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Follow the progress of Viewbook V3

By Rien | November 9th, 2011 | 22 Comments

To give a better idea about where we are with Viewbook V3 we’ve decided to make the progress public on a weekly – if not daily – basis. You can now follow the progression of all the different parts of the system on the V3 development site. You will see an overview of the modules and other parts of the system that are planned to be released within the first version of V3 (rollover each item to get a short explanation). Each item shows a progress-bar that will change over time, plus a status that gives an idea about planning or what we’re currently working on.

> Open Viewbook V3 development status dashboard
> All posts about Viewbook V3

Notify me when V3 Beta is available.


Conversation 03: Irina Rozovsky

By Alrik | November 9th, 2011 | 1 Comment


 

“It’s important to stand behind your work, so you’re not promoting yourself, but your work.”

Irina Rozovsky was born in Moscow (1981) and grew up in the Boston area. She received a BA in French and Spanish Literature from Tufts University and an MFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art. Her work has been published and exhibited in the United States and abroad. Alrik Swagerman, Co-founder of Viewbook, calls her at home in Brooklyn New York. Irina tells us about her work, how she approaches new projects and her view on getting forward in the art world.

Listen in iTunes. Subscribe to podcast RSS.

Related links
irinar.com

Viewbook Portfolio for iPad — Update available now!

By Paul | October 18th, 2011 | No Comments

Viewbook Portfolio for iPad, the cleanest mobile digital portfolio, is now updated with the following features:

- Presentation mode (hide the ‘all albums’ tab and the edit buttons)
- Custom display name in the left top corner
- Hide and show portfolio tabs in your portfolio from the portfolio menu
- Optimization of the gallery viewer
- Additional sharing options: export to Facebook and to the iPad Photo Library

Furthermore, it has some minor UI updates and is ready for iOS 5.

> More about Viewbook Portfolio for iPad
> Get Viewbook Portfolio for iPad on the App Store
> How to use – full walkthrough

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

By Rien | October 6th, 2011 | 2 Comments

Steve Jobs not being among us fills us with sadness and we realize how much respect we have for him; always enjoyed his ability to amaze us with his exceptional creativity. It feels like a far away friend but his influence for us personally and as a company is for sure immense. Thanks Steve!

Updated: Help us find a developer and win an iPad2!

By Rien | October 4th, 2011 | No Comments

We’re looking for a new front-end Javascript and a Ruby on Rails developer (located in or near The Netherlands!) to join our development team. Help us spread the word! If we find the perfect candidate through you, we will reward your efforts with an iPad2. We’ll also install the Viewbook iPad Portfolio App, and give you a free Viewbook Pro account for a year.

Send us a mail with your recommendation(s). Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter als also great resources to use, thank you for your help everyone!

Update: We’re looking for another developer. You can find the job descriptions here.

Job opening: Customer Support

By Alrik | September 9th, 2011 | No Comments

At Viewbook.com users create portfolio websites to present their work to the world. We’re looking for a new person to join our support team, who can help our users with many different questions about using Viewbook, account issues, configuring domain names and such.

Customer support at Viewbook is not like the typical phone or e-mail support you’ll get from the larger corporations. Our customers love Viewbook, they are loyal and passionate about what we do. Once our users start using Viewbook their portfolios and work presentations are hosted with us. It’s very important that they are available and look and work the way the user wants. So we take support seriously as a way to help as quickly, effectively and friendly as possible. We use bad experiences that our customers have to improve our products and processes, and turn that experience into a positive one. Our support team is a vital connection to our customers. We always think to ourselves, “How can I make this person’s experience better?” Then whatever that is, we do it.

Everyday we get questions about how users can create a specific idea for their portfolio website with Viewbook and if Viewbook has specific features. We also get requests to help out with the configuration of their domain name, and requests to get Google Analytics, Fotomoto or Facebook like buttons working on their Viewbook website, as well as questions about how to get websites ranked in Google and many other questions that you could help us out with.

We need someone who has a broad experience with the web and likes to help creatives; photographers, artists and designers around the world with their Viewbook websites.

We’re looking for someone who:
* Likes to help people out and solve issues for them
* Is friendly, patient and positive
* Writes english fluently
* Has experience with the web (HTML)
* Knows how DNS works (Or you learn quickly)
* Can debug technical issues (Why does Google Analytics not work on this website)

Working hours are very flexible, but differ from day to day. You can expect to have work for about one to three hours a day. You will be working with a small dedicated support team using the Zendesk support system. We offer the freedom to work from anywhere, a good salary and the opportunity to grow with the Viewbook company.
Read more about us here

If this is you, please send your resume with work experience and motivation to alrik@viewbook.com.

Viewbook V3 : Status update 2

By Rien | August 26th, 2011 | 8 Comments

This is a second status update on the progress of Viewbook V3, the project name for ‘Viewbook Version 3′.

In our previous update last June I told you about the challenges in interaction and interface design that we took on earlier this year and how the first prototypes of parts of the new system gave us an idea of how things really worked as software.
We discovered that most of our ideas are working out as we had hoped but we also optimized and changed a lot in the user interface. It takes time, clear thinking and many iterations to make thinks simple, elegant and easy to understand. It’s exactly like Steve Jobs says:

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.”

We need at least another month or two to work out all the details to make everything ready for a month or two of testing and refining. Then the first (beta) release will be made public.

Be sure to check v3.viewbook.com for sketches, updates and sneak previews. We welcome your feedback. If you have any questions, see the Viewbook V3 FAQ and feel free to contact us here.

> All posts about Viewbook V3
> v3.viewbook.com

Notify me when V3 Beta is available.


Sketchbook of the forthcoming Viewbook V3 website builder.

By Paul | July 26th, 2011 | 8 Comments


v3.viewbook.com

Alongside updates and announcements on the Viewbook Blog, we launched a constantly updating ‘digital sketchbook’ on v3.viewbook.com. Managed by everyone within the design and development team, it captures moments within the development process in sketches, sneak previews, animations, quotes, thoughts, tweets, photos etc. around the development of the new portfolio website builder. Sometimes very legible, sometimes very in-depth; a quite spontaneous heap of different pieces of information, mirroring how V3 evolves.
We hope it will give you a nice insight in all aspects of this big project and what you can expect from V3. We keep a sharp eye on all your comments within the Blog, Twitter and Facebook, and select & publish these bits that inspire us most!

> v3.viewbook.com
> All posts about Viewbook V3

Notify me when V3 Beta is available.