Therefore, I am writing this review to help in setting member expectations.
Please note however, that these are my opinions only, and based upon a few occasions when I was fortunate enough to interact with the new application. Some of the design elements that I didn't care for may have been changed, and for noted omissions, there may be some compensating functionality that I am unaware of. Therefore, I may find that my current opinions will change after we all get to see 'the real thing' in the next day or so.
This will be a summary of my full review.
The new design for Gather is an improvement in many ways. It should make getting around a little easier for newer members, and allows Gather to spotlight a greater breadth of content than they are able to today. It will also provide a solid design platform for building additional capabilities down the road.
It is important to note that the focus of this new release is the design. Very little in the way of functionality has really changed. It LOOKS different, but is very much the same in many other respects. For example, the rating system, article editor, article search, messaging (mail), group search, and other functions are all exactly as they are today. Changes are planned (and some of them will arrive very soon), but a portion of what you see in this new release will not have changed from what you use, and abhor, currently.
(Continued Below)
Here is the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly:
(Items in each category are listed in no particular order)
The Good
The design is cleaner, more organized, and has a less cluttered appearance.
Navigation of menus for new members should be more intuitive, and experienced members now have more navigational choices.
The new Gather will provide a means for Gather Editor's to feature groups, images, tags, and members, in addition to articles.
The application will now truly 'remember' you when you select the 'Remember Me' option at sign-in.
You may now list new content (members too, I think), in addition to the 'Highest Rated', 'Most Discussed', etc. This will make it possible to now seek out new content from all members, especially those articles that have garnered no comments, or ratings.
Groups may now customize their 'brand' further through the inclusion of a large banner image across the top of the group homepage.
Group maintenance options are more organized and consolidated.
Groups, connections and subscriptions are now listed by recent content, or activity, instead of the order in which the group was created, or the connection was made.
Font size is increased slightly in the comment editor window, and the comments are displayed in a wider format.
Minor fixes have been made, like pagination options (First, Prev, Next) when listing content, and tag pages now display all groups bearing the selected tag.
There are more, but these represent the bulk of the highlights.
The Bad
Monitoring content of interest. The 'Favorite Tags' module on the current home page is no longer available. This module displays newly published articles matching a wide range of tags, which members have the ability to define. This allows us to identify new articles that match a wide range of interests at the same time. In the new release, you no longer have the ability to 'monitor' multiple tags in this way, unless you enter a long search string into Gather's article search. Otherwise, you are limited to one tag at a time.
Intuitiveness. There are several key areas where the layout and navigation are not intuitive. This will be especially important for brand new members, finding their way around. As one example, today, to get to the Gather home page, you must click on 'Home' in the upper left corner of any page. This is fairly intuitive, and an accepted standard across the web. In the new release, the word 'home' is replaced with 'Gather.com'. Hence, you must click on this name, or the Gather logo, to get to the Gather home page.
Wasted space. The my.gather.com page is the default page for all members after signing in to Gather. Much of the information provided at the top of this initial page (above the 'fold' or screen horizon), could be reduced in size significantly. Everything on this initial page is too big, and forces members to scroll down a significant distance to get to other information that is relevant. As this is the default page, space, relevance, and ease of getting to information should be given higher priority.
Relevance. This page displays my people, my groups, articles, etc. However, these sections are not displayed in their order of relevance. For example, viewing the icons of members or groups with recent activity is far less important than articles and other content. Hence, these items should be moved around or redesigned. Further, many members have connections that have a significant level of activity on Gather. Consequently, these member icons will then always appear on the my.gather.com page for these members, reducing the significance of this module (in it's current form).
Community. While the current Gather home page does have it's faults (which can easily be fixed), it also has an inherent benefit, a significant benefit, of seeing the 'community' at a glance. The new Gather does not have this option, as everything is now compartmentalized into separate menu's and listings. In my opinion, this is a step backwards, and reduces the community aspect of the application.
Cohesiveness. I appreciate the new design, and the layout and content on the new Gather home page. However, I don't see members visiting this page often (beyond the initial honeymoon period), as it doesn't tie in well with the rest of the application. This page appears to be suffering from an identity crisis, in that it 'markets' to prospective members, at the expense of current ones.
As with the good, there are more, but these constitute the major weaknesses, from my perspective.
The Ugly
I certainly don't think anything within the new Gather is ugly. As I have stated before I think that many aspects of the new layout and design are a great improvement. However, the biggest drawback for me would be finding content across several subjects I am interested in, and the perceived 'minimalization through compartmentalization' of the community.
But, I know we will love it all the same!
Hope y'all found this a little helpful.
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Comments: 21
I am a bit disappointed that some of the basic issues are not resolved, but perhaps this will happen over time.
As you state, the new release is essentially a 'design' release.
As Gather continues to grow and evolve, I do see Gather continuing to address and implement many important changes.
Thanks, Kevin, for this important and informative article.
I can't remember for sure, but as far as wasted space and the sizing, many people complained how small everything was, and wanted it larger. However, didn't Tom say something about us being able to modify the font size as we wished?
I too, was somewhat disappointed in not getting better publishing tools, and a different rating system, but mostly because so many wanted it. I thought Tom also mentioned another revision coming out at the end of the year for those?
Overall, I agree that most changes are all for ease of use of new members, than any "meat and potatoes" changes.
As far as I know, the means of identifying the 'Recommended Articles' will remain the same, until the new rating system is implemented. However, they will be listed within a separate drop-down box (as is almost everything on the new Gather). So they are not as 'in-your-face' as they are today. I am undecided as to whether that is a good thing or not.
Also, it is not font size that I have an issue with, it is 'blank' space, that could be utilized more effectively.
We're very excited about the new Carl Andre Release at Gather. While this release does not specifically address some issues like a new rating system or other improvements recently recommended by members of Gather it does set the stage for these changes to come. As Tom Gerace has stated previously we polled, surveyed, and met with thousands of our members to prioritize improvements and meet expectations. The biggest thing we heard from you was that the site is hard to navigate and feels a bit overwhelming once you arrive. We really think that this redesign offers huge improvements in this area. We know you are excited to see new search tools and other improvements and this redesign will help us get there more efficiently. As always, we look forward to your feedback and we will continue to be listening.
Jim Bostick, Gather User Experience Architect
Thank you for commenting. I am also very excited about the new release. I hope that you found my review to be fair and balanced. I tried to keep my tone as objective as possible. This new design will certainly be a significant improvement in many respects. The purpose of my article was primarily to temper expectations built up over some of the more contentious issues with the current design.
You and your team have done a tremendous job!
there are opportunities to blog globally. i've yet to find one labled "whine".
gather's a fabulous portal, but lets hope it's not some pervers attempt at internet maxisim. where else can one publish poor writing and weird photos and get a pat on the back? one snapshot of the dempgraphics of the "contributors" explains it all.
not all members were contacted.. I did not get an ivite, my Mom did and passed it on to me. when I went to the walk-tru and tried to log in with my ID and Password it refused me.
so it goes.
L.
Magi
Can Carl Andre do that? No.
Waiting for Whistler's Mother,
KR
I can't believe you don't work for Gather. I know someone suggested you contact them now that you are looking for something new, and I think it would be a good idea. Plus, the office is in a sweet spot in downtown!
Best of luck wherever the road takes you.
Katrina