Augh! Horrible New Paypal Site Design Is Now Mandatory!

I've been giving PayPal feedback ever since they beta'd people into the experience, telling them how God-awful it is, but as of today it is now mandatory and there is no way to revert back and keep that setting. You can revert back for the page you are on, but the instant you click on any menu item you are back to the new candy-coated version.

They have made the PayPal website a giant iPhone app instead of a traditional web page. It's all large icons, large type, and lots of white space. Nothing is where it used to be.

What's worse is that the dropdown navigation menu across the top, which was in effect a site map that listed all functions of PayPal, a great resource if you weren't sure where to go, is now GONE. You have to hunt for where things are now located. Things that were a single click from the front page are now 2 and 3 clicks deep to get to, even if you know where they are.

I just got off the phone with them, and the 64-year-old lady I spoke with was very attentive, empathetic, and fully agreed with me, but there's nothing you can do. It's now mandatory.

I guess I'll be spending the rest of the night trying to find things I used to know where to find.

(Sorry for the rant, but the cellphone-ization of the Interwebz is royally ****ing me off.)

Yeah, I noticed it only sticks for one page again. At least they fixed the issue with the student accounts. You couldn't navigate to it at all before.

I just went to look at it. Egad - it's really, really dumbed down and watered down. I couldn't find anything on the new view to help search for a transaction.

But I did see at the bottom of one screen, the setting screen a link to "Classic Site". That was key to finding the old functions I use frequently.

I hope the new change doesn't make things difficult tomorrow.

Horrible. I navigated to the "classic" view, and was glad to at least be able to go there for a view. Once navigating away, it changed back to the awful softie-view. I tried changing my settings to use the "classic" view, but it was not an option. I searched for that option, but found none. A tragedy in PayPal re-design.

I'm in the same boat as you all. Thanks for pointing out the "classic" button.

I was on PayPal last night and every time I hit the back button, a whole page ad would come up. I had to X it out in order to see the page I went back to.

Anyone else have this happen to them?

Just had a look. They seem to have forgotten the golden rule of good design - form follows function. Truly awful. I may now dump ebay and PayPal for Delcampe and one of the other rival payment systems.

Terry

I guess my lack of sophistication is showing. I like the new look. Everything I check on PayPal is upfront.




I think revenuecollector nailed it. If you have the PayPal app on your smartphone, you will see that they seem to be pushing the use of PayPal at retail outlets (e.g. Home Depot).

Many smartphone users aren't tech savvy. I think they designed the page by the KISS method, keep it simple stupid. The more sophisticated user is going to have to dig a bit.

Dan

In my opinion the old site looked like it was a 1990s design and needed an update. Frankly I have never seen a situation where a new software interface is not criticize, change is not an easy thing to pull off.

That said, I have to agree with Dan in that the navigation in the new site design is awful. While they obviously were targeting supporting finger devices I feel the organization and layout leave much to be desired. It took me several minutes to find and locate the page which manages the automatic payments configuration.

The cutesy icons remind me of a software package I evaluated years ago (I guess some folks might figure out that a sailboat sailing into the sunset means 'exit') but they don't do much for me. PayPal is not a web site that people go to buy things, they don't need fluff. They want simply, straight forward navigation so quickly get their business taken care of.

So I would say that this update is a fail, the graphic designers probably hit their objective of making it finger friendly by missed the mark in terms of high business usability.
Don

Sometimes change is good. But if it is done, it has to be done well. It will take me awhile to see if PayPal has done it well or not just by using it over time. Sometimes there is so much excess in change, as if to "show off" some "spectacular" new thing. Just one day comes along, you log in, and ...BANG.


-IBFS

I do NOT like it!

There are additional reports on PayPal's support forum about functions now missing. For example, USPS scan-it forms apparently have disappeared.

Also, the data export functionality has been radically reduced. For example data downloads are now limited to 31 day periods.

Soon as ebay takes Bitcoin, I'll kiss Paypal goodbye once and for good.

Thought I might give Skrill a try. Anyone had any experience of it?

Terry

One newspage has the Bay and Braintree stating that they will accept Bitcoin payments to merchants, but that it won't extend to PayPal. Another newspage says that Braintree will link Bitcoin in to PayPal. Sounds like a bid to eventually control all on-line transactions. so what else is there as well as Skrill?

Terry