Feedback on the AFF website & brand refresh

[JohnM]

No. I just bookmark “what’s new" hence my not being worried about the changes cause I hardly see any of it. Plus I am still on the old style.

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Same - except I have two tabs on my browser next to each other: one for 'New posts' (ie. what I'm already following) and the other for 'What's new'.

I check the first one regularly; the other periodically.

 

[admin]

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For those who may have reverted to the Classic theme, you won't have noticed yet - but we've shifted the headers on the forum to the suggested purple from @DejaBrew's feedback - a great call

 

[Flyerwin]

To the design team - the favicon hasn't updated to the new logo? Or do I just have to refresh my browser cache?

 

[DejaBrew]

To the design team - the favicon hasn't updated to the new logo? Or do I just have to refresh my browser cache?

Thanks for mentioning. I’ve been in all-day workshops the last couple of days so didn’t get to screenshotting this and posting. Not sure if the team has changed things since your post, but I’m currently seeing the updated favicon.

 

[DejaBrew]

For those who may have reverted to the Classic theme, you won't have noticed yet - but we've shifted the headers on the forum to the suggested purple from @DejaBrew's feedback - a great call

Cheers! I might be a tad biased - and I know the change is not going to satisfy everyone - but I honestly do think that's a significant improvement to the new theme.

 

[AuSammy]

Cheers! I might be a tad biased - and I know the change is not going to satisfy everyone - but I honestly do think that's a significant improvement to the new theme.

What! you liked your own suggestion - how novel

 

[DejaBrew]

What you liked your own suggestion - how novel

Well it would have been awkward if I'd suggested the changes had resulted in making things worse....

 

[DejaBrew]

A couple of other things I've spotted since the Forum was updated...

First, the label for "conversations" should have a capital "C".

Second, take a look at the menu bar...

Now, as I we gradually hover over the "What's New", "Articles & Guides" and "Member Benefits" menu headers, what do you notice?




For those playing at home, the answer is that the little down arrow head on the "Articles & Guides" menu is a different colour (i.e. See here) to that of the "What's New" and "Member Benefits" menus (i.e. See here).

I might have considered to this to have been by design, except for the fact that when you hover over the down arrow head on either the "What's New" or "Member Benefits" menus, they change colour to match up with the "Articles & Guides" menu.



Note: Both of the items I've flagged here are consistent across all themes and are not specific to the new AFF Theme. In the case of the down arrows on the menu bar, the colours in question are obviously going to vary depending on the selected theme, however the colour discrepancy on menu hover is consistent.

 

[n7of9]

I humbly request that @DejaBrew NOT be allowed to take any pictures at the Masterclass. I don't want to see any screenshots of me with recommendations to get a haircut, colour my grey hairs, and wear a better fitting bra.

 

[DejaBrew]

Never fear @n7of9, with all the extra kilos and grey hairs - or as I prefer to call them, "experience sparkles" - that I'm rocking these days, it's safe to say that "pot, kettle, black" absolutely applies!

 

[DejaBrew]

Another suggestion for your main site...

The carousel on the homepage has 3 slides -:




Problem is, as a visitor to your site, I have no visual indicator as to which carousel slide I'm currently seeing? This is because the 3 pips underneath the slide all share the same colour, regardless of which slide is currently displayed -:


To simplify navigation, the pip associated with the "active" slide should be highlighted in a different colour, e.g.

 

[Seat0B]

Seriously you should send AFF an invoice @DejaBrew. Or how about a complimentary extension to their membership @admin

 

[Flyerwin]

@DejaBrew is already AFF Platinum - he needs to be upgraded to AFF P1 or CL.

 

[DejaBrew]

Allow me to apologise in advance for this first item as it's going to sound like I'm picking on the new logo again, but here goes....

The website is known as "The Australian Frequent Flyer" / "Australian Frequent Flyer". This - or "AFF" - is what's commonly written, communicated and understood by all who use the site and services. Your outgoing logo was branded as "Australian Frequent Flyer", but whether by creative design decision or inadvertent oversight, the new logo brands the site as "australian Frequent Flyer" which appears at odds with every other mention of the site name.




From a brand styling perspective, unless this lowercase styling is an intentional and well-documented part of the brand's visual identity or there's a consistent and strategic rationale behind it, it's generally not the done thing.

For what it's worth, given there are plenty of companies that use lower casing in their logos/brands (and so as to get a second opinion of sorts), I queried ChatGPT on the topic. Here's what it had to say -:

Logos are often stylized with typographic choices that ignore traditional capitalization (e.g. "facebook", "intel", "adidas"). However, those companies have intentionally developed their visual identities around that lowercase styling and have rigorous brand guidelines explaining it. Simply lowercasing part of the name without that established context weakens the brand and may confuse the audience.

Obviously ChatGPT is not going to be the absolute authority on the matter, but it's worth looking at some of those examples to see how they use their brand name in other contexts beyond simply the logo.

 

[DC3]

I’m still happy with AFF Classic Style.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

I'm not paid to say this (promise) but I simply cannot see that. For me, its the same FF site, with all the tips and lessons from experts and each other, Matt's editorial pieces, the Gazette, webinars, podcasts. I never see credit card stuff. OK - I just went 'Home' which I never ordinarily do. There's a cc ad and two areas that look into ccs, amongst about 6 or 8. Zero diff from any other similar site you'd go to. Occasionally I see stuff by Chris Chamberlin, but other than that Point Hacks is invisible to me. Having said that, its obvious that PH need income (not least to pay for the AFF side of things!) - its a commercial operation, just like AFF was under Clifford.

I think the re-brand is poor, but again, on the forum pages its less of an assault (and thanks to @DejaBrew at least, I dare say the faults will be ironed out), so I'm continuing the old style that I've used since the last site 'refresh' - which I recall got the same shock, horror, but we all adapted. Remember when they did away with the app ?

I liked having the app and still miss it.

 

[AuSammy]

Allow me to apologise in advance for this first item as it's going to sound like I'm picking on the new logo again, but here goes....

The website is known as "The Australian Frequent Flyer" / "Australian Frequent Flyer". This - or "AFF" - is what's commonly written, communicated and understood by all who use the site and services. Your outgoing logo was branded as "Australian Frequent Flyer", but whether by creative design decision or inadvertent oversight, the new logo brands the site as "australian Frequent Flyer" which appears at odds with every other mention of the site name.

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From a brand styling perspective, unless this lowercase styling is an intentional and well-documented part of the brand's visual identity or there's a consistent and strategic rationale behind it, it's generally not the done thing.

For what it's worth, given there are plenty of companies that use lower casing in their logos/brands (and so as to get a second opinion of sorts), I queried ChatGPT on the topic. Here's what it had to say -:



Obviously ChatGPT is not going to be the absolute authority on the matter, but it's worth looking at some of those examples to see how they use their brand name in other contexts beyond simply the logo.

Maybe this is the precursor to defocusing the site on Aussie travellers and trying to garner more (clicks) revenue from overseas

 

[kpc]

Maybe this is the precursor to defocusing the site on Aussie travellers and trying to garner more (clicks) revenue from overseas

I hope not...there is Flyertalk for that...such a mess over there that I rarely read and post there now!

 

[DejaBrew]

Spotted an issue on the FAQ page (Frequently Asked Questions - Australian Frequent Flyer) as well whereby the FAQs and search function aren't displaying -:



Also, not sure if this is exclusive to me on Mac/Safari, but I'm seeing a weird scrolling issue on the Your Privacy (Privacy Policy - Australian Frequent Flyer) page whereby scrolling down the page is interrupted and seems to stop and then "rebound" as if you're scroll upwards again -: