BrickLink Facelift Beta

legomason

There is an announcement on Bricklink.com dated 2015-6-11 of a Preview Launch boasting an "Improved search, catalog and payment UI with a fresh new look."

However, it basically looks the same - sort of a transitional middle ground until full changeover (hopefully). Way less green now but still looks much too tabby. It says, "The original BrickLink logo will also get a Facelift as we begin our journey to become a more modern site for all generations of LEGO lovers." But if you go to the Moc Shop, they have been using the actual new Bricklink logo there: http://moc.bricklink.com/pages/moc/index.page

The new All Items search looks promising. I never understood why the Items for Sale search was the default instead of the much more useful Catalog Items. 

I can't really tell what's different for the Catalog other than layout and I'm not sure how the new Onsite Payment method will work.

They state, "Our goal is to release BrickLink Facelift in June [depending on feedback]." I believe they mean July.

More at Preview Launch of BrickLink's Facelift: http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/newsview.page?msgid=921526

Note: I couldn't find a discussion on this yet here - Bricksetforum's search doesn't seem to be working.

Aleydita

Looks good, a nice refresh, but the only changes appear to be a better search and on-site payments. The biggest problem I have with BL is that it can take an age to navigate through all the fees and charges that each seller individually imposes. Some don't add any, but some add 3% for PayPal, €5 to fill out a customs form, 20p for bubble envelope, etc... It makes the 'for sale' listings pretty redundant. I was hoping they'd improve on this aspect.

CCC

I don't find the changes that great.

New skin = different colours, but still the rather dated look. Not that I care too much about that.

Search = essentially the default is now catalogue rather than for sale. It saves a click, but not that different. It does now include custom lots in the basic search though, which is good although will probably lead to keyword spamming.

Payment = step in the right direction, but it is still a way from automated checkout.

Kevin_Hyatt

Not checked out the new look yet but hope fthey make it more user friendly. I've almost got used to it now but at first it was a nightmare and I imagine it puts a lot of people off from using the site

Matthew

What a waste of time! Why they didn't just start from scratch beats me...

theLEGOman

Blue background, bigger buttons, new font for the logo and new page layout for catalogue items. Not really much of a change.

SumoLego

It's a shallow facelift, nothing substantial.

tomalphin

At least the old design was excusable as a relic of an earlier time; this attempt to modernize the look without updating the interaction model is laughable.  Lipstick on a pig.

They need to be brave and go big.  Brickset really benefited from it's fresh design, which has held up well over the last year or so since it was updated.

---tom

tomalphin

Or, to say it a different way...

It's 2015, let go of tables and grids, embrace CSS and build a responsive design that works on PC, tablets and phones.  Do less, Better. (...by embracing telemetry to understand what you customers actually do, instead of what they say they do.)

CCC

The margins need to be bigger, they simply do not take up enough space. Plus the MOC shop should be at least half the front page, its only about one quarter now.

Fauch

in my wanted list, there is no way to distinguish between complete and incomplete sets. you could ask to be notified only if the set is complete for example.

Sethro3

But aren't all facelifts shallow?

Anyway, I was going through it and it didn't seem too different. I like some of the changes, like on homepage and all of the links across the top. But ultimately it feels the same. But then again, I can navigate BL just fine.

to quote Sheldon on BBT "Change is never good."

ecmo47

^ Got to agree with that. I sincerely hope they do not make large sweeping changes just for change sake. It's hard enough to keep up with Mircosoft and Facebook that do that routinely.

Paperballpark

There's a large community uses BL - probably accounting for most of their business. It's not good business sense to completely change everything all at once and have everyone up in arms.

Basically, they're doing it in incremental steps so as not to annoy people too much. Change the colours first, so that people get used to using BL with a brand new colour scheme, but with most other things unchanged or just tweaked slightly.

Then once everyone is used to that, they'll probably start really changing the design and layout. But because everyone will be used to the new colour scheme, any changes they make won't seem as great as if they'd done it all in one go.

TheLoneTensor

So, how's that redesign coming along?

lordzarak

The new BL is going into effect as we speak...

Dawn

CCC

The bricklink forums are funny. Quite a few Private Frasers about today.

Brick_Obsession

Good one, this made me laugh.

kiki180703

The new BL is up now!

SumoLego

Looks really good.  Feels like Square Space, but asthetically pleasing nonetheless...

Lobot

kiki180703 said:

The new BL is up now!

It back to 'Maintenance in progress' again - I had a quick look earlier and most of it looks quite good, but I'm not too sure about the new store layout.  Hopefully there's a way of customising it... 

CCC

^ there is

bobabricks

Looks pretty slick, it'll be interesting finding all the new features.

Rsa33

They have destroyed the wantlist section.  It is all merged together now, wth are they thinking?!

I have absolutely no idea how to use this now, blargh!

ecmo47

Thank goodness the "My Bricklink" page is still the same. Haven't investigated further.

