I find myself not coming to Woot as often since the update. Sure I like the top nav, but that's about it. I don't like the busyness--there is way too much going on. I don't like having to click to a new page to view the details. Woot is a deal-a-day site at its core, that should be front and center.

Woot grew to its size because of the deals on good products, the pleasant simplicity of the site, and the quirky write-ups. You have lost the simplicity in the complex, busy redesign.

Stick to your roots and make the core Wooters happy.

I interface with woot via my RSS feed. The RSS feed has lost the pricing and the "what's actually included" sections. Along with the busyness and tacky look of the home page, I'd call this a redesign fail. I've also seen feedback that links to previous discussions from the purchased page are gone. This is disappointing.

On the upside, I really like the tabs. But I'm deleting my RSS feed. I'll probably still stop in from time to time.

I made my first purchase since the Beta today, and noticed that I did not have to enter my credit card security code!

Please bring that back, even though it is annoying, the extra security is a good thing.

You guys have transformed a very simple looking Woot.com and its sub-sites like Wine.Woot etc. to a verbose garbage of ads and deals from others.
I TOTALLY HATE it.
The key to success is SIMPLICITY and EASE OF USE for the end user, which has completely lost in this transformation.
By the way, I've been working into IT for last 15 years, in various domains like CRM Softwares, to Banking Solutions and Business Intelligence for Top Investment Banks.
The new site, just SUCKS!
Too many clicks, Too many ads, Too much of unwanted information that I never needed on original Woot sites.
Hope you guys hearing.

I said this on the deals site, but I'll repeat just a little bit.
This site now gives me eye hernias. It's like Woot tried to out Fisher-Price Windows XP. Make it all go away.

Still sucks. woot don't care. Customers are leaving, the mojo is gone. Just another not coping well junk merchant now. I have to ask, knowing there will be no response, why did they flush it? What numbers told them that in the long run, the influx of new lemmings was going to be worth throwing all the old lemmings off the cliff? Eisner sure cashed in on disney when he took over, but at what cost? I'll tell you what cost. He tossed 50 years of painstakingly crafted and protected branding, that had raised Walt's baby beyond mythical status, and straight into a century's worth of Americana. Eisner threw that away with a tidal wave of bad/generic product, and "Look! Santa drank the diet coke and left us a disney video!" commercials, in a matter of minutes. Walt spun so hard in his grave, China asked what all the thumping was about.

Fudge woot. Just another bunch of greedy, myopic, m-o-e rons, shooting for the lowest common denominator with both barrels, and hitting themselves in the face.

They spend more time writing code to auto-redact the word m-o-e ron, than they do knowing thing one about branding cache.

I wish them the failure they deserve.

The dollars the redesigned site generates will determine the judgement of success or failure by the executives that make these decisions. The comments from the fraction of the Woot customers that actually post on here on whether we like it or not can not really matter to Woot unless they are losing money. If it doesn't make dollars it doesn't make sense to Woot/Amazon. After all I suppose making money was the point of woot.com from its conception in the first place.

Do you all agree or disagree??

dakneeul wrote:The dollars the redesigned site generates will determine the judgement of success or failure by the executives that make these decisions. The comments from the fraction of the Woot customers that actually post on here on whether we like it or not can not really matter to Woot unless they are losing money. If it doesn't make dollars it doesn't make sense to Woot/Amazon. After all I suppose making money was the point of woot.com from its conception in the first place.

Do you all agree or disagree??

You are probably right. I am new, since Feb, and I already miss the old site.

I would rather "sling a monkey" but apparently I cant do that anymore either

Busy, much too busy. One item per page, with links to other items was what kept me coming to Woot! It's ease of view and use was appealing. Now that I've lost that, I'm not enjoying returning any more.

It wasn't broke. Why was it fixed?

I haven't read all of the 1,235,230,975 other comments, so I am sure this is not an original thought: Now Woot looks like any other run-of-the-mill web retail site.

Sigh, I don't really understand why Woot would do this. Part of the allure of Woot was that they were daring to be different. Part of what made woot great has died.

