Well good morning.
Notice anything different today?

Yes, we’ve gone through a much needed makeover.

Over the past 6 months, yycapps.com has transformed from a simple idea to a single web page to a full on resource for the Calgary iPhone Development community.

But unfortunately, over the past couple of weeks, it became quite clear that yycapps.com had outgrown it’s humble design beginnings. Most of the original design choices were based on a getting the project off the ground mentality, rather than design and usability. So with a bit of extra time on our hands, we took a run at redesigning yycapps to address three of the most glaring usability issues with the old site.

1) The Developers PageYes, yes, yes – the Calgary iPhone developers page is now live.

Since the launch of the site, this has been one of the most requested features and it’s finally live. And yes, we know there are more developers in the city, but these ten developers have been our biggest champions since launching last year. As a thank you for their continued support they have been included in our first round of developer additions.

2) The Design Aesthetic – The initial design for yycapps.com was very grungy and dark. With this new design, we wanted to make the site more enjoyable on the eyes and to also instill a new level of professionalism for the community.

We’ve improved on the site’s navigation, with a delicious new footer and also a more refined sidebar. In addition, we have improved loading times and the site’s overal performance by reducing the designs reliance on large graphics.

3) Improving The Connection To The Community – One of the biggest problems with the initial design was that it was quite complicated for developers to get their app information to us. Making it far more difficult for us to update the site with the correct information.

Some of the forms didn’t work or when the forms did work, they didn’t make sense. Again, we do apologize for this, but the piece meal nature of the original site caused many of these issues. But with the new redesign, we have corrected some of the initial form confusion. We have also added forms at the bottom of the apps and developer pages, to make it easier for absolutely everyone.

So, with that we really hope you enjoy the new look yycapps.com.

We’re hoping this new design will help invigorate our dedication to the site. I want to send a quick thank you to both Daniel and Russ for their continued work as app reviewers. (We are always looking for even more writers)

So, do keep an eye out on the site as we will be adding new content shortly.