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(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:
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
<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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