Yahoo! Groups new look is pretty dramatic. Somebody at Yahoo must really be firing up the coal in the engines because they are cranking out all kinds of new things and a 2005 design overhaul for Yahoo Groups, IMO has been sorely needed. The old design was hokey and not so easy on the eyes, but it was familiar. Predictably, someone has already started a group to complain about the new design entitled: “We hate the Yahoo Groups New Look.” Some of the changes include (italicized words are Yahoo’s description, the commentary is mine):

• Focus on content - they have one gigantic flash banner up top for the main message area of the groups, but still have that annoying full page ad requiring users to click “continue” to go onto the message when viewing through the browser.
• Vitality Alerts - I never really viewed the outside pages for stats, but the groups.yahoo.com page has become more useful with the additional information specific to the groups one is subscribed to.
• Group Photos - nice way for the group owner to add a small button and brand the group for a site
• Messages - preview of messages is definitely handy though I’ll admit it takes a bit to get used to
• Personalization - Choose group colors and Yahoo will change the font color to contrast the colors accordingly. That’s a neat idea.
• Tips & Suggestions - this is the equivalent of a tip of the day on startup with some programs and can be quite handy as well.

Something that hasn’t changed is the annoying, hypersensitive bounced email program. If even one email bounces you can expect their robot to be out looking to make sure your email is still active by sending re-validation requests. At least once every couple months I have to go run down Yahoo Groups email re-validation request because I’ve been blocked from being able to interact with a group I’m subscribed to, which these re-validation requests almost always seem to be routed to the spam bin. Perhaps it would be better to turn up this setting so it’s not so sensitive to mail problems. Or maybe this is just another example of how email today is broken.

Resizing the browser window also remains a problem that is carried over from the prior Groups version. Look at the picture below and you’ll see how the ad cuts off some of the text:

When I complained about this once before on a group I was told that I should be reading through my email client anyway and I wouldn’t have to worry about the ads. No thanks. How about just programming it so that if the window is resized the text will wrap around correctly? I mean, really, they do want people to be able to read the messages, don’t they?

You can send feedback to Yahoo about these changes. I’m still trying to get used to them and while I think the design is definitely more professional and progressive looking, I’m not sure where I stand on the changes from a more important usuability standpoint. Guess I’ll hold my opinion on that one until I’ve actually used it for a little while.

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