That awful new LJ design

[cos]

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.

Comments

Well...

[jennylisa.livejournal.com]

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

Re: Well...

[cos]

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.

Re: Well...

[jennylisa.livejournal.com]

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!
;-)