Common Craft Blog
Introducing the New CommonCraft.com
By leelefever on May 18, 2009 - 10:07am
A few months back, we made re-thinking our web site a top priority. We needed a better way to organize, display and sell our videos. At the same time, we saw an opportunity for our website to feel like a Common Craft video. Today is the official launch of the new CommonCraft.com and we can barely contain ourselves.
A few things:
1. We need your help. As with anything new, bugs, typos, and issues of all sorts are expected. Please contact us, or leave a comment here if you see anything out of place, or have feedback of any sort.
2. We're using a video player that may require you to upgrade to Flash 10 (the technology that makes sure the videos load fast, etc.). Please let us know your experience with watching the videos.
3. Ten of our videos can now be viewed and purchased with audio in 5 languages, including English. If you're bi-lingual, we would love it if you could watch the videos and let us know what feedback you have.
4. We now offer a newsletter service called "Common Craft Video Updates." If you sign up, we'll send you a short email each time we publish a new video. We don't expect to send more then two per month. You can always sign up at the bottom of every page.
Overall, I hope you'll take a look at the site. It's truly a new way for us to present our work and business - something of which we're very proud (but not too proud to hear feedback!)
We'll talk more about them later, but we worked with two small companies to make it happen. Jay and Anastasia at Juxtaprose helped us re-imagine the site's design and structure while Lyal, Alexa and Vince at Outcome3 turned that design into a incredibly manageable, SEO friendly and purpose-built Drupal site. I can't say enough about the hard work and integrity of these folks - both companies are class-acts.
new look
Hi Sachi and Lee,
this is an awesome new look - matches exactly your commoncraft work! Awesome!! I like the playlist! Your videos have become an essential part of Engliah lessons... the only thing my students keep complaing about.... is the speed of your talk!!! Thanks so much for your valuable contribution to learning!
new site
The new site looks great. Love the look.
Sean
Congrats!
Straight-forward, easy to navigate - great!
Link on homepage not working: "Want to find out more about how to use our videos? Then check this video out!"
All fixed
Thanks for reporting that Gerd!
videos
I love the videos! These are exactly what my mom needs to watch to understand how the internet works. Explaining to her just doesn't work, hopefully the visual will help her. Keep up the great work.
Kid's Party Supplies
Congratulations!
Excellent work -- the new design looks fantastic, and it nicely and simply represents what you do. Well done.
I did stumble over one thing: on the blog, longer entries are cut off with no "continue reading..." link. It would be nice to have an extra hint that there's more to see.
Fixed, mostly
Thanks for reporting that Tom. The posts on the front page of the blog are now full length, as will all future posts. We use the post truncation in other places and need to "continue reading..." in those instances.
Site looks great nice and
Site looks great nice and simple like yourself ;)
Design
Really clean design. Beautiful. Man I love the way you do these videos. I have a script I've written for a video called "28 Tips for Surviving Court Testimony" that I'm going to submit to you. Cheers, Bob Done. Atlanta Private Detective
Congratulations
The site looks great, feels very simple and intuitive. It's the modern makeover you needed.
Well done.
Blogs in Plain Spanish
I saw the Spanish version of Blogs in Plain English.
It's a bit fast, I think. The time of the video is the same in both languages, but the Spanish language is somewhat more verbose; so while Lee's voice has a very nice rhythm, the Spanish voice sounds rushed.
Also, the Spanish (from Spain) accent was a bit thick, but maybe it only appears so to my Mexican ears.
congratulations
really i love this new look.
congratulations commoncraft crew..
best wishes from south america.
Great Redesign
Hi, just wanted say nice one on the redesign. I work as a web developer so know how a seemigly simple task can actually end up being pretty tricky and difficult. From a design point of view - this site works beautifully! Well done!
I'm going to do a similar thing to one of my sites :
pink mobile phones
I'll let you know how it goes!
New Site
Lee,
Have played many of your videos; they are all great. Thanks for your work, and for the great new site.
<rant> On this blog you mention Flash10 may be necessary. It would be helpful if you provided the same type of info somewhere easily visible on the new site. I looked but couldn't find anything. I did try to load your videos on PCs that didn't have the necessary software, and some info did come up; I'd like to be able to find that info even when using a properly configured PC. </rant>
Thanks for listening.
Don
New Site
Thanks Don! We're working on the problem you mention now. Normally, the player can detect what version of Flash is the user has and offer them an upgrade. Because this isn't happening, we're planning to put a link under each video that asks the user to upgrade if there is a problem. Hopefully this will help. Thanks!
Thanks
Thanks for such a great site - really enjoyed watching the videos and learned a ton.
feedback from fellow Seattlelite in Cols, OH
Nice consistency between the easy to navigate layout of your site and easy to learn format of your videos! I thought I knew what RSS was until I viewed your video. It really gave me an "aha" moment the way it showed me how to actually use RSS. I learned about your site from my latest Newsweek.
Read your post!
Hi Lee: I think Common Craft is fantastic and will promote it in every way I can with my clients. Check out today's blog post. Enjoy! - Linda
Do you have a search box on your site?
Didn't you have a search box on your old site? I am searching for a specific video and I can't find it using your new "browse catalog". I wanted to link directly to your site, instead of to your video clip listed on YouTube.
yes, but not at the moment
Hi Martin,
We've been having problems with the search function interfering with performance. It should be back soon!
Common Craft videos
I really like common craft because it helps me in creating some presentations which is much easier to me to create and lots of people appreciated the way i present my product in front of clients. That happens just beacuse of common craft. http://www.Start-an-Internet-business.net
New Layout
I have been on this site before, but not for some time...I love the new layout, it's easy to navigate and very user friendly!
south jersey landscaper
Redesign
Great job Lee and Sachi. I think the new site works well with conveying your story, your work, and the fun behind what you do. It's easy to navigate through, but remains playful and entertaining- just like your brand. Congrats on the new digs. All the hard work has paid off.
Cheers!