Comments on: website redesign and users (OMG! not the user!) http://jambina.com/blog/website-redesign-and-users-omg-not-the-user/ Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:51:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kathryn http://jambina.com/blog/website-redesign-and-users-omg-not-the-user/comment-page-1/#comment-3900 Kathryn Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:27:18 +0000 http://jambina.com/blog/?p=438#comment-3900 I worked on a university library website and developed personas to help answer this questions -- here's the link to our project. Check out the Sources page for a thorough collection of links to research about academic library patrons. Also wanted to mention, for those contemplating redesign, you'll need a thick skin. The flood of negative feedback we got was disheartening...until I stumbled across YouTube's blog about their redesign, and saw the incredibly negative and hostile feedback they're getting. I worked on a university library website and developed personas to help answer this questions — here’s the link to our project. Check out the Sources page for a thorough collection of links to research about academic library patrons.

Also wanted to mention, for those contemplating redesign, you’ll need a thick skin. The flood of negative feedback we got was disheartening…until I stumbled across YouTube’s blog about their redesign, and saw the incredibly negative and hostile feedback they’re getting.

]]> By: Natalie Clairoux http://jambina.com/blog/website-redesign-and-users-omg-not-the-user/comment-page-1/#comment-3886 Natalie Clairoux Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:32:47 +0000 http://jambina.com/blog/?p=438#comment-3886 We are in the process of re-designing - in fact, for the time being we are just changing the appearance of the site (original design goes back to the mid-90's!!). Come back in early October to see the difference. But you are right, at some point we're gonna have to do usability testing and move some things around too. I hope we do get around asking our users' opinion, but if we don't, at least we have data from Google Analytics that will give us a hint on how deep some pages are buried. We did outsource for the redesign, and in my opinion this is a good thing. This way, we can get a nice, fresh design and make sure it fits with our purposes. It's true, 30% of our users are still using IE6 (couldn't believe it myself!). I like your approach - follow the upgrades, dear users. As for mobile-friendly... one step at the time! We are in the process of re-designing – in fact, for the time being we are just changing the appearance of the site (original design goes back to the mid-90′s!!). Come back in early October to see the difference.
But you are right, at some point we’re gonna have to do usability testing and move some things around too. I hope we do get around asking our users’ opinion, but if we don’t, at least we have data from Google Analytics that will give us a hint on how deep some pages are buried.
We did outsource for the redesign, and in my opinion this is a good thing. This way, we can get a nice, fresh design and make sure it fits with our purposes.
It’s true, 30% of our users are still using IE6 (couldn’t believe it myself!). I like your approach – follow the upgrades, dear users.
As for mobile-friendly… one step at the time!

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