macbone wrote:DoomYoshi wrote:rufus3000 wrote:It feels like this entire site is in perpetual beta.
That is kind of the point.
Name a website you visit regularly that hasn't changed in 8 years.
I can think of 1.
I can think of three that I use regularly that haven't made significant changes.
Google.com
The Drudge Report
Rpol.net
All three of these sites focus on utility and minimalism, and they work. =)
Yes, this. My "real job" is business analysis. For a website like CC, customer captivity (i.e., the psychological habit of users going back regularly to familiar websites) is everything. You screw with that at your peril. Any changes should be tiny incremental things that unambiguously improve the user experience -- that's it.
The problem with site redesigns is they create an opening for your customers to start checking out your competitors because you've broken that customer captivity.
Your examples are good ones. I'd also add Digg.com and how that site committed suicide and pushed its users to Reddit. Reddit has been smart by the way and has kept its clean, fast, simple design. Reddit won't win any design awards, but it sure has a loyal user base.
Also, Craigslist is another example of a site that's ridiculously profitable and has been, luckily for them, smart enough to avoid fucking with the interface or "improving" the design.