What's New on Vox: January 2008
In our last release, we launched several new features in beta and asked you to try them out and give us your feedback. We'd like to send out a huge thank you to all the people who responded to our survey. Your comments and suggestions let us know exactly what we needed to tweak before releasing the features to everyone.
Now that we've had a chance to implement the feedback of the beta testers, we're ready to release many of the new features to all Vox users. But first, we wanted to give you a quick guide of what to look for as you're exploring the site.
New Navigation
We spent months redesigning and testing our navigation to make it easier to use. Thanks again to shoe of you who tested the new navigation and shared your thoughts in the survey. We got great feedback that this new navigation is a nice improvement.
A few things to look for:
- We eliminated the drop-down menus.
- There are direct links to your Photos and Library (formerly called "Organize").
- Beta testers will notice we brought back the links to view media when you're looking at someone else's blog.
We've redesigned the logged-in homepage to bring you the stuff you want to read, all in one place.
At the top of your screen, you'll find an area that features new information from your neighborhood. Click through the links to browse posts, comments, media and updates. You can also click on "Find Friends" to see who's already on Vox, as well as send out invites to your friends who you'd like to join. Below those links, you'll find editorial sections highlighting some of the great posts on Vox. The Question of the Day is now in the right-hand column above the "Recently favorited" module. We hope that the new homepage will allow you to not only get a quick glance of what your neighbors are up to, but will also help you discover new people and content.
Brand New Explore Areas
We've been hard at work on some new pages that will help make it easier for you to discover posts about topics in which you're really interested. Now, when you click "Explore Vox," you will see links to some subject-specific pages. You can explore Culture, News & Politics, Entertainment, Life, Music, and Technology. And you can also drill down into sub-categories, including Fashion, Food & Drink and more. (We'll be expanding these sub-categories in the future, so stay tuned.) Each page features a feed of the latest posts added to Vox that fall into that specific category. So, if you w ant to see all the latest posts that are related to Music, just click on the Music link.
At the top of these pages, you'll also find an area that features great posts and media related to that topic. Do you write a lot about fashion or technology? This is a great way to have your blog featured in a prominent way, attracting more visitors and perhaps some new friends and neighbors! In the coming weeks, we'll let you know how to nominate great content from you and your fellow Voxers.
Think of these editorial spaces as a type of [this is good] only related to specific topics. We had to make the tough decision to discontinue the [this is good] area, but we think you'll find the content in the Life and Culture pages to be very similar. Think of the Explore pages as offering six times what [this is good] used to offer!
We also added a Question of the Day to each explore area, which will hopefully inspire you to create even more amazing posts every day. If the QotD in Entertainment doesn't interest you, just see what we're asking in Life or Culture!
We've worked incredibly hard to make these areas as relevant as possible, and we hope you'll click around and discover new posts and neighbors who share your passions.
Oh - and because we know how much you love them, we also found time to add a few new themes.
Comments
we can already see incoming PM's, but i'd also like to keep track of my outgoing PM's.
I don't really like how the new navigation is. I don't like how I have to click on "You", "Your Neighborhood", etc. to get the sub categories. I guess that is what you would call them anyways. I liked the hover/drop down feature better.
I'm really not a big fan of the new home page either. Actually, the only thing I really have a problem with is where you have placed the QotD and Vox Hunt. Why separate them? That doesn't make any sense to me. They should be together.
Everything else is fine but a feature that would really be awesome was if we were able to change between the new look and the old look. Not everyone will like the new like. I think you guys should totally think about that as a new feature.
Great job on everything else though. Really, I mean it. =]
I guess I will get used to it, but I found the old set up much simpler to navigate. I really don't have time to scroll through all those different sections; [TIG] was a nice and simple way to discover new blogs every couple of days. I probably won't take the time to go through all the new [This is...] sections.
i left feedback as well but comments are good too.
i think the QOTD needs to go back up top or else ill forget about it and never answer it.
and the new explore page is cool, but should be ABOVE the neighborhood updates, because thats what your neighborhood page is for. . . . . .
i liked the old set up better \=
I like everything. And looking forward to learning where more stuff is located.
My initial reaction is that Vox has taken a setup that was both logical and easy-to-use and turned it into a confusing mess. Oh, and please fire whoever came up with the "Life" category. It's all life.
