- jzarazua
- January 10, 2013 at 6:29 am
- 50 comments
Our Redesign With You In Mind
After a few months of hard work we are proud to present to you the new design for usedvictoria.com.
So what’s new?
Besides the overall improved usability and look, you are now able to create profiles with pictures as a seller so your potential buyers can check you out, along with your other ads, this makes for a more trustworthy exchange
We also made it easier to post your ads and interact with the sellers by cleaning up the messaging and adding FAQs in the sidebar (If you have any suggestions for a question, let us know)
“This will ruin everything!” -Facebook commenter
Just like you, we really liked how the site worked, nothing too fancy, straight to the point, so we tried our best to keep this ease of use in the new design. From user testing and our beta launch, we confirmed that most users find the new look cleaner and more intuitive. Some of our useful features are now easier to find, and we’d like you to try them out:
What was wrong with the old design?
As the years passed we added new features to the website based on your feedback, and more often than not the new stuff was patched in, leaving us with a functional, but less than optimal experience, especially for new users.
Now that we have this sleek look, we will be adding more things you have suggested, like favourites lists, easier alerts, more sites, etc.
We hope this makes a better experience for you.
Jose Zarazua
Development Lead
- Posted in:
- Blog
50 comments!
The ads are now NOT as easy to browse. Bad move. They’re too big.
Way to go Jose & The rest of the team. The new design looks awesome
What’s with all the white space? Make the ads wider and shorter to see more on one page.
And: Why load a whole new page when viewing photos? Pain.
… To clarify: Why load a whole new page to view EACH photo?
I agree. There’s too much white space between the ads. I don’t want to scroll trough white space, I want to scroll through ads.
Brock, from testing, we found that ads are easier to browse for most users. It’s hard to please everybody but we’re trying. The photos have always loaded on a separate page.
I can see only 3 ads at a time on my laptop. That’s a lot of scrolling. It’s just not as fun to scroll through now.
Nice work otherwise.
Thanks Shannan! we’re pretty excited at the office.
Too much white space, looks really clinical and square… no style.. but what do I know as a retired Graphic artist who worked with some of the largest clients in BC
Cheers;)
Too much white space, looks barren, clinical and square… no style.. From a retired Graphic artist who worked with some of the largest clients in BC.
Cheers;)
How come now all my ads show my Username…it didn’t before and I considered that to be private? Other ads don’t have to show a name. How can I remove that and just leave it like before showing the municipality I’m in?
While I like a clean design, the amount of whitespace is too much. The site now requires much more scrolling than the old design and is more annoying to use.
Don’t like it. Please go back to the old design. Looks like the “UsedCowichan” design that I haven’t liked since it showed up.
My goodness this redesign is terrible. It’s all whitespace and hardly any Ads. It’s scroll scroll scroll all the time, and horribly faded and washed out colours with no contrast. I complained when you guys screwed over the UsedVancouver & UsedNanaimo sites, now you’ve screwed the UsedVictoria site. This redesign is really hampering site usability. And I hate purple.
Damn it, increase the bloody contrast, everything is eye-weepingly faint. And is this weird ad-spacing because you think everyone browses using a tablet and fat-fingers? It really looks terribly washed out.
Oh man, the more I try to use this the more horrible it get. Why are the listings of the Ads so narrow horizontally and so tall vertically? Most of the time the list of adverts doesn’t take up more than half the width of the screen, with empty white psace everywhere else, and a page that’s hugely longer to scroll through. I can see the faster and clearer CL getting more traffic in Victoria.
Not loving the new look. Too much white space for easy browsing of ads. I liked looking through the sellers tab. It’s gone. When posting a new ad, I can no longer see all my ad text at the same time. I have to scroll through it to see the text I’m adding. It’s clunky. The site has needed a redesign for a long time but you’ve still got a way to go.
Thanks for not posting my reply. Guess you want a majority of positive responses?
Nevermind. I see it now.
I love the site and use it regularly.
The faster and easier the site is to use the more I will use it.
Selectable colours or block-able purple would be great.
