Google's mavens have changed the Blogger interface and, needless to say, have made it worse. This is not simply a question of taste. The old interface was ergonomically superior and took account of how we customarily and naturally do things.
1. Typeface
The old interface used a thick, Chicago style font set against large tabs abd buttons in bold but not bright background colors. They were easy to read and easy on the eyes, which is important for bloggers who tend to look at screen for long periods of time. The new interface is done an a thin-pencil point, light grey font against white. This may be the latest mode of kewl, but it is not ergonomic.
2. Arrangement
In the old interface, the menu of dashboard options appeared in big file-tabs going from left to right along the top of the screen page. Next level options appeared underneath in a row of square buttons. This arrangement conformed to the way we read, write and naturally move our mouse.
The easiest mouse-motion moves in a shallow arc from left to right, pivoting on either a stationary wrist or elbow. Up and down is a more structured motion. It may not make much difference with large objects on a screen but it does when choosing thin vertically arranged options.
3. Placement
The old interface placed things like date boxes, delete buttons in diagonal corners which, again, is the way we most customarily expect to find things.
The "four corners" of a circle are cardinal points of a compass (N, S, E, W). But the four coners of a square or rectangle are points of an X. Since our screens are rectangles we tend to look for things in the center and near 2, 4, 8, 10 o'clock positions.
Thus, for example, in the old interface the date box for dating posts was at the lower right which is ergonomically logical because when we finish writing a post, we are usually at or near the bottom of the editing box and the next easiest thing is to drop down and right and plunk in the date at lower right.
In the new interface the date box is placed at about 3 o'clock above a complex drop down calendar, emerging from the shadows of a vertical list of other options.
4. Post List
The post list is one of the most important components of the interface. It is there that we access, arrange, re-arrange, edit and date out postings. The old interface listed the posts vertically along the left margin with the full date and time against the right margin. Options to view and edit were on the left and to delete on the right.
Nothing could be less clear than the new interface. The edit, view, delete options are not even visible but only appear "dynamically" when the cursor arrow is positioned above the post-name. The interruption before the options emerge from nowhere may only be half a second, but it is an interruption and small interruptions are still hiccups in our work flow. Needless to say, the "edit" "view" and "delete" are in soft grey, 4 pt. thin line pica which, is so kewl and dynamically streamlined but which forces us to pause, squint to make sure we are clicking on the option we want
Even more idiotic is the fact that the post list does not have forward and back options at both the top and bottom of the list.
The old interface had "oldest" "older" << and "newer" "newest" at both the top and bottom of the list. Nothing could be easier. The new interface only has the paging option at the top of the page. How logical is that? When you "go down a list" you are at the "bottom" and being at the bottom, that is the most common place to page forward or back. Instead the new interface requires us to cursor back to the top of the list. Pretty dumb.
5. Date Function
The date function is pretty important in blogger, because it is the means by which we can sequence our posts. This is important if a blog has a sequence or structure that is something more than blabbing day by day.
The old interface allowed a variety of date formats and the date could typed in easily in the date box. Most of us know that there are 12 months in a year that April is before November, and that 15 comes after 5.
The new interface took replaced the box with a drop down date calendar and a drop down hour list. After stumbling around these lists it required a further "confirmation" by pressing the "done" button. Isn't a date "done" when it is written? What is wrong with 09/06/2012 <enter>
Blogger got around to inserting an optional date box on top of this drop down calendar but it only accepts dates in the format of sep 02, 1977.
It may come as a surprise to those confined to the universe of Palo Alto California, but most people in the world do NOT write dates that way. The most logical way to write a date is: YY/MM/DD (120927) because it will then appear in correct numeric vertical order.
The most common way dates are written is 22 MAR 1997 or 22/03/97. The only (and i repeat the only) country that uses the archaic, illogical and basically inane date format of September 6, comma, 2001 is the United States.
Now there are many bloggers in the U.S. so that keeping that date format has a certain "market logic". But that is no reason to eliminate the other formats for the rest of the world.
(Oh... and by the way, for the rest of the world, the week usually begins on Sunday, not Monday).
I suppose Google's Blogger elves are pleased with their dynamically glowy, off grey, razor thin interface. If anyone likes it that is their choice. But the old interface is easier and more useful in every respect and Blogger should keep it available for those of us who prefer it.
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