cos | That awful new LJ design

That awful new LJ design

So, perhaps you've noticed that LiveJournal changed to a new default skin recently. If you've been following

news, you'd have heard about this new skin when it went into beta testing months ago. I tried it out then, discovered how horrible and unusable it was, posted a comment detailing what I thought were its flaws, and forgot about it. I was hoping it'd never make it to "release", but unfortunately it did, mostly unchanged. I think the site designers are too blinded by the fact that it looks a bit slick, and by the fancy scripting they're using for the menus, to realize how truly awful it is. Fortunately, you can change back to the old look - it's a per-account preference.

So, first, comment on this post to let them know what you think of the new design. Maybe an overwhelming outpouring from the userbase may get them to retire it or at least change the default back. Second, go to browse preferences, where you can click on the screenshot of the old skin to select it. Once you do that, every time you're logged in from the same account, you'll get the old skin.

Now, I'm not saying the old skin is wondrous and perfect. It's a little frustrating to learn at first, because some of the more useful features of it are hidden in places you might not think to look until someone tells you. And the colors are kinda hokey. But once you know it, it's usable. Everything you might need is usually one click away, or two if you're on a friends or journal page. It's compatible with most browsers, and doesn't depend on scripts. And it's compact enough that, somehow, more stuff fits on your screen than with the new "cleaner" skin. There are things I think they could improve or fix, but the new skin highlights all that's good about the old one - by throwing it away.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You know, I don't know that I could disagree more...Ok, it'd be nice if there was a way to handle hiding the menu content without using javascript, but other than that, there's nothing I don't prefer in the new one...
There's no browser I've tried - lessee, Mozilla 1.4 (Linux), Opera 7.11 (Linux), Links (linux, solaris), lynx (linux, solaris, *bsd), Safari (OSX), IE (OSX) - where the new skin doesn't look better.

IMHO, and all that. :)
(See you at the silber-leftons? Bring the CDs?)

Yes, it certainly looks better. That's the one thing going for it. But that in no way makes up for the fact that you get less text on each screen (more spacing means lots more scrolling), loads of things that used to be one click away from just about any screen are now lost behind multiple clicks, and trying to work through the scripty menus takes orders of magnitude more time. Sure, taking 10 instead of 1 second to do something is only 9 seconds lost, but if it's something I do repeatedly, it's very frustrating. Not to mention that the scripts give compatibility troubles, especially with nongraphical browsers, and make some browsers crash more ... and all that just to detract from usability, with no gain. They could certainly have made the old LJ skin look better, but there was no reason to trash everything else just to make it look better.

I really hate the new skin as a default because it's both broken in some browsers without JavaScript and is very unfriendly to many people with disabilities.

However, the administration knows that many people adore it and many people hate it. And I don't think more comments will accomplish anything.

i totally agree with you, and disagree with

cos. i've been using the new one for months, it is easier to use, and easier to get to the sitemap for stuff that LJ has never had easy access to anyways. also, i belive that this layout is easier for those people who are not so computer cumfy as myself and most of my friends, and those of us who are computer cumfy can figure out how to change the layout (if we so choose)

my guess, is that they won't change it back.

as my friend

dogoncouch said, the only real sad thing about the new scheme is the complete lack of purple, 'cause purple is the best. (is not biased by her hair color, really i'm not)

Yeah, I agree. Although I just went back and looked at the new skin long enough to *find* the JavaScript menus, which do have a lot of options in a small space. But I only have JavaScript on about half of the time, and I used to journal using Lynx as my browser. (Not anymore, since I don't have ssh access at work, and I won't journal directly from work.)

Hm -- I journal using lynx about half the time, and I *love* the new skin. I don't have to page through a trillion menu items to get to the login screen. Instead, all of the old "Update/Recent/Friends" menu items are at the *bottom* of the page, and take up much less real estate for the same amount of content. I think it's a big plus for lynx users.

