Rate the New Listology Design

One other note. If I were to use your example with an "article", in other words - with long sentences that would continually spread from one side of my monitor to the other, it might prove hard to read. The more narrow the paragraph the easier it is to find the next line when you return to the left. Just a thought.

Concerning the sidebar... I think you could turn all three boxes into shortcut links. A small explanation along with the title would help a lot of first timers.

I feel bad you're getting negative feedback on your work. Perhaps you should've asked for feedback before asking for a vote. Sometimes "change" is a hard thing to ask for.

Regarding the missing sidebar, I'd like to hear more on how often folks use it. I fall into the trap of thinking I'm a typical Listology user, so if I work in a certain way, most other folks do to. This is wrong, of course, but here's how I generally use Listology:

I go right to "recent activity" and read everything that's updated. Then I click through to the stuff I'd like to comment on or read more of. I look at the "recent updates" box in the sidebar because it's there, but it's really redundant with the reading I already do. I search Listology occassionally, but not so frequently that I need a search box on every single page. Having the search functionality one click away would work for me pretty well. As for the other links in the "highlights" box, I tend to use those rarely, and certainly don't need them on every page.

That should give you some idea of how I came to this crackpot design. Of course, not everybody works this way, and I respect that (and want to emphasize that I won't proceed with this unless I can make more people happy about it). Anyway, the ramifications of my own usage pattern led to these ideas for the redesign:

1. Put "search" and "recent activity" in the header so they are always one click away.

2. Move the less-used stuff from "Highlights" to the new Listology front page, which currently only exists in my head.

3. Leave the "recent updates" box on the theoretical home page, but scrap it everywhere else.

But what I really need to know is how much other folks are using the sidebar stuff. Are you using it enough that you really want it on every page, or will it serve your needs to continue to have all those features available on the home page, but no longer on the "content" pages?

Would it be helpful if I also mocked up the home page so you could see what functionality would be available there (including the beloved sidebar!) in addition to the "content" page sample I've mocked up so far?

Thanks for feeding back, everybody! I need a lot more than nine votes though. C'mon folks! :-)

I like the new look, but I do use and would miss the sidebar. If you could redesign the sidebar as well to maintain that functionality but still include the bandwidth savings and new aesthetics I would probably give you a five, without the sidebar I would have to go two or three. Also sometimes when I have a few moments to kill (or I am just very bored) I have been known to make use of the random button so if you could throw that back in somewhere, that would be great.

Well, first of all, I love the new logo, and the hover effects are cool. Actually, I like everything about how it looks. The more I look at it, the more I like it, but it seems like the site is easier to navigate as it is now.
I like having the sidebar. I really do use it all the time, and I like having the search option right there, without having to click on a link to go to a search page.
I don't really think the page was too cluttered before, but I understand what you're trying to do with this. It does look nice (I'm impressed actually - I would like the layout more than what we have now if it seemed like it was going to be as functional). I'm not sure there's anyway to combine the functionality of the current site and the kind of look you have in the proposed layout.
Honestly, though, the more I look at it, the more I like it. If I was going to vote now (it's been maybe 5 or 10 minutes since I did), I would probably give it a 3 instead of a 2. If you do make the change, I won't be too unhappy.

Good gravy, two "I hate it" votes already! And amidst a generally lukewarm response at that. It's going to take a landslide of positive feedback for me to proceed, otherwise I'll just leave well enough alone. Rats, I thought I was onto something.

I'd be curious to hear specifics about what folks don't like, or if it's just a gut reaction. Is your dislike based on aesthetics ("it looks ugly!") or utility ("I can't believe the sidebar is gone! I use it all the time!")? Be blunt. I'd also like to hear what browsers folks are using so I can know if you're objecting to the design in one of the browsers I know it looks as intended on, or if you're using a browser that displays the site a bit quirkily.

Oh, aside from a sudden landslide of support, I guess the other thing that might make me proceed in the face of such sentiment would be bandwidth costs. If my ISP ever tells me I'm over the limit and starts charging me extra I'd switch (that doesn't appear to be an immediate concern). That mocked up version of "favorite action scenes" is half the size of the original. Between that savings, and the savings from a third Listology's users abandoning ship (based on the current six votes), that'd nip the theoretical bandwidth problem quite thoroughly, I'd think. :-)

You might want to either drop the top line (title) of the list to get below the logo or make the top line a little bolder. There seems to be a conflict between the two that makes the first word in the title a little hard to read. Otherwise, it looks fine.

Just to catch you forum-watchers, come vote in the poll this comment is attached to. The future (appearance) of Listology hangs in the balance. Come one, come all...