when an upgrade isn't

I know, it's been a while. I've been working on the launch of an exciting new language learning platform, rolling out white papers on service performance management, and oh yeah, this little thing called NaNoWriMo. If the words didn't count toward my 50,000, I didn't write them.

Last week, Lonely Planet rolled out an upgrade to its online forum, the ThornTree. I've been on the TT for 7 years, during which time I've seen one significant upgrade that went forgettably smoothly. The site wasn't especially pretty, but it worked. Round the clock, round the world, for tens of thousands of users every day.


BBC bought Lonely Planet a month ago, so I'm not sure it's fair to blame the latest debacle on them. And TT4 is a disaster. An instructive one for any designers or developers, determined to improve on what came before.

Rule number 1 of redesign: if it works, don't break it!

What went wrong:

• A site that delivers thousands of page of text now has severe legibility problems. Fonts are poorly spaced, and smaller than they were. The main body of the thread--the most important information on the page--was shrunk to make room for oodles of tiny indecipherable icons. (Okay, there's a legend, if you want to figure out what distinguishes a half-filled circle from a star.)
• They didn't test it with users. They didn't ever ask for input. And TT users are a loyal, opinionated bunch. Many of us have spent 5-10 hours a week answering travel questions on this site for years. No one paid us. No one thanked us. We fought and flamed each other and bitched to the mods. We did it, because it was pleasurable.
  
  To make matters worse, RomanB, the only full-time employee for the TT, left after the BBC acquisition. So all the announcements come from CarolBat LP, who may in real life be a lovely person or an incompetent one, but who I know simply as the hapless bearer of bad news:
  

  As communicated previously, we were unable to completely replicate the current Thorn Tree on launch of TT4, and will continue to roll out changes.
  
  I understand there is functionality you are used to that's missing. We are aware of the most popular features and will endeavor to roll them out as regular releases. We know, so many little thing make such a big difference!
  
  Please visit our Work In Progress thread under the About Thorn Tree branch for updates on further releases.

  
  
• They didn't replicate the original functionality. They took away critical productivity features, like being able to see recent activity on all the threads you'd answered. But they did add tags and blogs.
  
  
• They removed the ability to set preferences, so the boards default to recent posts instead of recent replies. And I can't figure out how to stay logged in, so I can post. So, I don't. To add insult to injury, they didn't accurately preserve the historical number of posts. I was close to 10,000. Now I have 900.
  

And on and on. I know it sounds like minutae, but in terms of user experience, this is what matters.

The first few days, posters ranted on the boards, waiting for a moderator to notice. CarolBatLP's info posts got more concilliatory. A bunch of regulars jumped ship by setting up their own board or threatened to; it's not like this is the only travel forum online any more.

Here's where I think they miscalcuated. While the site is used by backpackers from 20-70, many of the regular posters—people who have time and patience to help Brits with prior arrests or Cuban passport stamps understand the details of the Visa Waiver Program or college students find a hostel in NYC—are over 40 or semi-retired or disabled. (Or like me, self-employed.) The very people who are sensitive to massive changes in functionality and legibility. The mood on the USA board is morose.

A few parts of the upgrade are fine. For years, LP did little to monetize the hundreds of thousands of page views and return traffic. You can't begrudge them advertising on their own website.

And I suspect many of the missing features are the result of a lack of specs or docs on how TT3 behaved. Usability issues like those I've cited might not be apparent to a casual developer or new UI designer. It would take hard-core users to feel the pain of having to click to reply every time you want to post instead of just showing the reply field by default.

But I sure wish we could persuade them to turn back the clock and pull this upgrade until it's ready for prime time. Unlike Facebook, Lonely Planet doesn't understand the enormous value of its user base, the huge cost if all those people jump ship. Which we'll do, as soon as it's not fun any more.

Despite the flaws, I'm reluctant to give up the TT entirely; I have a long investment in it. Too bad Lonely Planet doesn't feel the same way about its online community.


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