MyEclipse :: View topic - What do you love? What do you hate? What did we break?

MyEclipse: What do you love? What do you hate? What did we break?

support-scott - Apr 28, 2007 - 02:57 AM
Post subject: What do you love? What do you hate? What did we break?

Well, we worked really hard putting together what we think is a much nicer portal experience for you, our users. But nothing is perfect so please consider this an "official" request for comments. What did we do right? How can we improve? And, what did we break?

Oh, and please remember that the whole team worked really hard, so if we need to improve on something, please remember what it's like to deliver something and then get user feedback. In other words, please "be kind". :-)

kookaburra - Apr 28, 2007 - 05:45 PM
Post subject: RE: What do you love? What do you hate? What did we break?

The colour scheme makes the forums extremely hard to read. The inverted scheme of dark background impedes clarity.
While I like the colours themselves, the overuse is not good.
Navigation to member services/forums seems an afterthought and harder to get to.

My experience in the past is to avoid sites I find this hard to read.

I hope you don't find this harsh.

Colin Ruthven

support-scott - Apr 28, 2007 - 07:05 PM
Post subject: RE: What do you love? What do you hate? What did we break?

Colin,

Good comments. Do you have any tweaks to the forum colors you think would be easier on the eyes?

As for the color "overuse", the only alternative to using the same colors is using different ones. In an early prototype we tried that and the site looked like a box of legos (blocks of stuff all with differnt colors). It was "color that didn't mean anything". We tried to use color on the site in such a way that when the colors change, it's for a reason. For example, the main sections (Try, Buy, Features) each has their own color scheme so you can tell when you're in a particular section.

Anyway, I do see the point on the forum colors. I'm sure we'll experiment and find something that is a little easier to read. Since Riyad spends the most time here if his eys start getting tired I'm sure we'll hear about it. :-)

As for navigation to the forums, it is a little more difficult because we want new users to go through the support page and see that there are other ways to get their questions answered other than just immediately posting. We have a ton of tutorials, FAQ's, and answers already on the forums that answer 80% of questions that get posted here and we just want to let newbies know that. For our veteran members, well we know you guys know how to use a bookmark to get what you need. ;-)

Thanks for the comments.

gcstang - May 01, 2007 - 12:36 PM
Post subject: It is a little better than what you had but....

These colors are really bad to have to look at and navigate through.

At the very least please bring back the news section with progress indicating status of the new features and change the colors.

The previous forum colors were much better, something not so drastic on the eyes.

Possibly something closer to the colors surrounding your logo would work better, such as blue, light blue, white, off white.

keb - May 01, 2007 - 09:43 PM
Post subject: RE: It is a little better than what you had but....

I guess what most users needs easy access to is the forums, the downloads section and the 'progress on next version' page.

In all of these respects the site just got a lot worse, and a lot less intuitive to navigate.
I also agree to the previous posts regarding forum colors.

support-scott - May 02, 2007 - 03:15 AM
Post subject: RE: It is a little better than what you had but....

Keb,

Ok, we get the "colors on forums are hard to read" thing and we'll work on it over the next couple of weeks as we iron out other issues.

As for the easy access to downloads, there's a giant "Try" button at the top of the left nav bar that takes you straight to the downloads page. I'm not sure I understand how that's more difficult that the little 'Downloads' link we had on the old site, can you explain a little more so I can understand a little better?

As for the 'progress on next version' we're looking into a better way to communicate that information than we had before as it always out of date since the dev team moved faster than the web team. What type of information on that do you find most valuable? Anticipated ship dates, etc?

gcstang - May 02, 2007 - 02:05 PM
Post subject: Progress on Next Version

The anticipated ship date and progress bar was a nice feature to have and possibly adding short blurbs on progress or what is happening when it's late, I know it kept me coming back in anticipation of the next release.

As far as it's accuracy possibly a project manager could update a simple file that was included in your website instead of having web developers maintain it. Either through simple editing or via some CMS.

support-scott - May 02, 2007 - 06:20 PM
Post subject: RE: Progress on Next Version

Interesting. I had no idea it was that valuable. I've opened a PR so we can discuss and see how we can get similar functionality reintroduced on the new site. Thanks for the feedback!

kookaburra - May 03, 2007 - 06:26 AM
Post subject: RE: Progress on Next Version

To me, the "Try" button is a marketing thing aimed at prospective users and not existing ones. Something more direct that indicates "Download" as such would be clearer.
By locating the "Support forums" link to the page bottom reinforces the impression that existing users aren't a priority in the redesign.

