anime - amatsuki - smile - summer

LJ's fiddling with the profiles again...

grrliz pointed out that LJ is redesigning the profile pages and anyone can check it out by sticking "?ver=2008" to the end of a profile page web address.

I think I would like to have the profile with username on the top left, the buttons for add a friend, message etc. on the top right, the bio on the left and all the other stuff (name, email, birthday, schools, memories etc.) in a floaty box down the right. Beneath all that would be the friends/comms/feeds stuff.

However, if all the misc stuff needs to go across the top, then...
Current Beta:



My Quickie Alternative:


Please note that it is now early morning and I didn't bother spending much time doing the mock up.

On one hand, yeah, the old profile works fine and why mess with that? On the other hand, I love redesigns done right. An example of this would be DeviantART - they just launched version 6 of the site and...me like :)
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    elvenmuggle21
    Aww rats. Your version is much better than their ugly one, but I like the way the profiles are now :(
    gossymer
    Yeah, there is so much other stuff they could focus on - the suggestions community is bursting at the seams but they ignore it in favor of THIS? WTF.
    meiface
    I wouldn't mind a redesign. I like the new thing that shows how long a user's been on lj, how many posts they've made, etc. being available near the top (because I'm curious like that lol), but I'm iffy on some of the placements of things. I like yours better too. :D

    Name/birthdate/contact should be available near the top, moreso than memories/to-do-lists/wtf.

    /2 cents
    gossymer
    When I look at LJ, the site is so very outdated in terms of design when you compare it to other blogging services Why can't they get a decent new design - something innovative instead of one that seems like a step in the wrong direction?

    Yeah, I look for the name and age first - not to do lists *sigh*
    dreamon_dreamer
    def like your version more. they need to hire you.
    the dA new version also looks very shiny. i was lost this morning when i clicked, didn't even realize it's that time of year again. i'll have to play around over there and see what all they changed.
    gossymer
    I wish they'd take contributions/ideas from users because the stuff they come up with just looks so...blah. Or at least ask peeps at design sites for advice/opinions. LJ loks so incredibly outdated in the world of blogging.
    dreamon_dreamer
    wooooord. they're majorly slacking in the design dept. this whole place is outdated, i'd say the most outdated in the world of blogging. thank goodness the range of ways to customize your own lj is so open, i feel i might have lost interest a long time ago if i was stuck with just their layouts.

    Edited at 2008-07-16 11:48 pm (UTC)
    gossymer
    Most peeps seem to be going if it ain't broke don't fix it and I do think LJ could have gone to the suggestions cmmunity and implemented some of the ideas over there which are actually NEEDED - unlike a profile page revamp which isn't really when you get down to it.
    daisy_chan
    Agreed. I don't like how that box is just sitting there to the left with that big open space to the right :/
    quivo
    I don't know, I think I actually like their version a bit better, despite the fugly thing they did with the buttons. I wish they'd just let those buttons just be text alone instead-- two (three?) years and I'm still never certain what to click on to do something. Imho, if you wanted to use the whitespace by the box at the top more efficiently, you'd want to widen the box at the top and stick in stuff that way. I do like the grey border you used for the box better though.
    gossymer
    I just really hate the way my eye runs all over the page on the new beta, without knowing where to settle.

    For the icons on the top right, I'd really like to have them a bit bigger and with labels underneath and then yeah, the box for that could stretch for the other things.

    Alternatives:

    Lj number, blog info in the floaty right box and name, birthdate etc. on the left instead.

    The best option might be:

    Name, birth etc | Lj number, icon etc | Tools (mems, scrapbook etc)

    That would be three columns, with the second and third columns just being float boxes. If someone has a lot of schools etc, this would prevent white space. And for communities the Bio would be the first thing seen on the left which is something I'd appreciate.
    scoradh
    OH MY GOD THAT'S HORRIFIC. ALL THAT IRRELEVANT SHIT - MEMORIES AND VGIFTS? - SPLASHED ACROSS THE TOP? WHAT? And the bio relegated to the middle somewhere - that's like the most important part. They better be giving options on this, jesus.
    gossymer
    I usually check memories on communities (especially uh, sharing communities) and it's nice to have all the misc info a the top - I just wish they'd makeit so it wouldn't take so much godawful space. They could hide the schools and other info under a 'more' buton, which when clicked, wouldn't reload the page but would just unhide the other info. That way the bio could be close to the top still.
    bluebombardier
    Dear LJ,

    You are not Facebook. Please stop.

    God, that's ugly. I wish they'd give us some rein in customizing the profile pages. Who the hell is on their design team, anyway? More goats?
    gossymer
    I really don't know why the design team can't come up with something that looks decent - or at least ask either community members or peeps on design sites for ideas/advice. LJ always looks so...dated. And any attempts to 'update' the look seems like a step in the wrong direction more often than not.
    ivles
    They have tried to change Profile pages previously and people just said it's horrible (I quote: Looked like facebook and myspace clone XD).

    I say this is not better than ver=ng and ver=v2 previously, but it's like a compromise between the two (sadly I don't have a screencap and both are no longer working).

    I think this one is better, although it has flexible width that may not be for everyone.
    gossymer
    I think of it as a work in progress with a long way to go. I just wish they'd do a design contest or activity ask for design ideas, contributions which they don't *ignore* I'd love to see a pretty revamp of LJ but so far, most redesigns haven't really been that great :(
    ivles
    There has been, two years ago, when ver=ng shows up, people gave almost 61 pages of comments and a lot of them how to improve the user profile. I guess LJ current designer forgot them :-(

    And, bless this kid who actually took screencap of ver=ng:
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/milkshakebutterfly/stuff/newuserinfo.jpg

    ver=v2 is something grrliz flipped out which was good but I'm not sure why it has never been public. This is much much better.
    gossymer
    OMG, yes, grrliz's was the one that worked much better and I couldn't place in my mind since it's been so long - why on earth haven't they used stuff like that to improve the profile area? I mean seriously, SO MUCH MORE FUNCTIONAL. And yes,BIO ON TOP.

    LJ never seems to actually *use* the feedback given - it's like, if anyone comments negatively, they're ignored. So why bother asking for feedback in that case *sigh*

    61 pages *shakes head despondently*
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