Sandvox Site Gallery | Karelia Software

Mr. Dresel's Social Studies Classes

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:56:46 -0800

Chuck Dresel is a middle school teacher at Redwood Middle School in Napa, California. The first of his Sandvox sites to catch our eye was the site for his Social Studies 7 class. Using Sandvox meant that Mr. Dresel could spend more time on student work and less time maintaining the site. He wrote:

I'm a middle school teacher who doesn't have a lot of time to maintain a quality website for my class/students. Sandvox is the perfect tool for me because it allows me to quickly and easily provide my students with all the information they need to stay successful in my class and it really looks great. I use the blog collection to post and manage homework assignments; most documents that students need for my class are available from various download collections; students are able to access their current grades which are posted on the same server via ftp and then linked back to the Sandvox site; students can earn extra credit by completing several web-based geolab assignments that incorporate QuickTime video and audio files; and of course it is very easy to contact me using the contact form pagelet. Sandvox also makes it really easy to incorporate some really cool add-ons like Google custom search. Thanks again for making a great product.

More recently, Mr. Dresel has created a site for his Social Studies 8 class. In addition to making homework assignments and supplementary reading available for download, the "B-3 Audio Files" section of his site makes class activities available via podcasts that can be listened to online or downloaded by students for their iPods or iTunes libraries. Useful links for students appear in text and in List of Links pagelets, and so no one misses an assignment, homework information and deadlines are available via an RSS feed.

The George Mason University Libraries

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:12:14 -0800

The Digital Programs and Systems group at the George Mason University Libraries found itself in an interesting position: With a campus-wide license reaching its end, how to help users migrate to new software tools in a clear and efficient manner? A website seemed like the logical choice, but how to get one up and running, quickly? The answer: Sandvox. Within an hour, staff had their migration site up and running, available to provide faculty, staff, and students with the information they needed. As they describe on the department's blog:

Since I wrote this post I've been digging around the help file and various sites on the web. Upgraded my registration to "pro" so I could make use of inline HTML within your templates. Very nice. Also had a brief but very helpful interaction with your support group pointing me to where I could get the code to run the mailme.php program locally rather than relying on your services.karelia.com site. Anyway, I'm now a fan and will be happy to recommend Sandvox.

The Citation Migration site offers members of the campus community the ability to get clear directions through a series of text pages, to make appointments with IT staff for further assistance, and to send questions via a Contact Form pagelet. It also uses the IM Status pagelet to alert readers when staff are available to take their questions and comments via instant messaging. Their site is based on Blueball's Cubicle design for Sandvox, a simple and highly readable design.

Scalliwag Toys

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:04:17 -0800

Being an independent retailer is a tough business in any economic climate, but Scalliwag Toys has been going strong since 1985 in Belleville, Ontario. We were intrigued when we read on the Scalliwag blog about Karin Belanger's can-do attitude when faced with the task of rebuilding their store's website:

This problem was compounded by my Scrooge-like nature: I hate to pay for anything that I can possibly do myself. The flip-side of this characteristic is a "can-do" attitude, of course -- but, like so many fixer-upper projects, the website turned from a creative exercise into a dead weight that I could neither cope with nor (in keeping with that thriftiness) farm out to a third party to take care of.

So in 2008 I admitted defeat and started the search for a better, newer, HTML editor. To my surprise, I found that editors have evolved over the past few years into true website-building software, in which the site builder gives up some creative control (no more raw HTML for me) in return for stunning simplicity and ease-of-use. The software I finally decided upon is called Sandvox, from a company called Karelia. I couldn't be happier.

And we couldn't be happier to have Scalliwag Toys as part of the Sandvox community! Using the Sandbox design as the basis gives the site a playful look, but the clean font, great organization, and use of product illustrations is anything but childish.

Mildura Internet

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:49:44 -0800

Making excellent use of the flexibility and layout of Blueball's Pro Tabs design is the site for Mildura Internet, a website design, hosting, and consulting company based in Mildura, Australia.

Michael Quinn and his team have created an easy-to-read, content-rich site that uses the Raw HTML features of the Pro Edition to great advantage. Using Raw HTML pagelets, the Mildura home page offers visitors the ability to search site site, to link to their LinkedIn profile, and to follow their news on Twitter; the same page also offers examples of the company's work, lists of clients, a contact form, and an overview of the company's services. All the information is presented cleanly and clearly, with helpful graphics interspersed for visual interest and to help guide the reader. The Pro Tabs design lets site visitors easily identify and find their way to other pages that describe Mildura's services and the company in more detail. We're delighted to share their site with you to illustrate how you can pack a lot into your site without sacrificing readability or elegant design.

