Yola’s Site Builder gets a face lift!

Well, I have to tell you, we’re pretty excited around here.  Because as you may have seen already, we launched some improvements to the Site Builder today, and we think you’re really going to like it.

A couple of months ago we interviewed a bunch of our users and asked them to show us what they like and don’t like about Yola’s Site Builder.  We then asked our wonderful Customer Support team what they can tell us about all the ideas you send them on a daily basis to make the Site Builder better.  And then our design and engineering teams started working to make things better, so today we launched the first batch of those improvements (yes, there’s lots more to come over the next few months!).

I wanted to take moment to show you what we’ve changed, and why we did it. So, the next time you log into the Site Builder (or create a new site), here are some of the changes you’ll see:

Let’s walk through these one at a time:

1. We heard that you want to see your site’s web address front and center, and be able to access it easily from within the Site Builder.  Done!
2. There was a lot of confusion around the “Publish” button.  It sometimes said “Publish your site”, and at other times it said “Update your site.”  Well, now it will always say the same thing: “Publish to the web.”  No confusion about what that does!
3. This is one of the changes we are most excited about.  You told us that it’s sometimes difficult to tell whether or not your site has been published to the web, and whether the edits that you’ve made is live or not.  Well, wonder no more!  We have created a nifty traffic light indicator system, so now you will always know if your site is published to the web or not, and whether those important changes you’ve made can be seen by your visitors.
4. We cleaned up the links at the top of the page, so that it’s more obvious where each link goes.  And remember, help is always just a click away!
5. One of the most visible changes you’ll see is that we’ve changed the color of the top bar on the Site Builder.  We also did some Spring cleaning (it’s Spring somewhere in the world, right?) on the links to make things a little bit neater.  We hope these changes make for a relaxing, calming atmosphere to help your creative juices flow as you build your site!
6. This tab used to be called “Content.” But who are we kidding?  We all know those are “Widgets”!
7. Go ahead — click on Properties.  You’ll see that we’ve re-ordered some of the fields, and also provide some links to excellent tutorials to help you promote your site.
8. Many of you might not know this, but we used to have a different default Style when you create your site and don’t select a Style upfront. Trust us, the one we have now is a nicer way for our new users to get started with Yola!
9. Many new users told us they don’t know how to get started with Yola.  We can’t have that!  So we’ve changed some instructional messaging and also now link to a great tutorial on how to get started.

But wait, there’s more!  There are also a few smaller changes.  Can you spot them?  Let us know in the comments!

Now, let me also say this.  I don’t like change any more than you do.  So we know that some of you might not like some of these changes. But we are confident that this is the right thing to do — and we know this because all these ideas came from you, our loyal community.  But, if you don’t like anything we did here, I’d like to ask that you do the following:

1. Tell us what you don’t like here in the comments of the blog. It’s not good to let all that anger build up — this is a safe place, and we’ll listen.  Let it out!
2. Give it a week. See if you can get used to it.  If you still don’t like it, then come back and tell us more about it.

So I think that’s it for now.  Have I mentioned that we want to hear from you?  Tell us what you think about these changes.  And like I said, this is just the beginning.  We’re excited about the great improvements we’ll be making over the coming months.

Happy site building!

Rian Van Der Merwe (Sr. Product Manager, Yola.com)