Home (page) on the range...

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

Home (page) on the range...

As you can imagine, a chunk of software like Mo'time that is designed to help people meet each other, publish their stuff, share it with the world and discover new ideas will always be a work in progress. Watching how people use it, while keeping an eye on how the technology is holding up under pressure, is a learning experience for us -- and one that we take very seriously.

As in the past with the advertising discussion (which we are now using as a guide for balancing the ad/subscription issues according to your feedback), I would like to get your ideas on the direction that we'd like to take the Mo'time user interface.

The recent adjustments of the Mo'time home page (after login) were mainly organizational, but we believe that we took a step in the wrong direction and wanted to get your reaction.

The elimination of the most recently updated posts list, replacing it with links to the somewhat haphazard Mo'timeNow page, made the home page more of a control center for your blog and less of a piazza where you can have a snapshot of what's happening.

So the idea is this: make the control panel section of the home page much smaller, yet more intuitive and essential. We can then use the greater part of the page to design a cleaner and easier to read version of Mo'timeNow. So, you'd always have a list of who's online, latest blogs and photos, latest subject tags, the featured post and the latest post of this blog... PLUS, of course, the essential control panel to get into your own blog.

In this way you will get an immediate feel for what's going on as soon as you login to Mo'time -- who's around and the latest stuff to see and read...

Is this too abstract of a discussion without an accompanying graphic to look at? Anyway, I thought I'd try to lay out some of our thinking to see what you think about it.

Well?

posted by: howard at 00:26 | link | comments (12) |

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Comments:

#1 21 March 2006 - 03:17

We were just chatting about missing the recent posts and who's online on our home pages.

May i also suggest a camera stationed outside George Clooneys villa and a small window with a live feed on the upcoming even newer and more improved home page.

rustymadgal

#2 21 March 2006 - 13:46

I think anytime the format changes, it feels odd until you get used to it.

I agree though, now you have to go through two steps where you used to have only one step.

It is also aligned on the left, which doesn't feel natural. Maybe this is because I am a righty.

When will the ad option be available? I also wonder why it is hard to edit (delete, etc.) without voodoo. Is it because of firefox?

Do you feel it ungrateful for long time users to not become paying members? Is it unethical?

lol@George Clooney's villa. I just read the cover story in Vanity Fair about some cad who broke Terry Hatcher's heart. Hope it wasn't George.

Leigh

#3 21 March 2006 - 19:55

Terry Hatcher is gross, George wouldnt go near her. I hope.

rustymadgal

#4 21 March 2006 - 21:11

While I understand that new formats will always take some getting use to, I still vote for the way it was. It felt more intuitive before because fewer clicks were involved, and so many things were laid out right in front of me. (Maybe it's a lazy person talking! Or I just like "busier" pages.) A graphic of what you're envisioning would probably be a good idea.

May I make a suggestion about the quick control panel for our blogs: The big red X for "delete blog," right there alongside the write/edit buttons, makes me quite nervous about accidentally deleting my blog. I'd like to see it back under "blog center" and not as easily accessible...that way if someone really wants to delete, they would have to make a positive effort to do it.

merserene

#5 22 March 2006 - 00:21

rusty and chat partner: yup. you're right, we agree. the home page is now too lonely.

Leigh: never feel guilty about being an honorary free blogger. Nobody is forcing us to do this and we believe that between ads, subscriptions for those people that want the extra stuff and have the budget and future development like mobile blogging through your cell phone operator will combine to help us pay the bills and, hopefully, ourselves. Your contributions are measured by your presence and participation. Your ethical account is in excellent standing.

I'll add you to the more people stuff on the home page. Sorry 'bout the left/right thing, but it actually seemed to conform closer to the norm, putting the navigation bar on the left.

Ads should be online in 2-4 weeks, hopefully.

Merserene: Ok, gotcha. For technical and practical reasons we cannot just back up and make it like it was, but the next incarnation of the home page will have a simpler control panel offering quick and intuitive access to your blogs, and more space dedicated to latest posts, latest photos, featured posts and who's online...

As for the Delete X, it does seem a little scary at first, I agree. But rest assured that it will take a total of 3 clicks and the re-insertion of your password to actually delete a blog! There is very little danger of that happening by accident. Having said that, we will be changing that, too, in the next incarnation.

Thanks again, all...

howard

#6 22 March 2006 - 01:45

all sounds good to me. :) What? I'm sleepy...I would say more, but my bed is calling...

Sheol

#7 24 March 2006 - 23:13

I totally understand, howard. I hope what I said didn't sound like demands! Just suggestions. Perhaps it's not said enough, but thank you for putting in endless hours to make mo'time a better place. We all appreciate it.

merserene

#8 25 March 2006 - 15:02

i love suggestions and even constructive criticism, merserene. you were very polite and constructive, not at all demanding... ;-)

howard

#9 27 March 2006 - 04:05

being a newbie to Mo'time, the new homepage makes a little more sense to me than the first one, but I agree more info about the community in general would be nice.
I would appreciate a few more options with the templates, since I am not adept at altering the scripts.
Thanks for all your hard work. I am really enjoying being on Mo'time!

brutallycurious

#10 27 March 2006 - 08:47

Yes, I totally agree -- we do need to offer more new templates... We are actually working on this, but it will take a bit more time.

howard

#11 27 March 2006 - 13:30

I guess it's "normal" for web pages to have things on the left, but I agree with merserene that I like my stuff on the right. I'm also one of those people who miss "recent posts." Not that the Mo'Times isn't interesting or anything...but, um...just not as interesting as recent posts. :-