Just a little sneak peak of the drawing table. We're working on a slimline, minimalist template series for the template store.  Ya PSG has been a little quiet lately... get ready to hear us roar ;) 

If you have bought a PSG Template from the SocialGo Template Store, please join the group that corresponds with your template. Right now there are some code snips for adding a logo to your PSG Template, and also ways to edit your template header by adding your own images. We will be adding new tutorials and code snips as time goes on and will alert the group members of the latest customizations. 

Well the beans have been spilt :) over at widget laboratory  on Pro Socialgo's new templates.. So why not spill the rice too? We've been working hard to create some attractive and functional templates that will break the mold of the Socialgo-squarpants look. Above you see one from the Lost-n-Found series which will cover many interests and topics. I hope to do a podcast on creating the wood shelf, but how many times have I said that. 

That's about it for now, there are many MANY more designs, but I have to keep something secret. Besides a few "just for fun" templates, I'm trying to hit on many different styles and topics so as to cover the bulk of SG user's needs. If there is a style or topic you think would reach a wide Socialgo audience please drop me a line and let me know. I would love to hear the thoughts of those out on the battle field and what kind of designs your looking for.

I just wanted to show off our latest Socialgo template designed for a private community that wanted to connect. Stonewood Ranch, a private gated community, came to me looking for a web page. When I heard what they wanted, such as a blog, private membership, news etc.. of course Socialgo came to mind. 

The Design

I didn't want anything getting in the way of this site which would have daily use by many members; clean is the word. They wanted pictures of the houses in the header and I was like why?? Don't you see those houses everyday as you go to work, and your not trying to sell your community, so we went with a very minimal header for fast run time and clarity.

Because there would be a learning curve for many of these users who do not use social media, I placed a little custom HTML in the header which will eventually be a button to a tutorial video hosted on the site, with instructions on the site. You'll see it on top, it's a badge with a leaf behind it.

 

Because it is so clean and plain I wanted one element to really stand out and define the site; be something that gave it a striking atmosphere. I placed a tree branch in the left corner also using custom html. This branch looks different depending on what browser you use. In some browsers like IE, it just stays at the top, in others like firefox and safari, it is fixed, so as you scroll down it stays with you. I also adjusted the z-index so it would fall behind the sidebar.

 

Nth-child #

One of my favorite elements is the blog posts which has one post always highlighted; the first post. I styled the first post different, and once again you get the full effect in firefox and safari like browsers, with the dat real big and floated to the left, while all subsequent posts are boxed in a outline and have a smaller header. I did this using Nth-Child classes. Yes, nth-child does not work in most browsers, but you can remedy this with a little java script from "a list apart" which appends the class of nth-child to every element on your page, and actually is pretty speedy at doing it.



There are quiet a few little tricks on this site, but what is great is, you can't tell. It just looks very simple. Take a look around, if you want to see inside you can use this URL and User:  http://testserver.socialgo.com/

Custom widgets

We also added a few Java Script widgets. One, a "to do List" I found somewhere and forgive me I don't know where, but it is great for our members to keep their shopping list. It stores in the cookies, so it is dependent on your browser and computer, but for this application I think it will work well until Widget Laboratory gives us something better. It is simply the best simple todo list for our sidebar though. If you need the code email me. We also put a weather widget. These are a dime a dozen, just look around.



 

Last on the list

If your using an older browser like IE6 you will notice it looks like a frogs behind this is because of the PNG's I used. BUT.. I have a fix for this also, a little java-script to force my PNGs to be transparent in older browsers. I have not implemented this yet but when I do, I'll do a blog on how to do it.