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Read this: http://uxexchange.com/questions/5181/important-please-read-potential-uxe-shutdown/5202#5202

I really think that UXExchange should get merged here. Matt's main concern is that he thinks User Interface is too narrow to encapsulate everything that UXExchange is about. Honestly, both sites have the exact same types of questions.

My opinion is that they should be merged and this site renamed to something more broad to encapsulate user experience as well. Thoughts?

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    Is it also possible to go the other way around? To use uxexchange.com as the domain under which it lives?
    – Lode
    Mar 9, 2011 at 13:59
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    The injection of questions and users might be what we need to get out of beta as well.
    – ChrisF
    Mar 10, 2011 at 13:15
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    @Lode - it would depend on who actually owns the domain and whether they'd let SE have it as an alternate for this site.
    – ChrisF
    Mar 10, 2011 at 13:16

6 Answers 6

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YES! Let's rename this site to ux.stackexchange.com and invite those smart and talented people to join us.

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    Yeah, if we can get the questions, answers and users of UXExchange, then who cares what the site's called? Go for it, IMHO.
    – Rahul
    Mar 7, 2011 at 19:08
  • +1, sounds like it would do us good.
    – Vitaly Mijiritsky
    Mar 8, 2011 at 4:42
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    I've always seen UI.SE as about more than just UI, indeed more like the whole experience (UX).
    – Lode
    Mar 9, 2011 at 13:56
  • I've enjoyed both sites and the people within. I'd definitely be on-board for a rename to UX and a bringing over of the existing UXE people (and questions, if possible).
    – DA01
    Mar 14, 2011 at 15:12
  • I would love to see it renamed UX. "Interfaces" are a perfect description for what is discussed here, but "UI" has too many other associations.
    – Nicole
    Mar 15, 2011 at 4:55
  • I like to idea of combining forces as well, but how about renaming the merged one to something like IxD.StackExchange.com as a place for interaction designers to discuss issues regarding the interface and experience?
    – Geert
    Mar 17, 2011 at 10:38
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We've had .. spotty .. results integrating old Stack Exchange 1.0 sites. This is due to any number of reasons: totally different model, no chat, no metas, etc.

  • I always encourage smart members of related communities to participate, as they see fit. Any member of UXExchange is welcome here.

  • It probably wouldn't make sense to pull across all the old UXExchange posts, but rather have a "best of" import where we take the top (n) posts.

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  • Would their reputation from those questions carry over (after a recalc)?
    – Patrick McElhaney
    Mar 8, 2011 at 11:12
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    I don't think it would be too difficult to merge these two. Being pretty active on both, I know for a fact that the communities really ask about 90% the same types of (and often the exact same) questions. The only sticking point is the names. Some of the UXExchange folks don't understand that this isn't a site for UI programming and graphic design questions. Of course, some people here have the same problem, which is why I've thought the name of this site should be changed to user experience for quite some time - a more accurate representation of what it's about.
    – Charles Boyung
    Mar 8, 2011 at 14:40
  • I also wouldn't see it as much of a problem with pulling over all of the non-closed posts, even if we manually did some cleanup in advance (or even after the fact). I'd be willing to work to merge duplicates and delete inappropriate questions from the merge.
    – Charles Boyung
    Mar 8, 2011 at 14:41
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    @charles we're currently favoring pulling across only questions with at least 1 upvote, or something similar.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Mar 8, 2011 at 20:47
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    Well, that would probably be fine.
    – Charles Boyung
    Mar 8, 2011 at 21:12
  • Charles has a good pointabout the UI Dev questions. Perhaps this site becomes UX, and we just watch for UI Dev questions and possibly migrate those back to SO.
    – DA01
    Mar 14, 2011 at 15:14
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As a member of both UXE and UI-SE, I can say that both sites are essentially dedicated to answering the question, “How do I get the best UX for my UI?” so merging the two sites makes a lot of sense to me.

Now should the name of the merged site emphasize the UX or the UI? I would also be in favor of renaming this site ux.stackexchange. In addition to representing the merging of UXE into UI-SE, I think it will clarify what this site stands for.

  • Occasionally UI-SE gets questions in UI development or implementation (e.g., jQuery plugin for auto-completing AND dropdown functionality?). Putting UX in the name may help preemptively redirect such questions to Stack Overflow. Not a big deal, since such questions are easily migrated, but it may help.

  • “UX” would make it clear that this site is open to questions requiring UX expertise beyond computer UI itself (e.g., packaging, retail space design, customer service, technical support). I’m not expecting many questions on these topics (I can’t find any over at UXE), but I think it’s good to include them.

Regarding UXE not having a meta (among all the technical issues related to merging), you can probably simply consider all questions tagged UXExchange to be metaquestions.

Another thought is that if the merge goes through, I think it would be nice to provide some personal recognition to UXE founder Matt Goddard for his efforts in creating a UX community of experts, and demonstrating the feasibility of a UX/UI-only SE-type site. I’m not sure what he’d be interested in, but making him an “instant moderator” of the new ux.stackexchange may be a start.

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    Yes, kudos to Matt!
    – DA01
    Mar 14, 2011 at 15:16
  • 2
    Kudos to Matt, but creating one UX community of experts is not the same as moderating a different community. There's some overlap, but I'd be wary of applying the moderator title to people as a "reward". Just my 2 cents.
    – Rahul
    Mar 15, 2011 at 16:15
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Yes. As an almost daily visitor to both sites I would be happy to see the merge.

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Just another vote for making this a merged UX site.

Slightly related is the issue of UI Dev questions. I agree that keeping the name 'UI' is going to likely keep that problem around moreso than a name to UX.

That said, UX teams rarely adhere to one model. I've been on UX teams where touching code was considered insane and on teams where UI Code development was a primary design tool used by the team. So, dev questions will always be a part of UX. I suppose we just need to decide if they stick around here or we push them over to SO or the like. (or...is there a need for yet-another SE site along the lines of what DocType was doing?)

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We have completed a "best of" content merge from UXExchange.com

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  • Guessing the mapping to existing users and recalc is still coming?
    – Charles Boyung
    Mar 31, 2011 at 4:33

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