When PSDTUTS started a bit more than a year ago it was a plain jane HTML site with three tutorials on it, a brown background and a bizarre bowl of soup and spoon image. We’ve come along way since then and the site now has three sister sites, two plus programs, a manager, fifty thousand daily visitors and a heck of a reputation for tutorials! It’s also grown a lot in content, we’ve bolted a lot of improvements and features, and there are more to come as the site evolves from a humble blog into a Photoshop hub.
So I’m super proud to launch a new WordPress theme that we’ve developed for the sites beginning with PSDTUTS today and onto NETTUTS, VECTORTUTS and AUDIOTUTS next week.
The Timemachine: How TUTS used to look …
For those readers who don’t remember the old days of a browner PSDTUTS – here’s a look back at where we’ve been!
A Design Refinement
As you have probably noticed the new design is more of a refinement than a redesign. That’s because there is a lot our old theme did right – big clear tutorials, large preview images, jam packed sidebar, bold logo. The new theme takes those elements and tidies them up a bit more so we have room to expand. It also adds quite a few subtle new features:
- Tabbed Navigation
We’ve got tabs now so that we can grow the site and add new sections – freebies, videos, … - Breadcrumbs:
We’ve got a breadcrumb trail so you can keep track of where you are as well as where you’ve been. - Author Profiles
Authors are what make TUTS great, so in our new design we’ve given them more prominence. When you read a tutorial the first thing you’ll see is a linkup and bio of the author. This means that writing for TUTS is also now an even better way to get exposure and traffic! - A Better User Link Feed
Our community links feature has become both widely used and widely reproduced. So a few week ago we hired ace plugin Just the Web to develop a plugin to improve the submission/approval process. Next week we’ll be making that plugin freely available via ThemeForest / NETTUTS - Visual Related Posts
I actually grabbed this idea from one of my favourite tutorial sites – Tutorial9 – as it’s a great way to keep readers going when they finish reading a tutorial. - Plus Login on the Page
We’ve also now added an actual plus login at the bottom of every page. You’ll still need to cross into the plus system to download the files, but it’s a step to better integrating the two systems.
Freebies, Videos and Expansion!
Probably the biggest change in the new theme is that we’re adding a directory of free downloads to every site. Taking a leaf out of the fabulous Brusheezy and Qbrushes we’ve created a small directory where the site editor for each site will be adding free downloads. For PSDTUTS we’ll be starting with brushes and looking at adding actions, shapes and other Photoshop add-ons. For each successive site we’ll aggregate a different type of freebie.
We’ve also now added a Videos category. Our video plan is still fairly limited, but over time we plan to grow it so that there is a lot more viewable content on all our sites. For the moment we’ll be mixing awesome web content with some of our own PSDTUTS specials.
So what are we working on currently? Well there’s a lot of things we want to bring to TUTS including versions in other languages, forums (I know I’ve been promising that since forever), an affiliate program for TUTS+ and a batch of new TUTS sites.
Meet the TUTS Team
During these last months we’ve also been improving the team who run these awesome sites. So let me introduce:
- Skellie – The TUTS Manager!
We are VERY proud to have former FreelanceSwitch editor and super talented blogger Skellie managing the TUTS sites. She took over about a month and a half ago and it’s been smooth sailing all the way. As TUTS Manager Skellie is working on our expansion plans, coordinating site editors and making the whole operation more and more efficient. - Derek Herman – HTML / CSS / WordPress Commander
Everything you see before you has been coded up by the fabulous Derek Herman of Valen Designs. These days Derek and I work together a lot to build most of the Envato sites you see / will be seeing. He’s the best front-end coder I’ve ever met and I’m very proud to have my design work chopped up by his formidable skills. - Chris Moyer – PHP Pathfinder
From setting up our Plus programs to keeping the sites up under the ridiculously heavy traffic loads to building new writer / editor infrastructure, Chris Moyer’s keyboard controls all and without him we’d be lost! You can find Chris at InaRow! - Sean Hodge, Joel Falconer and Jeffrey Way – Editors Extraordinairre!
And of course the guys you are most familiar with, our Site Editors – who bravely face the trials of WordPress day in and day out to bring us our daily TUTS fix. Thanks guys!!! - And me
I don’t get to write tutorials anymore (though I keep hoping that’s going to change soon) but I did design this new theme – that is if you like it. If you don’t like it … then … erm … it was someone else pretending to be me …
So enjoy the new theme! May it house a thousand amazing tutorials and a hundred cool articles! If you notice any hiccups – comment them here and we’ll be working on fixing any little issues 
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By Collis
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I love the direction the site has taken and am very interested in how the video channel comes to life. Your sites are an inspiration. Keep up the good work!
