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My thoughts on the new design... ugh!


binarymayhem

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This new design is horrendous!, well not all bad, but mostly.

 

I haven't had time to fully go-through the whole site as I normally would but here are my thoughts:

 

Why is the navigation bar (Learn | Play | Community | Shop) under the green bar on the top (#ctl00_siteHeader)? This is such a waste of space and completely unnecessary.

 

After clicking Community > Refer a Friend the spacing in the navigation bar is not uniform to the rest of the site.

 

Play > Hide a Geocache. This page wastes sooo much vertical space. Do I need to see a place holder for a video to hide a geocache? This is ridiculous.... I could see maybe if it was the 1st cache I have hidden... but stick that crap in the database... and if I have seen the video or checked a box "don't show this again" get rid of it! The same goes for "take the quiz" content.

I think you should unify the Create a geocache and Create an event into a single page... and make a decent workflow processes to work through these options. Your making us scroll ALL the way to the bottom to hide a geocache!?!

 

Play > View Geocache Map or by searching off the main page and mapping this location make the navigation menu disappear. The navigation menu should be up in the green bar (#ct100_siteHeader) and always be available.

 

The 2 types of searching is confusing... The new search does not work by itself.... and really needs to maintain the main functionality of the existing search. While the new search has some cool features, I would never use it as the main search. Also, the new search page is laid out poorly...

 

The old sub nav bar "quick view" is extremely useful (or parts of it are) and seems to have gotten kicked to the curb in a place I least expected to find it... by clicking on my name in the upper right. I feel those quick view items should appear in the drop down next to my name in the upper right and be as follows: Recently Viewed, Your Geocaches, (Your)Trackables, (Your) Tractable inventory, Trackables Collection, Souvenirs, Statistics, Benchmarks, Friends, Lists, Settings, Log Out. Field Notes, and Pocket Queries should be moved from the navigation menu Play to here too as they belong to me.

 

Play > Find a Geocache is a bit redundant.. The find a geocache page should pull up the cache page if you search for a GCID. I feel most people will either log geocaches by scrolling around and clicking on the map or electronically logging from GSAK or some other tool. The main problem here is that most GPSs by default prominently show the geocache name and not the GCID number add to the fact that most people will recall the name before some random string of numbers and since you can't log without a GCID I feel most people won't use it. Also, the page suffers a cosmetic issue in "span-11 last InformationWidget FloatContainer" you have a spacing issue. the box reads: "Search for Geocachesnear your home location".

 

I feel these UI changes seem a bit rushed and unpolished and were never beta tested by subset of geocaching community. It feels like I spend more time clicking/scrolling to navigate the site which is a major turn off. If having a group of users beta test is something you would be interested in doing, I would be more than happy to volunteer as long as I could switch back to the normal UI.

 

anyway, this is just my .02 take it or leave it.

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It does seem like there are a lot of changes happening, or in the works. I don't have enough history with the site to know how frequently they've done major 'remodels' in the past, but I gather from the comments in these Forums that big changes are not frequent.

 

Perhaps these changes are related to the 15 year anniversary of geocaching? I don't really mind the latest website redesign, as it doesn't seem too radically different. My biggest gripe is the find count font color, which isn't a major item.

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:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

The new GUI is absolutely horrible.

 

Add ons like GC little helper don't work anymore.

 

Iphone app like Looking4Cache can't be found on GC.com site.

 

Other Apps don't work anymore.

 

While using the search function and switching to map function it is noch possible to create any PQ from map site (the tool bar at the left site of the page is totally missing)

 

Why isn't it possible to create a PQ of the shown filtered cache list. This would be very helpful and avoid downloading caches you really don't need.

 

Why isn't it possible to use search function page with a GC-Code (you are looking only for 1 cache and not for any other result, this function should be added by any filter and not in general)

 

Why isn't it possible to create an PQ from my filtered searching results?

 

Why is the map toolbar only shown when i'm changing to map by using search function at the gc.com mainpage?

 

Searching results from mainpage have still the old design and are not adapted to new search-function styleguide.

 

Using "play" and "view map" searching by GC-Code is not possible. some citys in germany are existing more than one time. It is not possible to select anything (example Meckenheim postal code 53340 and 67149)

 

Why isn't it possible to use the same filter functions for "find a geocache" and "View a geocache map"?

 

my routes function:

Why isn't it possible to delete any of my not public shared created routes (this could save many data storage)?

