This is a test launch of the new format that we build on our new platform. It is also our first stab at making the site feels like a native application. By using responsive design techniques, we make the site work on different screen sizes and platforms. So far it has been a successful attempt.

To make this manageable, we decided to separate the desktop site from the mobile site, so that we didn’t have to worry about older browsers and business requirements that didn’t apply to our mobile business. It was a good choice because we managed to release this project in a very short amount of time. That gave us additional time to refine and add features post-launch.

There were a few challenging problems that we tackled. We decided to use a front-end solution to serve images of different resolutions to different screen sizes. There is no user agent detection involved. Another interesting problem was the different ad systems between phone and tablet, which we also solved using a smart front-end solution.

What make this feels like a native application is the fact that posts open in place. You can also search, filter or get more content in real time. Everything loads much faster than before due to some heavy optimization to the code base and structure.

A while ago, I posted about our last mobile redesign. Since then we have learned a few new tricks that help grow our mobile business by including a whole new category of users, the tablet users.

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1. Msnbc.com new mobile site: design for modularity
2. The work behind msnbc.com election maps

Yep, it all happened rather quickly. When I stopped posting in late 2010, my girlfriend and I were planning our wedding. After the wedding she immediately got pregnant. I swear I didn’t do it on purpose . Since then, life have been pretty hectic for me as I had to stop being a baby and grow up was preparing to be a father. In the mid of all that, I got promoted to lead the mobile and devices team at msnbc.com. Apparently if you are good enough to be a father, you are also good enough to tell other people what to do .

So during the last 18 months, I learned a lot about designing for touch devices. We started using ASP.NET MVC for our new publishing platform at work, so I got to learn a lot of C# as well. In early 2011 with a friend and my wife, we built a prototype for our own web startup. It was a recommendation engine for people who enjoy good food. Although we never finished the project, I have grown a lot as a developer.

So, that’s pretty much it. As things are coming back to normal, I will try to stay more active. I will even try to write some tutorials again.

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via Innovative Interactivity

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via shoeboxblog

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via Tiff

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I think the guys over at Bing did a great job with this redesign. The map tiles look much cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing. The only thing that I still miss is the map of bus stops that Google has.

Read the full review at 41Latitude:

…this was not some incremental improvement that Microsoft gave to Bing Maps””no, this was a vast overhaul. In truth, it seems as though Microsoft has left nothing unchanged in the “new” Bing Maps. And yet even though the “new” maps are unusually light on detail (especially in how few cities they seem to show), they’re now among the most aesthetically pleasing maps on the web.

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Click on image to view full size

via

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Uhmm.. I can’t help it. It’s too good. Feel like the old time all over again.

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This is so f…ing true.

via xkcd

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