Release Notes! Aw Yeah!

Apr 10, 2007 at 5:11 PM
32 comments

As Vox has grown and added new features, the team faced the challenge of keeping it easy to use while making it more powerful. After much testing and gathering of your feedback, we just rolled out the new and improved site navigation today.

Site Navigation

Many of you opted in to become beta testers (any Voxer can participate, just follow the directions here) and have been testing the new site navigation since late February. Based on your feedback, we tweaked the site navigation in the following ways:

Color Picker

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Increased font size for the top links (Messages, Compose, Invite links)
Made the Compose link more prominent by moving it above Home
Added links to Edit Profile and Neighbors List
Added more spacing between the menu items
Changed the drop down menus to only expand when you mouse over the arrow
We spruced up the design by removing the white lines and styling it some more (In response to the constructive feedback of “It’s kind of ugly”)
We've added more colors to choose via our color picker! We also included an "old school" variation for those who want just a white bar.

The team spent a lot of time on this redesign to achieve better organization and, as one user put it, to “place everything within easy grasp.” Now, as we build out more features and evolve the product, this new navigation gives us more room to grow.

We hope you like it, even though it might take a little getting used to. The best way to share your feedback on new features is to participate in our beta testing. If you have questions or feedback about the new site navigation, tell us by clicking on the Feedback link.

New Themes

1 comment

More New Themes!

We have four new themes in this release.

This American Life by Showtime, Houston Cityscape by Tiffany, Cartographer by Dana Saylor & Eggs and Bacon by Julie Kurylo.

Additionally, based on the results of our informal poll, we've started working on more minimalist/simple themes for Vox. And all you expectant parents will be glad to know that an upcoming Vox release will feature some themes just for you!

And yes, that means our partnership with Showtime now includes the new series This American Life! Read all about it here.

-- Mena

32 comments

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Comments

I was one of those beta testers but I didn't send any feedbacks. Instead, I went back to the now old site navigation. Would it be possible to have an option to stay with the old style?
*purdy please? with a cherry on top?*

Thanks for all the new stuff! Can we choose to turn the navigation off? The drop down on the My Vox closes while you're trying to click on things in IE6 on a PC and it pushes everything on the page down. I'm glad I got to test it beforehand, too. :-)

Ooh, expectant parent themes. I fit the bill. I smell a winner.

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While I like the idea that the drop downs only happen when you click the arrow, when I do that, and then try to scroll down and choose something, the drop down closes before I can get past the first two options...not sure why that is happening??

Hm, we fixed this for IE7. Will check it out, thanks!

I think I am still using IE6. I actually use Mozilla for most of my web-surfing, however, I found it didn't work very well with Vox, so have gone back to IE just for Vox...are the changes you made compatible with IE6 (I don't plan to upgrade to 7 any time soon since I don't use IE except for vox)?

Kudos on the new navigation bar! Love it! Now, I also want to add that I am loving the <embed> feature currently in BETA. The only down side is holding back from adding too much "noise" to my blog with too much embedding. LOL!!! GREAT JOB!

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Excellent, I've been waiting on a nice Houston theme, but is there anyway I can get the banner by itself (I don't dig the fonts on the design).

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I been off the site for 2 hours, and when I came back he was totally different! You done amazing job!

I guess I don't get how the Compose link is "more prominent" now. It's in tinier font and for me, hard to see. I'm also having troubles with the drop downs. Wah!

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I love the changes! Now I can have my navigation strip in purple (yay!), and the drop-downs work just fine for me.

The only things I could possibly ask for now are more mix-and-match (fonts, styles, colors) in design, and a way to re-order my "organize" items (I mainly put in books instead of pics or other stuff, so it would be wonderful if I could have that on top, or at least have a one-click link to get to books).

I was one of the people begging for new fonts and such, but where did 'Voxwatch' go? :(

never mind I didn't realize the arrows dropped down because my comp. is no good.

Can we have new FONT options? and how is the guest posting coming along?

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Love it, love it, love it! Great updates from the beta version. I like the change to the rounded corners highlighting the key menu items ("Home", "My vox" etc.). I also appreciate that the colour picker now works in Camino on my Mac. Slick!

Oh, and I'm with CosmicBabe -- I would love more design options, particularly fonts with my personalized banners. And being able to choose the order of the items on my blog (photos, books, neighbourhood etc.) would be fabulous!

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Great updates. I'm loving how the upper bar has been decluttered. I think, however, that there should be an option to use the old format, for those who aren't satisfied with the current one. And I just noticed that, in my profile, it says
"I was a Vox Beta Tester".
I feel special. (^-^)

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wow I'm impressed with how closely you guys listen to feedback! You really go out of your way to do all of the little things to make the users happy. that's cool. And the new strip is cool. I dig it.

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love the new navigation bar on the top and most of all the "Search" tab right on the page! its make navigation a breeze....great thinking and wonderful job!

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Yeah! Thanks for getting the Houston theme done! I'm glad I was able to help out with suggestions (and that I didn't drive y'all too crazy)!

Hey I like the new design, but I dont know if its just me but when you move the mouse to the dropdown menu next to 'My Vox' and 'My Neighborhood', as you scroll down the list, the list disappears if the mouse passes over a section where there is a link behind it, such as the Profile or Neighborhood link, or the blog name. So that makes it pretty much impossible to click on anything unless youre really accurate and click super fast before it disappears. A bug I guess? Im sure it will be no problem to fix. Thanks for all the hard work you guys! ^_^

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I will throw my vote in the hat for the new navigation bar. my suggestion would be that the drop downs should appear if you mouse over anywhere on the name not just the little down arrow, but either way this is a nice improvement.

Not a fan of the drop down menus.

When is Baltimore going to get a cityscape theme???

I can't tell you enough how much I loathe that new navigation bar. The old was one so refined and looked great with the design of my Vox, but still got me everywhere I needed to go. I don't like the drop down menus, I don't like the larger font, I don't like the two layers because it makes it too tall. I moved to Vox because you guys provide great design and increasingly great features, a community, and you let ME be ME in my Vox design.

The new nav is unrefined and obtrusive. I know you can't please everyone, but I think you can do better.

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I love the new refinements on the beta navigation strip. The circular edges of the mouse-over links on the bottom line of the navigation strip are so much more stylish. The activation of drop-down menus via the arrows rather than the linked words helps prevent accidental clicking of sub-menu links, which is a great improvement in my opinion.

Furthermore, thank you for adding a link to the Neighbors List within the sub-menu. And thank you, Team Vox, for all of your hard work and devotion to your users.

I don't like the split bar of color at the top of the page, it's kinda ugly, that Organize has been hidden, and...

I really don't like I don't like that Voxwatch was replaced by a Groups button. It is presumptuous to think that everyone on Vox belongs to a group. I want/need/miss an easy way to find my own neighbors, Voxwatch, which is now hidden in a drop down menu, that is touchy at best. I mean it, the drop down menus are really draggy, the pages now take forever to load, and those intrusive, flashing advertisements are annoying.

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Gads yes. I kept clicking because of the delay on the mouseover (because my mouse wasn't exactly on the arrow) and ending up where I did NOT want to be.

We’ve pushed a small patch release that should address any problems in IE6 with the new navigation.

thegrumblebunny replied to ydnar’s comment:
Apr 11, 2007
Reply

Happens in Firefox too.

The dropdown menus are a bit flaky. There seems to be too much delay on the drop. I have tested in Opera, Firefox, IE, and Maxthon, all with similar results.