lds.org

[Katya]

I detest everything about the redesign. The old site was uncluttered and streamlined. The new site is actually harder to use because of all the stupid things they've added to make it more "user-friendly." UNGH!

[Dragon Lady]

I am the opposite. I love the new site and tons of features they added. I also don't like some. But overall, I love it.

[Katya]

Yes, but you like Macs, so your opinions can't be trusted.

More generally, I don't care about the bells and whistles. I liked the clean look of the old version.

[Yellow]

I found the old site cluttered and difficult to navigate. I especially appreciate the changes to the General Conference portion of the site.

[Dragon Lady]

Yes, and you don't. Which means you can't be trusted with design. (Says the girl who has zero design skills.)

The old one looks, well, old to me. Plus I like the new features. I like that I can edit my info and pic in the directory which then updates it in MLS (pending ward clerk approval). I like how easy it is to now access the directory on my computer and iPod. I like how they've changed the calendar so that anyone can add things from the comfort of their own home (pending approval) and that I can easily sync my calendar to any and all calendars and keep abreast of what is going on. I can even subscribe via email. And if I'm adding something to a calendar, I can send a reminder X days before.

I guess I just like how much more technically savvy the Church is becoming. Now if only I can convince my ward to catch up...

[C is for]

As someone who goes to lds.org fairly often, I have to say that I find it frustrating sometimes. Sometimes often. I can never* get the search to give me the Ensign article; it always sends me to the General Conference, but it's page numbers I need!

Also, as a gospel doctrine teacher, when I don't have my manual I can never remember how to find the lessons. Luckily I often have my manual, but not always.

But, I mean, it's okay. At least all the Church-sponsored sites look the same, though I imagine it drives the seminary students as crazy as it drives me to cycle through the same top-of-page announcements every day.

*never without more effort than I think I should have to use

[thebigcheese]

My only complaint is the same as C4. The lesson manuals are in a weird place. Otherwise, I think it's a good design that caters to both members and non-members. I always thought the old site seemed unfriendly to non-members.

[Whistler]

I also miss having a printable version of the primary manuals we're using.

[Dragon Lady]

Finding the manuals? Really? That's the biggest complaint? Go to Menu > Manuals. Then pick the organization you want, then the manual you want. I use this all the time to find the Sharing Time manual (and sometimes the lesson manuals). I don't even know where my physical copy is offhand.

And what do you mean you don't have a printable version? Like, a printable of the entire manual? Because the individual lessons have the option to print or download.

C4, I don't know what to say about your quandary, since I'm not entirely sure what you're needing to do. I can't imagine why you'd need page numbers. And what top-of-page announcements do seminary students have to scroll through?

[Marduk]

I guess this just shows how much of an old man I am. I only work with physical manuals; it bothers me to use an electronic version. Same story for hymns, same story for scriptures. I really just rarely use the website, so they can do whatever they want to it.

[Laser Jock]

Katya, that's interesting that you preferred the old look and consider it cleaner. Personally, I think the new design is way cleaner. I don't like some of the random extras (like the ability to add notes and such—guess I just need to log out promptly), but in general it's much, much nicer on the eyes.

And don't even get me started on the old URLs vs. the new ones. So much better now.

[Whistler]

sorry, I should have been more specific. The online manual of the Primary 3 doesn't have any the pictures available to print out (like for coloring), which would be handy as our librarian is inevitably very busy between classes.

[C is for]

I use page numbers for citations. I've been so frustrated by it, though, that I've started going all the way across the hall to the library where I can flip through the physical Ensigns. It's just easier to know the ballpark I'm looking for before I have to look through the whole magazine (on the occasions my eyes can't find the right talk in the table of contents, which happens more often than it should, considering my much-touted "efficiency").

It's a hard life, I know.

[Dragon Lady]

C4, would you give me an example of an article you might have to look up? I'd like to try it out and see how I'd go about it.

[Dragon Lady]

Nevermind. I had Yellow and my sister give me a talk that I could look up. Yellow's was "The Grandeur of God" by Jeffery R. Holland. So I searched for it on lds.org. When I got my search results, I filtered my results by choosing, on the left sidebar, to show only magazines. The top result is for the article in the Liahona magazine, which if you go into it, says the page numbers in the heading. But then I realized that you probably want the Ensign, not the Liahona. But then we realized that just under the Liahona result in the search results it says, "See Also: Ensign". If you go into it, it has the page numbers at the top of the article, which, at least for this instance, are the same as the Liahona's.

We had the same results for my sister's choice of talks, "Good, Better, Best."

Hope that helps! No more walking to the library for you!

(I did remember one thing I hate about the new lds.org. It's ridiculously slow on an iPod. But I have no idea how fast it was on the old site, so that's not a really fair comparison of the two.)

[C is for]

Yeah, the Liahona and the Ensign are the same thing.
For some reason, when I filter by magazines, it almost always gives me the index at the end of the year, like three times, before it gives me the actual article. Which just seems really inefficient to me.

But it doesn't matter; I have to walk to the library anyway, for the Conference Reports. I just like to cut out the Ensign part.

And I realized that I forgot to answer the question about the "ads" at the top of the online seminary page. It's a lot like the links that cycle through the main lds.org page, with the big pictures and all that. It just hasn't changed for six months. First there's For Madison, then there's the Dating ideas New Era article, and Our True Identity, and others. But that's not an lds.org complaint. It's a complaint that our A/V guy has been too busy to innovate them.

[thebigcheese]

Finding the manuals? Really? That's the biggest complaint? Go to Menu > Manuals.

Yes, but putting it under the "Study" column is not intuitive AT ALL. Which means I have to search the whole list to find it. And since I want to design user interfaces for a living, I'm really picky about these things.

(PS, I've got an interview for a design job on Tuesday! Woohoo!)

[Katya]

(PS, I've got an interview for a design job on Tuesday! Woohoo!)

Good luck!

[Yarjka]

I don't like reading scriptures on what looks like a blog. This is not a functional way to read scriptures: way too much scrolling, for one thing. The old site was better because it was simpler.

This particular arrangement of columns and menus already feels a little dated to me, like the church is a few years late in adapting to modern web design.

That said, the church's site is a fantastic resource, and they've made the old version available at classic.lds.org and classic.scriptures.lds.org, so I'm not going to complain too much.

[thebigcheese]

the church is a few years late in adapting to modern web design.

Heh heh. Yes...yes they are.