Digg gets an overhaul to draw users back
By Ben Parr, Mashable
The first change is a redesign of Digg.com based on user feedback.
(Mashable) -- Digg has launched an overhaul and redesign of the struggling social media service in an attempt to bring users back and regain some momentum.
This rollout incorporates three major changes for the site. The first is a redesign of the site based on user feedback.
It places the key Digg topics -- Gaming, Technology, Science, etc. -- at the top of the page rather than on the side.
Story pages have been cleaned up, and the "submit" box has been given more prominence. It now sits at the top of every page, while search has been been reduced to a magnifying glass icon that will display the search box when you click it.
The second part of the update focuses on profile pages and the return of profile statistics.
At the top right of every profile page are the Digg, commenting, submission and following stats for every user.
Digg says it took "much longer" than expected to import the Digg data from V3 to the current version. It's definitely incomplete, though -- my stats say I've made zero submissions and zero comments in my many years on Digg, both of which are definitely not true. Some data is still missing.
Finally, Digg has added a new slew of opt-in notifications for when your stories hit "Top News."
While "Top News" has lost much of its prominence since "My News" was made the default, it's still a point of achievement to have a story you submit reach the front page, so it makes sense that many people would want to be notified when that happens. These notifications will appear either by e-mail or on-site.
The changes are designed to counteract Digg's painful decline by adding the most-requested user features.
Users famously revolted after the New Digg launched last August. Since then, Digg has been in decline, enough to force Digg to lay off more than one-third of its team.
The new features will be rolled out over the next few weeks and will be offered at an opt-in basis. Overall, they're nice updates, but the company still has a long way to go to regain user trust and woo users back to its platform.
Every little bit counts, though, when you're trying to turn things around.
Check out the before and after screenshots, and let us know what you think of the redesign in the comments below.
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment