It might be me, but I liked the old site layout looks better, the new one looks less refined.
I’m new here. Are there screenshots for comparing the old style to the new one?
I’m afraid not, no screen shots
Edit: I’m probably blind, but yes, there is a screen shot on the front page:
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/news/S … 2008-3.jpg
it looks like voting is closed but I much prefer the old layout.
Voting still works, I voted old.
The new design doesn’t look like an electronics site, it looks like one of those blog templates people have for a few weeks then move on to the next one.
b_bogk77:
Edit: I’m probably blind, but yes, there is a screen shot on the front page:
Ha! Me too. That also answers my unasked question: whether this referred to the forum or the main site.
Well 8 to 3 isn’t exactly a landslide towards the new layout now is it.
I wonder if SFE will stick to their guns and keep it or listen to the majority?
I know it possibly cost a lot or $$$ or time, but think of like you just made a coaster :P, some thing just happen.
My suggestion to Sparkfun is to give the new layout a little time and then reevaluate whether or not to go back to the old format. There are things that can be tweaked and improved. But overall, the way that the site is navigated is fundamentally the same. It is a natural tendency to want to keep the status quo (i.e., change is bad) and it takes time to validate a layout change. I once made a change in an application, folding in three screens into a single and uncluttered unified dialog. Many customers complained that the program was ruined and that they wanted the old one back. Within a week of using the new layout, they discovered how much easier it was to fill out the data, the program flow was much smoother, and that they saved time.
Now that I’ve had some time to play with the new format, here are my observations:
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My overall opinion is that the site is an improvement. I definitely don’t believe that a a coaster was created or that that changes were a giant step backward.
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The site is less cluttered and that is a good thing. Just because pixels are available, that doesn’t mean that you have to use them all. Studies and my personal experience have shown that less is more. Too much information can cause information overload with important data being lost. The layout and choice of colors and fonts are pleasing and professional in appearance. The fonts are the right size and I like the smoother appearance.
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The look-and-feel is similar to other sites on the web. This is also a good thing as new visitors already know how to interact with your site. Even though Sparkfun is featuring projects as well as new products and the ability to post comments, the site clearly is a commerce site and not a blog. I really like the mix of customer projects and new products.
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This comment refers to the Products column on the left. When a category has subcategories (i.e., Development Tools), my preference is to open the subcategory tree and not jump to a page that displays all the items in the category. A case can be made to go either way, but most user interfaces open the tree allowing the user to select a subcategory and then display the items under that category.
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I’m not a big fan of three column layouts because it takes space away from the middle (main) content area. This was the biggest change and one that caused me to think, “What have they done?” However, after looking it over again, it does work. The items listed in the column do not belong in the left column (as they would be either at the top or bottom, which would interfere with the placement of the all important Products group) or the top menu bar. The space lost from the main column does not significantly detract from the ability to display the necessary information.
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A big plus for the third column is that it brought front and center (well, actually front and right) the additional services that Sparkfun offers. For me, that introduced to me the custom enclosure service. I didn’t know that they offered that service. Having that link it its own uncluttered area, brought it to my attention. That is positive improvement for the user.
I still prefer the old layout. Mainly because it was simpler - 2 column vs 3 as ralph points out. I think the login box wastes space - all that stuff was in the upper right corner before - available but not taking up a lot of space.
I’m not a fan of the color scheme. I can’t sum it up in words, just find it annoying. The big red bar just looks out of place.
Why do I come to the SFE’s home page, in order of frequency:
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to look through the product categories
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to see what’s new
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sometimes to get to the forum but I’m deep bookmarked to that
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once in a great while, to search
So basically, to increase sales to me, make it easier to for me to browse your selection. Pushing it down doesn’t do that.
I don’t know if I’m typical. I suppose you spent time looking at people’s behavior to see what generates the most sales activity. The faster a potential customer can find something, the more likely they are to purchase. I don’t know if the “what’s new” section drives a lot of commerce but given that you dedicate a lot of non-commerce space there, I suspect you aren’t too concerned about it.
Anyway, my $0.02, free to ignore…
Phil
I appologize ahead of time, but I’ve just for the first time used the new site to look for certain products, find information and datasheets on them, view pictures, etc.
Unfortunately I’ve found it nothing but a very frustrating experience, for a lot of reasons. I know you probably invested a bit in the new look, but (at least to me) it’s really disfunctional and not doing what it’s supposed to do. I’m one big resounding vote to bring back the old site, fixing whatever technical problems on the back end (not touching it’s excellent look, ease, or functionality!) that resulted in the new site being created.
thanks, and sorry again!
"Need Input"silic0re:
I appologize ahead of time, but I’ve just for the first time used the new site to look for certain products, find information and datasheets on them, view pictures, etc.Unfortunately I’ve found it nothing but a very frustrating experience, for a lot of reasons.
– Johnny-Five, Short Circuit
I’m sure that the Sparkfun folks would appreciate hearing about specific issues; what you were looking for, how you went about it, what you were expecting, and (most importantly) how you were able to find it using the old layout. I understand that your experience has been nothing but frustrating, for a lot of reasons. It will be helpful for them to know the reasons so they have an idea of what they can do to address them. I doubt that putting back the old layout is going to solve all your frustrations. I have spent some time over the past couple of days doing all types of searches that I’ve done in the past with the old layout, and I have been able to get the same results as before (including the links to the schematics, data sheets, and example code). What that tells me is that either there are broken or missing links, or you wouldn’t have been able to get the desired results with the old layout either. However, as the way that I search for items can be different than the ways others search, it is even more important for you to articulate the exact nature of your difficulties.
Hey folks,
I just came across this poll. Thanks to all for caring enough to comment, and props to riden for the thoughtful answers and and the Short Circuit reference.
For what it’s worth, we’re actively working on the remaining functional and browser-compatibility kinks in this thing, so reports of broken or changed-in-a-confusing-way functionality are very welcome. That said, although the site looks quite a bit different, the underlying structure has changed very little: If you could find something before, the same approach should still work. If it doesn’t, please tell us as specifically as possible what’s missing or busted. Detailed info about what browser you’re running, your screen resolution, and URLs for the stuff you’re talking about are all extra-helpful.
Regarding the overall look and feel of things, we’re working on taking everyone’s concerns into account. Design ain’t a democratic process, exactly, but it’s certainly an organic one. Among other things, you can expect to see some changes and extra features geared towards improving the readability for folks on lower-resolution monitors and (eventually) mobile devices.
again, apologies – this is meant as constructive criticism
(and ridden, i very much agree about the need for specificity, but sometimes a simple ‘me too’ will do 
).
when i was just in my first year or two of undergrad, i had a friend (already graduated) who worked at IBM’s user centered design lab. I never thought too much about usability – I figured that it was pretty much a null point – you put whatever you need to on the screen, and people will find it. After visiting the (very high security!) lab, was my mind ever changed.
i learned usability is a huge area of study and research for big software companies, in part because it directly impacts their profits – if something if easier to use, a person has a more pleasent experience and is more likely to use it again (or recommend it to others). The reverse is also very true – if something has a poor usability experience, people often will not use it, and it will have very poor recommendations which can drastically affect it’s sales.
something else unexpected i learned was how particular usability research is – before a product is rolled out, it’s extensively studied with samples of it’s target audience. changing something as simple as the size of a picture, the location of a text input box, the size of a font – all things that, from a PROGRAMMING or ENGINEERING perspective are null points (coding the text is the same regardless of how big it is) – are to people who study usability enormous issues that can make or break the overall ease of use of a product.
they used to teach something to all the employees there, “you are not your users”. good coders and engineers are capable of designing some really well-designed, impressive systems. but “programmer art” is kind of like “programmer-designed interfaces” – often, they’re terrible. moreover, “you are not your users” also reminds us that our users might not appreciate that we tweaked the mySQL backend to retrieve entries in half the time, or that all the images on the page are procedurally generated on the fly using fractals when a server request is generated, they care (largely) about what the user experience is for them, not the techical merit of the design.
whomever designed the last sparkfun site did an excellent job at creating a highly usable, asthetically pleasing interface, whether they intended to do so, or whether their intuition just stumbled upon it. I’m sure that your new site is extremely well designed, technically. From a usability perspective, the site (as I write this) has a 26% approval rating – that’s less than a 3/10! In addition, there are a great deal of comments both in this thread and on the main page listing how the design of the new interface really isn’t working well for people, and isn’t effectively conveying the information to them. What do you do? Because you’ve invested time in it, do you continue to use a failed design (think vista), or do you roll back to a design that worked very well, and perhaps update it’s backend with anything critical you’ve made for the new one that improves its server-side operation?
