Existing users, 
The new design is terrible. There are so many things WRONG with this design I wouldn't know where to start...
1. The ads. I know you need them for profit, but they're alienting the user. They're everywhere and they get in the way of the user experience (which is probably done on purpose). Five banners, FIVE banners! Jesus, this looks like a porn page. It is OBVIOUS that you are desperate for profit.
2. The version number in a popup menu. Who the hell thought this would be a good idea?! I understand the use this would have, but 99% of the people visit VersionTracker to get the LATEST version, so the popup really confuses people. And it looks ugly, because it is unnecessary.
3. The left bar. This bar kills the design completely. It is located under the title of the product, thus disorienting the user of what's important in the page. It gets in the way. It is unnecessary. It is sharing the same background color (white) as the Product name and Version number! And the actual content (the product description and reviews) are in a separate place color with its own color. Completely horrendous!
4. The reviews. They are the key to VersionTracker's success and now they're in a separate page! WTF!!!
This new design has to get an award on the WORST and most unfriendly design ever! It's just so unusable.
Do something about it now!
VersionTracker
feedback area for new VersionTracker features
Version: 6.5b2
New design
Feedback Type: Review
Contributed by: CV. Thursday, May 01 2003 @ 10:08 PM PDT
Product Platform: MacOS,MacOSX
Used Product For: One Day
Recommend Product: NO
Overall Rating:
Ease of Use:
Features:
Quality / Stability:
Price:
Comments
New design - mneptok
Oooo! Constructive criticism! Yay!The link to the forum is kinda hard to find, guys...
Hmm. It's in the feedback for the site listing on VT. Maybe make the "VersionTracker 6.0" product sticky in that Spotlight section?
From what I can tell, a lot of the older feedback comments are...gone.
Remember, feedback is now version specific. Read this for more info.
I get the impression that Versiontracker is trying to hide user feedback...
Not at all. Look at the categories. It's not just star reviews anymore. Now there are Dev Notes, Tips and even Commentary. A per-title forum for software. If anything, we're increasing the amount of feedback and input.
Be sure to notice that your page state for product pages is cached. If the last time you were looking at Safari's product page you were looking at feedback, the next time you go to Safari's page you 'll see the feedback tab. So in reality there's a one-click, one-time hurdle to feedback per app, but feedback has been greatly enhanced.
Don't ruin the site design instead...
Give yourself a little time to adjust. Once the layout becomes as familiar as the old, I'll bet you'll really like it.
Friday, May 02 2003 @ 12:41 AM PDT
New design - sjk
As a registered user (i.e. paying customer) I would have appreciated some forewarning (e.g. e-mail notification) that this new interface was upcoming. After the initial surprise I didn't notice any obvious way to find any information about the changes. I'm fairly perceptive and capable of figuring things out, but the "Comment on the new product page" sure didn't make it apparent that was a place to look. I wanted change info and maybe some usage tips, not to make comments. So tonight I ended up here indirectly after reading a response to my off-topic call for help on the GraphicConverter page. I have the feeling I'm bumbling through this without any map... have I missed something, like a FAQ? I'm betting many of the not-so-intuitive changes will get harsher reaction from others with less skill and patience.I like the multiple categories and the version-specific feedback is okay, but it would really help if there were options for concatenating it together for easier viewing... especially when there are just a few comments for each of several versions. Seems it'll take too much navigation to see if what you might want to post has already been mentioned. I'm not fond of contributing redundancy which is why I'll do some more reading before making other feedback here.
Saturday, May 03 2003 @ 03:30 AM PDT
New design - kcar27
I completely agree with the above posting. I even emailed Versiontracker(info@versiontracker) about this new design before I stumbled across this feedback
forum. (The link to the forum is kinda hard to find, guys...).
The use of colors and pulldown menus doesn't bother me as much as the person
above, but the separation of product description and feedback onto two separate
pages really is a pain. From what I can tell, a lot of the older feedback comments
are...gone. Geschwinkto. Also, I tried to download two products tonight, and got an
Apache text message instead of a new page. Is this new design in early beta, or...?
I get the impression that Versiontracker is trying to hide user feedback. Were users
too critical, off-topic, long-winded...what? As it is, this design really does feel like
it's trying to suppress abusive behavior; unfortunately it makes the site a lot
harder to use and recommend. If users are costing Versiontracker money or too
much time with their posts, say so and impose restrictions. Don't ruin the site
design instead...
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Thursday, May 01 2003 @ 11:20 PM PDT