On the other hand, the news is out that our development team is (and has to be) Herculean in responding to change, and that’s where the project police need to be on patrol.  As the ersatz ‘owner’ of the product, I feel a bit like the Wizard of Oz,  behind the curtain pulling the strings as thousands of decisions are made concerning navigation, functionality, interaction with content, brand and aesthetic design. We answer, not only our customers, but also to a team of executives who have had a long history of wins and a few sidesteps, and who have a personal stake in Knovel’s success.

I am bolstered by the strong showing of customers to Knovel Lab – thank you for all the thoughtful comments -  and I stand behind the design decisions driven by our Design Partners whose willingness to let me watch over their shoulders as they worked resulted in the cleaner, simpler and – we posit -  more aesthetically pleasing search experience of today’s Knovel.

At the most visceral level, there’s functional design and there’s aesthetics.  If we get it right, MOST users will enjoy an overall positive experience. I confess that I am generally more interested in delivering the best answer to a search query, but we can satisfy both.  While the vast majority of our users confirm that we have taken a big step forward, we still have work to do. Not everyone loves the new look; in fact, some even ‘fessed up that change is hard and familiarity is almost always preferable. But in order to progress, sometimes you have to ignore those who fear change, and we believe that this new iteration of Knovel represents progress.

Love the changes? Hate the changes? Need changes for a dollar? User feedback drives what we do here at Knovel, so please leave any and all comments below.