Okay...after working in IT for 5 years and seeing all sorts of product releases, upgrades and expansions, here are four basic web-based platform re-design rules.

1. New features should be well documented with instructions on the operation of said features easily accessible to all users. (As an aside to this, user opinion should be considered when developing new features.  Simple polls, suggestion boxes and surveys are your friends here.)
2. Redundant features should be removed. This should be easy to assess based on traffic relating to that feature.
3. Functionality should always be improved if changes are being made.  Example: Actions that used to take two clicks should now take one. 
4. ANNOUNCE YOUR CHANGES WELL AHEAD OF TIME TO AVOID USER BACKLASH.  Mass emails/banner adverts are the best way to communicate these changes with some form of open forum for suggestions/comments to allow the user to feel part of the process.  You can’t please everyone all of the time, but it is exceptionally easy to displease a lot of people instantly if you ignore your user-base. 

Thank you for your time.

Now back to your regularly scheduled reblogging.