At least we'll always have Frank

[rahaeli]

I've seen a lot of people wondering about recent changes or proposed changes to LiveJournal's navigation and user interface, and asking why they're necessary. We've talked about our individual goals for some of the changes in the lj_design community, but we haven't talked about why we're working on the project overall, and I wanted to take a minute and

Comments

[soleta]

I've been really vocal about not liking most of the changes that have been made, and it's pissed me off that it's appeared that nobody is listening to us, but I'm going to rethink my opinion on the changes and I really appreciate you taking the time to just sit down and explain things clearly for once. it's been very frustrating, being informed of what's going on by people who haven't been explaining things clearly, or who perhaps think that informing us that there's a change being made to the interface is all that they're required to do.

that was longer than I meant it to be, but what I mean is: thank you.

[coolstring]

When I first had to walk away from Dystopia, I really was bothered. Sure, XColibur was cool and nifty and had Magically Appearing Windows!, but it wasn't as streamlined as the Dystopia style. Over time, I got used to it so much that when I saw the beta style a while back I was horrified - again.

Same thing with the new info page ideas. Yes, they're more streamlined, but just like the Facebook vs. Myspace, they have a different functionality and feel attached to them. I like the control strips at the top of viewing pages, but frankly, I don't use it much. But that's because I've gone bookmark crazy. I have my update page bookmarked, and my friends page bookmarked. I guess that's how I got around the clunky UI?

No matter, I do support you guys. Heck, that's why I have a paid account. I LITERALLY support you guys. But I trust that whatever you do it will be for the better. And frankly, I think it's excellent that you all try to have a somewhat consistent conversation with your user base. It's nice to know what's going on.

[dpash]

I find Dystopia so much easier to use than XColibur because it doesn't use javascript menus, which hide all the options and fiddly to navigate. I, too, was disappointed with the beta style which has exactly the same problems.

[coolstring]

same problems except it's friggin' ugly!

[a_muse_d]

i haven't bothered to use the new styles - i'm still happily using Dystopia to navigate LJ.. and now fear she may be referring to removing that option in her entry above >[

[zahgurim]

I'm a long-time LJ user (since 2001) and I still have some (although not many) problems figuring out how to do things on LJ. For example, recently I was trying to access my disk space to see voice posts, delete stuff, etc. (not that I need to, I just wanted to figure out how to do it), it took me numerous FAQ pages and dozens of clicks to eventually get to the disk space maintenance page, and I doubt I could easily replicate it again.

I love LJ, and I'm glad you guys are striving to make the site more usable.

One feature I would personally find useful is a page (perhaps linked from the login or main page), or a module in MyLJ that has most if not all the things you can do on it - update journal, create a poll, voice posts, disk maintenance, ScrapBook, interests/userinfo, friends, communities, customization, payments, etc. Sort of a "site map" of features. I realize that would be a hefty section and that most of those features are already on MyLJ, but it would put everything out there (and, most importantly, keep it all together

[elfy]

Like that one?
http://www.livejournal.com/site/

*wonders*

[zahgurim]

*raises eyebrows*

Um.... yes! =)

I can't be the only person who had no idea that page existed. At least I know that there is more than a friends page on LJ.

[elfy]

It can be found under Help -> Sitemap :)

[blktauna]

You say you've done testing, but I find it hard to imagine who you've tested... There are a multitude of ages on LJ who seem not to have any problem navigating over the last several years. The suggestions asked for in all the venues available have never included, "please make our userinfo more generic, please force a navbar on everyone, please hide useful pages under several layers of FAQ, or please treat us all like idiot endusers who have no clue." Forgive me if I don't take your test group results as gospel

[fweebles]

That's because birthday notifications have been disabled due to site-load issues for years. I don't think anybody should (or would) expect to receive birthday notifications any time since about 2002.

In fact, now that I look at it, the option isn't even on the main journal info page any more.

[crimmson]

But it does give you birthdays under the MYLJ tab...which works just as well...another improvement that once I learned how to use I decided I pretty much like...

[filkerdave]

I think the most significant thing you can do with changes is make them opt-in, rather than blithely changing things for current users. If you want to make them the default for new users, fine, but please, don't muck with MY settings just because someone else doesn't like them.

$COOLNEWFEATURE may sound great on paper, but the fact that you ALWAYS get a rash of people screaming at you because you enabled it, turned on, with no way to turn it off...

I mean, seriously. My LJ is for *me* -- yes, you provide a service but I'm paying for that service and I think that entitles me to have a certain amount of say in how my own LJ behaves.

[xoverau]

I admit, I agree with you on this. I helped my mother set up a journal last year. She was unable to post for two weeks when the layout changed and she couldn't find the update link where she was used to looking. During that time a couple of months ago when we were all logged out and had to re-enter our passwords, she spent another frustrated week wondering where her entries had gone. When I was helping her edit something last month, she was confused by having several places on one page (the side bar, the top, and the nav bar) to click for friends, updates, and userinfo. Finally she said she'd just write in a text file on her computer because it was less frustrating.

I wouldn't have called my mother the typical LJ user, but if this post is correct and she is...I think the constant transition and change is going to prove just as discouraging as an inconvenient interface.

[chrismm]

Actually, the idea of opt-in instead of opt-out where-ever possible (recognizing that it's not always possible) sounds like it would address a lot of the issues I'm hearing, too. That does leave you with the task of communicating the new options to folks, and that's clearly part of the bigger problem, because otherwise you wouldn't have people who think the friendslist is all there is to LJ

[pinkpolarity]

At the VERY least, it should be opt-in before opt-out for *paid accounts*. I'd be surprised if very many of those clueless newbies are paid users.