Pretty? Or just working?

We get a lot of, "MSDN isn't sexy", "Those pages are ugly" from people both internal and external to MSDN. Does our look matter? Isn't it all just about the content, or do you want something jazzier? Something "happening"? Or, just a blog with technical stuff? Oh, and I promise, whatever you ask for -- no Flash.
Print | posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 11:01 PM

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# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 4/6/2005 6:32 PM Gravatar
Not so cool over there, no choice anyway.

# Visual Studio 2005

left by Anonymous at 4/7/2005 8:05 PM Gravatar
When does it come out?

# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 3/30/2005 7:46 PM Gravatar
Comments seem to be working now :)

i think there's some cross-browser improvements that could be made..some sections don't work very well in anything but IE. I certainly wouldn't call the pages ugly. I find its way easier to find information now than it was 3-4+ years ago, which is more important than anything else in my opinion. That said, I don't see why you can't have your cake and eat it too...If you have the resources, why not make it look great, be usable, gecko friendly, speedy and everything else. All of this is probably my way of saying 'yes, they could be better' without sounding superficial...

# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 4/18/2005 7:00 PM Gravatar
Shame not everything works with Firefox - otherwise I think the site looks OK.

# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 4/13/2005 4:20 AM Gravatar
If you make it look half as good as your blog we will be happy.

# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 4/14/2005 11:32 PM Gravatar
Just spell things correctly on the current site...
ie
Paul is currently an ASP.NET MVP and workds as a technical

# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 4/15/2005 9:11 AM Gravatar
Don't make it pretty, sexy, jazzy or happening.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I know when I walk through the office and see eye-catching pages up on the developers' screens, most of the time its not work related.

Then again, maybe if MSDN were flashier, the goofing-off sites wouldn't seem quite as obvious.

Maybe its a peacock thing ... the colorful pages like plumage. "Look at me, I'm so valuable and productive I can surf highly obvious non-work pages and not get fired!"

Tip: if you have to surf non-work related stuff, if you SSH into your server at home and use a text-based browser in a shell, it not only looks like work to the pointy-haired types, it looks like HARD work. Oooh! Terminal black and green! Scary. ;)

# re: Pretty? Or just working?

left by Anonymous at 4/5/2005 5:53 PM Gravatar
I agree, I go there for the information not the prettyness, usability functionality and quality of information I think are the most important things.
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