As the year draws to a close, it's the perfect time to step back, take stock of what's happened in the past twelve months, and plan ahead (at least, that's what most people think). And there's one thing we do at Tuts+ in great quantity that gives us plenty to reflect upon: publishing content.
In the past twelve months, we've published 2,500 new articles and tutorials, and over 200 courses, from hundreds of different instructors, in our ten different topic areas. We've merged topics, introduced new functionality, and improved various aspects behind the scenes for our instructors.
Direction & Focus
This year has been about consolidating and better focusing some of our content. We're investing more than ever in our main topics—Code, Design & Illustration, Web Design, and Photo & Video. These have become the content areas that we've doubled down on, for both courses and tutorials.
It's meant scaling back and merging sub-topics in some other areas, such as 3D & Motion Graphics, Music & Audio, and Craft (although we're still continuing to publish tutorial content in those topics every week).
As a result, we've been able to invest more time and attention into our four core topics, and make them as fantastic as we possibly can.
Looking at the Numbers
It's been a busy 12 months at Tuts+, and we're excited to share a few of the numbers around the content we've published. Between December 2014 and November 2015 (inclusive), we've added:
- over 2,500 new articles and tutorials
- over 200 new courses
- over 4 million words (roughly four times the length of the entire Harry Potter series)
- over 450 hours of courses (over two and a half weeks watched back to back)
- over 450 instructors (with 200 of them being brand new to Tuts+)
We now have a total of almost 19,000 tutorials and 450 courses on Tuts+. There's a lot to learn!
It's Easier to Find What You're Looking For
After publishing thousands of tutorials from different instructors and editors, our content categorisation needed some work! We took the time this year to begin cleaning up how we categorise all our courses and tutorials, and make sure they stay consistent in the future.
You'll now find our category pages to be much more usable, as well as seeing helpful links between relevant tutorials and courses when browsing the site.
A Better Instructor Experience
We've thought carefully this year about the experience of being an instructor at Tuts+, from the on-boarding process for new instructors through to creating an instructor community, providing a better writing experience, and helping people stay up-to-date with what's happening at Tuts+.
Amongst other things, we've finished rolling out a completely custom CMS for tutorials, an instructor discussion forum, and an improved process for getting help when creating a course. We're also sending out a monthly instructor newsletter to everyone who's contributed to Tuts+ in the past.
It's never been a better time to begin teaching at Tuts+, and it's simple to get started!
Your Favourite Courses
Over the last 12 months we've published more than 200 new courses, but which ones were the most popular? Here are your favourite courses published in the last year in each topic (not including our large selection of free courses, as they had an unfair advantage):
- Code: Chrome Developer Tools
- Design & Illustration: Advanced Vector Portraits
- Web Design: Bombproof Web Design
- Photo & Video: What Every Photographer Should Know About Lenses
The Translation Project
For the first time this year, we've begun to have Tuts+ tutorials translated into different languages, to better serve our audience around the world. At the time of writing, we now have over 500 posts in 27 different languages!
All of this is down to our incredible community of Tuts+ readers and instructors, who have been helping with the project. Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to translate a tutorial, and contributed to the project! If you're interested in finding out more, we have a few related blog posts that you might like to read:
- We’re Translating Tuts+!
- 5 Things I Learned From the Tuts+ Translation Project
- The Tuts+ Translation Project Is Working, and I Have Graphs to Prove It
- Meet Erick Patrick, Who Has Translated 50 Tutorials for Tuts+
What's Coming in 2015?
Next year, we're going to maintain our focus on content. We'll be experimenting with new types of teaching (including live video interviews and discussions), exploring exciting new areas like 3D printing and drone photography, and continuing to improve how our tutorials and courses interconnect.
We'll be scaling up translations to offer more content than ever, in more languages than ever. And it goes without saying that we'll be working on a few larger, exciting projects that we can't announce yet!
Thanks for being one of our readers, and for using Tuts+ to further your education and career. We hope you'll enjoy everything we have in store for 2015!
What Would You Like to See?
We're always interested in your ideas and feedback about how we can publish content that you'd love to watch, read, and learn from. What would you like to see in 2015, and how can we make Tuts+ better? Have your say in the comments below, or suggest a course you'd like to see!