HRhero.com Redesign
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[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-16-03 AT 01:51PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I haven't been around in a while but I still occasionally glance at HR Hero Line every Friday when I get it in my home e-mail box. I saw the note about the redesign and decided to check it out! I missed all the bruhaha (sp?) about the accidental forum changes, but I think it looks great now that all the bugs have been worked out (or they seem worked out to me since things work okay from my home computer ... maybe others are still having trouble?).
- I love the helpful buttons at the top of every page - you can now easily get to the Subscriber Login, the Forum, the Search, Home, etc. from every page on the website.
- And the left navigational menu is easier to use (and read) than the old one.
- The HRhero.com home page ... [url]www.HRhero.com[/url] ... is tidy and organized so you can find things easily.
- And when I'm on the home page, it even says "Welcome Christy Reeder" in the Subscriber box. It's nice to be remembered ... well, okay, it's just some technical voodoo, but it's still cool and makes me feel a part of the club!
And I'd say that all the constructive criticism -- and any "fhhht-fhhht," "hiss-hiss" criticism -- translates to say somebody's doing a good job of making the website a useful tool since people care enough to respond.
Jim, Brian, James, Brad - Way to go! I know it was A LOT of hard work (and there's more to come)! Ahhhh, so glad I wasn't there to share with you. ;;)
Christy
- I love the helpful buttons at the top of every page - you can now easily get to the Subscriber Login, the Forum, the Search, Home, etc. from every page on the website.
- And the left navigational menu is easier to use (and read) than the old one.
- The HRhero.com home page ... [url]www.HRhero.com[/url] ... is tidy and organized so you can find things easily.
- And when I'm on the home page, it even says "Welcome Christy Reeder" in the Subscriber box. It's nice to be remembered ... well, okay, it's just some technical voodoo, but it's still cool and makes me feel a part of the club!
And I'd say that all the constructive criticism -- and any "fhhht-fhhht," "hiss-hiss" criticism -- translates to say somebody's doing a good job of making the website a useful tool since people care enough to respond.
Jim, Brian, James, Brad - Way to go! I know it was A LOT of hard work (and there's more to come)! Ahhhh, so glad I wasn't there to share with you. ;;)
Christy
Comments
Please don't take my positive comments wrong! You are right ... I am biased ... on both sides. I love the forum and I love the people who make it so fantastic - you guys and the programmers behind the scenes! When I worked on HRhero.com, I didn't (still don't) really think of you all as customers ... more as friends and team members with whom we work to make a fantastic online community. And I know the people who are now working behind the scenes feel the same way. I was pleased to see so much discussion about the website problems because that means you guys care!! You don't know how rare it is for the end user on a website to care enough to make the contributions you all have to this topic.
I know the web guys behind the scenes have worked long hours and had many meetings to come up with their best shot at making a more useful website ... all with past customer feedback in mind. Believe me, no sane person would go through the gyrations it takes to redesign a website unless they were doing it for the customers ... and based on customer feedback (in this case being able to find things more easily, hence the changes to the top and side menu). So they worked their tails off to try to make that better and did a great job of accomplishing good organization on the site. But (as always with technology), it inadvertently messed up another part of the picture, the forum, which just happens to be the best part of the website for you guys. Now that they have your feedback on the redesign and the forum issues to consider, they'll have to work hard to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit together better. Unfortunately, the forum is an especially complex system and can't be changed in the blink of an eye (unless of course, you don't mean to change it!).
If they don't respond to every forum post that contains feedback, I PROMISE you that they are reading every one of them and discussing them in depth and trying to figure out how to best fix any problems. I saw several responses already, but if they take the time to reply to every single post, it's taking away valuable time needed to fix the stuff, so please be patient. These are great people working behind the scenes (and yes, I'm biased x0:)), and you wouldn't believe how much other work is on their plate at the same time. Balancing everything is like a freakin' circus side show (and I know everyone on the forum can identify with that).
They might seem like an invisible "company" but they are individual, hard-working people with all the best intentions. They know you are top-notch customers and they think of you as team members, so I can imagine they might be feeling a little squashed by your continued disapproval. I haven't talked to them yet, but that's how I would feel. So I wanted to give them some good feedback on the website changes to cheer them on.
Christy
In a nutshell Christy - if the changes had been communicated - before they occurred - some of this impatience & 'outrage' could have been reduced. I have to think that when a major web design is in the works, there are discussions about the possible ramifications to the end-user. Even if the folks didn't anticipate ALL - they must have foreseen SOME & could have sent information out via email (that method works when they want to sell us something) - at the very least, an email notifying participants about the changes & that the end-user could experience technical difficulties.
As far as some potentially having squashed feelings - it happens on this forum all the time and I honestly believe, if the feedback is taken correctly by the READER (to include the site folks), then good things can come out of it. Namely, 'dang, we're never going to launch a change that way again!' After all, very seldom does good feedback come from the folks that always shake their heads 'yes' to anything that is suggested or said, it usually comes from the folks that say 'no' or 'prove it'.
Good luck in all you do - sad to hear you're not a part of the 'behind the scenes' any longer.