Just noticed that Live Gallery's style has changed so I thought I'd post a thread to see what other people think of it.
From what I can tell, the following has been changed/added:
General changes:
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A points system has appeared, along with "Price" information for gadgets (currently all showing Free).
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The public name in your profile is now displayed instead of your public nickname (all our gadgets said "Created by: Andy", d'oh!)
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The top header of the site has changed
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The Gold, Silver & Microsoft badges have changed in size (and look a little old-school aliased, if you ask me) and now link to a help page describing why they're next to the developer name.
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A "points balance" link has been added to each page alongside a "Microsoft Points" icon which just links to Windows Live Help for the time being.
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The design of Contact Cards for users has changed.
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The Vista Landing Page has been updated to show a search bar, gadget pricing information and links to see all Microsoft and partner items or all gallery items.
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Search results pages have been updated slightly to show Price information for gadgets along with a few minor design changes.
Main Gallery Home Page: -
A "Go Shopping" section has appeared, with "Cool new shops coming soon" in it. Presumably more info on this will show up soon.
- A link to the Gallery Forums has appeared, but actually it takes you to an MSN cooking forum!
Individual Gadget Pages:The layout of the gadget description page has been improved by increasing the width available for text and thus improving readability.
You can now see the rating each user left with their review.
Reviews can be marked as helpful or not helpful (kind of like threads on this forum).
You can no longer review your own gadgets (meaning you can't reply to user reviews).
There's a link to see all reviews left for a particular gadget (before it was limited to the last 30 reviews).
User/Developer Profile Pages:A purchase history section has been added (and is open every time you load the page, even though it's empty).
Your own developments appear at the bottom of the list, underneath a section with another forum link, this time taking you to an MSN Money forum
From what I can tell, the RSS Feeds haven't changed (no version number/download count) and the gadget submission pages haven't changed.
Personally, I like the new look. It's nicer to have a wider space for the descriptions and reviews. However, I'm not too keen on the enhanced personal feel to it. All our gadgets are marketed as being created by a company, but uploaded using my personal live account. Until now, everything was fine (I don't have a Live Space and my personal profile isn't viewable by the general public) but some of the changes make it look less like a single person has created the gadgets. I'd much prefer the profile image to link to my website, or my support forums.
Other than that, keep up the good work, gallery team.