Thank you so much for all of the feedback you gave on our latest release. We've read all of your comments to the post and the messages you've sent to our help team via the Feedback link and we really appreciate that you took the time to let us know not only your concerns, but also the things that are working for you. Obviously we're not able to act on every request, but we want you to know that we do read and consider each and every piece of feedback we’re given and that we’re constantly working to make sure your Vox experience is the best it can be.
You gave us some really useful suggestions, and based on that we are hoping to make adjustments and changes in the following areas:
- QotD: Those of you who look to QotD for daily inspiration have let us know that you prefer it to be closer to the top of the page. We're going to see if we can find a better placement for it in the coming weeks.
- Neighborhood Update module: Many of you let us know that you miss the at-a-glance usefulness of the old design. We want you to be able to find the things you love on Vox, and we’ll do our best to ensure that happens.
- The [this is good] module: It has been around since Day One, so we knew that many of you would miss it. Unfortunately, we have no plans to bring it back, but we would like to incorporate your favorite aspects of the old [this is good] into our new editorial sections on the Explore pages. Please use the links on each editorial feature to send us suggestions of posts, photos, videos and Voxers you’d like to see featured there.
A note on what we're not bringing back: the drop-down menus. Some people miss them and others were glad to see them go. We spent a lot of time designing a navigation geared towards a seamless user experience. For those of you who were used to having the drop-down menus, we hope that after you give the new navigation some time, it'll become more comfortable for you to use.
It's going to take us some time to work out the details on how to implement some of these changes, and we appreciate your patience while we do so. You'll start to see some changes in our next release and other changes will roll out in future releases.
Please continue to let us know what you are thinking
(good and bad) by using the Feedback area. (We know the Feedback and Help
pages still feature the old design, but the information you send still gets
right to us!) We aren't able to respond to every comment or piece of feedback, but using
Feedback helps us keep all your comments in one place so we don't miss anything
important.
Letting us know what you’re thinking allows us to continue to make Vox the place where you go to explore, create and connect.
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.
All current and future Voxers, bloggers and users of Six Apart's
blogging tools are invited! Please RSVP by commenting to my post to let me know you're coming!
- Krissy
Happy New Year! Everyone's coming back together after being away on vacations and holiday, so what better time to get together with your fellow Voxers?
London Music Meetup
Last month, Indieboy - RCA & Columbia's liaison between the labels
and the artists on Vox - held a musical meetup for Voxers in London. As you could see from the videos and photos, it featured great performances by artists who have a home right here on Vox.
Indieboy has another "End of Camden" event scheduled for this Saturday,
January 12th in London. All Voxers are invited to attend! Here are the details:
The performing bands are The Electric City, Molloy and The Lost Levels, handpicked by Indieboy straight from Vox. The cover charge will be £2 and everything starts around 7:30pm.
If you're going to be able to make it to the event, leave a comment to this post.
Austin, Texas
I moved back to Austin a few months ago, and I would love to meet some fellow Voxers in the city if enough of you are interested. I posted to my blog asking for feedback about where and when to meet, so stop by and leave a comment with your ideas. I'll post again here to Team Vox when the meetup is scheduled.
Your Town, Anywhere On Earth
Interested in putting together a Voxer meetup in your town? It's easy! Send me a message and I'll help you with all the details.
- Krissy