I love Amazon, even more than Woot if I am honest, but I was really hoping Woot wouldn't turn into Woo-tazon. Sadly that is what appears to be the case.

To whoever from Amazon who came over and is "helping" I cry foul to you. You have misunderstood the allure of Woot and how it's willingness to mock, play, and sell all at once was best left alone to flourish.

I have said my peace, it's sad to see Woot pull a Digg.

It's too cluttered. I really miss seeing the product narrative on the home screen. I enjoy reading those and they are one reason why I keeping coming back to the site. Too much stuff on the screen seems to put much less emphasis on the product you are trying to sell and I feel I would be less inclined to impulse buy since my attention is focused elsewhere when I go to the home screen. I find myself much less inclined to visit your site daily. Hey, maybe that is a good thing for me. My bank account will at least be happier that way.

You guys have transformed a very simple looking Woot.com and its sub-sites like Wine.Woot etc. to a verbose garbage of ads and deals from others.
I TOTALLY HATE it.
The key to success is SIMPLICITY and EASE OF USE for the end user, which has completely lost in this transformation.
By the way, I've been working into IT for last 15 years, in various domains like CRM Softwares, to Banking Solutions and Business Intelligence for Top Investment Banks.
The new site, just SUCKS!
Too many clicks, Too many ads, Too much of unwanted information that I never needed on original Woot sites.
Hope you guys hearing.

Busy, much too busy. One item per page, with links to other items was what kept me coming to Woot! It's ease of view and use was appealing. Now that I've lost that, I'm not enjoying returning any more.

It wasn't broke. Why was it fixed?

It's too cluttered. I really miss seeing the product narrative on the home screen. I enjoy reading those and they are one reason why I keeping coming back to the site. Too much stuff on the screen seems to put much less emphasis on the product you are trying to sell and I feel I would be less inclined to impulse buy since my attention is focused elsewhere when I go to the home screen. I find myself much less inclined to visit your site daily. Hey, maybe that is a good thing for me. My bank account will at least be happier that way.

+1

hate the site now.

I really hate that if you are not signed it, has a stupid pop up that asks you to with not option to "don't ask again, i will sign in/sign out as i please".

I hate that from the main page there is an extra click to actually see the freaking description of the product and what it comes with.

The site is like some fresh out of school web designer just randomly threw all the cool/latest ideas onto a screen, then knocked off for the day with a PBR.

Honestly, every day (pre redesign) i was talking myself out of buying stuff, now i have to talk my self into forgetting how stupid the site redesign is and buying something.

ok, out of my system. sorry for the rant

Why do the wootplus ads need to be so big? Shoudln't the main item on each woot page the the most prominent?

And Yeah!!, having to now click twice to get to the main item on each woot-page is REALLLY aggravating.

However, I do really like the tabbed window with the item details; specs, etc.

Is there any way to add a print option/button to the receipt page?

So - are any woot-staff reading any of these - I have browsed 17 pages of comments - and I have failed to find ANY that way they love everything.....in fact - it looks like everyone hates pretty much everything except the tabs at the top, but I have yet to find any shift back to the old style.

Why solicit feedback if all you are gonna do is ignore it?

I will have to concur with many posters here - I am not "leaving" woot, but it used to be my first stop every day, but I will likely just now wait for my txt messages for when there is a woot-off and only visit then.......sorry - im not gone, but I definitely wont be here as much any more

richmondhokie wrote:So - are any woot-staff reading any of these - I have browsed 17 pages of comments - and I have failed to find ANY that way they love everything.....in fact - it looks like everyone hates pretty much everything except the tabs at the top, but I have yet to find any shift back to the old style.

Why solicit feedback if all you are gonna do is ignore it?

I will have to concur with many posters here - I am not "leaving" woot, but it used to be my first stop every day, but I will likely just now wait for my txt messages for when there is a woot-off and only visit then.......sorry - im not gone, but I definitely wont be here as much any more

Lots of people are reading this thread, the feedback thread(s) that have been over in deals, hidden comments in product threads, and the very high amount of feedback coming through the beta feedback button.

Check out this word cloud, posted by one of our developers.

