14 DAY TRIAL // SourceForge is the latest big name to adopt and use HTML5 and CSS3 for their user interface. Even if the official HTML5 and CSS3 standards have not been completed, large websites are making the crucial step toward this new technology.
Developers and users alike have been pleasantly surprised on February 9th 2011 when another SourceForge interface revamp went live.
After 3 major UI overhauls in the last 2 years, this time the company dramatically changed the look of its landing page, opting for a more minimal approach.
As the staff blogged a few moments after the design went live, the main goals were to improve the overall user visual experience on the website, while at the same time increase site-wide performance numbers.
The slimmer front page, coupled with the use of HTML5 and CSS3 greatly increased page load speed.
Project pages were changed as well, but not as drastic as the homepage. Some graphic elements were kept from the previous version, along with the same project navigation structure.
The main changes to the project summary pages include a more cleaner, less cluttered way of displaying a repository's details, listing all screenshots and (finally) a modal window image viewer which eliminates the need to navigate to a different page when viewing screenshots.
The new design also featured a new logo, a typographic variation of the old logo in a dark gray color scheme.
GitHub, SourceForge's main competitor when it comes to source code repository hosting, already made the move to CSS3.
Other big-name sites that steadily increased the amount of HTML5 and CSS3 used in their code include Google, Facebook, YouTube, Scribd, DeviantArt, Vimeo and Yahoo.
Recently, WordPress.com joined the trend by releasing an HTML5 theme for their users.
In other news, after we reported a couple of days ago of the attack and password sniffing attempts SourceForge was under, the team announced they are and will continue working on restoring CVS access for their users. No timetable was given when service will return to its full capacity.
