Latest Ellington goodness from Scripps

We Scrippsies just launched the latest site in our Django/Ellington content management conversion: The Daily Camera of Boulder, Colo.

Actually, this project was a three-fer, also including the nearby Broomfield Enterprise and BuffZone, both operated by the Boulder team.

(Update 10 a.m. ET 10/31/06: Growing pains -- If you try to visit these sites right now, you may, in fact, see the old versions. Our techs are troubleshooting a problem that cropped up this morning. Best bet would be to wait a few hours to be sure you're seeing the new sites. Update 10 a.m. ET 11/1/06: The site was restored soon after the problem was discovered -- should be fine now.)

The usual gang of creatives in Knoxville -- including Herb Himes, Grainger Marlar, Amy Lawless, Glenn Franxman, Mark McIntyre, Jonathan Bell and Michael Berger -- worked with Boulder locals Matt Flood, Jennifer Falor and many others to get it done. I am sure I left names out, but my thanks go to everyone involved.

Designers probably notice by now that we're picking up on layout and architecture patterns from earlier projects as we roll Ellington out to Scripps newspapers. That's, ahem, by design.

We use patterns we know test well for usability and ease of navigation. But we're not forcing sites into cookie-cutter designs they can't change. A major premise of the whole system conversion is that sites can take control of their own system templates -- meaning their own designs -- as much as they see fit. The design patterns we're rolling out are just a starter kit for sites' own efforts, long-term.

But we believe it's a good starter kit. We provide a framework based on our best design thinking and practices, then encourage sites to pursue gradual design evolution going forward from the rollout.