Other things seem un-intuitive, but I'll keep trying to get used to them.
oh... I hate to be on the bad side, and i hate to say that I kind of hate it cause that sounds ugly and i know there's a lot of effort behind it but... why do i have to see the whole content of the post of my neighbourhood? i liked it when i got a hint, and then could go and look at the ones i wanted to... i'm not sure if i make myself clear, i just know right now it's gonna be bad for my inet dialer or however it's called
I was also looking for it and stumbled on it.
Yes, it seems we're all stumbling around when we SHOULD have been given specific instructions to help transition to the new look and feel. I work in IT, specifically web design and you don't just change your application without giving the users a fighting chance!
I personally have dealt with this at other sites. Imageshack and eBay both have 'new looks' but they also have links to switch back to the old design. This is the PROPER procedure and then we will be given fair warning before the new design is forced upon us and the old design is no more.
This is a total mess. There are 4 or 5 different links here and there to give you 'some' of your information. The 'Home' page was comprehensive and showed me everything at a glance and gave me the option to explore further if I chose to. Now I get some stuff from the Vox link, some stuff from the Voxwatch link, more different stuff under the 'recent activity' link. It's all over the place now! It's totaly chaos and confusion! TIG is ridiculous and ruined now.
I'm with everybody else, bring back the 'Home' page, change the TIG back to the way it was and move the QotD back up to the top of the page.
Anyway, guess gotta get used to this
Stupid! When I click on Home (Vox) and click on Comments it keeps showing me the same 4 comments (like for the last hour). When I click on 'more comments' it shows me the whole page of comments. Comments I've already read not just the recent comments.
I REALLY hate this! This has ruined my night! This seems to me like a project whose requirements were not very well defined so halfway through they just started making it up as they went along. Everything is freaking linked to everything, there is no order or organization. This is a complete and utter failure.
Again I ask where I can I go to get a comprehensive list of comments on my blog or replies to comments I've made on others blogs? Why has our information been fractioned out to different links? Why does the comments link on the Vox page just show the same 4 comments?
We are busy, working people who do not have time to go clicking all over hell and half of Georgia to find the information that USED to be neatly presented to us in a clean format on one page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm done with this.
Except to say that I would suggest outsourcing except I'm thinking you probably did. There is NOTHING worse than bringing in a bunch of overpaid web designers to *f* up your application (that they know nothing about). We did that last year, ironically using a company also named 'Vox'. It was a nightmare and our developers have had to do so much re-work that the budget has doubled what was proposed. If this was indeed the product of Team Vox developers then all I have to say is you picked the wrong people to beta test it OR they were just for show and you didn't take their feedback under consideration.
I have a lot of time and effort invested in my blog. I guess now whether or not I am privy to communication attempts by my neighbors will be a crap shoot.
Thanks for screwing up a VERY good thing.
On the VOX page under comments it shows I posted this post:
clicking on the Vox logo DOES take you to a page that has recent posts but it does not show recent comments, recent media, recent photos, etc. And the weird replacement for TIG at the bottom.
'A moment ago' but I actually posted it an hour ago according to this thread.
I am not a fan of the new page design. It is unattractive, poorly arranged and doesn't give me anywhere near the amount of information the old one did at a glance.
I don't even begin to understand the logic of this update.
I'm with everyone else - [THIS IS NOT GOOD]
I've bragged to so many of my non-Vox friends about how cool and user friendly our format is...guess I have to eat my words now. Bummer!
Another thing I don't like is what they've done with time/dates. Instead of seeing the date and time of when you posted they changed it to things like "a mintue ago", "1 hour ago", etc. I like that for the sidebar where you see five names who have recently updated. But, I do not like it for your posts. I think it should be for the sidebar only but once you view the posts/audio/video/whatever then it should be the time and date like it was before. I know this has nothing to do with the new changes but I just had to say it. I HATE it.
I hate it too. I used to look forward to my Home page to see my new comments and new posts, pics and other media from my neighbors. That was always my starting point. Now, I don't really have a clue where to go to find all of that information. I'm so embarrassed now because I just got 4 non-Vox friends to sign up. doh!
[THIS IS NOT GOOD]
Nighttime prayer: That I will wake up and Vox will be back the way it used to be. Maybe this is just a bad dream.
