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MNHQ

Testing Testing - Ok so now here's our new look (but you don't have to have it, do you hear?)

35 replies

JustinExcelsisMumsnet · 19/12/2008 21:43

This is a sneak preview of our redesign - it's planned across the whole site but we thought we'd give you a preview of Talk so you could give us your thoughts. ETA is early in the new year (God willing).

Two things we should make clear:

First Customise talk and Mn Classic WILL STILL BE AVAILABLE so don't panic if you really hate it!

Second it's not finished yet so not everything works perfectly - it's a test site.

You might wonder why we are bothering with a redesign by the way. We have had quite a lot of feedback that newcomers find the site a little hard to find their way round at first so we are trying to simplify it. We haven't changed much overall in nine years but we've added quite a few bits and bobs on, and to newbies it can be quite daunting we think.

And one more thing - we've found in the past (and we know ourselves) that change can be disorienting but do give it a go for a wee while before you trash it completely, please? .

There's no link to it yet - YetMoreTech will post it in a minute - he wants to add more caveats before he posts it up!

Hope you like it (or at least don't loathe it) - let us know your thoughts.

(Please address all complaints to [email protected])

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MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 21:51

As your dear leader says, keep in mind this is still a bit of a work in progress. There are lots of links that either don't work or don't go anywhere, but no need to tell us about them - we know they're there. However, we are interested to hear if you find it pleasing on the eye (or not), easier to navigate (or not) and so on.

The following link will take you to the test site. It is a snapshot of the live site from a while back, so you'll find lots of old posts there. ANYTHING POSTED ON THERE WILL NOT BE COPIED BACK TO THE REAL SITE. That does mean you can post any old nonsense as you wish however, which I think some people might enjoy...

Lastly, keep in mind it's experimental, might disappear at any moment and is not on as powerful hardware as the live site, so it might be slower.

Right, knock yourselves out...

cms.mumsnet.com/Talk

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 21:59

A couple more points:

If you have registered on MN in the last couple of months then your account won't exist on the test system. Also, if you've changed your password in the last couple of months that change won't have been reflected on the new site either.

And yes, we know the number of posts on any given thread is wrong. This is a weird boring technical thing that won't exist when we move the test stuff to the real server yada yada techno nonsense.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:02

LedodgyChristmasjumper, you should definitely use your pre-Christmas name.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:18

snoopdog, first keep in mind that search doesn't work at all on the test site. But, in answer to your question, just click Advanced Search (under the search box). All the original options are still there.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:24

thumbElf, lack of chat link visible on the topic list is an oversight. We'll address it forthwith.

Slur, it has been said in the past that people get frustrated because they're reading through the thread and get to a point where they want to add their tuppence worth. They then have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to the "add post" form. And we get emails from people asking how they add their message, believe it or not. Lastly we want to encourage posting! Hence, repeated "Add a message". Other than that, glad you approve - let us know if you need any help slipping off those old shoes for something more fancy.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:33

OhLITTLEFISHofBethlehem, trouble is, if you put them all one page (as now), you end up with a rather unwieldy list. In our research we found that most regular users of MN don't use the topic list. And new users are overwhelmed by a long long list. It's a valid comment though and we'll be interested to hear what other people think.

BitOfFunUnderTheMistletoe (only a bit?) you can change how many posts are shown on a single page by clicking Customize.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:37

moondog, thing is, it was/is broken. But that's perhaps a more philosophical discussion for another time!

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:39

LL, it has been tested in a pile of different browsers, but admittedly not for some time, so it could be that some things are broken in non Mac browsers. But that's part of the reason for showing it to everyone (200,000 free beta testers). If you care to email screenshots to demonstrate your points that would be fab, but no worries if too much hassle.

Yes abbreviations will be linked to - under a "Useful stuff" link, but that wasn't ready so we took it off for now.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:42

twitteringbirds, it will work that way when it's finished.

ohlittlefish - drop down boxes are a PITA for a lot of people - too much clicking. The idea of the current site is that you can get to any topic with two clicks, and the most popular ones with one (though you might need to hit your space bar to see all the list).

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:47

LL, "Is profile only available by clicking on the poster's name? as I don't think that is immediately obvious - will "Profile" be on there as text as well?"

Actually that was discussed before. You can fight it out with Slur who finds the blue bar too busy even now.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 22:49

moodlumhohohoodlum, rationale behind the links at the bottom is that for you as a regular user, you don't really care about them because they're off the bottom of the page. But for people that first come in to MN by finding a Talk thread, it helps them find the rest of the site.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 23:32

lou031205, it's not a bad idea but it's a question of fitting everything in - some people are already saying things are too long or too fussy. We'll give it some thought though.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 19/12/2008 23:39

Nighbynight, yep, we could, but then people would moan about not having that information we lose. It's a tough call sometimes. We have spent a LOT of time trying to please as many people as we can I promise! Anyway, we'll see what everyone thinks. Keep 'em coming.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 00:37

nooka, the lists of topics that you see always, as opposed to the ones that drop down, are still in a state of flux. The idea is to show the most popular ones.

The links at the top will go somewhere, but as per earlier in this thread, they're not ready yet.

