In was checking my RSS feeds this morning I noticed that Lifehacker has redesigned their web site.
My first impression of the new design was that it was nice – it looked freshened up and modern. The only thing that I would change is that I would have the ads on the left line up with the other sidebar content one way or another, but other then that it is cool.
I seem to be the minority though.
The post announcing the redesign had its comments section blow up with people who did not like the new design. The majority of the comments were from readers who complained about the placement of adds to the side bar being on the left. In general people were not liking it one bit.
I think it would have been in a better if Lifehacker would have given people the opportunity to preview the new design and give their feedback. Even if they did not want to incorporate the suggestions that people made it would have lessened the blow. This is what Yahoo did over the last 6 months and I think it is going well. With Yahoo people still have the option to use the old site if they do not like the new one.
Well I think a lesson can be learned from this. I hope this does not impact their reader base.