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Adobe Muse

BALLPARK

New Member
I like the concept of it... I hope they continue to improve it. Until then I think the safe play for my web based projects is to use CMS templates and just customize the hell out of it. You can strip a template down to the base code with no graphics and rework it as you see fit for graphics and layout.

Although this software might be good for companies that are looking to spend less than 1K on a website.

I personally like the Joomla 2.5 CMS using the gantry framework. It allows me to move modules around to find the best flow for the site. Its easy to completely customize it with new icons, backgrounds, etc...

I also like Zen Cart for online stores... Don't care much for the admin panel. But it does have a ton of options for stores that have large inventories of products.

...

Hope to see a few more sites from you guys using this software. Excited to see what can be accomplished using it.
 

visual800

Active Member
I had a friend tell me yesterday about webstudio 5.0 and he said it rocked. sounds alot like this adobe thing. he created his own in less than 1 week. I think some of us as sign people could create some kick a$$ websites but all that stupid code is holding us back. I despise codes cause i know nothing about them. I tried for 6 months and gave up its just something I dont care to learn
 
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David Wright

New Member
Isn't Muse beta? That would explain the crashes Pat.
There are some good wysiwyg programs out there, I found Xara's pretty good.
 

lexsigns

New Member
. I think some of us as sign people couldnt create some kick a$$ websites but all that stupid code is holding us back. I despise codes cause i know nothing about them. I tried for 6 months and gave up its just something I dont care to learn
yup- that!!!
Pat, does muse have a gallery? that you could do a portfolio?
 

JERHEMI

New Member
Where are options to configure SEO? You can design a pretty site all you want with no code, but it's useless if nobody can find it while doing a google search. :rolleyes:
 

Locals Find!

New Member
I don't know Addie....you're selling design work and sign work and don't know **** about either one.

Let me ask you....have you even looked at Muse? There is NOTHING about it that is "templated crap". Nothing. Stop opening your mouth and letting the big blobs of stupid fall out.


.

Pat my comment stand irregardless of what program you use. If you don't understand Code your going to put out stuff that looks templated. You can't avoid it. Knowing even basic code languages will allow you to do things that just can't be achieved with a WYSIWYG editor.

I know I have been screwing around with code and building websites since 1995. I am no Master at it but, I know my way around.
 

Locals Find!

New Member
Name one.

One of my mobile websites can't be achieved with a WYSIWYG editor. Believe me I tried countless different ones. I was forced to learn the code to make it work. If there had been a way to cheat and save myself the headaches and hundreds of hours studying I would have jumped on it.

www.cellre.com/NR01 works on all devices phones, desktops, tablets, even my copier (new feature they put on the newest model)
 

CES020

New Member
Pat my comment stand irregardless of what program you use. If you don't understand Code your going to put out stuff that looks templated. You can't avoid it. Knowing even basic code languages will allow you to do things that just can't be achieved with a WYSIWYG editor.

I know I have been screwing around with code and building websites since 1995. I am no Master at it but, I know my way around.

That's nonsense. What's your point? Are you saying you can't drive customers to a site made that looks like a template was used? Some people in the web world lose site of the goal. The goal is to have a place that highlights your services that people using the internet can find. Template or not, website creator or manually coded, it doesn't matter.

I have a site made with a website creator. My phone rings every single day, including the weekends from people that found us on the site. In fact, not 10 minutes ago, I got a call from someone 600 miles away, asking if we can do a job for him. He's coming to town and wants to have it done while he's here.

So all of that happened how? In some people's minds, it shouldn't have happened at all because it wasn't manually coded.

If you think the customer gives a crud about whether you site was made with Muse or hand coded, you're blind to the obvious.

Can you write a more streamlined, powerful code manually. Sure. Do you need to for a typical sign shop website? I seriously doubt it.
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
I've seen various technology columnists and even people in the mainstream press ask why social networks are getting to be so popular with businesses?

Here's one answer: it is A LOT EASIER and FASTER to update a business Facebook page than it is to update a web site. Visitors are often going to find more current, up to date information on a business' FB page and have an easier time finding it.

Coders can sit there and pat themselves on the back all they like about making web site design (or rather "web development") more and more needlessly complicated. Ultimately, the movement to make the web page design process extremely user UN-friendly is going to kill off a lot of web sites and put more growth into the walled garden concepts like Facebook. It doesn't cost a business anything to put up a Facebook page. It costs all kinds of time, money and anger inspiring headaches to maintain a web site.

These engineer types need to get off their high horses and start fixing what's wrong with the web. It is really disgraceful how the HTML5 has been handled over the past 10 years by various bodies. I wish it was a joke that the standard may never be fully ratified or ratified by perhaps the year 2020. The already complicated situation has been compounded even worse by the addition of tablets, smart phones, game consoles, set top boxes and TV sets that also browse the web. If you want a web site to look a certain way and work right on all those devices you're pretty much stuck using old 1990s standards. And that's no guarantee either.

Make an "app" out of your web site? That's not such a great idea. First, companies like Apple may take forever or never approve your app to go into their own walled garden store. And then you have to hope an end user goes to the trouble of installing your app. I don't exactly install lots of apps on my Android phone. Just the ones I really need or want. I'm not going to bother installing an app that's little more than a sales pitch for a company's product.
 

Joe Diaz

New Member
I have mixed feelings about these types of programs. First, I would love to be able to just design, and not worry about the hassle of coding. It sure would make my job a lot easier and more fun. SO for that reason, I'm excited about programs like this. (Corel has recently released a web creation software that looks similar. I have it, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.)

However, I'm predicting the flood gates are going to burst wide open here and anyone who thinks they can design will assume that the software makes the designer and start creating poor websites.. It's kind of similar to what has happened in the sign industry. There are some real down sides of making an industry too accessible for anyone to try.

On the flip side it may also allow for some really talented designers that may not be very technical to create some really bad a$$ sites, but I bet they will be in fewer numbers.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
However, I'm predicting the flood gates are going to burst wide open here and anyone who thinks they can design will assume that the software makes the designer and start creating poor websites.. It's kind of similar to what has happened in the sign industry. There are some real down sides of making an industry too accessible for anyone to try.

It's happened in the embroidery digitizing world too. I blame that "business in a box" mentality among other things.

No matter what the tools or how much it's streamlined, if you don't know what you are doing, you'll get into trouble...fast. I cringe when I see designs (and embroidery digitizing is programming in a sense, just for fabric) and they are being sold and they have really beginner issues with them that are indicative of also cheap programs that don't allow for edit capabilities to easily fix the mistake (if the creator is even aware of them).
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
At the risk of angering some people: Coding is not design. That's programming. And there's a lot of commercial web sites that have lots of streamlined, pimped out code, but look awful.

There's this constant refrain of "separating content from design." Often in the end the result is not having much of any design at all. I have no problem with adding in metadata to graphic images to make them searchable. But I'm not going to be bullied into using @FontFace to embed fonts for every character on the page. If I want to use a certain typeface that doesn't allow @FontFace use and have to create graphical objects instead, I'm going to do it. The object can still be searchable. The code may not be quite as pretty, but I DON'T CARE.

The best web sites usually have a team of people doing the development work. Some team members are artists who get the visual look of the interface honed down into something visually compelling. The coders make sure the function and content works right.

Very few people know what they're doing both in terms of code and design. But with some web site projects the demands are so large and deadlines so tight that a team approach is necessary anyway.
 
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