Earlier this month, Emmett asked for feedback on what we should improve next on stackexchange.com.
The consensus seemed to be that the existing functionality was good, but it could be simpler to use -- as expressed by Pekka:
I miss the carefully crafted minimalism that I've come to love so much on SO. From that perspective, stackexchange.com is not yet doing as well as I would expect from what is the public face of the network, and its official headquarters. I don't have a clear idea of what needs to be done, but I would like to see the site taking a more intuitive and beginner-friendly approach to exploring the network.
Nowhere is this more apparent than Tag Sets, which we originally rolled out last November. Tag sets are actually an incredibly powerful feature, but the UI for it ... uh, not so good.
We rolled up our sleeves and built an all new, much friendlier interface. We also renamed it to something that's hopefully a bit clearer: filters.
There are also two new built-in, default filters available for every network user:
- My Sites -- all questions on every site that you have an account on
- Favorite Tags -- all questions on every site in the favorite tags you've selected on those sites
Filters (née Tag Sets) are a perfect way to follow activity on tags across the whole Stack Exchange network, either in the browser or via email subscriptions. If you tried it before and were flummoxed by the UI, please do give it another shot and let us know what you think.
Oh, and don't forget you have a network profile at stackexchange.com, too.
Expect more news on this soon!