not? I'll will try to design it like that, but the programming will be done by others and I don't really know how they are going to do it with the user-generated content, like the reviews.I'm going to use Adobe Fireworks CS5. Some people might think that Photoshop is better, but actually there is no difference between FW and PS. I have both programs installed on my computer and if you have both programs, the options of PS will be installed in FW. This means that PS and FW are mixed and all the options and advantages of both programms are now in one program. FW is also designed to design websites while PS is designed to edit photos. FW works fine with webbrowsers, so I can easily preview the designs on my computer to check out how the end result is going to look like. It's much easier and in a lot of ways it's also simpler to use.I hope this was enough to answer your questions;)And guys, there's a new topic started by Tom about the redesign of Avsim. It would be great if we could discuss it there, it's really irritating because I have to check two different topics and I have to answer on two different topics. The progress updates will also be replaced to the new topic which is strictly dedicated to this subject.Regards,Erol Simsir