Web Design Made Breezi
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
By Sarah Handelman
Hereās some news for the right-brained readers. Thereās a new web editor in town that will save us from cursing HTML code and other techy aspects of making a pretty page online. If you are the type that wishes a simple click would make that button bigger, your web design instincts might finally be met. Breezi is a new web editor that appeals to the visually inclined rather than the CSS set. Designed and developed by Freshout, the San Francisco-based company behind the hugely successful Storify ā Breezi aims to help put web into the hands of creatives donāt have the time, interest or budget to master coding but still want to run the show.
āWe found that a lot of people who didnāt know CSS were trying to use tools that required a working knowledge of code,ā says Chris Anderson, who co-founded Freshout and heads up Breeziās community outreach. āBut Breezi lets them focus on the design.ā By making the construction of a website instinctively visual, he says that Breezi can give more traditional designers the tools to build beautiful websites without the worry of learning curves.
Breezi remains in beta, but in late March the company announced that anyone can sign up and immediately start designing. Right now, the editor offers dozens of basic layouts that function as blank canvases. Every column, margin and page element can be manipulated at the click of a button. Cropping and editing tools appear by clicking on image corners. The team is continually developing a slew of social media and responsive apps. And users can even choose from a cache of pre-selected Google fonts. It gets better: In order to generate more website samples and templates, the Breezi folks are offering to design any website in Breezi for free. Just give āem a good reason.
Anderson says that Breeziās distinction is its complete customizability. Unlike other sites built using web editors, he explains that when visitors click on a page created with Breezi, they donāt recognize it as a site built with an editor. It looks custom because it is.
Still, Breezi isnāt for every designer. In its current form, Breezi does not offer a multi-tiered log-in, which limits its accessibility within organizations. Anderson explains that Breezi works best when it comes to building portfolios or sites managed by one. Those who use a combination of theme and CSS-based web editors, such as WordPress, may choose to rely on a few lines of HTML than this click-and-drag system. The siteās developers admit they relied on code in order to execute a few specific ideas, but the team hopes to develop the site-specific tools for Breeziās framework.
Anderson acknowledges there are kinks to work through, but with hosting included in a slim price tag of 12 dollars per month, Breezi might be worth a try. Plus, one of the editorās biggest strengths is its live customer support. āWe want to make it as intuitive as possible, so weāre constantly applying the feedback we get from our customers to changes and new functions,ā he says. If you think Breezi is easy now, itās likely to get even friendlier in new versions. And us right-brainers? Weāve got one less excuse for not having that slick site we always wanted.
1 Comment
freshchris
April 2, 2012Thanks for the review of Breezi, Sarah! I would love to hear everyone’s feedback and questions, and certainly give Breezi a try to see what you think.
Some news to share – we’re launching a promotion today where everyone who signs up and creates a site on Breezi through April will get a full-access, lifetime free subscription. You don’t pay a dime, and you can host, design, and manage your new site on Breezi forever š
We’re truly out to make this the very best website creation and editing tool for designers, and there are lots of great things to come very soon toward reaching that goal.
All the best,
Chris