Site redesign feedback: LJ is asking our opinion...

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

Looks like LJ is starting to listen to us and I have to wonder if it has to do with new management. They our asking our opinion and how does the old saying go "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." In other words, go to the post link below and tell them how they can make LJ your favorite place on the internet and be polite. Seriously, people love to hear you sympathize with them and you think they are doing a good job even if there is something you don't like.

Some of the suggestions I made to LJ are on this list, though I bet I'm not the only one who made them. I work in customer service and I work with website feedback all the time. Do you realize the negative put downs are opened, barely read and then deleted? The moment you rant at them, the moment you start putting them down; they won't listen.

So my suggestions is to be polite, helpful, give examples of issues, tell them why you think something is just going to improve LJ. They want to know these things, not that you hate them for changing stuff. Help them improve. Let's teach them what we really want.

Originally posted by theljstaff at Site redesign feedback

We wanted to post here to let you know that we've been reading your feedback, to show you what the most common feedback we have received is, and to give you an opportunity to let us know what else we may have missed. So far, what we know is:

1) You don't like how everything just suddenly changed with no warning or initial announcement.

2) The colors are too light. Especially with regards to comment pages (both header colors and the grey text color), text entered into the Update page, the entry page text, and links/lj tags which you have visited look too similar to those you haven't.

3) You want more customization options for the friends feed. You want to be able to change more than just the background color/image, and also want to change the text colors, link colors, other foreground colors, etc.

4) Margins need to be fixed on entry pages. There is a small margin on the left side of the page, then a very large one on the right side. This problem is further compounded when you see that the comments on the same page don't follow the same margins.

5) You don't find the homepage very useful. The Ratings/Top LJ feature isn't very good at identifying interesting content, and it commonly shows entries that are in Russian.

6) The Social capital & Ratings sections on profiles aren't relevant and take up too much space. The statistics column itself is taking up too much space on the page.

7) The sidebar on the Friends feed should be removed if all widgets have been hidden, allowing feed content to take up this space.

8) The widget for LiveJournal Today on the Friends Feed should respect the setting for "show multiple entries from same community" from the homepage/main Ratings, and the default behavior should be to show only 1 entry per user/community.

9) The rounded corners of userpics aren't well liked.

10) The lj-cut should still have customizable text.

11) Links to Scrapbook and the Upload userpics page are needed in the site menu. The current display of data on the menu page is also confusing. Here is an alternate list of how the menu could potentially appear that we would like your feedback on (Is this better? What should change? What's missing?)

My Journal:

Friends Feed
Post new entry
My entries (your recent entries page)
Profile
Scrapbook
Statistics
Memories
Logout

Discovery:

Ratings/TopLJ
Community Directory
Friends of Friends

Help:

FAQ
Support
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
DMCA
About

Tools & Settings:

Settings
Edit profile
Journal Style
Edit Friends
Manage custom friends groups
Manage tags
Scheduled entries
Manage communities
Banned users

We know that things changing abruptly can be frustrating, and that we don't have the greatest track record when it comes to making changes based on your feedback. We're working on changing that, and want you to know that we are taking all of your feedback on the redesign very seriously, and will be making changes based on it.

Pass it on:

Comments

[katiesangels.livejournal.com]

Things seems to be changing indeed. Small steps is better than no steps.

I do really have to agree with you on being polite. I read the comments and some of them were... not nice to put it politely. That's not going to get anyone anywhere.

They have already made some small changes since the initial redesign, haven't they?

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

I haven't noticed anymore changes but then if they are on the friends feed or other places I don't have enabled, I wouldn't.

If you notice something feel free to let me know.

Yes, politeness is something everyone needs to learn. It can get you rather far in life. ;-)

[katiesangels.livejournal.com]

Nothing big but I thought that the menu entries under 'My Journal' changed. Wasn't that list quite short at first? Maybe I'm imagining this now... Like I don't remember Messages being in there at first.

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that might be true. I do remember it having less. But you know people keep telling them there should be more. I think it is unnecessary for them to have a post link when there is one right next to the menu.

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

I'm just glad they are reconsidering the change. Perhaps with better looking lay out and design.