I really do hate to complain, because all in all I think Vox is awesome, but I really am not pleased with a lot of these new changes....and its not because I hate change. I have been quite pleased with a lot of the past changes even when others were not. I always saw a lot of wisdom in past changes. But I really don't get some of the new changes.
Its not easier to navigate...its much more complicated and not friendly to a novice. Its cleaner looking but that's because so much is missing.
I really love the cascading menus....please bring them back!
I really miss the old home/landing page. It had everything really efficiently laid out, on ONE page, and was easily to read and to navigate. The new page is different but really inefficient as its missing so much that you have to now search for. People don't have time to look for these things.
And PLEASE bring back the ability to see our own posted audio, video, books, and links. I often link some of these things to comments and posts....but its impossible to do that if I can't see the posted versions as I have to link to the posted version!
I know some of these changes are just a matter of getting used to them....but some of them just are super inefficient and complicated and I am really surprised that they are considered upgrades.
boo to dumping [this is good]
that's like The Vox Thing. I thought it was kind of the trademark, whatever.
I am not as up in arms about the new layout because I mostly switched over when it was offered; otherwise I couldn't even get to the home page, I'd just get error messages or it timed out or whatever. maybe it was my browser, I dunno. I don't necessarily like the new one better ("you" is kind of ghey) but I'm used to it I guess.
It's nice that there are more things featured on the Explore page but it just doesn't feel as standoutish now when you have to flip through everything, and then say, hey, you made the culture section on the Explore page. it's got no flow, man. That said, I didn't really like the latest incarnation of [TIG] where it was all themed. Because if it was a them I wasn't interested in, I'd just not look at anything. But that is neither here nor there anyway anymore, and I must go to bed.
i really miss my old home page.
and i don't like having to click so much to get to the sub menus.
OK after a good night's sleep and a little more playing around this morning I'm not QUITE as upset as I was last night. I actually like the features, culture, life, music, etc and the multiple QotD (I also understand why the QotD has to be at the bottom of the page. I think it's because they are attached to those sections and therefore part of that individual frame or jsp, I have a semi-self-taught, semi-experience, semi-education knowledge of how these things work but I could be wrong because I know the technology changes all the time) because it exposes you to lots of new neighbors.
BUT
I still think the TIG should be resumed and not basically come from any of those sections but just a random sampling of good blog posts (the way it used to be, before the dreaded 'themes').
I also notice on the home (VOX) page several things wrong:
First of all you only get a chance to see 3 posts, 4 comments and a handful of media. If you click on more then you are taken to the motherload 'Your Neighborhood' page, which I hate. It's too much to load. Also on this page there seems to be a formatting problem, I saw a post from a new neighbor and the whole thing was black, when I highlighted it I could see the text.
Second of all the comments, media and updates are not realtime. I've been checking them and the amount of time since does not change from 'a moment ago', 20 minutes ago, etc in realtime. I'm not sure what the deal is with that.
On my own blog I don't like that the width of the page has been widened to a supposed fixed width. You really have to make it full screen to see your layout properly. If it gets any wider we will have a dreaded horizontal scrollbar YUCK!
It's a little better today but still needs A LOT of tweaking!
However, something does appear to be missing: The "Friends AND Family" view of my neighborhood.
I'm officially chiming in against the limited 'synopsis' view of recently updated posts and comments in my neighborhood as well. Really, really not a fan of the new way you all have this set up.
Thanks for thinking about my feedback!
I think I'll use vox far less now because it's no longer so simple. Before I clicked on vox and could see straight away if anyone had replied to comments, which of my friends had blogged, who had new media, etc. And also, QotD and Vox Hunt were prominent, so I was often encourage to blog by seeing them at the top there. The new way takes too much digging to find things, so I will invariably read less, and QotD is hidden beneath adverts so it's far less noticeable.
Big step backwards.
@Kristine: But Krissy, I already posted in Feedback during the beta period! I can't remember if I completed the survey or not.
@all those who miss TIG: Yes, I agree-- [this is good] was one of Vox's unique touches, and I'd like to see it return as well. Ditch the "Vox recommends" crap, and bring TIG back.
Something seems missing in this new navigation layout:
How do you get to the theme design area within our pages now? I do see the link in your blog. However, I do not see the option anywhere else. *Frowns* Maybe I'm somehow looking over the option? If so, where is it hidden under?