Edit: It's a lot, we appreciate your understanding that we can't reply to everyone individually. I know you're being heard, so please keep sending your thoughts to us, posting them here, commenting on Twitter (yep, we see those too), and the like.

I like the "tabs" across the top. The $5 all you can ship seems like a good deal, but I haven't tried it out yet. Really liked not having to enter credit card data every time.

I don't like how busy the page looks. Stark white background with different sized objects strewn helter skelter around the page...it reminds me of my daughter's play room just before clean-up time. The old woot with the colored background made it so simple and easy to see the important information vs the less important. Now it just seems visually overwhelming and, sadly, it doesn't make me want to stay on the site.

Also, no tracking numbers included in shipping confirm emails anymore? What gives?

I like the tabs as well, all the other stuff can go somewhere else. A woot lite would be good (only Woot! site) or if you could minimize all the stuff that you don't care for, that would work for me as well (although it would still be more bloat than I care for).
If woot is going to go all amazon on us, maybe I can use prime?

inkycatz wrote:
Check out this word cloud, posted by one of our developers.

Thanks for the laugh, that word cloud was quite funny. "Like" being the largest word in the cloud, sure it's being used often, but it is mostly being preceded by "Don't."

I think the link below shows my thoughts. I went to school for exactly this, interactive media design, which means webpages and such. While redesigning this site some definite improvements were made but some HUGE no-no's also were made as well....

Simply put it takes far to long to find what I want. The old site though not glamorous was functional, and in no way confusing. The only issue with Woot has been since it's purchase by Amazon. I haven't wanted to order a single item for over a year now because the selection of stuff has been craptastic in my mind, sadly :/. I am tired of seeing TV's and computers refurbished and new constantly as the item being offered. What ever happened to bags of crap, do they even show up now? I haven't seen one.

Thank you for reading the post, linked below is a webpage showing what I said above. The summary is posted below for those that don't want to read the extra information.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/page-abandonment-time.html

"Summary:
Users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people's attention for much longer because visit-durations follow a negative Weibull distribution."

slpieper wrote:I think the link below shows my thoughts. I went to school for exactly this, interactive media design, which means webpages and such. While redesigning this site some definite improvements were made but some HUGE no-no's also were made as well....

Simply put it takes far to long to find what I want. The old site though not glamorous was functional, and in no way confusing. The only issue with Woot has been since it's purchase by Amazon. I haven't wanted to order a single item for over a year now because the selection of stuff has been craptastic in my mind, sadly :/. I am tired of seeing TV's and computers refurbished and new constantly as the item being offered. What ever happened to bags of crap, do they even show up now? I haven't seen one.

Thank you for reading the post, linked below is a webpage showing what I said above. The summary is posted below for those that don't want to read the extra information.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/page-abandonment-time.html

"Summary:
Users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people's attention for much longer because visit-durations follow a negative Weibull distribution."

This is what I have found myself doing. With the previous format I would linger on each woot page, read, check out the other deals(the ones on the right-hand side which you could mouse-over to see the description), even check out some of the other ads, etc. It was a "comfortable" and pleasant experience, now, not so much.

Now I just quickly check the main item on each woot-page, and I'm outta there. It's almost like staring at a strobe-light, I can't wait to look away.

Another nit I just realized while typing my comments, there's no friggin' cursor. If I want to go back to fix a typo I have to guess where to click, or count the number of letters I need to go back or forward. I noticed it earlier when I posted some comments prior to this, but I thought maybe there was a problem with my browser or something with my home computer. Now I'm at work, on a different machine, and still no cursor, very frustrating.

Slydon wrote:Maybe we're busy sorting it out?

But a lot of us are reading, even if we're just quietly for now. I hope you'll stick around and see how we work our way out of the beta period.

Ok, so what your saying is that you all read what we are saying. That you are thinking( which you should have done before you changed this site into this fetid abortion ) about what we are writing. However from the outside it appears as if you just don't care about what your customers say. From the outside this rancid festering wound has remained the same. It appears that only by not spending money or clicking out the web pages will you all get a clue. So for now, my wallet is sealed here. As a point of opinion the shirts have been crap designs lately as well, not to even mention the downgrade in shirt quality (yes we have not forgotten).

