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What's Wrong With WinCustomize?
Yes, we want your complaints!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
This March, WinCustomize turns 7. For seven years the site has grown in terms of visitors, bandwidth, quantity of skins etc. And the site itself has gone through several revisions in that period. Today, we're on the 5th iteration of WinCustomize, and on the whole it still bears a striking resemblance to that first site launched back in 2001. For good or ill, a lot of the decisions that went into that first site determine direction to this day.
While there have been a lot of improvements, there are probably a lot of places where we've failed to meet expectations. WinCustomize 2007 was focused on a solid foundation, code that was stable and expandable. Now we're in a position to focus on the UI and the presentation more, to improve the user experience dramatically. This is where you come in.
About a year ago, we sought your opinions on how Stardock had failed the community. Your comments on what you felt we could be doing better has helped us make a lot of changes and improvements to our products. Well, we want to try that again, only this time specifically with WinCustomize. We want to know what doesn't work, what sucks, what you hate, what you want fixed about WinCustomize. We are looking for very specific critiques of the site, it's functionality, layout, user interface etc.
This thread is about critiques, it's not about defending the site, it's not about telling us how much you like the site. If we are going to improve the site in the future, we need a very clear picture of what is broken and needs to be fixed.
A week from today, I will be going through the comments on this thread and compiling a master list of complaints and critiques. We will use this list when we start the requirements and design work for the next WC update later this year.
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Reply #22 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:13 PM
Reply #23 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:16 PM
Check out some sites like the Computer Graphics Society website, as well as some of the website interfaces on deviant art. These are the kind of interfaces I'm talking about. Who knows, with a new paint job, you'll probably attract even more people to your website, that's always a plus!
This website has the potential to look as good as it can make your computer look.
Reply #24 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:27 PM
Give dock backgrounds they're "own" library! That has been my pet peeve for a long time. Yeah yeah, I know...pngs/icons are used with Objectdock...and icons are used with WindowBlinds but you don't see that library flooded with icons. And it really sucks doing all that work creating backgrounds only to have them buried under tons of pngs/icons...many of which are repeats of similar pngs/icons that have been done over and over.
And I call them png/icons because as far as I'm concerned the only difference between them is about 2 seconds to convert them from one to the other.
Then there's the theme png/icons that "should" be zipped up together but are spread out as single uploads...AND they are also allowed to be uploaded to the Misc icons library...and its only because of they are now icon/pngs. The fact that they can be converted so easily either way makes it unfair to those of us that take the time to create backgrounds for people to use and kinda stifles our motivation to continue creating them when we know they will only get buried...I know it has for me.
Creators of icons should simply include a png version of their icons along with them...its done on other sites...why not here?
Reply #25 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:30 PM
WC is... fugly. The internet's premier skinning site looks like it was designed by a 4 year old.
How I long for the old, old site with it's changeable skins. Skins which were made by skinners...
The forum needs a dramatic makeover. There are so many categories it's just ridiculous. It's as though on a whim someone says "I have a topic called XYZ, lets create a XYZ category". Then, two minutes later, there's a WXY category too, because, even though its in the same alphabet, WXY isn't the same as XYZ... Does my head in 
The little icons bottom right in every post. Anyone know what they are? Thought not! A text 'report thread' etc makes more sense. Rate this reply? What is that for?
A 'report this comment' and 'report a rip' buttons on skins so us mods can get to the action fast 
Most important, a list of moderators, and some indicator of who is currently on the site. With a big shiny PM button so folks can get hold of someone in an emergency.
Reply #26 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:45 PM
I think I'm trying to say that I would like those links: My: Site, Skins, Watchlist, Settings, to be across ALL the site.
Does that make sense?
Reply #27 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:46 PM
Reply #29 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:53 PM
Yes. From my personal site I have to either click on "home" or "my settings" to get to the "my skins" page. I don't mean the gallery page, I mean where I can see downloads, check if any new comments are written etc. This link should come up as soon as you log in and follow you everywhere on the site.
Reply #30 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 5:17 PM
Reply #31 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 5:20 PM
Reply #33 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 5:38 PM
This is a major issue for me. When I am looking for a dock backround I grow weary having to wade through icons to find the right backround.
I completely agree with this.
Reply #34 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:05 PM
I find it kind of irritating when I post a OD background/theme and it is almost immediately pushed off the first page by a bunch of icons (most of which are separate submissions that could easily be wrapped up into one post). I know that there is a search filter at the top of the page. But I think most people don't take advantage of it. It just seems to me that a new category would take a step out of the whole process.
Reply #35 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:12 PM
Reply #36 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:29 PM
Users should be able to select their own theme for the site (and submit themes for the site as well).
Browsing needs help, the filters and navigation just don't get the job done well. You should be able to browse and filter by any combination of criteria (ie. browse within "OS" AND "Psuedo OS" with a rating of 4 or higher - BAM, just what I was looking for) In a sense you could combine the browse with the search. Make the browsing powerful with combination filters and then allow for searching within the subset.
Reply #37 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:34 PM
Reply #38 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:08 PM
What does happen when you click those icons?
This is somewhat related (possibly ... I haven't clicked one of them ... don't know what will happen) but it would be convenient while browsing the forums to have the moderators/wizops/etc names in the right pane (where Channels and Recent Forum Activity are) so that you could click them to get the Email/Private Message links for each Mod.
Sure make it easier to contact a PIC to report whatever may need reporting. Put those same names/links in the right pane when browsing skins/comments also.
Would beat the hell out of browsing away from your present location to find a link to a Mod.
And speaking of those drop down lists View Profile/Email/Private Message/etc noted above; it would really be great if clicking them opened a new window so you don't lose your place in a thread just to check out someone's profile or send them a PM.
And I'll also throw my voice into the 'put the single png/dock icons/whatever you want to call them into their own category' crowd.
Either that or subject uploaders to a minimum number of pngs per upload; as in a set, rather than 10 or 20 single pngs all uploaded in a row.
Reply #39 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:10 PM
Move rating bar away from Download button:
A centralized bug report section and forms in the forum:
*aspx.new or the new page needs to be able to be set to show only the library's the user wishes. Maybe tie it to the Gallery menu in the side bar so only those chosen are shown.
At DA sorting through their new section is a night mare IMO because of all the "extra stuff". As WC grows and adds new library's we should allow the users to choose specifically what they want to see. Not to mention streamline the section and cut bandwidth usage. ***example: I remove Sins stuff from my side bar gallery settings. From then on all sins stuff would be filtered from the New page as I look through it.*
All skins should have a "report a rip" button. This would allow users to easily report a rip, and possibly keep the Rip threads down.
The help section needs to be organized and easier to navigate. It also needs a FAQ that members as well as admins can update to add current fixes to common issues.
Personal Awards need an explanation of what they are,whether it be a page in the FAQ or what have you. Many of the awards are confusing as to what they are for. If a member once won an award like "#1 winamp downloads" when they are removed from that spot as the #1. The award should reflect it in a past tense, such as "past #1 Winamp download winner" and not just disappear.
I will add more as I think of them..
Reply #40 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:20 PM
I second that...it drives me crazy. It has the wrong dates and the most recent poster rarely shows at the top...Thanks guys
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Reply #21 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:09 PM
It would be nice to sort WB skins by WB6, WB6XP, WB6Vista or both WB6XP/Vista. This would allow users wanting WB6 skins to find them easier. The sort by last updated doesn't necessarily mean that the skin was optimized for WB6. I'm only talking about windowblinds here. I'm not sure but it may help in other skin galleries too.
By the way, it's almost Wednesday, which means, it's almost Friday so smile and have a great week.