A confession

I was invited to test the new site.

Didn't find your answer?

Well, we are on day three now - is it getting a bit easier?

I confess, I was one of the users invited to test the new site ;) ((ducks..))

The thing is, I do actually quite like the layout. I will be a bit happier when there is a bit more individuality around - maybe some more avatars and less generic orange.

Here's hoping all my friends stick with it!!

Replies (16)

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By cparker87
04th May 2016 20:21

[***]

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Replying to cparker87:
Routemaster image
By tom123
04th May 2016 20:37

cparker87 wrote:

[***]


:)
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By pacta
04th May 2016 20:59

Why the hell did you agree to losing "recent replies"?

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Replying to pacta:
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By tom123
04th May 2016 21:07

pacta wrote:

Why the hell did you agree to losing "recent replies"?


It was a fifteen minute video conference - not a day trip to Bristol..more to do with look and feel, with a go at posting an AA comment and a blog entry. There was a lot to take in..
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Replying to tom123:
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By pacta
04th May 2016 21:15

tom123 wrote:

pacta wrote:

Why the hell did you agree to losing "recent replies"?

It was a fifteen minute video conference - not a day trip to Bristol..more to do with look and feel, with a go at posting an AA comment and a blog entry. There was a lot to take in..

Quite a lot not to take in, too!

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Replying to tom123:
FT
By FirstTab
04th May 2016 21:31

Leaving aside the formal testing, there were many threads mentioning a strong dislike for the US site. Just listening to this, would have meant Sift would avoided this drastic mistake. It makes me think is Sift full of yes men and women? How did it get through all the stages before launch? Did some of those involved banged their fist on the table and shout, no! no! no! What about the members!

I was also invited for formal testing. I did not have a webcam. I suggested, to give my views without a camera pointing at me. This was not the way Sift was testing.

It is one of the basics of business to listen to your key stakeholders. How can an established business can get this so wrong? I look at the current state of the site, that I have a such a high regard for, it now saddens me and also make me angry.

It is not about the ownership of the site. It is about a site that played a key part in my small practice's life. I have an emotional connection with it. I want to continue to have a high regard for it. In the current form, that will be difficult.

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Replying to tom123:
RLI
By lionofludesch
05th May 2016 09:07

Never mind the excuses, tom123. It's all your fault.

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Replying to tom123:
Stepurhan
By stepurhan
05th May 2016 09:44

tom123 wrote:
It was a fifteen minute video conference - not a day trip to Bristol..more to do with look and feel, with a go at posting an AA comment and a blog entry. There was a lot to take in..
This explains a lot. When the site was last updated, a dummy copy was set up with various members given logins. Those members did tests of all the features over a period of weeks, and fed back issues and suggestions over that time. If you only had fifteen minutes, controlled by Sift, then no wonder you didn't pick up on things that are now causing issues.
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Replying to tom123:
By petersaxton
11th May 2016 11:42

Same with me. They tested how I would do a few simple activities. I wasn't shown a list of questions and I wasn't shown how I would make a comment after reading a lot of other comments. If they had done I very much doubt I would have suggested having to get to the bottom and then scroll back to the top to make a comment. I don't think AccountingWeb had any say on how it would look. I don't think they deliberately got rid of "recent replies" - they just forgot about it. It does seem that they ignored the details in favour of big graphics and big text.

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The triggle is a distant cousin of the squonk (pictured)
By Triggle
04th May 2016 21:24

Old Any Answers is to new Any Answers as Moneysoft is to HMRC Basic PAYE Tools.

I think they should just reinstate the old AA format as this place has become a bit of a dead-hole at the moment.

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By JCresswellTax
05th May 2016 09:13

I don't believe that regular contributors to any answers are what aweb was considering when making the change.

The openly stated they wanted to appeal to a bigger audience, in doing that, they have seriously [***] off the regulars.

I am sure they thought about this and decided it was worth the fall out. Afterall, more visitors means more clicks on advertising and more money for sift.

This is what it is all about.

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By cathygrimmer
05th May 2016 09:38

They seriously only had testing interviews with people who had webcams? Bizarre! I'm a huge technology user but I don't have a webcam for my PC as I don't need one. I can't imagine I'm unique!

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Replying to cathygrimmer:
By JCresswellTax
05th May 2016 09:58

The testing process was irrelevant anyway. It was only done so they could say they done it.

It was admitted it 'was always going to look like the american site' so anyone who tested it was simply wasting their time.

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
06th May 2016 10:26

Can everyone please stop being rude to tom123 (even in jest) and blaming him for taking part in the testing process for the new site.

To bring in a bit of perspective from the AccountingWEB team, what you see is categorically not his fault and where possible we have taken in suggestions made by him and other testers.

But as we have said before, as part of a strategic corporate plan, AccountingWEB has been moved to a common technology platform shared with eight other sites - including AccountingWEB.com, HRZone.co.uk, TrainingZone.co.uk and BusinessZone.co.uk.

The big pictures, and certain navigational and graphical elements were set in stone, and we opted to stick with the traditional orange branding we share with our US sibling.

Please also note that our programmers take a agile approach to updating the site. We have gone live with a basic implementation of the platform and will follow up (like cloud software developers do) with additional functionality and usability improvements that we can now roll out to all the Sift sites, rather than having to tinker separately with 4-5 different sets of code.

Thanks for your patience and please be assured that we do take your feedback seriously. But the fact is we had to change the underlying platform. Work is now underway to prioritise the suggestions and adapt the platform where we can to address the issues raised. Reinstating "latest replies" to Any Answers, discussion groups and several other improvements suggested during testing and since the launch are all on our development wishlist.

We're prioritising those at the moment and will post details of the fixes and enhancements that we'll be tackling shortly.

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Replying to John Stokdyk:
FT
By FirstTab
06th May 2016 10:53

Sorry John, the current changes do not go far enough. You say Sift is listening to feedback (not really), at the same time you say some things are set in stone for brand consistency and for Sift to work across its group.

As you know the current feedback is that graphics make it difficult to navigate around the site. This will NOT change.

The changes Sift will make do not go the crux of the issue.

I know I have been emotional about the change and some of my comments went overboard.

Since the key aspects will not change, I will now stop going on about it and be an unsatisfied member. I have no doubt like many others. I will watch with interest how it goes for AW. I hope it all goes well.

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Fat Cat
By khonkaen
11th May 2016 19:46

I am going to make no comment about the tester as this was not acceptance testing. The end user was not trained or experienced in testing and cannot be held responsible for this.
What I will comment on is the idea that if several sites are messed up and one works perfectly and is loved by those who use it surely the approach should be to fix the several messed up sites rather than make the perfect site just as bad as the rest.
I understand the Agile / Scrum principles perfectly having controlled developments using bith those and more traditional waterfall approachs. As such I know that your developers cannot excuse what they have done upon the methodology adopted.
The issue is that it seems to me at least that corners have been cut in performance and acceptance testing following the principle of release and firefight rather than get it right first time.
I am sure that the development was incredibly expensive and getting the product out quicker was seen as trying to keep a lid on the costs but I fear that the real cost here has been to the image and reputation of the site.
I certainly think that it was very brave releasing this before Accountex which I do not imagine is going to be a comfortable experience for the Aweb team.
As I say though, I do not believe that any site user charged with reviewing the site (I'm not going to say testing it as they didn't) should have any blame at all attributed to them for what has been released.

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