It only took a year after the site launch, but I finally spent a little time (and dough at iStockphoto) to put together a logo for Maui by Photo.
Now, it’s my no means extravagant or anything, but I think even as simple as it is, it certainly adds a more inviting feel to the site than just the plain – and I mean plain – masthead text did previously. With the month of June set aside for MBP updates and now that July is here already, I added a few more tweaks, but not as many as I would have hoped. Here’s a short recap:
- Facebook Integration – I mentioned this previously as a potential advantage of having a fair amount of fans on the site’s Facebook page (500+) it’s a nice way to allow for easier comments when linking from Facebook. I’ve also started to roll out the Like buttons on a few of the pages, and those seem to be getting clicked on now, too. 🙂
- Newly Designed Footer Lists – I redesigned the footer of the site to include many of the links previously in the sidebar, which I think adds a cleaner look. I also added links to a few additional pages such as About, Flickr, and the Locations page I mentioned in the Posts by Tag post.
- Static Map Updates – You won’t notice the difference on the posts, but I updated the code to use a static-map plug for showing the island view of the map rather than copying the entire HTML for it in each post. A benefit of knowing how to write plugins. 😉
- Testing Out New Photo Galleries – I just recently installed very popular NextGen Gallery plugin for WordPress to try out better photo management and display. The first post to get the new look is the Haleakala article, so take a peek there if you’d like to chime in on the improvement.
- WordPress v3.0 Upgrade – The site is now running v3.0 of WordPress, although I’m not taking advantage of any of the new features yet. The custom taxonomies feature looks like something I’d like to try out with locations.
I think that about covers it for the updates this month. There are a few things I might try to sneak in during the next few weeks, but July is the month I move my attention to the re-launch of Nighthawks Hockey Online, which is going to be huge. Be sure to stay tuned for that this summer.
– Kris