 

I think this should be enough for first comment

B)

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[...] my routes function:

Why isn't it possible to delete any of my not public shared created routes (this could save many data storage)?

 

I think this should be enough for first comment

B)

 

Yes, and a lot of your thoughts are just wrong.

Example re route deleting:

1. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/userroutes.aspx

2. Hit the Your Created Routes tab.

3. Click on a route's name.

4. Scroll down and hit the button Delete Route.

 

Happy Learning

Hans

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Basic principle: form follows function...

 

I have to agree: the new website design is really not an improvement - in so many ways...

Instead of making clever use of available space, content is now stretched across the screen, making it even harder to navigate the site.

It seems that Groundspeak did not consider adapting "recent" web design principles, the site is not even responsive (note: we are in year 2015, responsive design is a no-brainer nowadays).

I really would like to be able to customize the look&feel of my personal start page (this concept is also pretty common) and I would expect that website features are somehow grouped in a clever way. But this has not been adressed.

The header is annoying, since it only shows a link to my profile. Even the old design was way better in this respect. So so many things that could have been improved and it would have been a great (and cheap) idea to ask the community for design proposals...

 

I am pretty sure that we will see a re-design in the near future...

 

Best,

Steilwand

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Hate the new website design!!! Why on earth would anyone redesign the site to waste all of the space at the top of the pages and force us to scroll down to get to anything important? Not to mention that the new look is UGLY! Can't we go back to GREEN? Where the heck did Quick View go? It's now anything but "quick" and not at all intuitive to locate. Fire the designers and let's go retro eh. Someone obviously had way too much time on their hands and didn't consult the users. MEH :(

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I found "Lists" after I posted the query. Formerly it was a drop tab. I went into my upcoming Event and saw that my two Bookmarks were listed so I knew the Bookmarks were still there - somewhere. I started exploring the web site. I never used my Profile before to find the Bookmarks. Seems like every day there are more changes to Groundpeak web site. I just have to figure out how things work - or don't work.

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I am pretty sure that we will see a re-design in the near future...

I'm pretty sure we won't. For better or worse, once Groundspeak sets off down a particular path, they rarely turn back.

 

...even if there's a horde of people standing along the side of the path waving, screaming, and warning Groundspeak not to keep going...

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I have to say I really don't like this new design either

 

way too much wasted screen space on a widescreen monitor, lets face it nearly everyone has widescreen now so not having the site auto re-size itself is crazy.

 

I don't like the minimalist design, it makes the site look cheap and unprofessional IMO

 

Since this is the only official geocaching site I really hope they are not adopting the Facebook attitude towards changes, if it ain't broke fix it till it is.

 

The site looked good and worked fine the way it was I really see no need for this change other than because we can.

 

oh and I will just add to this that as a premium member I don't feel I should have to look at banner ads

Edited by larkspeed
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seems like websites have to keep changing for the sake of change. new design looks basic and bare bones, great if you are visiting for the first time, but frustrating if you are a regular user. Why don't you have an ability to "use Old" and monitor use to understand your customers rather than imposing new changes. The search function now appears to be less useful. Please revert to the old style or give me a choice or an ability to customise.

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hello Groundspeak, what have you done? If I think to the changes since 2011/2012. geocaching.com gets less and less useable.

 

the two green ribbons on the top of the page made the navigation on the page on touch screens more and more difficult. sometimes you opened wrong pages, because you expanded a menue.

Now you took away the smaller and brighter green menue bar. The upper one has only one item on the right side. Why? The new white one - where ends the menu, where starts the page? push the menu items back into the dark green menu. Don't waste space.

 

wasting space and getting bad sable menus.

what have you done with "finding" and "hiding" a cache? Where are the old pages? the new ones aren't visceral. and.. they're wasting a lot of space on a monitor. The old pages had a structure. You could enter all informations you needed. I was happy of being able to search on a smartphone too. the new searching page is on a smartphone.. umh.. ahh.. please give us back a normal page. "clicking" on the menu items is gambling. Searching a location wont work on pc and smartphone.

 

you should better increase the server power. In germany we can't use geocaching.com in the evening. We have to wait wait wait.... If you are out with you're smartphone this get bigger problem: bad radio network and bad server connection.

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Since this is the only official geocaching site

It is?! :ph34r:

 

Yes PLEASE let us all know. When you're the Only game in town you can make your own rules. Love em or Leave em is I guess what the powers that be think (I hope that's not true).

We lost the Virtual caches - won't see those come back even though I've not ever heard why they were discontinued. Anyone know the reason behind that?