So to sum up. Lower shirt quality, lack of good shirt designs, higher prices, denial website, not listening to your customers. vs Um... ok I am not sure what is positive on your side is anymore...Tabs perhaps?

Truely disappointing.

pha9992001 wrote:Thanks for the laugh, that word cloud was quite funny. "Like" being the largest word in the cloud, sure it's being used often, but it is mostly being preceded by "Don't."

That was my immediate thought. Also "messy bullcrap" should probably have been in there.

Have made many woot purchases in the past several years. I can barely stand to look at the new woot screen. WAY to cluttered. You are force feeding me ALOT of content I DO _NOT_WANT_TO_SEE_ and hiding content I DO WANT TO SEE. I do NOT have the time or inclination to hunt around for buttons to press and pages to load to see what I used to see on the main woot home page. DO NOT LIKE. FIX THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew it was going to happen eventually regardless of what Matt Rutledge wrote in his acquisition leter "This is about making the Woot brand, culture, and business even stronger than it is today, and we expect that any changes will be for the better or we wouldn't bother ...". It took amazon 2 years to turn woot into another corporate piece of crap (with no bag) with a website designed by a new graduate that has to show off how much stuff can be placed on a site.

Return from the dark side and bring back simplicity.

I am annoyed by the need to sign in to woot everytime I want to check on shipments, even though I am already signed in on my wine woot page. The tracking number used to be included in the email from Woot notifying me that my wine is being shipped. This was an easy way to just click on the tracking number and be immediately linked to the FedEx page. Also, when I made my first purchase on the new site, I was not asked for the security code for my credit card as was done in the past. Not good.

Don't know what the criteria were ... hope they were met, so there is festive back-slapping in some far removed corporate office ...
but out here on the front lines?

I used to recommend Woot frequently, in person and on radio.
It was fun, quirky, interesing, engaging and personal feeling.

I hope it Was your goal to suck all of that out of the site, because theh the back-slapping festivities can go through the roof. You completely succeeded.

However, back at the front lines?
Having taken all of the warmth out of the site, there is nothing for me to recommend.
I can't just send a friend there, it is too difficult to navigate, when you don't know what you're looking for, and, really, now it is just another in-your-face-glaring-discount-site so, what's to recommend?

So, I can't imagine sending anyone to This Woot, unless it's a friend I know is looking for what's on sale for the day ... and absolutely no reason to send folks there from our "Tech Talk radio segments...

inkycatz wrote:Lots of people are reading this thread,
Check out this word cloud, posted by one of our developers.

I agree.. .it IS only your developers who LIKE this new design.

to which I say ...
that's nice ... *pat* *pat* ...
now lets put your clutter of toys away and clean up ...


edited to fix an edit of a bad tag

Slydon wrote:Maybe we're busy sorting it out?

pretty tough sort...
"Hate it all"
"Hate it so much"
"Hate everything but the over sensitive tabs"
"Gawd Awful"
and
"Make It Go Away"

tough sort...

Well, I've given it some time to settle in and for me to get used to the new site. The new look seems too cluttered and less pleasant to look at. I know I have checked in much less often with the new one. Fewer looks equals fewer purchases for me. Guess I don't like Woot: The Future! but much prefer Woot: The Past!

I popped in daily to see if the 'site was back up. As I'd popped in daily to check it, and shirt.woot, prior.

I was already concerned by.
A. the more frequent woot-offs.
B. the change in product type toward more "main-stream" items.
C. My dad purchased a security camera system from them, at my suggestion, (hey, they've always had good prices,) then promptly found the same one for less elsewhere just a few days before the redesign.
D. in the back of my head, that it was now an arm of Amazon.

Then I got in and Woot was no longer the quirky 'site I loved, but now looked much more like any other 'site.
I logged out.

I checked back in today, via Google, to see the list of complaints in the new 'site. I did not visit the home-page, but rather Googled "woot redesign" after "Woot jumped the shark" proved too generic. and went straight to the thread.
I probably won't be back to Woot.

There is this story about a farmer who had a goose that laid golden eggs...

