One of the things I like about experts is that most of them I know are very straight-forward people. If they have something to say then they say it and rarely worry too much about being diplomatic (and some don't even really know how to be tactful ). It is from such honesty that one can learn from and it is such learning that has brought about the big changes to Livelink-Experts.com.

A few months ago we had a frank comment from a member that told us in no uncertain terms that our site was ugly and confusing. The words stung to be sure, whether one believes it or not, our ugly and confusing site was the end result of a lot of planning and work. Our choice of bold, bright colours was deliberate as was our choice to include content from all walks of life. Both decisions, while deliberate, where utterly wrong.

We've learned a number of things that we think have been addressed, from our choice of colours and themes  to our purge of content and un-used functionality. We still have one of the most functional online web communities found anywhere, but much of that functionality is now either hidden from view or presented in a less obtrusive fashion. We have tried to replace words with icons, removed semi-redundant options, and generally "dumbed down" the features to make them far easier to use and make use of.

We have taken away from our members much of the burden of learning by providing better default configurations suitable to their status within the community. This means, for instance, that most users will se a WYSIWYG editor pop up to provide new or edit existing content. We've tried hard to unify all of the interfaces into a consistent look and feel with a consistent suite of functionality.

I think the changes we've put in place make a big difference as to the utility of the site, and I am hoping that it leads to our members posting more content. I've thrown the first few volleys, the most recent being the ECM Cost Calculator, what can you bring to the table?