Colin

keb - May 03, 2007 - 09:55 AM
Post subject: RE: Progress on Next Version

Yup, I got the exact same feeling regarding the "Try" button, so I never even considered trying it :-)

support-scott - May 04, 2007 - 06:18 AM
Post subject: RE: Progress on Next Version

Quote:

To me, the "Try" button is a marketing thing aimed at prospective users and not existing ones. Something more direct that indicates "Download" as such would be clearer.
...
Yup, I got the exact same feeling regarding the "Try" button, so I never even considered trying it :-)

Interesting. How about the big center section that has Try in the left column and a large graphic button that says 'Download' on it? I'm curious if you just subconsciously "screened out" the middle section since it has Flash running at the top of it.

support-scott - May 12, 2007 - 02:06 AM
Post subject: RE: Progress on Next Version

All,

We've just added the first change to the site as the result of your feedback and that is the link in the left nav for the MyEclipse Road Map page. Hope you like it. http://www.myeclipseide.com/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=329

gcstang - May 15, 2007 - 02:22 PM
Post subject: Re: RE: Progress on Next Version

support-scott wrote:

Yes, Thank you.

ultiweb - May 15, 2007 - 05:44 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Progress on Next Version

The new layout is difficult to navigate and these colors are awful! Having to click so many times to get to the forums is a bad idea. I don't want to search every time I come to the forums and I doubt I'm the only person that feels this way, so that's one more wasted click. Sorry for being harsh. :)

Randy

ultiweb - May 15, 2007 - 06:44 PM
Post subject: Last post

Regarding my last post it was my fault for clicking the search link to the forums. The other link says post to the forums. Why not just 'Forums'? Maybe I don't want to post. The colors are easier on your eyes from a Mac using either Safari or Firefox. From Firefox on Windows XP they hurt your eyes.

Randy

support-scott - May 16, 2007 - 12:47 AM
Post subject: RE: Last post

Randy,

Ok, we get the "colors on forums are hard to read" thing and we'll work on it over the next couple of weeks as we iron out other issues.

Regarding for navigation to the forums, it is a little more difficult because we want new users to go through the support page and see that there are other ways to get their questions answered other than just immediately posting. We have a ton of tutorials, FAQ's, and answers already on the forums that answer 80% of questions that get posted here and we just want to let newbies know that. For our veteran members, well we know you guys know how to use a bookmark to get what you need. ;-)

ultiweb - May 16, 2007 - 07:13 AM
Post subject: RE: Last post

The colors look great on the Mac. :)

Randy

bobparis - May 17, 2007 - 03:52 PM
Post subject: I usually go to the forums and now ...

1) I usually go to the forums and now its pretty difficult to get there when I login. I would like to see it added to the NavBar after I login.

2) The site now feels like a great big advertisement rather than something to work in or with.

*-)

jetpen - Jun 08, 2007 - 06:47 PM
Post subject: RE: I usually go to the forums and now ...

It is very difficult to find or navigate to the forums from the front page. It took me weeks to find the new location for the forums.

digulla - Aug 09, 2007 - 03:12 PM
Post subject: RE: Last post

I have two comments regarding the new website: First, I'm missing a prominent link to the forum. Currently, there is just a tiny link at the bottom ("Support Forums").

Next, I'd like to see a bug database like Bugzilla or JIRA. Currently, it's hard to track which bugs are open, in which state each bug is (is someone working on it?) and what has been resolved. For me, the endless discussion to support Maven is the perfect argument why such a bug database would be useful. A forum just doesn't cut it in this case.

I understand that there are concerns that users will open many "bugs" which are just due to the complex nature of Eclipse and ME (ie. "please start Eclipse with -clean" or "raise MaxPermGen"). But that is easy enough to solve: Only allow members of the ME support team to open new bugs. This way, we (your customers) can vote and track the state of bugs which we care about and it would be more simple to submit patches and the like.