Danwei.TV: My latest project

Just want to take a moment and brag about a cool new project I’ve been hard at work on: Danwei.TV.

Most foreign folks living in China, or with any interest in China, are bound to know Danwei.org, possibly the most widely-read English-language blog about China, and many of you have also likely watched Danwei-produced and -affiliated videos (Sexy Beijing, The Shanghai Beat, etc.).

Previously, all video content was constrained to the main Danwei.org site and its written-word layout, and though a Danwei.TV site had been set up, it operated in much the same way. But no longer!

It was the goal of Jeremy Goldkorn and the Danwei crew to rework things into a more logical and purpose-made (for both visitors and publishers) structure.

You’ll notice immediately that the overall design was not changed, but rather just brought in line with the existing Danwei.org look and feel. The real work for me came in melding the CMS (WordPress) to the site’s video-intensive needs and adhering to the stipulation that it must be easy to use.

It is easily the most advanced WordPress templating I’ve had to do, with a lot of custom PHP operating behind the scenes to make it all function properly – but it was a blast to work on and I think it turned out quite well. It didn’t hurt that Jeremy was as personable and approachable in real-life as he is in his videos – always great to work with people you genuinly enjoy working with.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in other stuff I’ve been working on, check out the portfolio on Dao By Design.

Republished – this time with comments on. Seriously, don’t know what the heck is happening with my comments auto turning themselves off lately.

2 Responses

  1. Great job on the redesign! I guess this means that Danwei hasn’t given up on the videos completely. The “Why Did I Remove My Safety Hat?” article translated on EastSouthWestNorth gave me the impression that Jeremy Goldkorn was going to let the video stuff die out. I hope they keep them up. The ones that are out there are great.

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