Teething Pains

 Wednesday was our first day of research and it coincided with the first full day after the ScotlandsPeople Centre rebranded their website. The day was not without teething pains. Unfortunately ScotlandsPeople didn’t have the foresight to have a 2 minute video on their website showing the changes. Had the done so, I’m sure there would have been far less criticism. Their rebrand as “easier than ever” went to dust as soon as people started using the website again Tuesday afternoon. The biggest complaint was that the panel on the left hand side of the screen that allowed you to switch seamlessly between datasets, change dates or other details has been removed. It wasn’t until complaints on social media started pouring in that ScotlandsPeople directed everyone to the “refine search” button to once again be able to perform the tasks once easily accessible on the wee panel. 

To be fair, “refine search” used to, and still should, mean adding or reducing information in the search fields, no switch databases or change dates so it’s little surprise that no one thought to look there.

In the centre, my tour participants quickly discovered that they were unable to save any of the documents and were instead directed to print them. We also discovered that to now save a search, it once again requires using the “refine search” button where the “save” button van be found. Three steps instead of one. 

The “refine search” seems to be a catch all for any function IT couldn’t easily see fit elsewhere. “Refine search” not only pertains to functionality but also database changes. 

All in all, the rebrand seems a complete waste of resources. A new logo and header was all that was really needed and that would have saved a great deal of aggravation and negative attention from users. This was clearly a case of “it wasn’t broken so why did you change it.”