On Monday, January 16th, the TuDiabetes website redesign will launch! We've put a lot of thought and creativity into the new look, the goal being to create a less busy homepage and clearer, more efficient navigation. Many thanks to those of you who gave us feedback and ideas about how to achieve this!
Another outcome of the redesign will be new and different ways to customize the personal profile pages. A slew of new templates and choices will be available for you to make your page truly personal and unique, just in time for the new year! As part of this process all profile pages will first revert to the basic template, which I'm afraid we can't avoid. So, if you have customized your profile page and would like to keep it looking the same way, please read this tutorialbefore January 16th!
Again?? Hasn't the website and the profile pages been changed a few times in the last few months already? Change for the sake of change seems to be the way of the world these days, but I don't think that makes it good. Sorry, but I find each change makes things more complicated, more like social media, and less of the warm personal site we all know and love. Just my personal opinion. I'm still adjusting to the separation of topics into categories and the generalization of the info in the profiles. Tutorials??? Come on, guys!
I understand the overwhelm, Zoe. The deal is that we're making a strong push right now to improve the site, and have found a variety of ways to do so. I think there will always be small changes occurring, as there's always room for improvement and we continuously receive feedback from members with good ideas. But the redesign launch on the 16th is a broader-scale change than things like adjusting the profile questions or the organization of specific pages (although I know those things can throw a wrench in one's habits on the site, for a bit). Because it will change the appearance of profile pages, and many community members have put a great deal of time and thought into the look of their page, we wanted to provide clear directions (e.g. a tutorial) to help folks re-institute the pages as they want them. The process is not difficult, but anything new bears explanation.
I agree with you that change for the sake of change is not useful, and I promise that's not our motivation!
I don't know that I'm coming from a place of feeling overwhelmed (not yet anyway), but just find the whole notion of "redesign launch" kind of alien. I guess I would just wonder who initiated this change and whose interests it serves. I feel like this site is at risk of losing the grass roots community feeling and community direction that is one of the things I for one love about it.Perhaps that is inevitable when something becomes so large and plays such a prominent role in the DOC. But I will continue to enjoy the input of all the members and try and not let the hoopla and the window dressing get in the way of that.
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the new site. I don't think the site has changed significantly since I joined in ... 2007? Sure, new features have been added and some minor layout changes have been done, but considering it's a website, that's to be expected. Hoping the new site will be "cleaner" and have less clutter.
I can't say that I am a big fan of change, but if this change is to better the website and our tight community, then I welcome the change. Let's not forget that sometimes change is for the better. I only hope that this change keeps the feeling of being at home when we interact within the website. As Zoe put it, I enjoy the warm personal site that we get from this atmosphere. If it is possible to keep this feeling while moving forward, I am looking to the joy that comes when a home remodeling is done.
I hope they offer an option to utilize the old way of looking at all of the "forums" on a "most recent" list, instead of the current "top 5" from each "category".
In this day and age you have to change to maintain your relevance. Think about Kodak, they could never get over Film and move to the digital age. Look where they are today. They need to keep this sight fresh to continue to attrack new members. There are a lot more Pwds than 20+ thousand current members.
In the original feedback discussion we had some comments about organization, so, we thought that could be a better way of displaying the discussions in the forum. However, in general the feedback has been negative, so are changing it back to most recent, Cheers!
It's really good to know that when a large number of members feel strongly about something, that the administration is responsive to those wishes. To me that does more to make me feel "a part of" on a site than any number of bells and whistles.
Well, I'm an old stick in the mud as far as change, too, but willing to give it a try before I pipe up with any comments pro or con. I appreciate the knowledge that you folks will be listening -- I like the "most recent" format, too.
This is the 4th, so we have 12 days before Christmas? In Google's last change they allowed retaining the old look awhile. Can we wiggle two formats awhile?
Ok. Trying to rely to a number of concerns in one reply.
-The change is really the first significant redesign we are doing in a lomg time. We updated the color palette to some degree last year and incorporated the type of navigation to resource pages on the left side of the page nearly two years ago, but this is really the first time in nearly two years that we will be redesigning the entire look of the site in almost three years. Looking at the data about site usage and listening to several of the concerns presented in the thread initiated by Andreina in December, we have made our best attempt to incorporate the data and the feedback and will try to offer a solution that should help most members and should address most concerns.
-The way the site works (the functionality) will fundamentally remain unchanged. Only look and placement of a number of things on the home page, along with the look of the profile pages (reverting to the deafult new look once we launch the redesign) and the look of the other sections of the ste, will be affected.
Once we launch the redesign, there won’t be a trial period. If it were a technical option, we would offer it, but it isn’t.
Hopefully, with the new way customizing profile lages will work more people (even those who are less tech savvy) will feel able to take a stab at playing with customizing their profile pages. Having said this, we will help anyone having trouble with getting their profile page looking the way they want it to look, within the constraints of what is technically possible.
If the way the Forum is organized now is something most people don’t feel good about,mwe will revert to the previous format.
Please, keep the questions and comments coming. We want this to be as open a process as possible…
Well, change can be hard. I am sure that many of us will struggle a bit with the new design, but over the years I have come to accept that we must change. If there is not some ongoing change to at least keep up with things, then old defects never get fixed, new features never become available and things essentially "rot." I have seen other forums go overboard on the whole change thing (I'm not naming names (yet)), but tudiabetes has actually not undergone a lot of significant visible changes (although underneath I suspect there have been a lot).
I don't necessarily look forward to change (I am old), but it is a little like a house renovation, a source of ongoing difficulty until it is done, hard to figure out what to do, painful during the change, but in the long-term (and in hindsight), well worth the pain.
I'm sure the team will listen to the members and really work to make the forum meet the members needs. We just have to expect some turnoil during renovations.
