ProofHQ 2.0

Last weekend saw the release of a major upgrade to ProofHQ.  In fact, the extent of changes made this as much a rebuild as an upgrade.  The changes included a completely new database structure and the conversion of the proof viewer to Flex.

We originally planned this release for late May, but release dates slipped week by week as we felt that the feature list could be compromised less than a firm delivery date.  The bottom line is that rebuilds on this scale are always harder and take longer than anyone expects.

So what has changed and why is this a “rebuild”?

.

Database

Our new database structure gives us much more flexibility to offer customised workflows and integration with enterprise applications. There will also be performance benefits, although we are nervous mentioning this as we had major optimisation problems immediately post-release.  These are not 100% fixed, so if you do experience slow downs, let us know.

.

Proof page upgrade

The proof page, which is the part of ProofHQ used 95% of the time. It has been transformed by updating it from Flash/Actionscript 2.0 to Flex/Actionscript 3.0. This gives you much better mark-up and commenting tools and a much more desktop-like experience.

Here is a screenshot showing some of the main changes:

.

Web Page review and approval

Lots of web designers use ProofHQ to get feedback on web design work.  Many of you work in Photoshop and upload native PSD files which we convert into proofs. Otherstake screen shots with third party applications and upload those intoProofHQ as GIF, JPG, PNG or other graphic file format.

We have added a new feature that shortcuts this process by letting you enter one or more URLs when you create a proof instead of uploading files. We then take a screenshot of the web page that the URL points to and deliver that to you as a proof.

.

Sub-workspaces

We have introduced sub-workspaces, so you can nest workspaces inside each other. This gives you more flexibility to organise your files and proofs by client, project or subject.

.

Branding your domain name

Clients with Enterprise plans can now create their own sub-domains e.g. http://yourname.proofhq.com.

This gives you a branded login and logout page. You can also take branding further with our White Label options.  Please contact us if you would like more details about this.

Here is an example of the branded login page:

.

Pricing and Versions

We had lots of feedback about pricing and the way we calculated each version as a separate proof.  We realised very quickly that this did not reflect the way that a lot of design work is done, where a number of revisions are often included in a price.

As a result, we have now included a number of versions (revisions) as part of each “proof”.  The number varies depending on the type of plan that you have:

• Standard Plans have 3 versions included in each proof.
• Enterprise Plans have 5 versions included in each proof.

If you go over the number of versions the count will start again, so if you have an enterprise plan versions 6-10 will count as one extra proof.

If you have any questions about this, please let us know.

.

More to come

There are lots more enhancements in the pipeline.

If you have feedback on this release, please let us know in the comments or on our Forum.

May Service Level Report

Here is our service level report for April:

——————————————————
Name:           ProofHQ Production
Service:        HTTP
Host (port):    www.proofhq.com (80)
Check period:   3 minutes
# of checks:  14730
# of outages: 2
# of failed : 4
Uptime:         99.973 %
Avg. response time: 0.296 s

The report is provided by www.serviceuptime.com.

Notification About Planned Maintenance

On Saturday 6th June and Sunday 7th June ProofHQ will be undergoing a major upgrade.

The service will be unavailable for up to four hours on each day as new hardware and software is brought online and tested. We are unable to plan the precise times on each day when the service will be offline, but we will try and keep disruption to a minimum.

Thank you in advance for bearing with us. We hope that you find the results worth the wait.

The Biggest Ever List of Graphic Design Blogs?

So we sat down this morning and decided that we would put together a list of all the graphic design blogs that we follow as a team. We said that we would spend a single working day on it, no more, no less.

By the end of the day we have a list of over 160 blogs covering design, freelancing and Photoshop/Illustrator.

See the full list after the jump

Learn more »

Agency Web Designers Take Note

It has always baffled me why so many agencies have long and pointless Flash intros on their websites.

This sums it up… Do I need a Flash Intro?

April Service Level Report

Here is our service level report for April:

——————————————————
Name:           ProofHQ Production
Service:        HTTP
Host (port):    www.proofhq.com (80)
Check period:   3 minutes
# of checks:  14238
# of outages: 5
# of failed : 35
Uptime:         99.754 %
Avg. response time: 0.258 s

The report is provided by www.serviceuptime.com.

How your career in advertising evolves

Thanks to Diego Zambrano

Your business card is crap!

Good design is…

From the great folks at Flywheel Design…

Good design is the quickest, most cost-effective form of marketing.

Good design is the process of problem solving, not decoration.

Good design is always grounded in knowledge of the client’s needs.

What are your “Good design is…” quotes?

March Service Level Report

Here is our service level report for March:

——————————————————
Name:           ProofHQ Production
Service:        HTTP
Host (port):    www.proofhq.com (80)
Check period:   3 minutes
# of checks:  14731
# of outages: 0
# of failed : 0
Uptime:         100 %
Avg. response time: 0.147 s

The report is provided by www.serviceuptime.com.