We're proud to announce a major update to Concept Feedback. In addition to a fresh new look, we've added a number of important and exciting features. Here's a quick summary of the big ones:

1. A Visual Upgrade

What changed? Almost everything. The concept grid is the biggest change - we pulled the sidebar, dedicating more space to concepts and making navigation quick, clean and simple (we hope!). We also revamped the profile pages and cleaned things up a little. Hopefully you find the new look easy on the eyes and easy to use.

2. Cash for the Best Reviews

When a premium concept is posted, you now have the opportunity to earn money for your expert advice. Once all of the reviews are in, the host has the ability to award the users whose reviews he or she found most helpful. Look for the Premium Concept seal in the upper-left corner, along with the Remaining Credits in the upper-right (if credits remain, you still have a chance to earn some).

We're offering this incentive to encourage insightful, well-educated reviews (an earlier post on giving better feedback). Each credit is worth $1, which you can you can cash out with a PayPal account (once you've earned $20 or more), or use to purchase premium concepts. Track your balance on your profile page and extract money with the "Withdraw" button. To make sure you have a chance to participate, sign up for our new concept feed or follow us on Twitter. May the best feedback win!

3. New Reputation Algorithm

Since we launched Concept Feedback almost a year ago, you've been able to add points to your Reputation Score by giving reviews, posting concepts, voting and the like. However, points alone aren't the best indicator of a members reputation. Often, points merely reflect how long, or how active, a user has been on the site.

The new formula exchanges quantity of contributions for quality, using a combination of reputation score, quality of concepts (including "likes" and "favorites"), percentage of reviews voted up and so on. Each member now has a title, ranging from Elite to Newbie, which, in addition to your reputation score, let's others know where you stand. While we realize that the system isn't perfect and we'll probably get some angry responses, we think, and hope you agree, that this new combination provides a more accurate reflection of user's reputation.

Feedback Welcome

To all of you who made suggestions, gave us criticism and provided input during this process - thank you, we couldn't have done it without you! As you continue to use the site and inevitably come across bugs, usability issues and things that just don't make sense, please let us know - a feedback site needs feedback too! You can email me direct (andrew [at] conceptfeedback [dot] com) or use the contact form.

A variety of additional features, tweaks and fixes will be implemented over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates!

The other day, I wrote an article for Six Revisions entitled "How to Increase Conversions on Any Website in 45 Minutes". The article walks through, step-by-step, how to:

1. Select the page on your website where you can have the greatest impact
2. Use free (or cheap) website review tools to determine which areas on the page need the most attention
3. Define the top 3 items from your research and implement the changes
4. Split test your new page, rinse and repeat

And all of this, if you're quick, in 45 minutes. If you want the full story, you can read it here.

One of the ongoing themes behind Concept Feedback, is providing a place where users can get quick, actionable feedback on websites. We believe that by fostering a community of constructive criticism and new ideas, web designers, developers and marketers will be able to get the qualitative insight they need to improve their websites. Hopefully you have found this experience to be true here with your own website review. If not, please let us know how we can improve!

This week, a great article was posted on Smashing Magazine, "Web Design Criticism: A How To". I recommend everyone read the entire article, but here are a few takeaways that hopefully can be applied to your day-to-day work and participation on Concept Feedback:

Some guidelines for giving an effective website critique:

1. A gut reaction can be helpful, but make sure you temper it with a level-headed, insightful approach to web design before you try to articulate it. If it's just a personal opinion, that's fine, but make sure to preface it as such.
2. Never critique someone else's work unless you are open to having a meaningful conversation about it.
3. Be specific in your suggestions and always tie them back to established design principles.
4. Make sure you understand the full context and objective before providing your opinion.
5. Look at all aspects of the design, don't ignore important components like content.
6. Take the time to learn the principles and language of design.

Are you new to design principles, or looking for a refresher? I found these mentioned resources extremely helpful:

The Principles of Design - Digital Web Magazine

10 Principles of Effective Web Design - Smashing Magazine

Design Elements and Principles - Wikipedia (what else?)

Ten Usability Heuristics - Jakob Nielsen

Bonus read - Critiquing by Jason Santa Maria

Do you know of others? Please let us know!