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:
- NYT redesign
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/times-designers-are-monitoring-reaction-to-the-redesign-with-adjustments-possible/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body (1000+ comments, mostly negative). 2) Flickr redesign https://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157633547442506/ (if you think disputes in Wikimedia can be unpleasant ..). Even their recent changes https://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157642911765443/ to the photo view got similar reactions. 3) Slashdot redesign http://meta.slashdot.org/story/13/10/01/1849218/come-try-out-slashdots-new-design-in-beta (which led to - ongoing - protests and boycott suggestions) 4) Gawker redesign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawker_Media#2011_redesign_and_traffic_loss (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 http://awa.shoutwiki.com/wiki/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
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