Not liking the new layout at all. It is much time consueming to navigate to everything. The reviews, the forums (my posts link on the left hand pane is just gone). Replaced with NOISE no one cares about like the most frequent poster stats.
This is a move in the wrong direction. Usability studies should have been done.
The 'my threads' links is now on the right, but it shouldn't take any longer to click it. Navigation of the reviews and forums hasn't changed, the main menu is just horizontal rather than vertical. I suspect the issue is simply lack of familiarity and you'll soon be back up to speed.
SJ
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Simon Joinson, dpreview.com
I remain very dissatisfied. With your previous working layout I did not have to learn it. Where stuff was, was obvious. I did not complain on the first day of the new look since I wanted the "newness" to wear off. Well it is not so new to me now, and I like it less and less.
Nothing is as easy to find. (period). My Messages, for example, was before on top. It was right there and you could click on it from any location. Most things were that simple. Now it is hidden in a pull down on my name. Gee that was obvious. And, it is no longer called the same thing but "recent forum activity", the implication being that it is a list of my activity not responses to threads I choose to participate in.
Moving stuff from the top level to hide it in menus and with new names is not well thought out. You add nothing to the user experiance here except frustration and the "joy" of playing "oh where did they move that to". This has feeling of change for the sake of change. Of major changes done with out useability studies. Of a focus on "gee what else can we change" rather than how can we make this better for our users/customers. In my opinion, this new look is a huge step backward. I do not like it.