Google's NEW Blogger interface does not work properly!

The tech people at Google may be regretting the notion of revamping Blogger.  Below I'm itemising the problems I've encountered. There may be more!

If you are an ordinary reader please excuse the VITRIOL - which is included in the hope that somebody from Google Blogger might read it!!

Below are two main faults 

• poorly managed change process
• very poor communication and very poor design

plus a section why the new interface is dysfunctional - which contains 

• 10 points explaining what is wrong with the NEW BLOGGER interface

Poorly managed change process

It's a big mistake to change what works - without

• a very good reason and 
• a very good team to deliver that change 
• a very good communication system for communicating the change

It's an even bigger mistake to announce - with a month to go - that 

• a new interface is to become the default in a month's time 
• WHEN IT DOES NOT WORK

That was the situation in May. We're now reaching the end of June and it would appear that 

• the new Blogger is now the default
• BUT somebody in Google Blogger has seen sense and the message saying that the system would remove the Legacy Blogger has been removed.

They better not remove Legacy Blogger because the system STILL does not work properly - and this post is being written in Legacy Blogger to preserve my sanity and keep my hypertension in check!

Very poor communication and very poor design

It's an even bigger mistake to be appalling at communicating about change - but that is what Google has succeeded in doing

• Nothing on the Google Blog - 'The Keyword'. Apparently Blogger is a Google Product which no longer merits a mention!
• No announcement of the planned new interface on the Official Google Blog for Blogger
• Until this week when we got a blog post A better Blogger experience on the web 
• after no blog posts since January 2019!

Obviously Fontaine - who wrote the blog post - has had no training in communication because s/he/it LEFT OUT the critical information that Blogger users need to know until the penultimate paragraph (my bold of the critical information which is NOT ON THE DASHBOARD)

• new interface becomes default in late June
• Classic Blogger - now called "legacy") will disappear in July

This proposal frankly shows evidence inexperience, lack of awareness and ineptitude in equal measure.

How can you do away with a legacy system when THE NEW ONE DOES NOT WORK!!?

We’ll be moving everyone to the new interface over the coming months. Starting in late June, many Blogger creators will see the new interface become their default, though they can revert to the old interface by clicking “Revert to legacy Blogger” in the left-hand navigation. By late July, creators will no longer be able to revert to the legacy Blogger interface.

• Plus in May we got a new banner on the dashboard - 
• a month before the new interface becomes the default. 
• That's the new interface WHICH DOES NOT WORK.  
• It forgets to mention that the existing interface will disappear in July - despite the fact they do not have a fully functioning interface and it has NOT been tested with users.
• BUT there is no HELP Page which explains how the new system works!!!

• The Google Blogger Help Community - set up for Blogger by Google - is NOT MONITORED BY THE BLOGGER IMPLEMENTATION TEAM!!!!!!!
• so we have huge numbers of people reporting various problems with the new interface
• nobody from Google responding to them
• just one blog post which highlights that they recognise there is a problem with images - but that's the only problem they recognise.

I know a number of my Readers use Blogger for their own blogs - in which case:

• you will be interested to learn about why the new interface is dysfunctional
• you may well become as worried as I am about the almighty cock-up already manufactured by Google

Why the new interface is dysfunctional 

Let me count 10 ways it does not work

1. IMPOSSIBLE to upload images from my computer

This is the big one. IT's improved somewhat - but is still not working for everybody.

What was happening is that you click the picture icon and say "I want to upload an image from my computer" and it triggers a large white box with a spinning wheel over a document icon - and momentary notice that it is unable to contacts Google Docs. Given the fact I had no intention of connecting to Google Docs this was very puzzling. It then got extremely boring because the spinning wheel never went away.

The latest is that a picture is uploaded and then does not appear.

So, currently, uploading images very much continues to be a problem for some - particularly those using Safari for a browser.

