The new Trafiklab is here

October 24, 2013

After a long period of work, we can now finally launch the new Trafiklab. A lot is new, and in the near future we will keep improving the service continuously.

What’s new?

Design

The new Trafiklab has a completely new design that first and foremost simplifies and focuses, but above all puts the developer at the centre – where they find inspiration, create their own projects and also collaborate with others. We have a new start page where we show the latest within Trafiklab’s three areas: APIs, projects and members.

The design has become airier and the graphics more colourful. Our ambition is to make Trafiklab a fun tool that encourages experimenting and creating. We also have a new set of standard icons for projects, APIs and members, intended to lighten things up and make Trafiklab’s content easier to overview.

Dashboard

As a logged-in member, the dashboard is your start page so you can quickly get into the site. It lists service messages and your projects.

API pages

The structure of the API pages has changed. When you open an API you should be met by a shorter presentation of the API that only contains the most important information. For a complete overview of the documentation, we have now split it out into separate pages.

Projects

Several new features. We recommend that all project owners go through their projects and add new information. More info further down in this post.

User profiles

Profile pictures have become larger. Make sure to upload a picture of at least 250x250 pixels if your current one is smaller than that.

Service status

New page for an overview of service status. You can also subscribe to it via RSS. As before, you can also keep track of the uptime of Trafiklab’s APIs via Pingdom.

The blog has moved to Tumblr

We are now on Tumblr, so feel free to follow us if you have a Tumblr account. You can of course also subscribe via RSS.

The suggestion box is replaced by Kundo

We now run entirely on Kundo to receive feedback and handle discussions with you, our users. Note! With the launch, however, we have a temporary extra feedback button on the site. More info further down.

Backend

General system updates and performance fixes that should make the site snappier to use, especially as a logged-in member.

Upcoming development

Things on our list:

Responsive design

The new site is responsive, but the focus has been on larger screens. Over time it will get better on smaller screens.

Dashboard

More content and statistics relevant to you and your projects.

Service status

RSS feeds for specific APIs.

API documentation

The content about the APIs will be reviewed and made easier to use.

Site search

At the moment we use a simple Google search, but we are looking into the possibility of switching to our own site search with facets.

Give us feedback

We are all ears and want to hear what you think! There is a temporary feedback function now with the launch. There you can easily give tips, feedback and report bugs. You are of course also welcome to use our Kundo forum.

What’s new on the project pages

If you have projects on Trafiklab, this means a number of changes. We have tried to automate the upgrade as well as possible, but we still ask you to go through your projects to check that everything is correct.

Project status

Previously you could only set your project as “Launched” or “Not launched”. We now have the following project statuses:

• Test
• Launched
• Ongoing
• Finished

“Test” should be used when you create a project just for testing. As for the other statuses, a project can of course have several categories. E.g. launched and ongoing, or launched and finished.

Wanted for the project

Previously you could only indicate that you were looking for designers or developers, but now you can also tick whether you are looking for beta testers or investment. You can now also add an explanation of what you are looking for.

Links to different app stores

On the old site you could only enter one link to an app store. We have now split this up into several fields: App Store, Google Play and Windows Phone Store.

Larger project icons

Project icons are now considerably larger in listings and on the project page. So feel free to upload a higher-resolution icon if your current one is smaller than 250x250 pixels.

Short description

A completely new field where you enter a short description of the project. This field is shown in listings on Trafiklab and e.g. when you share your project on Facebook.

Markdown

Writing the project description in Markdown has been available since earlier this year. The functionality for this has now been improved, and many of you probably aren’t aware of it since we weren’t very clear about informing about it before.

A warm welcome to the new Trafiklab!