(don’t feel bad – as i’m sure you know, we’ve all been in this spot! i was once on a team where we spent over a year developing a 3D space shooter that, graphically, looked fantastic, but as a game, it just wasn’t fun to play. this technically beautiful but usability-null game never ended up being completed… )
Hey guys!
Huge thanks for all the feedback, good and bad. The really specific posts have been the most useful thus far. If you’ve told us you don’t like the new layout but not provided any specific critiques or suggestions for change, please do so. The new site has only been up for one week and already there have been are several user-recommended changes that have been implemented. For example, one user complained that the order of columns on the product list was all wrong because it drew attention away from the products and toward their prices. He made a convincing argument and we reordered those columns the next day. Nothing is guaranteed but if you can describe a change you’d like to see, please don’t wait for us to come up with it ourselves. We’re listening to you guys and we want to hear more!
For those of you anxious to see a reversion to the old layout, please give the new one a chance. Things really haven’t moved around much, they just changed color. Plus we were able to throw in a few new features like comments on products and tutorials and expanded searching. We have several more new features in development right now, many of which have been requested by users like you guys for months or even years. The new layout was designed with these and other new features in mind so that everything will fit seamlessly together.
Finally, please be mindful that the SparkFun website is no more concrete now than it has been in the past. Anyone here remember what life was like before color bubbles? To date that’s still the most widely loved feature we ever added and it took like ten minutes to do. Sometimes little changes have the biggest impact. In the week since the switch we’ve been putting in countless little changes, many at the suggestion of users like you guys, and the cumulative effect is a bigger-better-faster website we can all use and enjoy.
So please continue to speak up, articulate your objections, and contribute to the new face of SparkFun.
OK, here is some initial feedback which is semi-specific.
At first, the gigantic green pcb looked nice. But after a couple of minutes I have to agree with one of the comments, its too big.
AdBlock has solved that for me.
Now, the remaining Sparkfun header is still very tall. Taller in fact than the Digi-Key website.
Understand that you want to promote the Sparkfun brand, however its just too big.
AdBlock again.
When clicking on categories, I wish the site would globally track how I want things sorted. If I select sort by price, I wish it would remember that as I browse through the catagories.
I really dislike the 3rd column on the right. All it does it take away screen space and distract when trying to focus on products. It is redundant and a complete waste of screen space. Give me more room for description or the possibility of shrinking the pics a little and allowing more than 5-6 items on the screen at one time.
This should all be at the top of the screen in the header, or better, on the front page.
Also, agree with others that the Home-Cust Server-etc fonts are just way too big.
I’m sure a lot of time and effort went into this upgrade. However, the better thing too do would have been to make this a beta site and allowed forum users to opine.
At this time, you have time/$ and ego spent with the current design. I’m sure the idea of giving Sparkfun users a surprise new look was involved, and appreciated by us. But the other site did seem much more useful for me.
HTH, and great site either way.
Overall appearance gives the impression of the first major site designed by someone whose primary job is not designing web sites. Or more likely, a slightly modified theme from a bare-bones template provided with a CMS package.
Specifics:
new one looks like a default template for phpnuke or other CMS system.
My major issue with the new layout is that it’s “all white”. I know it’s not, but the backgounds of the different sections don’t provide enough contrast (particularly for someone like me that’s mildly color-blind). There’s not enough visual cues to differentiate the sections of the page and this makes it all seem to run together.
Oh and the “Sharing Ingenuity” text haphazardly placed in the top banner graphic looks kind of cheesey.
I find the new layout to be a huge step backward from the old one.
Certainly, part of the problem is that it takes a while to get used to changes (which brings up the question, why do it in the first place unless it introduces some specific and worthwhile benefits to your users). But apart from that, the old site had a recognizable and pleasant layout, while the new one comes across as just a generic web retail site. And, frankly, an amateurish one at that.
I know that’s not a very constructive criticism, so let me offer one specific suggestion: If you change only one thing, please, I beg you, add some contrast to the text. Light gray text on white just doesn’t cut it. I simply can’t read it.
Thanks for listening.
I agree with most of the comments about the color scheme of the new site being more difficult to see. The grey text in a slightly grey box has poor contrast and makes it especially difficult to see if you are running a higher resolution display. My personal preference is to have a dark background with light text like the original version of the site had although occasionally there would be a red link on the blue background that would screw with my mildly colorblind eyes.
-Bill