I tried testing the search engine (which, so far, seems unchanged, unfortunately) and came across another weird glitch in the new design: In the bar above each retrieved message (in the search parameters, I checked "show results as messages"), if the ID information (the forum and thread name, along with the post date and time) runs more than one line, the space available for this info does not expand--which means the second line runs across a color border (where the gradient blue turns white and then becomes gray), making the info hard to read. The same occurs on any given thread that has a posted message with a two-line ID header. And, of course, more headers now run into two lines because of the narrower column format.
(Similarly, the "Hello infopri" line, which includes the current day and time--except that the clock now seems to be on Central time--is half on the gradient blue, half on the white below it the blue.)
Again, bad, bad, bad. This is a new and unnecessary problem introduced by the new design, and, in this day and age, gives the site an amateurish appearance.
I also notice that the fora home page is no longer a link in the navigational pathname (e.g., "Chronicle Forums > Cafe > Meet and Greet > Give Us a Hand") that appears near the top of any fora page. (The "Chronicle Forums" link isn't there, so the first link in the pathname is "Cafe.") Therefore, you must click the "Forum Home" button, further up on the page. This button (labeled simply "Home") appears in the old design, too, but you have a choice of using that button or the link in the navigational pathname. Why does the redesign reduce convenience?
In the Jobs area, the categorization of disciplines/fields is bizarre. I can't even find my own field, but in looking for it I found psychology jobs mixed in with literacy jobs mixed in with public health jobs mixed in with business studies and management jobs, all under the "Other social science" category (and why is "other" second in the list of social-science fields, instead of last?). This is an improvement?? Why must we wade through pages and pages of irrelevent results? And, since psychology has its own category, why are psychology jobs showing up in this other catch-all category? And business/management is its own supercategory (equivalent to "social sciences"), so again why are these jobs showing up under social science? (By the way, in the navigation boxes on the left on the
Job Search results page, the link for "Science/technology/mathematics" exceeds its box and runs
under the next column, so that only part of the link is visible. Ugly and unnecessary, especially in 2009.)
Ah, okay, finally found my field. Turns out, the new design lists only
some of the categories when you click on the "faculty and research" link in the Job Center box in the right-hand column of the fora pages. Then you have to click on "View All." Since the "all" list shows five categories and you have only 10 in total, why not just show them all to start with?? It's not like you don't have the space. If you click on the black "Jobs" menu button at the top of the page, you get an even longer list, apparently because it's not divided between faculty, administrative, etc. The whole area is very confusing and unfriendly.
On the other hand, I'm happy to see the ability to narrow search results first by region and then by state. But have we lost the ability to search by radius after choosing a field? (I see that I can enter a keyword and then use a radius feature, but then I've lost the advantage of CHE's categorization of relevant jobs that may not contain the keyword.) This was a handy feature of the old design that I use heavily, and I imagine others do, too. Why is it (apparently) gone?
On the positive side, I do like the banner of black menu buttons across the top of the page (Home, New, Opinion & Ideas, etc.) I'm trying really, really hard, but I'm not seeing much else (yet) to like. I'm sorry--but not nearly as sorry as I'll be if you actually go with this new design.