2. IMPOSSIBLE to upload videos properly

Exactly the same problem. Back in May I got a big white space - and NO VIDEO if indicate I want to upload from

• either my computer
• or YouTube 

Now I upload a video from YouTube and it's completely and utterly pathetic. Here's one of mine to illustrate what I mean

This is NEW BLOGGER's idea of a video upload (incidentally it did not upload where I indicated and I've had to move the text instead. (This is an image rather than real thing - because I can't mix modes - but this is the size which appeared)

Below is how I would normally upload a video from Legacy Blogger - via the share code from YouTube

Bit of a difference? Plus mine will play - a small but critically important point!

3. OBSESSIVE USE OF ICONS rather than words

Not everybody understands icons. Google are obsessed with the idea that icons are multi-cultural - but that's only the case if they are well designed icons - in the right place!

Plus

• why do they have to be so big?
• why do not all of them indicate what they mean
• why do we have two ? icons at the top of the page which mean different things?

4. FEEDBACK about the new interface is difficult - because it is not signalled clearly

The ? inside a circle is BOTH the Help system and the Feedback system.

Before we had something which was clearly highlighted as Feedback - in the side menu - in words "Help and Feedback"

You'd think that anybody introudcing a new system would have made FEEDBACK VERY OBVIOUS?

Not the clowns who are designing the new interface at Google Blogger. They have no concept of communication - otherwise they would not have launched a new default system with so many faults.

5. NO AUTOMATED HEADINGS eg H2, H3 H4 for Headings, Sub-Headings and Minor Headings

It takes a while to find out where they are hiding the Headings menu.

There's no drop down menu providing a very fast way of inserting headings, sub-headings and minor headings into blog text. You MUST know how html works to make a heading.

6. NEW POST PROBLEMS

Starting a new post is far from obvious. From a clearly signalled New post button top left it was of course perfectly obvious to Google - but not me - that I should look bottom right for a circle with a cross in the middle of it and KNOW that this was supposed to mean "new post"!

7. LABEL PROBLEMS

Labelling posts now takes about five times longer than it used to do. It's both a timewaster and completely frustrating - because it drops labels as you save new ones.

Plus you can never ever see clearly what labels it has got already.

Every time I have tried it has driven me up the wall - and resulted in the post NOT being labelled properly

I HAD to go back to Legacy Blogger to make sure yesterday's post was labelled correctly

8. COLOUR PROBLEMS - a very much reduced colour palette

I won't be able to use any of the 'brand' colours synonymous for this blog for year and years because Blogger has reduced the number of colours available to just a few very boring colours

This means that all previous 3,869 posts which have been designed to have specific colours might look wrong

More importantly, although it allows you to choose a colour from a palette and "save" it - the so-called doesn't last five minutes

I selected the colour I use for headlines and had to save it four times yesterday while writing a post and colouring quotes and in the end, revolted and went back to the Legacy Blogger

BECAUSE WE HAVE A DEFECTIVE COLOUR PALETTE WHICH IS A DOWNGRADE ON WHAT WENT BEFORE.

9. LOCATION Problems

They've moved functions on the dashboard and post screen without providing a clear signal

• so a new post - on the post screen  is 
• becomes a circle with a + in it - bottom right 
• instead of a box top left which says "new post"
• WHY? it makes no sense whatsoever
• the search window - on the dashboard - to find content within the blog is
• now to the right of posts with a small search window
• moves to the top of the page/screen 

The reality is I've had Google Search on my blog  forever - and also available to readers too forever - just by putting the Google search code into an html module at the top right of my right hand column!

10. FORMAT COMPLEXITY

I used to be able to make simple changes very quickly and simply.

It now takes forever and will put a strain on my tendonitis because of the distances I have to move the mouse to do things which used to be done in two seconds in a small space on the dashboard.

It's ergonomically incompetent.

CONCLUSION

I've been a very happy user of Google Blogger for over 15 years and have never ever moved because it is so simple and easy to use - and very reliable.

This NEW BLOGGER is really trying my patience BIG TIME.

I do not look forward to being forced to the realisation that I need to move 3,885 posts written over the last 15 years.