Douglas Deveny

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:45:44 -0700

Douglas Deveny created a Sandvox website to share his abstract and impressionistic landscape art. The Saffron design provides a great backdrop to his artwork, setting off the vivid colors and images. Photo albums allow him to group his work, display thumbnails, display larger images, and display information about each piece, such as the media used and the canvas size.

A blog allows Doug to share news and progress reports with friends, collectors, curators, and others interested in his work. By combining the albums with text pages and several pagelet types, the site provides a great overview of his philosophy, process, work-in-progress, and completed works.

International Sites

Mon, 21 May 2007 14:23:01 -0700

Sandvox has made support for languages other than English a priority, and we're pleased to offer localizations for French, Italian, Danish, German, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese languages.

Among the many international sites we've seen we're especially pleased to spotlight Gilblog, JT Gilbert's personal site. Starting with the "Wall" design and substituting a banner featuring an aerial photo of La Borne gives the site a personal touch, as does the rich array of images that are displayed in text, in pagelets, and as photo albums throughout the site.

Andrew Soh

Mon, 21 May 2007 13:31:53 -0700

Andrew Soh uses Sandvox to great effect to showcase his digital photographs. The site design--one of his own creations--provides a neutral backdrop that doesn't distract from the vibrancy of his photography.

Through a series of photo collections, Andrew shares not only photos from his travels through northern California and to international destinations, but also information about his preferred equipment. By adding flickr pagelets he directors visitors to additional photos.

Andrew also had this to say: "Sandvox is a great piece of software. It should be used in a software design class as an excellent example of an intuitive user interface. The features are accessible to basic users, but it is also powerful enough for advanced web designers. I've tried out different web publishing software, but they don't come close to Sandvox when compared on features, ease-of-use, and pricing." Thanks, Andrew!

A Little Peek Into Our Lives

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:46:41 -0800

Family sites may not have the sophistication of corporate or more high-profile sites, but the information they convey is just as important! Scott Corscadden of Ontario, Canada, uses his site, A Little Peek Into Our Lives, to share photos of his family, their activities, and their friends.

Scott's site is a collection of collections: photo collections organized by topics and people, easy to navigate and enabling readers to glance at a series of thumbnails or to review photos in nearly full-page size individually. Being able to drag and drop photos and create these collections quickly is a huge plus. As Scott noted: "I had new pictures up in moments of our new baby (which is a really useful ability, given how little time we have now)."

Scott's site is based on the Sandvox Sunburst design.

I-Open

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:49:47 -0800

The Institute for Open Economic Networks uses Sandvox for their site, which is a key communications tool.

Effective communication is important for all organizations, whether for-profit or nonprofit, and the I-Open site offers an example of how an organization can communicate timely information by establishing a blog, share more substantial information by making white papers available for downloading, and alert readers to upcoming speaking events and workshops.

Wendi Schneider Photography

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:19:49 -0800

When your business is photography and design, you need a website that reflects your aesthetic sense to potential clients. Wendi Schneider's site is both a showcase for her work and a way for potential clients and customers to contact her.

Wendi has used Sandvox collections to present examples of her work in several categories, and each category is easily identifiable in the site index on her home page. In addition to the rich visual content, Wendi has used a combination of text pages and pagelets to provide important information about purchasing her artwork, obtaining her design services, and the terms and conditions under which her work may be used.

Wendi's site uses Sandvox's Cathedral design as a starting point and features her enhancements.

VetFM

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:17:59 -0800

VetFM.com is the website for a Mac and PC veterinary practice manager, and they've used Sandvox to present an outline of their services to potential customers.

Of particular interest is the Sandvox photo grid they've used to create a slideshow of their product's features. Presenting a collection in this way gives the viewer a clean and easy-to-read photo grid, presents a nearly full-screen shot of each slide, and allows viewers to easily navigate forward or backward, or to jump to the index to find a particular slide. (For information on how you can create collections, visit the "How do I....?" overview on collections.)

Like other sites in the Site Gallery, VetFM's site also illustrates how the banner can feature a corporate logo or a combination of logo and text to give your site a unique look. Users who are comfortable with graphic design and CSS may wish to review the "How do I...? overview on modifying designs.

The VetFM site is based on Sandvox's Aqua design.

Escuela Bilingüe Internacional

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 11:08:29 -0800

Orlando Antonio Sánchez has been an enthusiastic Sandvox user, modifying designs and combining many features to achieve the look he wants. We think his design and implementation of the site for the Escuela Bilingüe Internacional in Oakland, California is particularly attractive, and are grateful to Orlando for making his revised design template available free of charge to Sandvox users. (See the link in his "downloads" pagelet.)

Orlando's design is clean and easy-to-read, and attractively guides the reader to the site's key pages via the site index and his use of pagelets and callouts. We think it's an excellent example of how Sandvox can be used to create a rich site quickly and stylishly, and we hope the staff of EBI are as pleased with Orlando's work as we are!