Graiser wrote:...

There is this story about a farmer who had a goose that laid golden eggs...

That is so right on!! Couldn't describe better what is happening here with Woot:

"English idiom, sometimes shortened to "Killing the golden goose"... generally used of a short-sighted action that destroys the profitability of an asset."

Yep, here's some choice words from that cloud, arranged how I feel most folks would have them:

"I don't like the new woot site, just want the old way back."

Ultimately, it is busy, and makes me want to buy less.

Good example: I see the speaker/audio deal you've got going - so far so good, alternate deal I wouldn't have normally seen - click on it, most everything's sold out that I would have wanted to purchase after the first few hours.

Now it's like the undead...I see it week after week, but I know it's just a zombie that needs to be killed.

Plus - let's be honest - one thing I've always had a problem with is the huge amount of white for a site that is seen and driven mostly by purchases made at midnight. I went to check it tonight, and firing it up nuked my eyeballs.

inkycatz wrote:Lots of people are reading this thread, the feedback thread(s) that have been over in deals, hidden comments in product threads, and the very high amount of feedback coming through the beta feedback button.

Check out this word cloud, posted by one of our developers.

Edit: It's a lot, we appreciate your understanding that we can't reply to everyone individually. I know you're being heard, so please keep sending your thoughts to us, posting them here, commenting on Twitter (yep, we see those too), and the like.

Agree with this. Plus, my gmail would automatically pick up on the tracking and place it in the sidebar, which was nice.

slm9951 wrote:I am annoyed by the need to sign in to woot everytime I want to check on shipments, even though I am already signed in on my wine woot page. The tracking number used to be included in the email from Woot notifying me that my wine is being shipped. This was an easy way to just click on the tracking number and be immediately linked to the FedEx page. Also, when I made my first purchase on the new site, I was not asked for the security code for my credit card as was done in the past. Not good.

You may as well fire the writers, since the written funny bits were moved off the front page, I haven't read one.

Woot Plus is clutter or worse. Seems like if I'm interested at all, it is sold out because quantities are tiny.

Next complaint is the glare, it's like a Yul Brynner fan-con in a city park. I have to look, but it hurts.

I do check Woot quite often and have avoided the actual website like the black plague since the update. I would much rather view an app I have on my phone then the actual website, what is that saying about the content you are displaying and the way you are displaying it. I understand the goal is to keep users at the site longer and to purchase more product such as Woot Plus items but the path that is being taken to achieve that goal was not well thought out. For some reason and I am not sure whether it is just my hatred towards the new theme or something to that nature but since the new update, there has been less products that I have intrigued to look. I have perhaps posted once or twice on the community before, but I do hope that I am heard along with the rest of the concerned users. What shocks me is they hadnt pulled the plug on the theme sooner as it is hurting their reputation. I think if they went back to the old theme today, it would take quite a bit of time to build up the reputation again. In the end it is no longer Woots decision, it is Amazon which at this point they should have a link to each others site on the main page.

I've been a Woot customer since 2006, and check the site every day. I don't care for the new site, but I'll admit that after 6 years, you get used to things, and maybe it's a knee jerk reaction to change.
That said, I DO like the tabs to the other Woot deals. But that's it. Here are my peeves.

Too busy. Harder to find the info I need.

Shipping cost. No price on the main page except the all you can ship banner. I know it's always $5, but was worried that they may have changed that policy with he new site. And for newbies who maybe don't trust Woot yet; I feel that way when I visit another deal a day site and don't see any shipping cost.

Shipping method. Is it Smart Post? I used to be able to tell at a glance.

Comment pages used to be listed as older and newer instead of previous and next. I liked that.

I find that I'm avoiding the site if the daily emal doesn't list anything of interest. In the old days, I'd look at the various sites to take a quick look at what is available today. Now it's harder to see what I'm looking for amid ads and other deals. That info used to be on the left side all in line, with comments, ads, and side deals on the, well, side.

I miss the oval ridiculously large button. Can a rectangle even bounce?

Maybe some enterprising individual will build an Oldwoot web site that will pull info of the new sites and reformat it the old way.