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seems like websites have to keep changing for the sake of change. new design looks basic and bare bones, great if you are visiting for the first time, but frustrating if you are a regular user. Why don't you have an ability to "use Old" and monitor use to understand your customers rather than imposing new changes.

Noticed a lackey came in a few times over the years, and expressed changes made were due to monitoring, and questions/issues raised through the Help Center.

- With the majority of users never entering the forums (to kinda keep track) with issues, that's probably true.

I believe removal of "Newest In..." on profiles was the latest.

 

Though as a dyslexic "long time" user (going by memorization to play) and everything's changed at once, I agree it's frustrating.

Edited by cerberus1
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I agree with everything the OP said.

 

I am not a fan of this change.

- The green bar across the top serves no purpose; the logo and menu links should be moved up and incorporated into this bar.

- You need to re-add the quick links to access Geocaches (Yours) and Trackables (Yours).

- There is too much white space on the main menu.

- The green bar across the top when viewing the map is unnecessary and takes up valuable screen real estate.

- Overall, the old version was a whole lot better. It made better use of the available screen space and all of the pages I wanted to visit were accessible from the main page.

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This new design is horrendous!, well not all bad, but mostly.

...

 

The old sub nav bar "quick view" is extremely useful (or parts of it are) and seems to have gotten kicked to the curb in a place I least expected to find it... by clicking on my name in the upper right. I feel those quick view items should appear in the drop down next to my name in the upper right and be as follows: Recently Viewed, Your Geocaches, (Your)Trackables, (Your) Tractable inventory, Trackables Collection, Souvenirs, Statistics, Benchmarks, Friends, Lists, Settings, Log Out. Field Notes, and Pocket Queries should be moved from the navigation menu Play to here too as they belong to me.

 

Absolutely agree and just came to the forum to lodge my complaint today, as I expected others would have been here first and was right.

 

100% agree with just about everything said particularly viewing our own stats.

 

I can see that it's clean and slick now, but why does it need to be? Same old thing most websites (which seem to be run by young hipsters) are doing all the time "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The website was absolutely fine. Now I hate using it. And it is NOT because of the change in general, it's because it's been oversimplified and is now harder to navigate.

 

Bah humbug.

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ok.. I'm filling in a new multicache.

 

the new forms are terrible. I pushed the forms forward, so I get a listing page. With that, I use the three normal menus on the right side: "Edit, Edit Attributes, Waypoints"

 

nothing else makes sense.

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I have to say I really don't like this new design either

 

way too much wasted screen space on a widescreen monitor, lets face it nearly everyone has widescreen now so not having the site auto re-size itself is crazy.

 

I don't like the minimalist design, it makes the site look cheap and unprofessional IMO

 

I would argue that not everyone does have a widescreen monitor. I don't know the stats, but the designers will have some idea - but I know I use the site on desktop and tablet machines. I use a variety of screen widths - frankly anyone designing only for super wide monitors is going to create massive horizontal scroll issues.

 

Even when I do have a wider screen monitor I'm very, very rarely using a maximised browser window. The site works fine if I do and also if I don't. That's actually good design.

 

On a tablet, either landscape or portrait, there's just about enough space on the screen. It works, more or less, portrait - displaying the entire homepage (with a tiny amount of horizontal scrolling) and the menu bar which many people seem to getting all hung up about, is spot on for a tablet - and, like it or not, tablet browsing is here to stay. The bigger buttons help as well - the old ones were tricky. Sure they're a bit on the large size for a desktop, but not hideously so. There are some elements on the search screens that might not be ideal on a landscape view - those might want a bit of attention - but in general it's a pretty sound middle ground. And, frankly, it looks a little more modern.

 

If I were to be super-critical I'd argue that the font/colour combination used for showing the find total isn't clear enough and the light grey used under the "Most popular searches" boxes on the Find... page is far too light - creating some usability/accessibility issues. Those, imo, could use fixing (there are some search page issues as well, but those are more specific).

 

And, of course, I don't like the big old Upgrade box I get on every page. But I can ignore that easily enough.

 

On the whole though it's pretty sound.

 

oh and I will just add to this that as a premium member I don't feel I should have to look at banner ads

 

If anything I think I'm seeing less adverts now - certainly the search results page no longer has them. Not that I mind adverts that much - I can just block them if they get annoying.

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There are so many complaints about the new layout of the website.

Let me list everything I find an improvement and what I really like:

...

 

Done!

The rest has been said.

