Mutt Media NY LLC’s Neighborhood

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

7 comments

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,55103,00.html

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

My initial project plan - to make sure I use the correct font, color and style that will encourage kids to visit the site.

It is very important that I use the right colors and graphics that kids find desirable - I found this site that will help me to make that decision- trying to help create a " cool place to be."

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol5/design_no11.htm

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol2/design_no7.htm

http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2005/04/what_works_on_the_web_for_teen.html-see below

Let teens chat and talk. Make sure your site is interactive. Quizzes, polls, message boards, games, or questions asking for feedback allow teens to meet new friends, share ideas, and believe their ideas matter and can make a difference. Interactive websites send that message. (So does giving teens a platform to showcase their own media, come to think of it…)

Make the site easy to use and understand. NNG cites three factors for why young people may not be the techno whiz kids so many people assume they are—teens’ still-developing reading skills, research abilities, and, uh, patience. Whether or not this sounds to you like more teen stereotyping, you’ll probably agree with the study’s resulting tips for web design. To create an effective teen site, NNG says, make everything clear. Provide lots of visible links that change color to show visited areas and clear cross-references with links to related material. Make the "search" box easy to find.

Keep it clean. A common misconception is that teens want loud, glitzy graphics, reports NNG. Actually, teens like a minimalist, clean layout. They prefer a large font (so they can lean back in their chairs while reading), tabulated borders, and need-to-know information only. Jumbled, verbose content is a major turnoff. Nor are teens fond of fancy animation schemes, pop-ups, or annoying sound effects.

Don’t call it a “kids'” or “youth” site. This may be bad news for organizations with the word “youth” in their names, but NNG’s study found that the terms “can be completely misinterpreted by teens.” While the report did not explain what beef, exactly, teens have with the word “youth,” it did relay that teens avoid sites that appear too childlike, and “detest” being called “kids.” The bottom line: teens like being called “teens.”

Use classy colors and cutting-edge design. Think Macs.

Make it fast. Not every teen has high-speed access or a top-notch computer. Slow-running sites and long download times can be annoying, to say the least.

Let teens click for information. Teens prefer to click than to scroll, so limit the scrolling, please.

In trying to focus in on what I want on my site I came across these site that I thought I would like to try to incorporate into mine-

http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/games/ - this site is so much fun and I think the kids would learn a lot by playing these games. If you have any time try one out! the best thing is that they have the game sectioned down into age

amateur - ages 11-14
semi pro - ages 14-18
pro - ages 18 +

It is a really clever way to get kids invovled. In my questionaaire with the kids they mentioned that they would be more likely to go to a website about financial literacy if they had games. They have financial soccer and football

http://www.mint.org/- the mint had a nice clean site. It is very fun and kid and parent friendly. I liked the graphics and the "upbeat" sense it gave. I will look at this color scheme when designing my site

http://www.giveme20.com/blog/category/reloadable-student-debit-cards/ - the giveme20 site has a lot of good information in reference to the use of debit/prepaid cards for allowance and for college. This is my information site -

What I would like to be able to create is a participation with both parents and kids to learn about money. They can both sit at the computer and play the games. I am sure even some of the parent will get stumped on some of the questions ! so this will create an experience of mutual learning and understanding. This can also spark the kids to challenge their parents to these money games to see who wins, and they can also challenge their friends.

I am not that well versed in computers, but I guess the media I would need would be Flash, video, audio and text. I want it to have a simply fun look that will compel people to stay on and look at different areas. The areas would be games and learning. I would like to incorporate Facebook to promote discussion for mainly the kids.

 
My Dream Team
 

Paula

Paula Scher: The Dame of Grande Design

Bigger is definitely better. Bold words wrap you up and pull you in. You’re hooked! New York-based Paula Scher, one of only two female partners at mighty Pentagram, is a graphic design rock star of the highest order. She’s also an author, a superb lecturer, and her work is in the permanent collections of several museums. Her clean, brash, and inventive use of typography has influenced a generation of young designers.

Louise Fili: Elegant Romance

Louise Fili has a special way with food packaging and restaurant identity design: the old-fashioned way. Her intricate illustrations and hand-lettered type grace brands from the most familiar, like Williams-Sonoma’s, to the most exclusive. As a book jacket designer previous to opening her New York City firm, she designed over 2000 covers, and learned the intimate art of connecting with an audience visually within a very small frame. Today she is also the author of several excellent books on graphic design.

http://us.twentyonesquares.com/- I came across this group in my research. I really liked the work. It had a fun, hip feel to it and I think we would work well together.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/issue/46/nameguru.phtml- I would love for Terry Heckler to help me with my logo!

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy