In my computing experience, and I go back to 300 baud dialup connections, when a company wanted to make a major change in their online appearance, they first let people know that major changes would be coming to the site, with (maybe) some screenshots of what things would look like. This can generate basic feedback as to appearance. Then, they would run parallel sites and give users the opportunity to "check out" the new site with basic functionality, but still be able to swap back and forth. Then, when the new site was ready to go, give users a heads-up that the new site will go fully live on XX date and the old site would no longer be available. More work? Yes. Easier on your customer base? Yes. Retain more customers by "easing in" the new site? Almost certainly. You guys aren't like Microsoft in that you have competitors, many competitors, where your users can get the info they want / need.
Not sure if this major change was driven by lower overall usage, or not. I know that when I started being more active in the online RV fora,
rv.net's Fifth Wheel forum, where I usually hang out, was near-dead, and many other fora were also way down on traffic, compared to a few years ago when
rv.net was probably the most active. The past year, or so, I've just been skimming through
rv.net due to there being so few new posts, and head off to other RV fora.
Lyle