 

I'm working in the IT department of a global company and I believe I know what I'm talking about. This new design should have gone to a test environment or QA-System first. Then let the users on that system in order to get feedback and to make adjustments before go-live on a productive system.

 

I strongly suggest a roll-back!

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Hate the new site design. Just from a visual perspective, the graphics borders on the old site were great. The new site layout looks like the first basic example from a bootstrap CSS how-to wiki. No character at all. Most of us still use real computers at home. This site was clearly designed for phone users and not computer users. But real geo-geeks use real computers, not phones. Let the phone apps handle the phone people and leave the website setup for computer users.

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The new design gives some problems.

A the map view has changed, before the hyper links where previously in the green top bar, now they are on the map, in white.

and there fore not readable in Firefox. so change font colour, or please place back in the green bar.

 

2445bb86-6c0c-49fb-9541-2066acfb173f.jpg

 

B The button to change from map view to satellite view does not work. so no satellite view.

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The new design gives some problems.

A the map view has changed, before the hyper links where previously in the green top bar, now they are on the map, in white.

and there fore not readable in Firefox. so change font colour, or please place back in the green bar.

 

2445bb86-6c0c-49fb-9541-2066acfb173f.jpg

 

B The button to change from map view to satellite view does not work. so no satellite view.

Do you have some sort of helper script running in your browser? I think that's more likely to be at fault - my maps are working perfectly. I don't remember there being links in the green bar at any point fwiw - there aren't any on any of the screenshots I have on my desktop from a fortnight or so ago.

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Hate the new site design. Just from a visual perspective, the graphics borders on the old site were great. The new site layout looks like the first basic example from a bootstrap CSS how-to wiki. No character at all. Most of us still use real computers at home. This site was clearly designed for phone users and not computer users.

I suspect it was much more likely to have been designed for tablet and phone users - perhaps even with the emphasis on tablet. Given that tablets are pretty darned important these days I'd say that might well justify any relatively minor changes made to the positioning of nav bars and the like. And they really are quite minor you know - if people shriek and scream at such relatively small changes then when there's a more significant issue (as with search, for example) it gets lost - the same sorts of people saying they "hate" it...

 

Of course, I don't have the demographic and technical data. But I'd bet tablets have become a much higher proportion of the browsing stats over the last 2 years. Anyone not designing with at least half an eye on them is daft,

 

But real geo-geeks use real computers, not phones. Let the phone apps handle the phone people and leave the website setup for computer users.

As far as I'm aware real geo-geeks probably use a whole raft of kit. Fwiw I use tablet, phone, widescreen and narrow laptop screens - and at least 4 different browsers and multiple OS. It all seems to work fine as far as I can tell in all of those and has lost no functionality in any as far as I can tell - and is a functional improvement in some.

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Of course, I don't have the demographic and technical data. But I'd bet tablets have become a much higher proportion of the browsing stats over the last 2 years. Anyone not designing with at least half an eye on them is daft,

 

Ok but what you seem to be missing is that it is one simple line of code in the style sheet to make the size re-size itself based in the screen resolution it is being viewed on.

 

If that one line of code was included a lot of these complaints including mine would stop, I hate wasted screen space.

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Of course, I don't have the demographic and technical data. But I'd bet tablets have become a much higher proportion of the browsing stats over the last 2 years. Anyone not designing with at least half an eye on them is daft,

 

Ok but what you seem to be missing is that it is one simple line of code in the style sheet to make the size re-size itself based in the screen resolution it is being viewed on.

 

If that one line of code was included a lot of these complaints including mine would stop, I hate wasted screen space.

I'm not sure, given the nature of the content they're placing on pages, that there's much point in doing that is there?

 

And that's before I turn JavaScript off...

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I don't find the new look as horrible as most of the posters. Taken by surprise when it appeared, but some nice elements to it.

 

However one spot that definitely needs some work is at the top part of the screen. The user name and number of caches found appears on the right top. For those of us with longer names, this means the name gets wrapped around and then the number of caches found appears white on white - almost unreadable. Some screens are different, though, and obviously give more space up there, as the name stays on one line and the caches found is clearly readable against the green background, as I am sure was intended.

 

I presume Groundspeak will take this into consideration with their next update? Thanks.

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I can muddle my way around the new design and find things easy enough, but the satellite view of the map is horrible now. You used to be able to zoom in quite nicely to spot landmarks or cord locations, all the map options I tried have OLD images and no tight zooming. Please add google maps or something !!!

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