TheBrickLadd

The stores I have tried visiting say they have no stock... Is it broken?!

kiki180703

@TheBrickLadd What would be one of the stores? It works totally fine for me.

One new thing that I like about the update is that wanted lists now show the percentage of completion of the list. I also think that they now update automatically when you buy parts to complete them.

TheBrickLadd

@kiki180703

Im trying to order from here: http://www.bricklink.com/store/home.page?sID=2397&itemID=95064926#/shop?o={"q":"2x4"}

Its not showing my the bricks when I click the brick category I'm getting everything.  Am I missing something?!

kiki180703

@TheBrickLadd Did you try with another browser? It works perfectly fine for me on a Mac on Chrome.

TheBrickLadd

Just tried Firefox and Safari on my Mac @kiki180703 and its not letting me click page numbers and when I click a category its showing different parts!

Lobot

Has anyone managed to add a 'Store logo' yet?  There's an option to add a 72x72px .jpeg and I've tried everything I can think of!!  Each time I've just ended up with a 'dead' link icon......

Also, be careful when amending your 'Splash' page - for some reason the new text editor seems to corrupt anything you change.  For example, if you use any of the icons (bold, font size etc) it then shows as HTML code on the actual page.... I'm going to have to do mine from scratch tomorrow, doh!

kiki180703

@TheBrickLadd I have no idea why it doesn't work for you then, sorry!

TheBrickLadd

kiki180703 said:

@TheBrickLadd I have no idea why it doesn't work for you then, sorry!

Working in Chrome. :)

kiki180703

@TheBrickLadd Well, won't you look at that! ;)

klatu003

As a buyer, everything looks pretty slick!  The location of MyBL, Wanted, Cart as perm tabs on the menu bar is so much better for navigation.  Everything looks pretty intuitive.

canon03

Rsa33 said:

They have destroyed the wantlist section.  It is all merged together now, wth are they thinking?!

I have absolutely no idea how to use this now, blargh!

+1

I use http://www.bricklink.com/wantedDetail.asp?catType=P all the time, but have no idea where it is in the redesigned site.  Thank goodness it was still in my browser history and still works.

canon03

Found it: http://www.bricklink.com/v2/wanted/search.page?type=P

lordzarak

I do like the new look. It will take some getting used to and learning where things are now located. The best improvement is the site works on my iPad again. 

kizkiz

Been having a play with my wanted list and the new auto find option. It appears to be an attempt at brickficiency, but is actually pointless.
You can only search by cheapest or least stores, but you need to combine them to get useful result, as cheapest is irrelevant when it suggests dozens of stores to complete the order, and least stores is expensive options 

Brick_Obsession

I was about to rage this morning about how archaic Bricklink was.  Kind of like myspace.

Then low and behold, or more like wayyyyy behind the times, Bob's (not my real uncle) your uncle, there are changes.

You guys can all sleep well tonight knowing that I accept the changes and think the site has a fresh look to it.  Of course there will be bugs and we have to be patient through them, but for the most part most of it looks to be functional.  Looking forward to using it more often now, not comparing it to chewing on tinfoil :-)

Good job BL

brumey

oh noes

all my baskets gone!

edit:
found them!

edit v2:
"Bad Request
No path or host in request.
Via FreeProxy"

Lobot

I emailed Brickset yesterday about the problems I'd found, and was very impressed that they've already replied.  You can use a .png for the Store logo as a work-around, and they're looking at the problem with the Splash page text editor... it's really weird. 

I'm guessing that they've bolted something onto it which should enable you to adjust the text formatting via an icon-based menu, rather than having to use HTML.  Unfortunately, it just adds the HTML code into the text which isn't that helpful!  And, it also doesn't show any HTML you've used after it's been updated, which makes it rather frustrating to make any changes to it!!

brumey

ok. 

now the start page seems to load up after waiting a bit. but whenever i click something everything freezes! 
i have a cart icon on the top right corner which has the number 4 besides to it! 
before the overhaul i had 4 stores with parts in my basket!  i dont want to go through the stores inventory again and compare to the other stores pricewise!

MaffyD

^ i think you meant BrickLINK there :-)

brumey

ok..

so its working a likkle better  now. but whenever i click on a store, a blank page turns up!



who else?

CCC

Works fine for me.

cheshirecat

Works fine for me too.

MattsWhat

and me.

Lobot

MaffyD said:

^ i think you meant BrickLINK there :-)

Good point :-)

I would like to blame all of the painkillers, but I stopped taking them a couple of weeks ago... although our cat did wake me up at 5.30 today literally howling at another one who'd decided to invade her garden, so I haven't had much sleep!

tecjam

Seems like they rushed the update just a little ...

Considering the site looked like something from the 80s, a few more days or weeks to make sure it all works wouldn't have gone a miss.