I’ve been receiving quite a bit of comments and reports about the site’s new layout currently available in the beta area of the site. Some favourable, some not.
The most common negative common so far is that there is nothing wrong with the current layout, so no need to change, and don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Maybe from a reader’s point of view, who’s been using the site for a while and used to the current layout, nothing is broken. However, from my side, it is broken, and broken badly enough for me to put a big effort into fixing it.
Each day, at least once, somebody contacts me and ask how they go about posting their stories on the site. And as often, somebody requests a feature that is already available on the site.
The first issue is the most frustrating. The links to post stories are on the front page of the site, however, currently, they are low enough to require people to scroll down and look to the left of the site’s home page.
It seems that no one scrolls down to see what’s there. Most simply come to the site, look at the links on top (in the navigation bar) and use those; as though scrolling takes such an effort.
What makes this worse, is that I would like to add new stuff to the site and if I do like I’ve done before, and add new links below the other links, then nobody would see them.
So, the site’s new design makes maximum use of the prime real estate on the home page (the top 400 pixels). It makes it look a bit busy, but at least most people won’t have to scroll down anymore.
Another change is the existence of two distinct areas on the site. One for the readers and one for the authors/editors. The reason for this is that many authors don’t read much on the site; they spend their time in pages dedicated to them. So, to minimize the effort for them to reach those places, I moved them to their own area and brought them forward to minimize the clicks that the authors need to reach them.
Having two distinct areas requires two main pages. So the new home pages (I hate that term), make that ‘Main Pages’ are titled ‘Read’ for readers and ‘Write/Contribute’ for authors and editors. Both pages are bookmarkable (as are all the pages on the site by the way), so authors can bookmark the ‘Write/Contribute’ page and readers can bookmark the other.
The other issue that needs fixing is the fact that a large number of features on the site seem to go unnoticed/unused and I get requests for them. It seems that most people don’t go exploring on the site, they don’t try various links to see what they do and what the pages offer. Many people don’t even know that they can change their own passwords, or update their email address, or change the font size in the listings or stories.
The way that I can try to fix this is by posting using tips on the front page. Those tips will go in the ‘News’ section on the main page. And since people don’t like to scroll down, the news section needed to be brought up closer to the navigation bar. For the free area users, that has been the case all along, but for premier members who actually need most of those tips, the news section was always hidden below, pushed down by the random story suggestion mechanism. The new three-column design brings the news section up right below the navigation bar.
PS: for those asking that I post more often on this blog: I’m a man of few words, so if I don’t have anything significant to say, I don’t say anything, so there would be nothing for me to post.
18 responses to “The site’s new layout”
As someone who has to deal with site design and maintenance I feel your pain… I personally like the beta so far and I can see the logic of what you are trying to do.
Having said that, it is my personal experience that even if you could make the site fool proof, you’d simply end up with a better quality of fool! LOL!!!
I like the look and feel of the beta site so keep up the good work!
Merlin
I wrote and stated I LOVED the new beta design almost as soon as I saw it. I stand by it. If it gets idiots, like me, to go exploring a little and allows people to find what they’re looking for easier, all the better. Great job.
-jefferson
Thanks Lazeez
Beta looks good to me. Since I’m a ‘snoop’ anyway, I’d found out about all your extra features, but as a writer (as well as a sometime reader), I love the knew ‘split’ format.
In the reader’s section, I do prefer the wider format of the old display, but it will only take a few days to get used to the new format, so it’s not important.
I think you’ve done a great job!
.B (aka dotB)
I definitely like the split thing…
It is a bit busy, but I’ve been using the site for over a year and have asked nearly every question you say so I know where everything is 🙂
But since I didn’t find it all myself, I see where it needs to be fixed.
Sincerely,
ElSol
I agree with Merlin about getting a higher class of fool.
Being a LOWER class of fool and a newer author I was one that forgot (?) to scroll down to the authors section at first.
Personally I like the Beta version.
Allen Wilson
Looks good. Lots of info presented fairly cleanly. My only suggestion would be to look at the menu colors. Green on green may cause some issues for people that are color blind or have other intensity differention issues.
Have you thought about adding google adwords to the site? you could even have them beside each story i am on a screen resolution of 1024×768 and there is a huge gap beside the story text and the enge of the screen that would be perfect for a few ads near the top of the screen., and on lower resolutions they would just scroll off the side of teh screen so no harm there…
You wrote, “However, from my side, it is broken, and broken badly enough for me to put a big effort into fixing it.”
That is reason enough, go for it.
The new site looks great.
Thanks for your time and effort.
As the color issue has been mentioned by someone else, I just thought I’d add this… how about making the colors transparent? (ie: let the site be the default colors for whatever browser someone is using, so people can personally choose their own color scheme, without having to override what the site specifies. (Ok, maybe it’s not that important, unless you’re browsing from somewhere where the software is broken, but I gotta figure that happens to more people than just me.)
One thing that I do not like on the current site is the change My Library. I like having all of my bookmarked stories on one page. There was a revision about six months ago that enhanced the library, but it will only display around 20 stories/authors at a time. The older version would dislplay ALL of your bookmarked stories/authors
JR
It looks good. I think the new layout will be most enjoyable to use. When might it be replacing the current setup? Let us know. 🙂
P.
I like it! And all your reasons for switching make anything other than true glitches irrelevant, anyway! 🙂
As one who isn’t afraid to scroll and explore, I didn’t have that much problem with the “old” layout, but this one is fine and probably a bit more efficient. Besides, you’re probably like me with my hardware. No matter how good it is, I still love to tinker!
Mitche
I like the new layout. I also find it rediculous that so many people don’t bother to scroll down, especially with scroll wheels making it so easy now-a-days.
I’d like to request the option to log in to one’s choice of areas though. When I open the site I’d like to go straight to the writer’s section as my main page. I know it’s only a single click, but any streamlining makes it a little slicker overall.
It would also be cool if authors could edit their stories from the web interface. If I post a chapter and later realize there’s a single typo in it, it would be cool if I could just load the chapter in a text window and make the change to a single sentence on the fly, rather than resubmitting the whole chapter with one or two corrections.
Thanks for your hard work. Keep it up.
Pleasure Boy 1
My first reaction was that it was fine the way it was so what’s to fix. My first reaction to the beta site was not positive. I didn’t like the cramped 3 column format. I have read the reasons behind the changes and confess to having asked about features that a simple exploring (scrolling down) would have found. Having gone to the beta site for several days now, I find I don’t like the original version any more. Having said all this, we must remember that this is YOUR site. You do all the work, keep it up to the standards we come to take for granted and if the changes make life a little easier then go for it.
Keep up the most excellent work on the BEST Site on the Web.
TheDad
I like the new format. I have to go along with the comment about the Green on Green. Some of us oldies find it a bit of an eye strain.
I have to admit that the idea of a new site to get used to kinda put me off, untill I actually got the initiative to go check the other one out.
Persoanlly, I love the new site..
Provides great functionality with a much better design “imo”. I also agree with the color issue, as I actually am color blind and can understand the comment.
The only thing I see with the site that I would change is the Story/Author listings. I would put a new option in the options page that allows you to change how many of said items get displayed per page.
Thanks for keeping such a great page up and running.
I do not like how you have structured the statistics for the story. I like them in a straight line like in the old layout. The rest of the beta is an improvement. Especially the search space at the top of the page.
ben@drkrentzman.com