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Wednesday
January 7, 2009

ASICentral Homepage News Rotator

Filed under: site updates

Remember those old Taco Bell commercials with the tagline “Change is Good”? The thinking behind that ad campaign was that not only are their tacos made of cheap meat, but they’re also so inexpensive that you’ll need deep pockets to keep all your change. (Apologies to Team Blog designer “Crack” who heads to the border almost daily.)

Well, as you might have already noticed, ASICentral has undergone a different type of change, one that I believe is equally as good as the kind you might find unexpectedly in your pocket after consuming copious amounts of junk food, but without the intestinal distress (at least, I hope).

Replacing the former one-dimensional News area, the new “News Rotator” is a more dynamic, multi-level feature that serves content screens at timed intervals. Think AOL.com. So, instead of being able to offer our users the maximum of seven stories at a given time, we can offer them four times that, and in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

One of the new screen panels of the news rotator

But just like anything else, change sometimes requires an explanation. So here’s a few pointers about our new News Rotator:

  • Once you’ve logged onto the site, the rotator is on the clock and should begin automatically shifting through screens at predetermined intervals (about 3 seconds).
  • There are 4 content pieces per panel — the top-right pertains to the dominant image at left. The second and third content pieces fall under the first — with all three having summaries describing the content. The fourth content piece occupies the narrow blue strip at the bottom of the rotator and has no summary.
  • You can control the rotation of the panels with the controller in the bottom right corner, in the following ways:

  1. To pause the panel: Use the pause button in the control feature in the bottom right corner — this looks like the number 11.
  2. To move forward through the panels at your own pace, hit the right-pointing button in the bottom right corner
  3. To move in reverse — or rewind — through the panels, hit the left-pointing button in the bottom right corner

If you’re still unsure of how to control the rotator, just think of your media players and how you might navigate through your CDs and DVDs. Yeah, it’s like that.

There ya have it, the new News Rotator! Like it, hate it, got ways you think would improve it? Send us a note at feedback@asicentral.com now, or just comment below.

–YoQuieroNewsRotator

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