created on Wed, 2008-09-03 10:48

Working on, with and thanks to Drupal everyday, it seems just normal to contribute to it as much as we can. Not only Raincity Studios contribute modules, like Katherine B.'s Quicktabs, or Hostmaster (now Ægir) by the already Drupal-star Adrian, but we just submitted our fifth Drupal theme on Drupal.org called Painted Wall.

 

created on Tue, 2008-02-26 09:48

With it's 6th version, Drupal was unveiled with some very welcoming improvements in usability, and if you ask me.. it's about time! As a new Drupal user ( after all, I've known about Drupal for only a year.. ) I would have to say that the usability done in Drupal 5 was only fulfilling the minimum requirements that were needed.

A great example would be in regards to form submission during content creation: a never-ending journey of page scrolling. In my opinion, the majority of contributed modules end their development when functionality is completed. Generally, a very small amount of time is dedicated into improving the user experience.

Now that contributed modules and their functionality are becoming more complex, the packaging of a good UI is not just an added featured anymore but is becoming mandatory.

created on Wed, 2006-11-29 05:29

Microsoft Releasing Standards-Based Web Design Tool

While it seems the feedback and criticism of IE7 has been predominantly on the negative side, Microsoft is getting set to launch Microsoft Office 2007 at the end of this week, and with it will come several other new web tools.

Apparently, Web Expression will be a tool that will actually be useful for designers, and not just for your average Joe, designed to be a professional-level product. It will eventually replace Frontpage, but will of course be going up against the big guns of Dreamweaver and GoLive.

created on Tue, 2006-07-25 10:59 http://www.raincitystudios.com/system/files/mexretire.jpg " alt="MexRetire" />

Retirees Need Not Look Any Further...

Raincity is proud to announce the official launch of MexRetire, a site full of information for easy and enjoyable retirement in Mexico, where retirees can have twice the lifestyle at half the cost! There have been endless hours poured into this project - it's great to finally have it live and out there for all the world to see!

Our Creative Director Mark Yuasa has been the go-to team leader and has spent countless hours with our client, Samer Salameh, founder of MexRetire, predominantly via email, conference calls and Skype calls, perfecting every aspect of the site.

created on Sun, 2006-07-16 04:09

We know we've got lots of work to do on Bryght -- a refresh of this website, new hosting options, new team members, and some new technology. The team recently sat down and had a bit of a roundtable discussion on what the new site should include.

Above all, we need to work on messaging. Meeting us in person, you'll get a fairly clear story: Bryght focuses on open source technologies, with Drupal, Jabber, and identity being the main areas (mobile is sneaking on to this list as well). Engagement and involvement with the open source communities around those technologies is part of our mandate, our work with SpikeSource and Drupal being one example of that (more on that relationship soon).

OK, but what do we do? Well, our main product is an ASP/hosted service version of Drupal (CMS, community site, corporate blogging...yes, that definition definitely needs work as well).

It's not quite a distro (yet...Backstage for bands and record labels is our first step towards an install profile), and it's very much a framework/platform targetted at web designers and consultants. There is the (rare) end user who has clicked signup and gone through the Drupal learning curve...but we've beeen thrilled that that HAS happened. ProgressiveU.org is one of the sites I point to as an example of this.

Our other product isn't launched officially yet, even though we actually have quite a few customers running on it already. It's Bryght Hosting, run in partnership with the team at Firebright, and is Drupal-optimized dedicated virtual private server (VPS) hosting in various sizes. Go ahead and contact us if you want more info on this before it launches.