Looks like Kickstarter rolled out a new layout today for their project pages. The first thing I noticed was that the share buttons under the main project image are gone and have been moved a little further down into one button that says Share. When you click the Share button you see the FB, Twitter, etc... options. I think this will result in projects getting a lot less shares than before when the buttons were front and center under the image. What are your thoughts?
Mark - Co-Founder
BackerClub.co
New Layout
This is one of the most drastic changes to the site I've experienced. I see its purpose is to try to have a cool transition between the main page, updates and comments.
On Monday I noticed they added a new Tumblr button. Tuesday added the big format changes.
There is the "Story, Updates, Comments" bar that follows me as a scroll down. That bar also has "Back This Project" and "Remind me" buttons. The usefulness of the "Back This Project" button there is questionable. People can just click the reward tiers. I wonder if the "Remind Me" button being so prominently featured will improve last 48 hour surges. On projects I've backed the right side of that bar no longer has the "Back This Project" button.
In the updates section, they've added a "Photos" thing in the sidebar. When I clicked one the image that campaign had posted filled up the screen and I couldn't see the bottom half with no ability to scroll down the image because that scrolled the page. I would appreciated a full table of contents for the project updates more.
The "1, 2, 3 ... 9, 10" buttons for comment pages seem to be gone. This makes navigating to the earliest comments on a project more difficult. Kickstarter making it more difficult to hold discussions in the comments section may actually be a plus for BackerClub.
It seems to be taking longer to load pages. Anyone else notice that? It keeps snapping me back to the the line below the project thumbnail if I started scrolling before the page finished loading. Is this what others are referring to as the bouncing? I find that annoying because I now have to wait a second or two longer before skimming a page.
Less of the bottom of project thumbnails is cut off in the Discover section. Avatar images are still cropped into circles.
One of the first things I checked was what happened to the project shortlink. It can still be found with Tweet button in the new "Share this project" button. I hope they add more sharing options for more sites. They should be displaying the project shortlink there. It is strange that they still aren't displaying it.
I looked back at old screenshots of project pages. The font size for project titles has been slightly reduced.
The end date is still displayed, but not the start date. This is going to harm campaigns running shorter than 30 days because they look like they are already stalled out when they are really just hours old.
The new recommendation engine is in the page after confirming a new pledge. I wonder if that will be effective.
I dislike some of the difficulties created for quickly browsing around. This is not as bad as YouTube's redesigns.
On Monday I noticed they added a new Tumblr button. Tuesday added the big format changes.
There is the "Story, Updates, Comments" bar that follows me as a scroll down. That bar also has "Back This Project" and "Remind me" buttons. The usefulness of the "Back This Project" button there is questionable. People can just click the reward tiers. I wonder if the "Remind Me" button being so prominently featured will improve last 48 hour surges. On projects I've backed the right side of that bar no longer has the "Back This Project" button.
In the updates section, they've added a "Photos" thing in the sidebar. When I clicked one the image that campaign had posted filled up the screen and I couldn't see the bottom half with no ability to scroll down the image because that scrolled the page. I would appreciated a full table of contents for the project updates more.
The "1, 2, 3 ... 9, 10" buttons for comment pages seem to be gone. This makes navigating to the earliest comments on a project more difficult. Kickstarter making it more difficult to hold discussions in the comments section may actually be a plus for BackerClub.
It seems to be taking longer to load pages. Anyone else notice that? It keeps snapping me back to the the line below the project thumbnail if I started scrolling before the page finished loading. Is this what others are referring to as the bouncing? I find that annoying because I now have to wait a second or two longer before skimming a page.
Less of the bottom of project thumbnails is cut off in the Discover section. Avatar images are still cropped into circles.
One of the first things I checked was what happened to the project shortlink. It can still be found with Tweet button in the new "Share this project" button. I hope they add more sharing options for more sites. They should be displaying the project shortlink there. It is strange that they still aren't displaying it.
I looked back at old screenshots of project pages. The font size for project titles has been slightly reduced.
The end date is still displayed, but not the start date. This is going to harm campaigns running shorter than 30 days because they look like they are already stalled out when they are really just hours old.
The new recommendation engine is in the page after confirming a new pledge. I wonder if that will be effective.
I dislike some of the difficulties created for quickly browsing around. This is not as bad as YouTube's redesigns.
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markalanbaker
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:27 pm
I didn't see them mention these changes in any blog post or update on Kickstarter. It seems like in the past they've mentioned it and taken feedback. I wonder if they'll post something and see how people feel about the changes. Have you seen anything published about the changes or the rationale for the changes?
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TashaTurner
- Posts: 663
- Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 1:29 am
- Location: NJ
- Contact:
I've noticed the update on some projects. The one thing I do like is that it tells me how much I've pledged which is helpful for projects with add-ons. Previously I had to go to "manage pledge" to see how much I'd really pledged. I'm not noticing a change in loading time but I've just gotten my iPad back up and running after a month of problems caused by iOS 8 and have been using my computer for the first time in months while the iPad was down.
I agree the share option being less obvious may hurt projects but after you pledge the new way things show up immediate sharing upon pledging may go up. I've noticed more projects reminding people to share in updates & using screenshots over the last 6 months. With the new layout I expect that will have to increase & would recommend creators to make a "how to help" sharing FAQ as part of their basic beginning project set-up.
I agree the share option being less obvious may hurt projects but after you pledge the new way things show up immediate sharing upon pledging may go up. I've noticed more projects reminding people to share in updates & using screenshots over the last 6 months. With the new layout I expect that will have to increase & would recommend creators to make a "how to help" sharing FAQ as part of their basic beginning project set-up.
-Tasha http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/479254504
Backed over 3,700 Kickstarters
Social media coach http://tasha-turner.com @turner_tasha
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Backed over 3,700 Kickstarters
Social media coach http://tasha-turner.com @turner_tasha
Add signature: Click your name, click send private message, click Profile tab, click Edit signature