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Hello and welcome to Websites Made Simple. I'm Danny Foo and this is my Malaysia website design blog. I also co-founded a registered Malaysia website design company; Simpleet Solutions. -
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PPS DESIGN LEAKED
OH MY GOD! THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE! *wails*
Just when I was starting to design the new homepage template for Project Petaling Street (PPS), I found out on Google that someone already has released a new template for PPS. ARGH! This is not happening to me.
*breathes heavily* Okie, I’ll not lose my cool and fight for what should have been mine!
I will continue to design my template and outshine that other person. You’re gonna pay, you damn criminal!
GOTCHA!
Thank you for waiting and though some of you might have already guessed it, I’ve already completed the homepage template for PPS. But before I show them to you, allow me to tell you a story.
There was once a man, he wasn’t any ordinary man - yes, he had 2 genitals. Just that this man along with a couple of other men decided to set up a service that was relatively new to Malaysia entirely. It was also still rather new to the Internet in Malaysia. And then, when these few men..
OUCH! Oww! Ooomph! $)*)@*#)(@(#(()@#@ ARGH! OUCH!
Okie okie, don’t need to throw your underpants and panties in a twist just because I wanted to make this a memorable moment.
Aizuddin never approached me for a new template design when PPS was still like the image you see on the left. And yes, you must listen to this nostalgia because PPS then only had one thing to concentrate on; pings. The project was recognized as the central hub for bloggers to become known by other bloggers by pinging to PPS. (click image for larger version)
Then came the introduction of the Wiki to facilitate information like PPS birthday bash, blogger infomation and not to mention it was becoming a hub for spammers. The Wiki was around for the purpose of containing and sharing important view, opinions and words from all bloggers. It was also then that suggestions to make PPS better poured in and one of it was to make a new template for PPS. Since then, I began analyzing on methods to make PPS better.
During the same year, hidden behind the scenes of PPS, Aizuddin was about to release a new service; PPS Blog. A blog for PPS, powered by local bloggers either in Malaysia or in different countries to update us on social and political news around the country and beyond international borders. I’ve also been invited by Aizuddin to join the team but will only report in for duty after the PPS revamp project is done.
Though PPS was having its own problems to sort out like the need for its own disclaimer, funding for its heavily used servers and others, Aizuddin kept the best surprise for last on Merdeka this year. He and some other bloggers I think, took on the duty of giving PPS a huge face lift. No more did it have its dull grey borders and lengthy ping listing of about 100. The revamp was for the better good of PPS to introduce all its services to all bloggers whom might not have realized there were these extra services around. (click image for larger version)
Yeah, PPS has definetely come a long way and Aizuddin has always been there for it, caring for it like the biggest baby he’s ever put in his hands. What more appreciation could I give to this man other than buying a PPS T-Shirt? Well, my friend, I’m here right now to help bring PPS a more consistent, organized and greater experience. I hope to grow up along with PPS.
So, without further due, let’s take a look at how the information I’ve gathered from the PPS Analysis Review helped me come up with the PPS Site Skeleton and finally the PPS homepage template. Alright, go on, you can click on the image on the left for a larger version now. 
I’ve decided to bring back the old PPS layout but just modify the navigation to be more prominent and maintain a few things like the sidebar along with the new way pings are listed on the homepage. I’ve taken the navigation and rearranged the links from most used to the only needed. The hand icon on the Pings button is a mere example of how the rollover works for the navigation. The sidebar now has been given a face lift with color so it draws more attention when visiting the homepage. I’m not sure if the new ping listing for the homepage is very usable but I do know that the lists were too close together so I gave it a little more space.
But wait, there’s more to the designs. Since DZOF from PPS Review suggested to have a barebones version and an image driven one, well, you get kinda that. 
Allow me to introduce to you, Project Petaling Street with a little more color added to it. The navigation and the footer now has a green tone so that it ain’t so dull and boring. Oh, I forgot to mention the best part of this. ALL the colors are..Web Safe! (last time I checked)
What does web safe mean?
Web safe colors are the set of 216 colors common to most browsers. Palette, created from such colors, is often called a web-safe or browser-safe palette, because it produces fairly consistent results on different platforms and with different browsers. When an image is displayed in a 256-color screen mode, this set of colors is never dithered.
Source: http://www.vimas.com/server_sdk/glossary.htm
*phew* Now, as excited as I am to be releasing different choices for the bloggers, I’m aware that some might feel these designs are still very plain and are asking for more. Well, here’s my surprise to Aizuddin and everyone reading this post. My final template design for the homepage is a more image driven design. (click image for larger version)
I’m not sure if the last design might be applicable because it might be bandwidth dependant so Aizuddin will have the last say for it.
Hope this fills the need for everyone as it is filling mine. Cheers.
Added 17th September 9:03AM -
Once again I’d like to apologize to everyone who were eagerly waiting for the PPS Bash to start. Sadly I ignored that MT was having troubles with its scheduled publishing. If their support or team hasn’t a fix for this then I’ll just not use this in future. I’m very sorry again for the cause of my own embarassment.
Posted by Danny Foo on September 17, 2005 | Filed Under My Work | 
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Beautiful, and very colourful.
Good choice for using web-safe colours, bro. Considering the huge readership of PPS, it’ll cater to, and render well on most of everyone’s monitors.
The choice for a huge excerpt thing is pretty good. Although, considering the fact that a ping never really lasts for that long (maybe a few seconds before the next ping comes in), is it wise to have a huge excerpt of the post?
Good job, Danny.
Thanks Gannu and Zafran.
Well, the latest PPS blog excerpt could be adjusted later. As for the pings, you really can’t do much about it because there’s like 10+ pings per minute at times.
Cheers.