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May 19, 2010
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Review of deviantArt V7

Overview

Ok, so yesterday Version 7 was released to all of deviantArt.

Since then over 5000 people have "Faved" the news article, but almost another 3000 have rejected it!

So why is this? Because of change and because some things need to be different. $ewm has been working extremely hard with the dA staff to correct problems, but at this point I wanted to take some time and write a review of V7.

The Review

Score

Look - 9.5/10
Functionality - 9/10
Speed - 8/10
Agility - 9/10

Overall - 8.875/10 (Average of other scores)

OVERALL deviantArt Version 7 is extremely good. It is faster than V6, looks better, and is much more user friendly.
On the other hand it also has it's glitches, some of which were even present in the Beta Testing edition, and still are a problem.

DeviantArt V7 is a huge change from V6, the menus are moved, the whole set up is different! And as a beta tester I did not care for it much... at first. But after switching back to V6, I realized how much nicer it really was...

I literally went "OMG, it is so much easier to use" and went back.

Everything just looks clean and sleek, this is different from dA 6, which took some serious getting used to, links were hard to click on etc.

AGILITY is one functional part of any site that is very important, this is how easily you can get to functions on the site.

In dA 7 it is a lot easier to function on the site. For example, let's take a look at notes....

In dA 7, 1 click:

Scroll over your name, click notes.

in dA 6, 2 clicks:

Click messages, wait for it to load - on slow connections this could be a while.
Click Notes tab - which is hard to find for new users.


So dA 7 speeds up notes, not only in speed to get there but number of clicks.

This can be seen in many areas where you save a little time here and there, but if you save lets say 60 seconds a day, that's 420 a week,

420 X 52 = 21,840 seconds a year
or
6 hours a year
or 60 hours every ten years!

Think about it, that's actually a lot of time!


SPEED is my largest problem. Loading deviations now takes even longer... Deviations will stay fuzzy for a long time and not load.

Other pages move no quicker than V6, so not really impressed here.

That said V6 was by no means slow, and I would have given V6 a 8.5/10, so this is worse here...

That said some changes could be made to increase speed and I hope they are!


FUNCTIONALITY I already went over a little. DA V7 is a lot easier to use, from clicks to accessing the news, and more the sticky bar and other such features make your life so much easier!


LOOK. Ok, stop complaining! This has really been everyone's complaint!

DeviantArt now features thousands if not millions of deviants. Why are there adds? Because at about 60 deviations every 15 seconds that ISN'T CHEAP!

Not to mention they have a staff, to keep this place going. They need some sort of way to make money.

If you don't like the ads, I am sorry but any large site/application/etc. needs them.

Fixes include ad blockers, go get one if you really care, or ask your friends for enough points for a subby!

Either way, this can be lived through.

dA V7 is new and therefore somewhat hard to navigate, I think everyone would agree with that. When I first got to it, it took me almost 5 minutes to find the basic options. But after I did it became second nature and a much easier to use and sleeker interface.


END RESULT. Overall I have to say awesome job dA! This is a solid product with many fewer bugs than it could potentially have, and a beautiful interface. That said there is still work to do, so after you get back from having a beer there's some work to be done!




Changes That are Needed


  • Ok, so one of the few bugs I reported was the friends tab bug, it won't show up around many parts of dA, and $pachunka is aware of it. We just really need a fix! This is my main problem... I hate it!

  • Buttons on the forums need to match the rest of the site

  • Users need to have an option to auto view comments (and this should be the default setting!

  • The words "Update Journal" need to be made into "New Journal Entry" it isn't an update :lol:

  • Under your name have an option for which clubs to be listed


Otherwise, keep it up!




Also


For those of you who dislike dA V7, post below with some problems (NICELY!) and I will see if I can help you out!

If you have any problems check out my Tutorial as well:

Thank you for reading!

`TimberClipse
Add a Comment:
 
:iconriskybiznez:
~riskybiznez Jun 7, 2010  Hobbyist General Artist
Pretty much agree with all that you have said. I still sometimes have problems with transparency here and there, though I'm happy to see it's mostly fixed from the beta. I too miss having the search feature on pages. Would be nice to see one on the banner bar possibly, next to the shop button? A lot of my other problems I have finally found solutions for, such as how to search groups and how to view only deviations X3
Reply
:icontimberclipse:
`TimberClipse Jun 7, 2010  Professional Filmographer
If you turn on the sticky menu (Under the \/ by the side of the deviantART logo) it will give you a search bar everywhere :dummy:
Reply
:iconriskybiznez:
~riskybiznez Jun 7, 2010  Hobbyist General Artist
Awesome thanks! :la:
Reply
:icondarklightningshadow:
~darklightningshadow Jun 7, 2010  Student Traditional Artist
I think it's a problem that certain sizes of art, when in fullview, the ad will cover part of the artwork (and here I thought the art was more important...). It's also nice when you're looking at deviations to see the title and the artist before the actual artwork.
Reply
:icondestro2k:
*Destro2k May 23, 2010  Hobbyist Artisan Crafter
great review, it helped me out with the menu, cause i missed the search
but now i'm pleased :P
Reply
:iconjewelweed:
I have a question, how do I set it so every time I view a picture it's automatically the large view? I can't seem to figure it out in v7.
Reply
:iconashelynn:
~ashelynn Jun 7, 2010  Professional General Artist
It's a subby feature.
Reply
:icontimberclipse:
`TimberClipse May 21, 2010  Professional Filmographer
You can't I am sorry

TC
Reply
:iconnotepadgirl:
I find that many people (including me) are bothered by this. It takes one more click to actually view one deviation. Maybe we save one click on notes, but we need to wait and click twice in every deviation, which adds up to more than one minute a day. I think this should be added to "Changes that are needed".
Reply
:iconlightning-powered:
~Lightning-Powered May 20, 2010   General Artist
I think that score is too generous IMHO.
Reply
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