I’m liking it. Good job dudes!
Very hot indeed. I love it collis. Keep the good stuff comin.
Looks good fellas, aside from the insanely small font size of course. God this is hard to read.
Talented Peoples + Excellent work…..
btw i want to know the name of the last guy i.e. introdusing the whole team !!!!
thanks alot for making such a usefull website.
A step backwards in my professional opinion. Why use such a small font that doesn’t look crisp for your navigation? The tab design looks very amateur. I really like the layout of the site, but the interface design is very weak. Does no one believe in constructive feedback around here? Most of you say how great it is without any solid feedback.
I love what You are doing..great improvements!
Great update , but i only have one request regarding the Tutorials and Interviews images inside of those , Plz use small .Gif files or make them as a clickable thumbnails cause they take a very long time to load and a single image can reach 400 kb , cause not everyone has a very fast Internet Connection
thanks.
Wow, really awesome design, guys! You’ve done it again…
This is really amazing! Nice Job. It’s amazing & inspiration, the growth of this site and it’s network.
I love the upgrade, you did a great job.
I still love V2 I have to say. Great work though.
awesome
extreme beautiful, no way !
congrats
Hi,
Brown was nice, Clean is better. But two together hurts the eyes.
Very soothing design except the dark strips above and below. It hurts. Please take note. Cant they be changed too. Other readers/ designers/ wellwishers ….. suggest!
I think this site needs more spoons.
This is such a sweet theme! Really clean, professional and easy to use. Well done Collis!
The new theme looks amazing. The top breadcrumb isn’t rendering well in ff3. I think you just need to adjust the height to 4.1ems instead of 4.3ems. That’s just what Firebug is telling me. Other than that, i love the site! Keep up the good work.
Simple lovely theme, keep working!
I have never seen a site redesign that the moment I saw I instantly loved it. You really are an extremely talented individual collis!
i like v2
I like V2 best too.
When you gonna fix the RSS feed?
Excellent update Collis.
Only thing I don’t think the blank space between the logo and the tabs looks good. I guess it’s for ads in the future. Otherwise excellent theme, very easy on the eyes.
Also I’d second Qbrushes’ suggestion to consider Drupal next time round.
It looks great! Nice site btw.
Ah, those were the days. I really miss Version 2. I know how you said the contrast between colours wasn’t strong enough, but I still miss it.
v2 best
Congrats with the new layout
old ones better
Nice design Collis. All the best to PSDtuts in the future.
nice
I’m a bit late, but wanted to be sure and let you know that PSDTUTS v4 is looking outstanding! Very happy to see the site growing as it is. Also glad to see the adaption of the related posts!
Great work folks!
Nice work
the present version is not bad but v1 and v2 were the best …
cool!!! like it alot!!!
I would MUCH prefer the search box ABOVE the ads!
Really nice! In fact, all the versions look super! Collis, your sites have always been the best when it comes to design/layout!!!
One tiny thing – I don’t think it’s a good idea to have the “related posts” section only showing thumbnail images… It’s not that easy to tell at a glance what they are!!
strong design here! congrats!
I like it! It’s not too different from the last version, but it has some nice changes that make things easier to use. (The phrase “progressive enhancement” comes to mind for some reason…) Great job!
I remember the PSD tuts in the beginning and was already nice layout, but now, in my opinio this is the best.
Cheers
Very subtle but nice improvement
Oww, i really like this new theme, perfect integration of new features. Good work !
Nice work, but I have to agree with John – search box should be above the ads…
I’m looking forward for this, i have been for a while in your site and i’ve seen so many good (or should i say superb) tut so good luck in your newest ver
@COLLIS:
Definitely appreciate the super-shout back out to Just the Web, we are more than thrilled to see the new user-link-feed plugin put to great use.
@DEREK:
You dig great incorporating the plugin and such, way to go boss.
From everyone at Just the Web, thanks for the kind words mates.
Just Awesome!
GREAT REDESIGN! I’m loving it man! Looks even better than v3, and v3 was quite awesome.
Just want to add something, i’m agree, the search box should be above the ads like you did on NETTuts, it’s more user-friendly.
awesome
Wow … version 1 was bleak! But the progress is undeniably great. Keep up the good work guys.
Hello PSDTUTS community, thank you for all the great comments and to answer a few of the most important questions.
The comments form was fixed and works the way it should now, the search is going to be moved shortly and will be much more accessible, and all of your great comments are very much appreciated.