Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I understand there are some new features, like spell checker. However, those can be easily put into the old design.

It seems the "classic" design is usability oriented. Everything fits together naturally. The advertising is not intrusive. The content is centered. The "featured members" section is interesting.

The new design is advertsing oriented. The content is off-center. Big portion of the screen is taken by the big ads. Since the content area is narrower, there is more text wrap-around, thus forcing more vertical scrolling.

If SUN uses a full width design, it would be fine. However, since it is a fixed-width design, having so much space taken by advertising is just not good usability.

 

Hi John,

Thanks for your feedback.  If you haven`t done so, please be sure to add this to our feedback and bugs form also.

The "new" design is not 100% final.  We released it to the community to solicit feedback so we can make sure what we ultimately launch is a better product than currently exists, both for our members and our advertisers (without either of whom StartupNation would not exist).

Most companies would typically call this redesign a BETA version, but we prefer no to use this label for any early stage designs or products.  (Although I think it would be cool to call it our "kappa" or "gamma" version.)







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Brian Cleveland,
Web Producer,
StartupNation

 I agree that the new design is bit annoying with the split screen.  I have switched to the classic version and I hope that this version of the site doesn`t go away. I know the need for advert but at the same time it should not destroy the very reason that people like this site. Without the community I think that SuN would not be as great as it is. It`s a fine line and I hope that you guys can make the money you need to without scaring off the very thing that made you. 

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Window and Home Jewelry LLC.
Artist designed window ornaments.
www.wahomejewelry.com

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

 Hey Rich wow 3 times,
 
  I think that it`s a little of both. You should keep the classic the way it is and place the adds on the left hand side. That way it could be covered up with the book mark menu and it isn`t too intrusive.  The less the better.

 Sorry Brian no offense but this involves the community and it should be held out in the open.

 I hope we didn`t lose any one over this. I read that CraigL posted it was his last post sometime ago and I hope not. He is of value as of any one who gives and takes from this community.


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Window and Home Jewelry LLC.
Artist designed window ornaments.
www.wahomejewelry.com

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Let`s work the other way.

Why would anyone like the new design? Sorry, I cannot think of anything.

I offer this up in the interest of constructive criticism, and fully understanding that I am new here and don`t have much of the SuN backstory. So take all this with as many grains of salt as necessary....

I too find the expanded advertising real estate intrusive. It feels like there`s a rude guy off to the right jumping up and down and shouting over the conversations people are trying to have. It feels... well... disrespectful.

I think the advertising model used in the SuN forum redesign works in conjunction with one-to-many broadcast style content (sometimes... it sure isn`t doing much for newspaper websites). But when you`re talking about many-to-many content, that`s a conversation; and disrupting the conversation is ultimately counterproductive to delivering eyeballs to advertisers. Not to mention the consequences to the community, assuming that the advertising is to make the community possible and not vice-versa.

I think if "community" is truly supposed to be part of SuN`s draw, Starbuck`s is a good example to look at...  Starbuck`s has made a fortune marketing community. Their genius is in creating an atmosphere conducive to community, and then making coffee & related paraphernalia available as an adjunct to that atmosphere. If they had a rude guy off to the right shouting about how great Microsoft is, no one would go there.

Salon.com has come up with an innovative advertising system that maintains the integrity of their community — the "day pass." If you`re not familiar, this is a one- or two-minute ad that nonsubscribers must watch before they can access Salon.com content, and it is good to access all the content for one day. The next day, they must watch a new ad. Now, Salon.com does charge for access to their forums (afaik — they used to do this, at least) but they also have the added expense of a full-blown journalism newsroom that SuN doesn`t have. A "day pass" to the SuN forums could potentially generate the necessary revenue while also making it possible to keep the rude guy in the forums down to 120px wide or whatever. I imagine this probably also has the added benefit of increasing clickthrough rates, since visitors` attention isn`t divided between the content and the ads.

There`s also lots of room for ads in those "new post" notifications I receive. I don`t know about anyone else, but my SuN notifications are among the emails I try not to miss and ads there aren`t going to deter me.

In any event, so that`s my constructive criticism & suggestions, for whatever its worth to whomever.

—Paula

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation