so basically this is a done deal and this is the way it's gonna look, huh?

Pooh, is all I can say. Just pooh, Elliott.

I read in "newest first" mode. I'm getting confused by seeing the original message repeat at the top and bottom. If you're going to repeat, please make the top-post look obviously different--and make it easy to skip to the newest reply. Some of those messages are really long!

Sorry for not responding sooner -- it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Any real design challenge (arguably, any real challenge, period) involves balancing one or more constraints or pressures. Everyone has goals and preferences, and I'm told that a good solution is one that satisfies many stakeholders. In rare cases, you can be great, and do something bold, rather than simply allowing your product -- the design -- to be pulled thin by everyone invested.

I think we've done something bold here, and taken some steps to simplify and streamline what had become an overgrown product -- not in terms of the number or depth of features, but in terms of how they were being presented. We now have a firm foundation, upon which we can build the flexible, powerful product that many of our users suspect Tribe can become.

People wouldn't be investing so much energy (positive or negative) into their feedback, if they didn't care. That's the most important part of all of this. Things like the exact color, or style of buttons, or the spacing between elements -- that we can, and will, change. We have tested it with our current users, and I'm very curious to see if it will resonate with the larger audience we hope to bring to Tribe. While it's impossible for any one of my designs to make every last user happy, I think we can and will continue to experiment with combinations that will move us forward. With all the changes that we'll have accomplished with this release, we'll have a much more robust base -- both conceptually and in terms of codebase -- to work from.

A note on magnitude of change: I've said it before, but I am very relieved at the number and nature of complaints that have come through. They've been relatively few, and largely about cosmetic issues, and some decisions we made with the member experience. By and large, we've succeeded in overhauling an enormous website, without a single show-stopping, site-crashing, experience-mangling bug. And so, looking back on the past few months in that light, I'm extremely happy at the response.

Anyway, I do appreciate the concern. I'm officially in my tenth year doing this kind of high-profile, technical design, and I think any designer would tell you that a) feedback is always welcome -- no matter the tone, and b) it's exciting and thrilling to have so many people using the product of your labors, daily.

Seems like they forgot the most important aspect of any community: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the corporation).

I'm not generally a nutter, but this is so bad that the thought has crept into my head that perhaps these guys are spooks who are intentionally destroying an organized grassroots online community. I don't want to think that's the case, and it's probably not. However, the complete diregard for the massive backlash is so obtuse as to seem intentional.

Perhaps they'll get their come-uppance when, within a few weeks, they have an interface they think is so great, but only a handful of people around to "appreciate" it.

Those who are leaving will miss "all the great stuff"? That's like saying "Hey, sorry we took away that delicious buffet and replaced it with nutrition pills, but stick around! Soon we'll add some flavors besides vanilla! In fact, we're currently working on French Vanilla! Isn't that thoughtful?"

The red is a bit much. I kinda liked the orange used before. The layout change is definately a step backward. Not seperating the topics from the listings, events, photos, and reviews is a big pain. Going from a unicolumnuar tribe list to a multi column list on the "My Home" page makes it harder to read and distinguish which of my tribes (those I am a member of) has new listings, especially with the font, color, icon, and white space use. It is much too busy. Not only that, but if you don't position the cursor icorrectly on the "myTribe" field, you get sent to the "Change Tribe City" page. Usability gets a D+
The entire design comes off as very sophomorish and reminds me of a high school blogger site or perhaps I should say it treats the user like a subliterate, 'sure I'll buy your soap' simpleton. The preview and submit links are unreadable due to poor color contrast combined with poor font choice. If this were at least artsy fartsy, I could dig it, but as a technical writer, it seems to me that the usability study was flawed unless they wanted it to look like a Yahoo clone, then this is a success story. (


Also, thank you Jory for screening this tribe. "I've cleaned out a LOT of those listings that were, in my opinion, useless. " I've seen some of the crap you're talking about on one of the other tribes I frequent. (eg:An African Bush Doctor's Prescription for Better Health listed on the Apple tribe)
reply to this post
the rev

18
Re: new site design

Thu, January 19, 2006 - 9:27 PM
I also just noticed that the only way to tell if a posting is 'new' is by a very small "new" next to the posting. The old version used a color change on the positng timestamp that made it much easier to find new posting replies. Especially when the reply is not time linear within the topic.

"In removing the names from underneath the pictures, and removing the "How you know so-and-so" features, my interest is now almost never piqued by other users, unless I happen across a post that intrigues in a tribe I am already in. Even now, when I go to their profile, I can't tell how I knew someone as easily as I could. I cast a strong vote in favor of returning this degree of usability. As it stands, my interest drifts past the user pics, rather than being snagged by the name or the breadcrumbs. Please bring back both these features!"

ditto