Word to all...I posted a response to Kristine when she asked that we post our feedback to the feedback link. I asked her point blank if she was insinuating that none of the complaints and feedback on this thread were even being read or considered.
After I posted my comment, magically the 'old' VOX appeared. My Home link was there. I clicked it and was magically taken to the old home view.
The old Vox is not dead and gone. We can still fight for it.
Face it, Vox: this update is a failure. Admit you were wrong and take steps to erase this blunder.
I hate it more every time I have to use it.
I've been a beta tester since July 2006 (originally used a different name), and found the original interface to be one of the best I'd seen since I started using blogging sites. I absolutely hate the new setup. Hate it, hate it, hate it. This is not user friendly at all. Chances are good that you guys will overlook the fact that your users are displeased with the changes. Can we have an option to use the original layout if we so choose?
I dont mean to rank on the new design. But I reall do not like it.
More clicks to get at less information is totally inefficient and frustrating.
I think there are basically 2 steps that *should* happen here, from a proper design perspective.
1) Offer up the choice for users to go with the New or Old home page
2) Begin plans for a customizeable homepage, where the user can change the layout and content feeds based upon their own preferences. (this is a multi-phase feature release).
I will stick with Vox because I like the people. But this new interface really puts a strain on my desire to use it as a blog.
Well I don't know if it's because we've complained so much we're being punished or that the new layout has been officially launched but I tried to upload some photos for a blog post I wanted to make and the uploader stalled out after about 30 minutes of just sitting there spinning....
And to Jessica, No she has not answered me, that is of course, unless I can't find her answer in all this mess!
Since I used the opt-in beta I wasn't surprised by the redesign once it went into effect. I like most of the changes, save for the navigation strip links and lack of drop-down menus, and would appreciate a couple more posts and comments to be included in the "Your Neighborhood Updates" section. I also disagree with the placement of the QotD on the home and editorial pages. I often forget about the QotD due to its new placement. It should be located just under or above the Vox Hunt module. An alternative option would be to have the Vox Hunt and QotD modules utilize the same space and can be switched between the two, similar to the "Your Neighborhood Updates" section.
I understand the retirement of [This Is Good] as it became quite redundant once the module for the various editorials (Culture, Technology, Music, etc) was introduced during the opt-in beta test. Although, I do understand other people's feelings of distaste over its omission. Might I suggest changing each editorial showcases to [Culture Is Good], [Technology Is Good], etc so as to honor their predecessor [TIG]?
I would prefer more easily accessible links in the navigation strip (and bottom navigation) to useful resources, such as Organize, Design, VoxWatch and blog pages to our assets (Photos, Links, Videos, etc). Also, the rotate image option should be available in Organize, not just from the "options" link on the photo's blog page. I also recommend changing the Help section's design (help.vox.com) to match that of the rest of the website.
Thank you, Team Vox, for bringing back the blog navigation bar on our neighbors' blog pages. This was sorely missed and greatly needed. Please also bring this navigation bar on our own (the user's) blog so that we can more easily access blog pages for each Asset, and to prevent cutting off the header image for themes that use a background image for the navigation bar that blends in with the header image (see: Cold Wind, Materialistic and Spirals & Turns themes).
I have.
Oh. Thought you might want to hear it again.
Why do you keep changing things that are working? I don't get it. Sure, improvements can always be done, but major overhauling is warranted, I'd think, only if the total design isn't working--why "fix" it if it ain't broke?! Are you bored with what it is? We're not. You keep re-inventing the wheel and re-inventing the wheel and though some things are better, the whole thing just becomes a big pain in the butt overnight.
And I emailed in Feedback about my Profile bar disappearing and in response only got a list of articles I've already looked at.
i agree. it looks nice, but i like the new posts & new comments right there on the home page w/o having to click around for them.
vox, as a point to the problems of the new homepage layout, i just found this release note (and the subsequent statement in the next post) TODAY. five days after it was posted. and you're in my neighborhood!
i just got a whole bunch of friends to join, because i kept swooning over how awesome and better VOX is than most other blogging sites out there. i can't wait for the next revision. really.
I love the new blog themes, but please bring back the drop down menus!
One thing you could do to please the masses is to make the drop-down toolbars an ptional thing instead of a must have.
I have several question. i hope someone could help me.
1. How to add emoticon?
2. How can i add a shoutbox and an mp3 playlist on the sidebar?
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