And remember, if you don't like the new threads themselves look you'll be able to have them just the way you have them now.

So, see? You like it more than you thought!

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 00:38

apuppydaviesisforlife, it's a good suggestion. There is a (boring techie) efficiency question, but we'll consider it further.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 00:46

Right, will be up at 5am and possibly between now and then too, so am going to knock off now. Keep the feedback coming. It's been very helpful.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 06:09

"Purely out of interest, has anyone at Mumsnet Towers heard of the expression "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."?"

Of course! However, I think anyone who has seen the effort that has gone in to all this - I can think of 8 people who have been directly involved with this work and that many again who have chipped in - would realise we didn't just do it for fun. We have plenty of evidence that the old design is broken, in so much that it was turning people off. We wanted to make it look better and be more functional in to the bargain.

Every single link, every shade of every colour, every single line drawn has been thought about, discussed, debated and in the case of me and Justine, shouted at each other about. It's really not something we just tossed together in an idle moment and we hope it shows!

The feedback we've received so far would suggest that most people are either indifferent or like it, and those that really don't like it are generally happy to stick with the various classic options. This is great news. We'll take the various comments and see how many of the suggestions we can implement. Keep them coming though - nothing is set in stone quite yet. Clearly there are a few issues in Internet Explorer to be resolved and we'll get on those on Monday.

Thanks to all those that have commented, positively or negatively.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 17:29

The interesting (but difficult for us!) thing about the feedback received so far is that the negative comments seem to vary between "it's too cluttered, there is too much information" to "you're not filling the page enough and there is too much white space".

Some of the space in the column on the right will be filled with useful content.

The messages themselves should expand horizontally to fill whatever width you have available in your browser.

And for those that haven't read this entire thread if you have a lot of space between the title and the body of the thread and you use Internet Explorer then that's a mistake and it will be fixed.

The big ad that lots of people have commented about is no taller than the existing ad that you see on a thread like this one. It is wider, but then the whole page is designed to be wider given that people have higher resolution screens these days.

The thing about the topic list is that for a new user the existing list is pretty overwhelming. So the idea is that they see a friendlier list of the most active topics, but the others are never more than one click away, thus keeping the regulars happy too. We could be wrong and we'll reconsider it if enough people don't like that, but do try to see it from a new users perspective if possible, or at least give a nod to the fact that we'd like to!

Quite how anyone can say it looks like NetMums is confusing to me!!! Messages aren't fixed width, no images, no tickers, no pink, no "my baby's last poo was 4 hours ago and weighed 2.5 lbs".

MNHQ

JustinExcelsisMumsnet · 20/12/2008 18:05

Thanks to everyone who's tested it so far and fed back. Some of your suggestions we are planning to incorporate already before we release the new format and we promise to have a look at all your comments/ suggestions and to see if there are some general themes/ ways to improve the design.

Do keep your thoughts coming .

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 20:31

The idea of blue for links is that it will be utterly consistent through the WHOLE site. As well as Talk we've redesigned all the other content and have a ton of fabulous new content too. Whilst talk is the most important bit of the site for many many people we want to try to get more consistency to make life easier for all. The blue bars (which as I've said a couple of times, are probably displaying as taller than they should for some users) are coming in for quite a lot of stick so we'll be sure to beat have a word with the graphic designer on that one.

For those that don't love the "more" option on topic lists, firstly keep in mind that you can click the category and it will expand - you don't have to click the more link. How about we add link at the top that says "Show All" and that would automatically expand all categories?

MNHQ

JustinExcelsisMumsnet · 20/12/2008 21:02

WE PROMISE WE'LL NEVER HAVE TICKERS! The aim is not to dumb down here but to improve usability.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 21:17

Tickers? Post counts, avatars, poster ratings, invitation only? Who ever heard of such a thing!

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 20/12/2008 21:18

georgimama if by playing you mean posting on the new trial site, you can do so now. Just keep in mind that any posts there will evaporate pretty soon.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 21/12/2008 07:18

MotherChristmas2OliverJames, no no no and no! The "new" site is just a testbed. What'll happen, when it's ready, is that the new features, content and look will be applied to the site you're looking at now. There won't be 2 versions running together. And yes, we are definitely going to make changes but we're asking for feedback so that we can make any adjustments that are required.

Last 15 minutes is by no means out of the question. In fact the last conversation I had was that we were dropping last hour because it makes no sense (the site is too busy and there are too many posts in an hour to make a list of them useful) but keeping Last 15 minutes. I think it may have been removed temporarily because it wasn't working quite right.

The width of the page is a really tricky thing. We'll revisit it though.

The add post box is due some styling, yes.

Typogrelf (and Samja - though do note, the blue bars were the product of a graphic designer!) we do understand what you're saying. But it's also true that some people do like to scan a thread based on the posters. I think we'll try a less saturated and lighter blue (and thus less prominent) for those horizontal bars and see if people like it.

MNHQ

YetMoreTech · 21/12/2008 17:02

BellsCarolsNSleighs, as one step short of a button to allow you to choose your own colours, what background and text colour would you choose if you did have the choice?

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