Classified ads are expected to be information dense and text searchable, adding white space slows that down (which for many of us means more ad blocking to compensate for the slow down).
It’s nice, but the color is terrible. It makes it look like a mid 2000′s Yahoo! site.
I agree with the other people here, way too much wasted web page, would rather be able to see 50 or 100 ads per page.
Should have another reason for reporting ads, and that is “ads for similar items”.
Also after reporting an ad and hitting the “send” button there should be a one clik way to get back to the original full page of ads.
Same with the jpegs, why open up in another window?, it was fine the way it was.
If it ain’t broke why fix it???
Sorry
what a crappy redesign! .. why cant we choose how many ads to display at once .. Craigslist does a hundred .. this is just going to push people there ..
please changed it back uck
Liked the old format much better…..
i do not like this new usedottawa website. its alot harder to browse, everything is alot bigger. please cange back to orginal
Just tried searching for some items. The ad titles are too small and not sufficiently differentiated from the body of the text below. Scanning titles is difficult.
Tried it on my blackberry, the contrast is hard on the eyes. Wonder how Kijiji is doing……
I DO NOT like this new design. It is very hard to read. I thought at first that my monitor had gone wonky.
Please change it back.
So now after checking on my Blackberry and then my PC, I see that even your own photo snaps of how to use your site are blurry. By the time I enlarge it to read it eitheir unledgible or get a view to large to read. Any comments from commercial ad buyers?
Thanks for all your feedback, everyone! All your comments are being read by the web development team and we’ll be writing a post to answer questions, address concerns etc soon. In the meantime, a couple of things to consider:
- We value your feedback. We want your feedback. So, thank you for taking the time to provide it!
- Try to play nice. We’ve had a few comments sent from the same IP address using multiple handles… Of course, we know this can be for a myriad of reasons – but a few of those comments had to be deleted due to some not very family friendly-like language. We love the fact that you have strong opinions about us, but let’s keep it clean.
- When viewing the new design on Blackberry or other smart phone, keep in mind we haven’t released our mobile site yet. We’re working on it. In the meantime, we do have apps for iPhone, iPad & Android that you can download here:http://www.usedeverywhere.com/downloads/
That’s all for now! Annnd keep the comments coming!
Jennifer – Community Manager, UsedEverywhere.com
One of the features I liked in the old design was that when you returned to the list after looking at a specific item, it returned you to where you were in the list. Now when you click “return to Ad listings” it just takes you back to the top of that page, which then means that you have to scroll down to where you were. Any chance of putting that feature back? Just a small thing, but handy.
Otherwise, it looks fine. It will take a while to get used to, but everybody will eventually. It’s still far superior to Craigslist, IMO.
Graphically clean but not compressed vertically enough to scroll many quickly, how about more than 25 at a time ? Too faint, even the type in this feedback is faded ! For individual listing you need a MAJOR fix, sellers info is now not inline with ad so can’t print it in a handy form. Infact we NEED a printable option. When shopping for larger items, vehicles and such one does alot of comparison shopping, you often want printouts. In IE I’ve had to select the add, less commercial ads and print selected, not possible in FF, so really want a printable option WITHOUT all the commercials.
Please change it back to the original design. Much easier on the eyes and easier to browse ads.
Speaking as someone who loves UsedVic and has used it for household items, costume supplies, selling, searches for friends, etc I find this to be very hard on the eyes over time.
The colours are wishy washy at best and without enough contrast. The ads themselves take much longer to scroll through, and am I missing the view sellers other items? I can not for the life of me find that feature. I have always enjoyed usedvic over other sites and the ease of use was part of that. This is awful.
If your updating your site, I’ve suggested several times to have page numbers. After pressing next so many times when browsing catagories and hit close page for some reason, you have to click next page and wait for each to open individually each one instaed of going back to (page 35, 36, 37…. for example).
I browse usedregina almost dailly and like the site in general, the new contrast in color is purple on my screen. maybe if it was abit darker or the grey worked good.
