<p>
As a former student and passionate advocate of UI design (as well as
a former college course developer & instructor of same), my thoughts:</p>
<p>Far too much white space … both vertically and horizontally. Undue
amount of scrolling needed; everything’s spread out & harder to read.<br>
One can only see handful of posts (or fewer) per screen. An unwarranted
decrease in screen information density (and this is after tweaking
the browser settings to reduce font size somewhat).</p>
<p>The list of threads uses a light blue font that has insufficient contrast
with the white background – much harder to read. (Indeed, I recall studies
showing that it’s about the worst color that one could choose.) </p>
<p>All of this white is giving me a headache.</p>
<p>The paragraph lines are too long. Easier to take in shorter lines
(which is why I use hard line returns in my posts).</p>
<p>Where once one could have a single useful email with synopses of
the day’s thread responses, there’s now a single email message
for each post, with no content. Useless. I’ve already unsubscribed.</p>
<p>The control panel & thread tools are hidden somewhere. Maybe.
I have yet to figure it all out. Don’t know that I’ll bother.</p>
<p>Username drop-down menu for sending a PM, email, or looking up
posts – GONE. (Really?)</p>
<p>And the Contact link at the bottom of the page – doesn’t work
(or didn’t when I tried last night).</p>
<p>I’d describe the change as a user experience failure. Worse than
Windows 7 to Win8 or Office 2003 to 2007. By every measure
that I can think of, the site is a worse vehicle for efficient and
effective communication and transmission of information. The only
plus I’ve noted is that one now has an hour to edit one’s post.<br>
Inadequate consolation … .</p>
<p>Many thanks to you all for your helpful insights. I’ll miss you.</p>
<p>[/rant, exhaling … ]</p>