It seems to me that the one unifying opinion of those critical of the changes is that *no changes are necessary*. So, clearly this is NOT something that is meant to benefit the users - it's more likely part of some monetization plan.
Just admit it and move on - stop blowing smoke up our asses like our opinion actually matters. Maybe it did once, but that hasn't been the case for quite a while now.
Can someone from the/. team explain what exactly is wrong with the Classic site and why it can't be fixed? I just don't see why you had to start over with a completely new design when the old one works so well. A few tweaks is all that is needed.
I just don't see why you had to start over with a completely new design when the old one works so well. A few tweaks is all that is needed.
Well, those few needed tweaks never stop piling up. On top of that, UX research and (more importantly) user expectations continue to evolve.
To keep up with that, websites either need to constantly change in small increments, or to do it in big chunks. We'd been doing the former for a while, but the decision was made to start fresh. I totally understand how jarring it is
Well, those few needed tweaks never stop piling up.
I'm with you there... the original issues were a pain to fix, so it was easier to start with a clean implementation where you could get all those tweaks right at the start. Continual modification will only take you so far.
On top of that, UX research and (more importantly) user expectations continue to evolve.
I've been involved with UX research for years; what's happened is that people have forgotten the original research and are slowly re-inventing it. Some people just realized that the "desktop" paradigm is useless today, when most people's desktop consists of a computer. This new design research doesn't really touch Slashdot much, except for maybe the whitespace/content rules, which the new UI breaks. User expectations with how the data can be consumed continue to evolve... this means that from the design process, the content should be separated from the design such that it can easily be served up in whatever way is required by a simple API. Possibly this is happening with beta, but that messaging hasn't got out to the users; we've had no way of even playing with that functionality.
To keep up with that, websites either need to constantly change in small increments, or to do it in big chunks. We'd been doing the former for a while, but the decision was made to start fresh. I totally understand how jarring it is to see such a huge amount of change all at once, but we also have to look at what the website will look like a few years down the road.
The classic design in 2014? Not too bad. The classic design in 2018? Probably not going to cut it.
People aren't complaining about the design; they're complaining about the functionality. They'd love a new "from scratch" design that puts comments and moderation as top priority, using modern UI elements and message passing. Unfortunately, that's not what has been delivered so far.
Just be honest - it's not for *US* (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to me that the one unifying opinion of those critical of the changes is that *no changes are necessary*. So, clearly this is NOT something that is meant to benefit the users - it's more likely part of some monetization plan.
Just admit it and move on - stop blowing smoke up our asses like our opinion actually matters. Maybe it did once, but that hasn't been the case for quite a while now.
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Can someone from the /. team explain what exactly is wrong with the Classic site and why it can't be fixed? I just don't see why you had to start over with a completely new design when the old one works so well. A few tweaks is all that is needed.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Well, those few needed tweaks never stop piling up. On top of that, UX research and (more importantly) user expectations continue to evolve.
To keep up with that, websites either need to constantly change in small increments, or to do it in big chunks. We'd been doing the former for a while, but the decision was made to start fresh. I totally understand how jarring it is
Re:Just be honest - it's not for *US* (Score:2)
Well, those few needed tweaks never stop piling up.
I'm with you there... the original issues were a pain to fix, so it was easier to start with a clean implementation where you could get all those tweaks right at the start. Continual modification will only take you so far.
On top of that, UX research and (more importantly) user expectations continue to evolve.
I've been involved with UX research for years; what's happened is that people have forgotten the original research and are slowly re-inventing it. Some people just realized that the "desktop" paradigm is useless today, when most people's desktop consists of a computer. This new design research doesn't really touch Slashdot much, except for maybe the whitespace/content rules, which the new UI breaks.
User expectations with how the data can be consumed continue to evolve... this means that from the design process, the content should be separated from the design such that it can easily be served up in whatever way is required by a simple API. Possibly this is happening with beta, but that messaging hasn't got out to the users; we've had no way of even playing with that functionality.
To keep up with that, websites either need to constantly change in small increments, or to do it in big chunks. We'd been doing the former for a while, but the decision was made to start fresh. I totally understand how jarring it is to see such a huge amount of change all at once, but we also have to look at what the website will look like a few years down the road.
The classic design in 2014? Not too bad. The classic design in 2018? Probably not going to cut it.
People aren't complaining about the design; they're complaining about the functionality. They'd love a new "from scratch" design that puts comments and moderation as top priority, using modern UI elements and message passing. Unfortunately, that's not what has been delivered so far.