News - A New WordPress Theme
by Bence Kucsan 4 months ago on Jan 11, 2008 - Commentary (23) - Filed under - UX & Design - Grab the RSS


What, Why, When and How, but the most important, How Much?


At the end of last year, I did a long redesign project for GigaOM with the uber-talented guys from silverorange, and that made me think of the current state of online newspapers. I’ve done a fairly deep research about where print and screen news differs, how differently people use them and what could be done to move screen news presentation forward.

The most surprising part of this research was finding out that there are hundreds of blogs and news sites out there with really high-value content, but not with the right presentation they would deserve. And the idea of News was instantly born: a highly customizable out of the box design solution for independent news sites and blogs.

Over the Holidays I found some time to think about the idea and how I could make it happen. I decided to use WordPress as the platform for the project, as it is one of the best blog/cms systems out there, and already widely adopted, plus it has a great theme management system.

With News I want to help those independent one-man news sites and blogs with little or no budget to display the great content they have in a more usable way, and want to inspire them too, to continue their great work! The prices reflect that too: News is already starting at $75!

(You are a non-profit organization, or is even $75 to much for you? Drop a mail with the subject “Too Much”, and we’ll figure something out!)



by Bence Kucsan 4 months ago on Jan 11, 2008 - Commentary (23) - Filed under - UX & Design - Grab the RSS
 
23 Comments  ↓  Last 19 hours, 34 minutes ago + Add
 
Bence 
23 comments, add yours!

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on January 12, 2008 at 03:02

Great ! I really love it.But it seems doesn’t work well in safari,submenu is offset

by 4 months ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Jordan 
on January 12, 2008 at 03:23

I was just looking through QUO’s page and noticed a ‘lil error under “No Plugins Needed.” You have “We neighter, so News doesn’t...” :o)

I really love the overall design used for both the theme and QUO’s design as well. Perfect balance, whitespace, and shit, just great in general.

by Jordan 4 months ago - Permalink - Add a Response
R.Bhavesh 
on January 12, 2008 at 06:36

Wow is the only word I could utter at the moment. Seriously, You have the eye for it. Most importantly, Instead of stuffing all the features in the theme, you thought about the real needs of the common user and did it. The design, colors, typography and everything out there sits perfectly.

Congratulations. I definitely see you as one of the upcoming big guy in this area. Keep it up!

by R.Bhavesh 4 months ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Bence 
on January 12, 2008 at 07:32

@ dy: I’ve tested it trough in Safari too, and worked perfect (Version 3.0.4 - 523.12.2). What version of Safari do you use? Could you maybe send a screenshot of the problem, many thanks!
@ Jordan: Thanks for the feedback and typo too, I’ll never write the copy at night again…
@ R.Bhavesh: Thanks-thanks, appreciate!

Viking KARWUR 
on January 12, 2008 at 08:43

Hi… Nice WP Themes for News / Magazine… Really…
I suggest for NON-PROFIT use… please consider FREE… (and leave the credit title link to you)…

 
on January 12, 2008 at 21:03

Hi,I had found what’s wrong with my Safari. When I choose custom stylesheets from Safari’s Preferences,submenu is broken,so I shut it down,and it’s perfect. Great work

by 4 months ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
on January 14, 2008 at 07:33

I like the design. But why do the search function goes to google?. It’s ugly and Wordpress has its own search function.

by 4 months ago - Permalink - Add a Response
zoutpiel 
on January 18, 2008 at 10:09

First-off Perhaps it’s best to respect this as a personal blog and deal with discussion around the product on the forum - it’s a top-notch theme at a give-away price.

Bence your design style is a breed apart and I wish you the best of luck with Q, not that you’ll need it.  I’m sure everybody commends you for releasing themes like this at prices like this, and I’m sure you’ll reap the rewards from doing so in the future.  I am eager to leave you alone so you can produce more of the same!

@ jojo, I kinda like the idea of jumping onto google so easily from a news site (less so in a pure blog).  Commercially it perhaps makes less sense, but that’s not the design’s intention I think. 

I don’t like the fact that you leave the site once you start searching external content, some piece of the site remaining static would have been great.  But that’s for others to figure out in my view.

by zoutpiel 3 months, 3 weeks ago - Permalink - Add a Response
zoutpiel 
on January 18, 2008 at 10:12

Apologies if I am completely off-base here Bence (you do invite comments of course), just seems to make sense!

by zoutpiel 3 months, 3 weeks ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
on January 26, 2008 at 00:25

I really love the theme. Would love to upgrade my blog with the theme.  Where would advertisments be placed?

by 3 months, 2 weeks ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Jared Madden 
on February 06, 2008 at 23:09

A good site needs 3 things BEFORE one should even think about the content.
1 - Visual Appeal
2 - High Usability (speed and user interaction)
3 - Clean non bloated code

I have to say that your NEWS theme rates FIVE STARS on all accounts. You have developed an awesome product with code that is a pleasure to work with (and I can say that because I am not that good at code, I have a designer and usability mind, your commenting is excellent).

This is a highly recommended product that is easy to customise with great support via its forum. If you are considering NEWS for your blog and would like to tweak it, have a look at these two tweaked sites.
http://www.emersive.info (mine, a work in progress)
http://www.agenturblog.de

by Jared Madden 3 months, 1 week ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
on February 11, 2008 at 23:15

Same question applies to me...what about advertisements?  Any thoughts about a calendar for community events?

by 3 months ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Dubai 
on February 26, 2008 at 07:46

Great - very clean and easy on the eye

by Dubai 2 months, 2 weeks ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
on March 06, 2008 at 04:53

Nice work..
and i think the best is make this template FREE

by 2 months, 1 week ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Lloyd Lopez 
on March 07, 2008 at 17:25

I really like it. Very clean and one of the best WP theme I’ve seen. Got to agree with the others - make it FREE and have a donate-if-you-like-it link. I believe that a lot of people will donate in return. It will also help getting back links for your site.

by Lloyd Lopez 2 months, 1 week ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Web Design Egypt 
on March 31, 2008 at 00:32

The wordpress Design Looks Amazing Bence and really Looking forward for some UX tutorials or Articles from you

by Web Design Egypt 1 month, 2 weeks ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Matt 
on April 10, 2008 at 03:01

Hi, I just wanted to let you know I’ve added the News theme to my collection of the coolest Wordpress themes going around, http://www.bestwpthemes.com. Nice work.

by Matt 1 month ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Adrian 
on May 02, 2008 at 10:02

No: Don’t give it for free! ;)
Good wqork should be paid! I hope you’ll make some other designs as well! ;)

by Adrian 1 week, 4 days ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
on May 02, 2008 at 19:45

The News theme design does not have pre-designed space for banner advertisments.  This is crucial for mentizing blogs/news sites.  Running a successful online media site is very time consuming and requires revenue models.

by 1 week, 4 days ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
on May 05, 2008 at 06:16

Both News and Video are very nice!! You’re a very talented web designer, I admire you ;D

by 1 week, 2 days ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Fray 
on May 11, 2008 at 18:31

Thanks for very interesting information, I liked yours блог, the author has perfectly written.

by Fray 2 days, 13 hours ago - Permalink - Add a Response
Rezak 
on May 11, 2008 at 18:31

Fine clause, I shall read is more often yours блог and I shall advise his friends, here there are very interesting clauses.

by Rezak 2 days, 13 hours ago - Permalink - Add a Response
BirdEye 
on May 13, 2008 at 12:23

Please look at my customization of WordPress Theme, maybe you can give any advice?

by BirdEye 19 hours, 34 minutes ago - Permalink - Add a Response
 
 
 
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