Alert reader Bob Z. sent me a link to this article this morning. The article focuses on the uproar over Facebook’s recent redesign; it points out that most people hated Facebook’s other two redesigns as well…at first. Two weeks after each redesign, people had adjusted from the change and used the site more than ever.
Based on the poll I posted after this blog’s redesign last Friday, 77% of respondents said they didn’t like the blog’s redesign. The same Bob Z. that sent me the article today posted a valid comment, and I heard direct feedback from several friends.
The main reasons I’ve stuck with it follow the break. For now, 5 days into the new design, I want to post a poll to see if people are coming around to the new format.
(1) The 3-column format helps you notice when I post more than once a day. Like this post. I just posted 9 hours ago, and in a single-column format, the previous entry would get pushed down the page, and you may not have noticed. Plus, if you want to scroll through the blog in single-column format, all you have to do is click on “Archive” near the top of the page and scroll to your heart’s delight.
(2) All the stuff that you don’t need to look at on a daily basis is pushed to the bottom of the main page (but not so far that you have to scroll and scroll to get to it). Perhaps you’ll disagree with this, but go back to the main page and look at what’s at the bottom. How often do you click on the calendar? How often do you scan the top posts list? How often do you check the recent comments (you can get e-mail updates for any conversation you’ve entered).
So that’s it. The blog design was to make this website easier and more effective for you to use. Will you adjust to it, as the article suggests? I don’t know. We’ll see. If not, it’s very easy to change again…it’s just tough to change back to this format after I’ve reformatted to another theme.
As a frequent blog visitor, I’ll put my 2 cents in. The aspects of your blog that interest me the most are the articles you write and the comments people leave. I prefer a single column format–I always scroll down to make sure I’m not missing an older entry. For me, the fewer clicks, the better. I vastly prefer scrolling down to having to click a link to read an entire story (or to see the blog in single column format). Also, I did frequently look at the recent comments section to see who else is commenting. I don’t like to have comments sent to my e-mail.
As you can probably tell, I’ve been close to boycotting the site recently, and I’ve been holding my breath and throwing tantrums at work since the changeover. Quite frankly, the crying and foot stomping is getting embarrassing. And I can only wear my “Just Say No to Jamey’s New Blog Design” t-shirt so many times before I smell like Detroit and 10-day old cabbage. Please change back.
What do the rest of you Jamophiles (trying that out as a term for a frequent jameystegmaier.com blogger) think? Let Jamey know what aspects of his site are important to you or else he will be forced to cater exclusively to me.
First, I definitely need that shirt. Second, thanks for the feedback. I agree about the clicking. I have a design in mind to make the switch if it comes to that.