I'm surprised that a rather obvious example isn't mentioned: Facebook, which makes very frequent design changes. Some big and some small. Every time they do it, the users grumble in their status updates for a couple of days and then carry on. Probably the biggest design change came in 2011 with the "timeline" - a lot of people complained very loudly then for a bit more than a couple of days, but now it's taken for granted. Does anybody remember how did Facebook look before that time?

Googling for <facebook redesign timeline upset> shows a lot of relevant stories over the years.

Of course, comparing ourselves to Facebook is not even apples and oranges :)

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

2014-08-26 4:54 GMT+03:00 Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org>:

Hi folks,

As WMF looks to clarify its role for UX changes, I think it's important to look at other examples, and initial reactions to major design changes. It's also important to understand which efforts have succeeded and failed.

Here are examples that I can think of:

1) NYT redesign (1000+ comments, mostly negative). 

2) Flickr redesign (if you think disputes in Wikimedia can be unpleasant ..). Even their recent changes to the photo view got similar reactions.

3) Slashdot redesign (which led to - ongoing - protests and boycott suggestions)

4) Gawker redesign (which by all accounts was a failure - PVs declined) - anyone got a comment thread for this one?

5) Wikia 2010 redesign, which led to many wikis forking (including the World of Warcraft Wiki) and the formation of an Anti-Wikia Alliance

Others you can think of? Other than Gawker, what's the evidence for success/failure of the above changes? What are examples of really successful major UX changes that were welcomed by communities, if any?

Thanks,

Erik

--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation

_______________________________________________
Design mailing list
Design@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design

_______________________________________________
Design mailing list
Design@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design