I agree...

Plus these comments...

The only 'official' wording I have seen from SSC management to explain the newsletter changes is that the design is old and needs updating.

What I see is the newsletter changes clearly seem to be an effort to offer a mobile device version of the content.

Has anyone (at SSC) defined what they want to the newsletter to accomplish?

It's called a requirement definition.

If the primary requirement is to deliver the newsletter content to mobile devices then say so and implement the changes with that rationale.

IMHO...I think that is a short sighted mistake

I use this site for work stuff.

I open the newsletter to primarily follow the URL links to other (more detailed) content.

The links in the newsletter take you to web sites that are not always (or rarely) mobile device friendly.

I read the editorial (because it's insightful) and then pick which things (links) I'll go deeper on.

So what's the point of reading it on a mobile device.

When I leave my desk (i.e. computer) I am not thinking " I am going to go sit in the lunch area to read the SSC newsletter on my mobile device"

I go to socialize, talk, exchange ideas and network.

I am not looking to replace all my 'no computer in front of my face' time with 'have another device in front of face' time.

I know a lot of people these days are becoming 'self-absorbed' with their mobile device (at the expense of old fashioned socializing)... I am trying to not become one of those people.

If the changes to the newsletter have been deployed with a 'one size will fit all' thinking then that's wrong.

This is IT folks.

We don't have to settle for a 'one size' solution.

That's what makes IT so dam fun and exciting!

When will these newly minted`user experience (UX) experts' suggest a solution like... 'Why don't we have two offerings, a mobile version and more fully functional high fidelity desktop version'

My more recent experience with `user experience (UX) experts`is that they are usually fixated on finding a 'holy grail' UX that they can point to as 'their' creation.

UX experts generally don't do any 'deep' coding so more complex multi-format delivery solutions are not part of their service offering.

These types of solutions often require coders and maybe even some infrastructure configuration changes. Given that the UX experts can't do this they generally offer up what they can do... which is pump out a 'prettied' up version of the same solution and sell it as more user friendly and easier to use.