monk222 | Inksome

In a bit of whimsy, I checked to see if GreatestJournal is still around. The site is still up, but now it's degenerated to the point where you cannot even post anymore. I'm still upset that the bastards lost all my pictures that I uploaded there. I had some special irreplaceable ones stored there.

Anyway, I noticed that another new LJ-type site is up and running: Inksome. If you look at the discussion at that news post, you'll see that it is just now attracting another wave of LJ refugees. The new userinfo page seems to be driving this little exodus.

It is too early to say what will become of Inksome, but, nevertheless, it is not a true competitor with LiveJournal. It seems to be another one-man operation. In fact, it looks like another InsaneJournal, and that site has been having all kinds of trouble, and I gather by the discussion that it's even offline now. The mothership remains the only real playground, unless you want to escape this Evil Empire altogether and go to Blogger or Blogspot, whatever.

As far as the userinfo page controversy goes, I've already grown used to it, now that I know it like my bruised dick. But I still think the new design is ugly. I cannot even see how that's a debate. It would help appreciably if they just gave the page a light-colored background, because all that white space kills. I'd still opt for the old userinfo page in a heartbeat.

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But I still think the new design is ugly. I cannot even see how that's a debate.

Disclaimer: I don't specialize UI (User Interface) design. What I present here is just general knowledge that I know. Corrections/comments from more knowledgable folks are welcome.

Here are my reasons for thinking the new userinfo page is superior to the old one:

Typical actions that one does after looking at a person's userinfo (add as friend, View Journal etc) are iconified at the top of the profile page. This may not matter to us seasoned users, who already know our way around LJ menus, but it makes features of LJ more discoverable to those who are just starting out here.

Placement of said icons, follows Fitt's Law, something which I've covered in one of my posts.

While editing the Userinfo, often we're interested in editing only a part of it, like say one's Bio or Interests etc. Seperate edit links have been provided for this purpose, so that one doesn't have to waste time scrolling down to the appropriate section in the edit userinfo page.

Rather than make a call as to what counts as "clutter", this decision has been left to each individual user by using foldable sections. Maybe you're only interested in the bio section & don't care to read a long list of friends or communities a fellow is a member of. Simply fold up the sections you think are clutter. Your preferences are saved. Every profile page that you look at henceforth, will be displayed according to your rules.

Besides the above, there are other reasons such as the old userinfo page not scaling well to large displays etc., which were mentioned in

lj_design, that I won't get into as I don't know much about the rendering aspect.

As for why the change has garnered so much criticism, the answer's simple - people are used to the old design. I'm very glad LJ has refused to listen to the criticism. The new profile page really is technically superior to the old one & unpopularity of something is paradoxically not a good reason to change a design :)

Just because a design is popular doesn't mean that it's optimal. A simple example, as you may already know, is the QWERTY keyboard layout. Some people may be still arguing if whether it adversely affects productivity, but the fact remains that it was designed to slow your typing speed. Yet most folks use it, simply because they've little choice as everyone else is using it or because they're used to it.

I've been willing to grant that it is technically superior, if only because I'm sure there must have been some good reason for the drek. But most of us aren't geeky, and we want something aesthetically satisfying from a more artful perspective, and this design is the FAIL.

I really appreciate the QWERTY discussion. I had not seen the issue as fully presented, and it is a little fascinating, even for we less geeky types. :p

Inksome

New profile page

Re: New profile page