(I also like the photo always in the top bar, since it means I don't accidentally post replies as

dilletante nor he as me, but that's a different story.)

What she said.

I hate to say it, but I think that most LJ users on the whole are run of the mill, low lever geeks like myself. We only need a few things, like to be able to find the link for their friends page, and be able to post comments. I love the new design, it's pretty, I was able to easily change my settings so my page is oh so pretty, and I can find my friends page. :-D

So, as a lame extremely low level geek, may I ask what it is specificly that was good about the old one, that is no longer in the new one, and what it is that sucks so badly in the new one? (And remember, all I understand about "code" type things is that I steal other people's pages, and then delete things until I have only what I need, and it still works!)

-jen

I don't think it has much to do with one's level of geekiness, although I suppose less geeky people may be more immediately biased by the prettier look of the new skin. But it's a usability issue that affects people based on how much they use LJ, not how much they know about how it's coded. The biggest problem is the menus. On the old skin, all of the options are there on every page at a glance, in plain text, and once you get used to the ones you use frequently, each of them is one quick click away. On the new skin, you can't see most of the options so you're less likely to notice where things are that you don't use frequently, and searching for them takes longer. The names are all briefer and more cryptic, and I've found myself searching literally minutes for things, going first to one option and then another. Eventually I'd learn the ones I use most, but it'd be back to the same frustration for the ones I use infrequently and forget. And most of all, even the ones I use most, are still not right there to click on. I have to carefully position the mouse to drop one menu down and across another to get to the right link. It takes more care, more attention, and more time.

There are other problems but that's by far the biggest. It drove me batty when I first tried the beta, fairly quickly.

Aah. Okay. I guess I made it through the journal customization a lot quicker with the new method, and only spend about 5 minnutes dealing with it. And that was all I needed! And so I thought it was all neat and spiffy. I guess as I move on and try to do different things, I will become as frustrated with the rest of the world. But for now, if it is allright, I am going to continue to enjoy it.

*Looks around the corner apprehensively for something to be big and blow up...*

I'll keep you posted when something fouls my plan!
;-)

amen!
but as others have said, i doubt they'll change it back.
as long as they don't break the old one, i'll be happy.
and if enough people use the old one as their default, that sends a mesage too -- i can't imagine they're NOT keeping track of that...

I found it intuitive, easy to use, and clear. Having all the options, all the time, always on thes creen was confusing and painful to work with. Even after a eyar of working with LJ, I still had to think hard about which option to click on just to look at a friends page. Yuk.

New != automatically bad.
Javascript != automatically bad.

No, it isn't the old LJ. I'm glad it isn't, because that -really- sucked. I haven't found anything i dislike about this interface.

I'm undecided about the new skin... I think the aesthetics may be in the right direction, but the menus definately are annoying. I'm a little suspicious about the new design though. Safari kept crashing when someone else was posting from my computer with the option that allows posting from an account without officially logging in. But I never tried that in the old skin....

Uch, I agree with Cos. The new interface is clumsy and poorly compartmentalized.

I don't mind the Xcolibur skin, what I don't like is the... S2 system, or whatever it is, that some people have their journals in, that I have to look at when I click LJ cuts or go to read comments on their entries. It's weird looking and unweildy for me and odd, and I wish there was a way for them to have it for their journals without me having it when I read their journals from my friends page.

I found the old design confusing and annoying, because not everything seemed to be reachable from the main screen. There were several things (which I can't remember offhand) that I could only get to via links in the help screens.

The main thing that I don't like about the new system is that it breaks horribly on my favorite browser. Sorry, but if it doesn't work in iCab, I'm not going to use it. (Yes, I have Safari and Chimera/Camino installed as well, but iCab is what I normally use.) Luckilly I saw this entry and didn't have to spend too much time in agony. (Although, annoyingly, I had to fire up Camino in order to get the view change to work.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That awful new LJ design

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Well...

Re: Well...

Re: Well...

no subject

I like it.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject