It's probably a couple months away from release, but we're deep into the design phase for the new app.
And rather than just talk about it here week after week, I thought I'd poke the app developers and ask if we could offer you a peek at at least one page of the thing, so you'd have a feel for what we're making.
So hey, here's this:
That's the home page of the app. And obviously, it'll be the same among Apple, Android and all mobile devices at the phone size.
As you can see, hopefully, we've pushed for a very clean, uncrowded feel, which will in turn lead to easier navigation and use. We achieved a lot of the inspiration from the open white space of the New York Times, the bolder headline presentation of Apple News, the bylines and timelines of ESPN, the structure of a ton of popular team apps, and the name-branding of ... well, us.
That's why you'll see in the main blue horizontal nav-bar terms like 'Brewing' and 'Java', when we easily could've conformed with the far more bland 'Calendar' and 'Multimedia.' We've got an established readership, and we want first and foremost for this app to feel like home once all of you have a chance to move in.
Once you get inside, you'll also see that our commenting section will be called 'Asylum.' That was Jason Rollison's idea before his passing this summer, also presented to us in the same spirit as above, and we'll absolutely honor that.
OK, I'll shut up now. There's a ton of work ahead, and it feels wrong to tease. But it's exciting, every step of this. Can't wait till it's really real.
H2P AT ONE-THIRD POINT
As of 11:59 p.m. Friday, exactly a week since the announcement that we're bringing back Pitt coverage, you’ve bought a total of 335 H2P Subscriptions! Which means we’re already a third of the way to the goal of 1,000!
There are three ways to get one:
1. If you’re a new or returning subscriber, buy a full-year subscription at the half-off price of $19.76 in honor of the most recent football championship.
2. If you’re an existing subscriber, upgrade your current monthly or annual subscription to the three-year Lunatic Level. Just click ‘Upgrade subscription’ on that page. We’ll add three years to your existing subscription.
3. This is the big one: If you’re an existing subscriber, buy a Pitt one-year gift subscription — also $19.76 — for anyone you know. And if you don’t know anyone who’d want one, we’ll place your purchase into a pool and distribute them to students at the university, with a special invitation to everyone in the Oakland Zoo. If you’re interested in buying a bunch of these in bulk, email me directly at DK@DKPittsburghSports.com.
To the latter point, we’ve already had 29 readers buy gift subscriptions in bulk, including one who bought 10 of them very late Friday and put us past the one-third mark.
If you missed it Wednesday, Hunter Homistek, Matt Sunday and I brought expansive coverage of the Panthers’ season-opening upset of Florida State. And the readers came through there, as well: The live file had 3,477 page views and 199 comments. The total for all three files from our next-day coverage was a very impressive 8,591.
We're all off to a fine tipoff, Jeff Capel's team included.
VETERANS DAY SALUTE
On this special weekend leading into Veterans Day, we'll spend the next three days giving out 133 subscriptions to those who've served.
Why that seemingly random number?
Well, 50 are being freshly donated by Josh DeNinno and our great friends at Moon Golf Club. To know Josh is to know of true dedication to veterans, as his business employs veterans, counts on several others as volunteers and buys some goods from veteran-owned companies. He's also distributed our veteran subscriptions to deserving customers visiting his course.
Josh asked us to double his donation to 100, and so we are.
And on top of that, we've also had 32 Pitt fans who asked us to give their H2P Subscriptions to veterans.
Hence, 132.
This is where veterans can claim their subscriptions. We'll share where to contribute to the fund once it's depleted. We're obviously in good shape for now.
Thanks, as ever, to all who've served.
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