[Susan]

abcdefGary - I hear ya. Advertising in the new site will be less obtrusive. It won't go away because we have to pay the bills, but it will be less 'in your face'.

Pintbarb - You can use the forum navigation on the left, or the Forums list up at the top to see the list of ALL the forums to select the one most appropriate to the question you need to ask.

Minmin - Hi!!! I believe you were on our beta team when we made our last major change - my how things change! It will be 2 years in November - I believe we were still a small group of about 3000 - we've grown so much! I do thank you for your insight and perspective on what it's like to come back around and you know I'm looking forward to watching/following your progress on your project!

Yes, we're going to have a sneak peek - we'd intended to have it all set to go before our trip to NYC, but it's just not quite ready for primetime. If you'd be interested in joining our closed beta, though - send me a PM!

Susan

P.S. Will we see you at the Meet & Greet? Saturday 4-6pm at the Brooklyn IKEA! We'll be wearing our shirts, (IKEAFANS Shirts, of course!) and we'll be in the restaurant until about 4:30.

[sxpert]

a few things :

• the site is great, and the info within is invaluable
• the "recent posts" should be overhauled so as to use a fixed url (that can be properly refreshed)
• the ikeapedia is nice, but I'm not sure it should be designed like a forum possibly with more meta data on the various articles, with categories (beds, wardrobe, ...)
• navigating the gallery is somewhat painful in a way that I have trouble to pinpoint. it just doesn't feel right

[mle]

Originally Posted by NBeth

How about master sets of instructions in the Ikeapedia? Ikea has a different set for each individual item and we've got a lot of them posted, but real people do certain standard combinations and might not even know which individual items to look for. Keep the individual listings, but then create higher level organizational structures with mastersets. The user would look up kitchens, Akurum, pullouts, then choose from base pullouts or high pantry pullouts. Pulling up base pullouts, they would read "to assemble a base pullout, you'll need the following items (x,y,z). Assembly instructions, in suggested order of assembly, below:

1
1b (optional item)
2
3
3b (optional item)

Even better if the summary provided internal info or links to info about considerations in choosing pullouts vs. drawers vs. doors, like the recent thread Pantry: Pull-out v/s Door ??.

Does that make sense?

[Tigratrus]

Originally Posted by NBeth
How about master sets of instructions in the Ikeapedia? Ikea has a different set for each individual item and we've got a lot of them posted, but real people do certain standard combinations and might not even know which individual items to look for. Keep the individual listings, but then create higher level organizational structures with mastersets. The user would look up kitchens, Akurum, pullouts, then choose from base pullouts or high pantry pullouts. Pulling up base pullouts, they would read "to assemble a base pullout, you'll need the following items (x,y,z). Assembly instructions, in suggested order of assembly, below:

1
1b (optional item)
2
3
3b (optional item)

Even better if the summary provided internal info or links to info about considerations in choosing pullouts vs. drawers vs. doors, like the recent thread Pantry: Pull-out v/s Door ??.

Does that make sense?

This is actually a project that is *very* near and dear to my heart. And we DO know how we're going to build it! Unfortunately, since it's just Susan and I doing all the development work at this point, we simply haven't had a chance to do this piece yet.

BUT:

The new version of the site that is *just* around the corner at this point, is largely designed to get us to a point where we can use the tools I've identified to build the next generation of the IKEAPedia. And it'll do pretty much exactly what NBeth suggested.

You'll be able to pull up what I've been calling "Sets" which would represent multi-article products such as an AKURUM pullout with drawers and a door hung from 153 deg INTEGRAL hinges, or a MALM bed with the pullout end tables, or a BESTA entertainment system with flatpanel TV bench etc. Once you've pulled up a a "Set" you'll be able to see the individual list of articles (specific IKEA Products) that make up that set. You'll also be able to access all associated instructions (including community provided markup/tips), as well as search for related threads, and any possibly related recipe cards (kind of a formalized modification) etc etc.

It'll all be stored in the database so the data can be sliced and diced in lots of different ways. The system I want to use cannot function directly on the current platform IKEAFANS is based on though, so getting IKEAFANS 4.0 out the door is the first priority.

The *really* cool parts of IKEAFANS 4.0 won't be ready in time for that rollout though, they'll come in the months *after the new version hits the streets... So just remember, if you like what you see in the new version, the best is yet to come! Well, at least in this sense... The new system is pretty awesome even without the next generation IKEAPedia, it's just that that's the bit I've been plotting for a couple years now .

James