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New web site design - does not favour community atmosphere

I have to say that I have been visiting Medhelp a lot less since the new design. The new format emphasises adverts at the expense of community atmosphere. Removing the identity of the original poster from the main topic listing page, and having no indication of recent poster details, is depersonalising. It makes using the forum less efficient.

The question title is now the only thing that stands out (a little bit) from all the irritating advertisements. The problem is that people don't always write good meaningful titles for posts. Especially when a person is too young, sick, anxious, or English is not their first language. Taking away all the community atmosphere and focussing on misspelled drug names, hard to understand poorly constructed questions will do your advertisers a disservice as well as the communities who won't warm to the new format.

No intent to hurl personalised daggers here, but seems to me that the UI designer is a healthy commercially oriented individual who has never seriously used a health related forum. Unlike many people wanting to use Medhelp that person is likely to still have good eyesight and won't understand how a sick or older person would struggle to see the few clues still remain about the discussion activity.

A few people have bothered to complain here so you probably know that many users are unhappy with the new layout. You won't know how this depersonalised new design will hit your bottom line though, until the web page viewing statistics are available. Do you, can you, monitor those in detail? You should, because I will bet that's when you really see how the new layout will turn Medhelp into a desert. You will still get some hits from search engine indexed material for quite a while but visitors will quickly fall off when they realise that the active community has died off and Medhelp appears to be just a keyword magnet with loads of adverts. As someone with experience in this field that is what the new Medhelp looks like to me.

The UI is Responsive which is a good thing but you need active contributors to keep generating new relevant content that people want to read. Genuine focus on people is needed even more than keeping somewhat up to date with visual design trends.

Sorry to be so blunt but I will be surprised if you are successful with new design. I don't like using it at all and I have yet to see a favourable comment from users.
2 Responses
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962875 tn?1314210036
Excellent post!

I only read and reply to posts now if I can access the original version by signing out and in again a few times.

But I know one day that option will no longer be available, which is sad, because I have little interest in using the new format...
Helpful - 0
15695260 tn?1549593113
Hi there,

Thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts and opinions about the new format for the site.  If you could use the 'contact us' at the bottom of this page to provide specific feedback as to what parts of the new format that are causing you difficulty, that would be helpful.  What do you feel won't work well for you is the kind of constructive feedback that is needed.  Keep in mind that there are known bugs that are being addressed.  Also, based on member feedback, the names of the original posters will be visible.  This has been a work in progress and we've appreciated patience as things come together.  We pass on the feedback we have here but it is most helpful, again, to use the 'contact us' to directly relay your specific concerns to the design team.  Thank you
Helpful - 0

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