WinCustomize 2K7 feedback.
HomePage
Homepage looks good. Other color schemes and such will be nice when they become available. I know subscribers (and me) will like that option.
One bug: Treetog's challenger skin isn't showing up on Top Masters Skins.
Gallery
I didn't like the categories at top at first but they've grown on me. When Instant Messenger and other sections get added, they'll come in handy.
I'll break this down by category:
Newest:
I should be able to select a specific library here. See https://www.wincustomize.com/Newest.aspx?v=1 for reference.
The breadcrumbs don't consistently work. For instance, I go here:
http://test.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?new
It says Home->Gallery->All Galleries->All Categories->Newest Skins.
Okay, a little wordy but fine. So I decide I just want to see the newest wallpapers. I select it from the drop-down and go to wallpapers. That takes me here.
http://test.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=8
Nice. Except I can't choose between updated and new. Why not?
Second, now I want to go back to newest in all galleries. But I can't. There's no option for that. There is no way to get back to the newest skins page from the breadcrumbs which is, after all, the idea behind having bread crumbs.
Most Popular
I click this. But the breadcrumbs says "Top Skins". Shouldn't it say "Most Popular"?
Moreover, the breadcrumbs say Home->Top Skins. Shouldn't it say Home->Gallery->Top Skins (or correctly Home->Gallery->Most Popular OR Home->Gallery->All Galleries->All Categories->Most Popular)?
And therefore, shouldn't I be able to quickly switch between most popular and Newest?
Recently Featured
It doesn't have the dotted underline that indicates it has a link (it breaks the style).
The breadcrumb says Home->Gallery->All Galleries->All Categories->Featured Skins
But shouldn't it be ->Recently Featured?
And secondly, why can't I switch between recently featured and most popular and newest?
I really do like the way the site is working though. Compared to WC2K5, it's a paradise.
Recently Updated
This one is very inconsistent with newest. It looks very different and it lists newest by category. I don't mind that but I would like to have that option for Newest too.
The breadcrumb should be like:
Home->Gallery->All Galleries->All Categories->Recently Updated->Per Gallery
Then I should be able to switch between recently updated, newest, recently featured, and most popular. And I should be able to choose between per gallery and all galleries.
Misc.
It would be nice where we list the programs and such to have a link to where to get those programs. So I come to WinCustomize and I hear how cool SysMetrix is. It woudl be nice if there was a link to download it in the gallery page (and not just the individual gallery). Something subtle (like a tiny icon or something maybe).
Articles
My only complaints about the Articles right now is that I can't list them like an index. You can list the top articles like an index:
http://test.wincustomize.com/top.aspx?type=articles
Yay.
But how about newest ones?
Forums
I just removed a ton of the bookmarks. Holy cow, I had to scroll down a huge sea of forums to find the 10 newest topics.
I'd like to see the Forum Summary vs. Topic List option (http://testforums.wincustomize.com/?g=summary) be kept in a cookie and the label of forum summary (or topic list) be displaye dbased on what's in the cookie.
Individual Gallery
Glad to see the data thumbnail is consistent. Makes things a lot more polished and professional looking.
Notes...
1) I can't change between say last updated and downloads today from the breadcrumbs.
2) KUDOS for whoever merged skin rating and date. Used to be sorted by rating and name which made me cry like a little girl.
3) KUDOS on performance. It's ridiculously fast.
So I click on a skin (Jitter). Looks good.
Requests:
1) Optional Parameter to hide comments (not by default but if I'm promoting a skin or somethign I want to be able to link to just the skin without the comments being displayed).
2) Optional Right-bar parameter that switches the gallery list to the category list (so that if I'm linking to a gallery from say WindowBlinds.net to the WB gallery it would just display the categories, similarly, third parties may want to do the asme thing). This setting would not be saved or anything, just want to make the initial navigation to a specific gallery from off-site easier.
Overall
I really like how it's come along. I wish I could code ASP.NET / SQL so that I could jump into this.
But the overall effect is absolutely crucial: WC2K7 brings me back to the days of skinz.org and deskmod where the "community" seemed tighter knit. WC2K5 seemed way too big. I felt lost on the site at times. By having a consistent, smartly put together site, I can navigate it and see that it's not overwhelming after all.
