Discuss - new site layout

[Devhack]

Considering my experience and that of others, it does not appear that much of any customer needs analysis was done to support the site's design, and it's difficult to believe that the site's content was properly QC'd.

Given the site's significant lack of vital functionality, as well as accompanying errors (errant links, etc), it might be best to take it down and rely on the old site until this one can be re-designed with the customer in mind.

[ThorsHammer]

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Devhack wrote:

Considering my experience and that of others, it does not appear that much of any customer needs analysis was done to support the site's design, and it's difficult to believe that the site's content was properly QC'd.

Given the site's significant lack of vital functionality, as well as accompanying errors (errant links, etc), it might be best to take it down and rely on the old site until this one can be re-designed with the customer in mind.

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I think the prudent move would have been to beta test the new site, and therefore, maintain both for some period of time.

It's pretty clear that whoever designed the site has never flattened a ThinkPad and built a machine from scratch using the Windows DVD and the drivers from this site.  If they had, they never would have unleashed the site on us in this form.  In fact, before you fix everything, you should actually make them do that.  Then they will clearly see how broken it is right now.

I really hope you have this fixed by this time next week.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

devhack, thorshammer,

Good feedback, but I think you are mixing and matching considerations of design, functionality, and content.

All are important - you could have the best design, but if the drivers, tips, part lists, exploded diagrams, etc don't come through, then it doesn't work.    Conversely, we could have all the content, but if it is burried and requires many minutes of  clicking down many paths, it will frustrate users.

From a layout standpoint, the new design doesn't seem that different to me.  We will have common activities grouped on the home page, and the quick path and auto detect functions, and browse.  

A functional element of the driver matrixes went away and has now been brought back and will continue to evolve.

There are also functional requirements being shared here - the ability to sort drivers by date, etc.

Going forward in the discussion, let's really focus on design.

What are the most common tasks for users and how do they want to get to them?   What I'm reading about most, is getting to part lists, hardware maintenance manuals, and drivers, BIOS, and other needed downloads.

Can you help us move this discussion thread forward with just discussion limited to design / appearance?  We definitely want to collect feedback on links, content and functionality (sorting drivers by date, etc) in other threads.

Mark

[ConnectDon]

The new RSS feed has one design flaw compared to the old one - a generic heading / page title that does not identify the subseries:

New T61 RSS Feed (Screenshot)

Old T61 RSS Feed (Screenshot)

[Cleo_Lenovo Administrator]

Hi ConectDon,

Ha, now i see the difference. Yeah it's not good if the title never mention what sub series it is all about. Ok, i'll get the team to address your concern.

Many thanks!

Cleo

[Cleo_Lenovo Administrator]

ConnectDon,

It's been added into requirement for the next update. However, I do not have the exact time yet. But really appreciate for your feedback making the site better and better.

Cleo

[JNavas]

With all due respect, the website redesign is dreadful. For example, if I go here, I can't right click on any of the items to open them in tabs because of the use of Javascript instead of links. (And then the stupid survey opened a maximized window.)

As an IT and Web professional I would never take a website design live that wasn't 100% ready for prime time. The pain and duration of a cutover should be measured in minutes or at most a few hours, not weeks.

Delaying customer support for website redesign is a disservice to customers and a very bad idea that will now make me think twice about recommending Lenovo.

[JNavas]

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Devhack wrote:

Considering my experience and that of others, it does not appear that much of any customer needs analysis was done to support the site's design, and it's difficult to believe that the site's content was properly QC'd.

Given the site's significant lack of vital functionality, as well as accompanying errors (errant links, etc), it might be best to take it down and rely on the old site until this one can be re-designed with the customer in mind.

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Amen!

[JNavas]

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Mark_Lenovo wrote:

devhack, thorshammer,

Good feedback, but I think you are mixing and matching considerations of design, functionality, and content.

All are important - you could have the best design, but if the drivers, tips, part lists, exploded diagrams, etc don't come through, then it doesn't work.    Conversely, we could have all the content, but if it is burried and requires many minutes of  clicking down many paths, it will frustrate users.

From a layout standpoint, the new design doesn't seem that different to me.  We will have common activities grouped on the home page, and the quick path and auto detect functions, and browse.  

A functional element of the driver matrixes went away and has now been brought back and will continue to evolve.

There are also functional requirements being shared here - the ability to sort drivers by date, etc.

Going forward in the discussion, let's really focus on design.

What are the most common tasks for users and how do they want to get to them?   What I'm reading about most, is getting to part lists, hardware maintenance manuals, and drivers, BIOS, and other needed downloads.

Can you help us move this discussion thread forward with just discussion limited to design / appearance?  We definitely want to collect feedback on links, content and functionality (sorting drivers by date, etc) in other threads.

Mark

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<rant>

1. We're not "mixing" anything. We're telling you in's badly broken in pretty much all ways.
2. The layout may seem logical to you, but what matters is how it seems to us, and it's not logical to us.

3. Nothing that's gone live should be "evolving" -- it should be done!

4. We don't want cool -- we want it to work, simply and clearly.

5. Don't mix marketing and support. Keep them separate.

6. Start with a good basic Website design guide. Stick with links. Javascript should be invisible.

7. Fix Search before you do anything else. The current mismash of results is not helpful.

I could go on and on because there are so many basic flaws.

It all smacks of OJT by well-intentioned young techies that don't really know what they are doing.

</rant>

[Rleo25a]

Don't agree with jdhurst last comment on bringing Software Update to snuff, for us users, not service providers, Software Update is the easiest way to keep our equipments updated (This being one of the reasons I had to buy 7 Thinkpads in the last years ) I would recommend to match both update protocols.