Excuse me, but where the hell is the link to the list of other items from a seller? That was a very useful link.
I *really* don’t like the new site. It’s really awkward.
Same issue here. Where do you find “View other sellers items”?
Not liking all the white space and faint colours either
I just tried to post an ad using my iPad and when I tried to edit my pictures it came up as a pop-up that was too big for my screen, but I couldn’t navigate or make small so I couldn’t edit and just had to close my browser right out and lost my ad. So basically I’m unable to post an ad using my iPad because when I uploaded my pictures they were cropped in weird places and I can’t change that without getting stuck in the popup window.
the idea is to keep us clicking and scrolling , clicking and scrolling , clicking and scrolling.When viewing the ad,why not have drop down boxes to send all the info to all the parties ,with one click.The link ,Contact Seller,beside share,pin it ect,is not working.
- I would like to see each page numbered and a way of tagging the ads so I could bring them up in a search.
- I also miss, after viewing an ad, returning to that ad when you go back to the list view. I use the BACK button on my browser now.
- I agree with all the others about the amount of white space and lack of contrast. There are separate apps for smart phones could there not be an app for tablets too?
way too much wasted white space. More scrolling and clicking to see fewer ads.
Bad use of wasted real estate. Would much rather see more ads than white space. I won’t use it anymore and move to Craigslist.
When I listing an ad today, I looked at the finished product. The majority of the title is covered by Facebook, PInterest and other buttons. I can’t see my own title to check it for accuracy. Thumbs down.
For the love of god, at least change the colors. The washed out 2000′s Yahoo! look gives me a headache after a few minutes.
Wow, these comments certainly reinforce the fact that design is subjective and people with negative opinions are really keen to voice them. Everyone’s a designer!
I’ve been looking forward to this design being rolled out since I noticed it on UsedCowichan a while ago. Unlike many of the commenters here, I love the amount of white space used. I’d much rather scroll a bit more if it means I can actually scan the ads faster. Hooray for a proper grid style sheet! I will say, I think the sharing toolbar and the Facebook panel have a bit too prominent a placement.
I’m not entirely keen on the several-shades-of-purple colour scheme. I know it’s your corporate colour and all, but I agree that maybe some complimentary colours would help define certain parts of the site. (Like the supposedly hard-to-find Seller’s List). I’m amused by all the cries for “more contrast!” Because jet black text on a searing white background is so much easier on the eyes…?
Where I’d love to see some enhancements made is in the actual backend of the ads system. I find the filtering and search options to be far too limited. If I’m searching for a car, I should be able to filter by a range of years, and it would be nice if the “Make” selector didn’t just do a keyword search. If I’m looking for a Honda, I want to find a Honda; not an ad where someone has said “This Chevrolet is just as reliable as a Honda”. I know it’s annoying when people say “You should do things the way site {x} does, because I like it better”, but Kijiji really has a far better filtering system.
I’m not sure if it’s even possible with the way your system works, but it would be fantastic if ads were cross-posted from other UsedEverywhere sites and searchable by distance. Being from Victoria, if I’m looking to buy a car, I’d like to search the island up to, say, Nanaimo. It would be nice if I could just use UsedVictoria, set my search radius to 100 km and get results from UsedCowichan and UsedNanaimo mixed into my results, rather than having to do the same search on each individual site.
Thanks, and keep up the good work. Illegitimi non carborundum!
…I do find it amusing that despite me liking the whitespace, all of the line breaks in my comment were stripped out.
Hi,
I’m trying to sign up, but i’m still waiting for your conformation email to get validated. ( More than 30 min. now)
Can you help me out?
Thanks
As a successful seller for a number of years and having comments
on our great pictures, that we pre edited and reduced the resolution on, and
the frame dimensions were not a problem. I saw no advice from you on
what the exact dimensions are to fit your window. Your editing program
is limited,( resizing ) we are very capable of doing this ourselves. Go back
to your original format. Your design team needs to listen to the majority and go
back where we were satisfied.
Bad picture format
Hello!? New format still sucks. Slow & awkward to scroll & browse.