So, the verdict is in: I don't like the new NJAL website. Perhaps I simply don't like change (dear Queen Michelle, please change your logo back!), but the front page is so busy, and those drop-down menu tabs are not with it, at least according to a certain Masters student's research paper. Also, there is no longer the 'Related Designers' bar at the bottom of each designer's page. Now, they were often not related at all (or were blank pages of people who had just signed up without posting any collections), but I could spend a good hour or two some nights traveling through NJAL just by clicking on those designers that may or may not be related to my interests. Sigh. And the pop-up photos, though they are bigger, take forever to load, making me a very impatient girl (and making me have to 'Save Image As' on every picture on the first go through, rather than picking and choosing as I go through a collection). There are a few good things though:
a) You can now bookmark a specific collection of a designer, rather than just a designer (though I'm worried this will end up with having many invalid URLs in the future).
b) You can see the 'Newest Collection By' bar on each designer's page, meaning you don't have to go back to the front page to check each one (as I used to).
c) There are now links to the designers' websites within their profile (if they've included it), so you no longer have to copy and paste URLs.
d) Some designers (perhaps only those with new collections) are defaulted to having graduated in 1970 in their profile, including the very young looking Masha Reva, who doesn't look a day over 20-something (and has done a lot since we last saw her, as you'll see in the next post). I probably find this funnier than it actually is. Or not. (Edit: This glitch has now been fixed.)
e) There are a lot of new designers signed up (and/or new collections posts), as you will witness in the next few posts....
And there you have my two cents' worth. Just don't tell Mr. Siegel.
