New UI for bit.ly
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by Dave Winer.
A new user interface for bit.ly was deployed last night. 
Two disclaimers: 1. I am part owner of bit.ly. 2. I participated in the initial design of the product and this redesign. They surprised me by making the new implementation public, so I made my comments public.
1. Only error messages should be red. Confirmation messages should be green or black. Prefer green.
2. I'm still using the old bookmarklet. It should work the same as it used to. Shorten the url parameter and put it in the Twitter box. This violates Rule #1 -- no breakage.
3. When you ask the user for a new password you must always ask for the password to be confirmed. This is not necessary when you ask the user for a password to another service, e.g. Twitter, because you can confirm (and do) confirm the password with the other service.
4. Why are there two bookmarklets? What's the difference betw the two? The description is very vague and cryptic. Much better just to have one bookmarklet to start.
5. There must be a place to leave a comment. Strongly suggest using Disqus. I want to be able to see the comments other users provide.
6. Since I can post to Twitter from bit.ly, which of course is good, I want the posts to show up in my "Recent" list. I also want an RSS 2.0 feed of all the items I post to Twitter.
7. The new tagline, Shorten and share your long urls, is very good.
8. On the whole I am pleased with the new design. 
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