Downloader: Lifeyo is an incredible content management system for newbies

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Lifeyo is an incredible content management system for newbies

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet

Lifeyo is an incredible content management system for someone just trying to put together their first website. The whole system is very web2.0, but they manage to pull off this design cliché in a way which is actually useful -- all the dialogs are sensibly laid out, and the large fonts and bright colors actually make the system less intimidating to use.

Their business model is also quite straightforward, which is important for these kinds of things; after all, you don't want to build a site and find out it's gone the next day because the company went out of business. In Lifeyo's case, they work as a web host. You can either host your site for free with an address such as http://omgponies.lifeyo.com, or you can pay them about $50/year for hosting with your own .com domain name. You cannot download the site or manage it with your own tools -- you're locked in to their own platform, but it's quite comprehensive.

Now that I think of it, the aesthetic is most reminiscent of Tumblr. Looks like they really took a page off Tumblr's book, but instead of going for microblogging, they added everything needed for a small content website with a blog (optional).

All in all, I'm very impressed with how comprehensive the service is. I took some time testing the various options and took lots of screenshots which you can see after the fold.