Maximus 1.1 Released

When 500 Maximus was launched in December of last year, it did so as a fond farewell to 2013, a pivotal year for IgnitionDeck, and a signal of what was on the horizon for 2014.

We’re proud to say that Maximus has been extremely well received; better than anticipated in fact. A lot of the feedback we get is how easy it is to use and setup, how flexible the home page content widgets are, and how easy it is to create new crowdfunding site layouts. We’ve even seen it used to help someone reach a stretch goal and raise $25,000 for a bionic leg.

Single-project websites are what Maximus was built for, and yet we found our IgnitionDeck Enterprise owners also wanted to use it to build their crowdfunding community sites. One of the things that was sorely missing for them, however, was the inclusion of the project video automatically placed on the project page.

So we put our heads together, and we thought about how this could best be done. We had recently rolled out click-to-play for the video on 500 Framework and 500 Classic, so we wanted to use the same great functionality for Maximus. After some trial and error, we landed on what we think is the perfect blend of using the full-page image slideshow and project video together.

Click To Play Video

Overlaid on top of the slideshow is an unassuming play button. Click anywhere on the slideshow, and it stops and the video loads up and begins playing – filling the entire slideshow frame.

Even better, the video takes a queue from Maximus’ responsive layout and displays in a responsive format of its own. This ensures that on any screen size, the video itself will maintain the correct aspect ratio as the screen size shifts.

Removal of the Footer Branding

Initially, Maximus was conceived as a single project theme, seeing all the action on the home page. We expected long information-rich pages to exist and felt showcasing the site logo and tagline at the bottom of the page was great for branding and a nice wrap-up to the bottom of the site.

In action, however, it proved to be too much of a good thing. So we removed it, and the feedback already is has been positive.

Enhancements and Bug Fixes

The FAQ and updates dropdowns now appear on the project home page. We’ve also addressed some issues with the color customizer. As always, take to the forums to let us know anything else you spot.

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