New Pony.fm homepage - feedback, plz

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

I put together a fancy new homepage for Pony.fm today. What are your thoughts on it?

 

[ReGen 1,466]

 

I gotta say, it's better than the old one! The "Newest Tunes" and "What's Popular Today?" thingamajigs really improve browsing.  

[Marcato 2,143]

I approve! I love the new features! Popular, recent, new artists, it's awesome!  

 

 

 

47 tracks with 846 views, 519 downloads, and counting!

 

 

519 downloads, and counting!

 

 

519 downloads

(Scratch out the 9000 part!)

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

I like it, the whole "newest tunes" section and the "Whats popular" section, make the site so much easier to use.  I mean browsing wise.

[letterone 1,203]

I really like it. That Newest Tunes section is freakin' great. I can honestly imagine using that in the future.

 

In fact it kinda reminds me of the Newgrounds Audio Portal, with its whole "Latest, Greatest, etc." choosing thing.

 

So yeah. Gusta.

[Arkane 269]

I cant say much about this other than being completely satisfied by this!

Though.. will there be some sort of featured artists segment? :3

[Wolfy 20]

Definitely awesome! The only suggestion I could make would maybe put a "see more" at the end of those lists? I know the "newest tracks" could basically just go to the regular "tracks" page since those are in order by newest, but it'd be cool to have a page or something on the most popular tracks as well.

 

Looking even better though, it's definitely an improvement, >D

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'm glad that you all like the concept. Does anyone have any specific ideas to further improve the page, though? This will be the first thing anyone sees when they type pony.fm into their address bar, so it has to be awesome.

 

 

I cant say much about this other than being completely satisfied by this!

Though.. will there be some sort of featured artists segment? :3

 

At some point, probably. The logistics, morals, and ethics of choosing "featured" artists are not something I really want to think about right now, though. There are lots of bugs that need fixing, and many core features that need adding.

 

If you have any specific ideas for how to go about making a "featured artists" thing happen, as always, please start a new topic to state and discuss your ideas.

 

 

Definitely awesome! The only suggestion I could make would maybe put a "see more" at the end of those lists? I know the "newest tracks" could basically just go to the regular "tracks" page since those are in order by newest, but it'd be cool to have a page or something on the most popular tracks as well.

 

Looking even better though, it's definitely an improvement, >D

 

"See more" links are gonna happen. I'll see if I can push an update for that at some point today.

---

Made a major update to the page today. Can you please take another look at it now and tell me what you think?

 

In particular, I'm not sure what to do with the entire space that currently has Vinyl and a bunch of text in it. Have been thinking about a "featured music" slider, but this could really go any which way.

[Marcato 2,143]

Made a major update to the page today. Can you please take another look at it now and tell me what you think?

 

In particular, I'm not sure what to do with the entire space that currently has Vinyl and a bunch of text in it. Have been thinking about a "featured music" slider, but this could really go any which way.

This is a great change! Already the page is looking more colourful and more appealing! The only thing I have to say is that the way the left-aligned text in the box with vinyl-with-vinyl in it makes it look a little messy. Perhaps there's a way to make it look a little neater? 

[CloudFyre 848]

Whoah, sweet page! I haven't actually looked at it until now (I didn't know that it was a separate home page). It looks wonderful!

The only thing I found was that a lot of the content will start overlapping if you try to make the browser window too small. I have an 18.4 inch screen on my laptop (full HD resolution as well), but just having Firefox at half-screen size will smoosh the "59 tracks with 2121 views, 1294 downloads, and counting!" text into the "Latest News" box on the right. (That's all stuff for later I assume.)

Other than that, I find no flaws in it's construction.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

This is a great change! Already the page is looking more colourful and more appealing! The only thing I have to say is that the way the left-aligned text in the box with vinyl-with-vinyl in it makes it look a little messy. Perhaps there's a way to make it look a little neater? 

 

Well, that's why I asked for ideas on cleaning that up. It looks a bit messy and badly used to me, too. There's a good chance that some kind of "featured tracks" system will replace that entire space, but I removed some of the text in it for now. Better?

 

 

Whoah, sweet page! I haven't actually looked at it until now (I didn't know that it was a separate home page). It looks wonderful!

 

The only thing I found was that a lot of the content will start overlapping if you try to make the browser window too small. I have an 18.4 inch screen on my laptop (full HD resolution as well), but just having Firefox at half-screen size will smoosh the "59 tracks with 2121 views, 1294 downloads, and counting!" text into the "Latest News" box on the right. (That's all stuff for later I assume.)

 

Other than that, I find no flaws in it's construction.

 

It's separate for now, but it will completely replace the current homepage in the next stage of testing.

 

It looks like that page is in desperate need of a min-width attribute or a responsive layout. I didn't even think about that! I'll work on fixing up its look in a small browser window after my next sleep. Thanks for bringing this up!

[Crystal Skull 53]

I like the new homepage. It's a nice interface for people who like to see artists and see what music is trending. Although it does show me and my lack of getting anything uploaded yet -_-

[Zacharias 191]

Personally I think it's really lacking some sort of background. Here, it feels a lot more welcoming to have the clouds and Canterlot in the distance as I'm typing. Other than that it looks really nice and clean!

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

Minor update (that took the better part of my evening to implement): the "Latest Tracks" part of the homepage will now show only one track per artist. This is to address the concern that was brought up which allows an artist to dominate the homepage by dropping an album... or just a batch upload, really.

 

 

Personally I think it's really lacking some sort of background. Here, it feels a lot more welcoming to have the clouds and Canterlot in the distance as I'm typing. Other than that it looks really nice and clean!

 

The entire site will be redesigned before beta. Truth be told, I haven't decided on a thematic direction to take with it yet visually, so I'll keep your suggestion for a more personable background in mind when I get around to the design stage. Thanks!

[CloudFyre 848]

Personally I think it's really lacking some sort of background. Here, it feels a lot more welcoming to have the clouds and Canterlot in the distance as I'm typing. Other than that it looks really nice and clean!

 

The entire site will be redesigned before beta. Truth be told, I haven't decided on a thematic direction to take with it yet visually, so I'll keep your suggestion for a more personable background in mind when I get around to the design stage. Thanks!

 

Hmm...on one hand, I could see the use of some flavor images. On the other hand, I like the simplicity of the current design. It's easy to navigate, and not hard on the eyes.

 

SoundCloud recently destroyed their website by adding way too many aesthetic details. While it's not *terrible* per se, my eyes are sort of dragged all over the place - do I look at the statistics? The recent activity? My followed artists, the most recent tracks, the messages, who to follow, my upload time remaining, suggested artists...

 

It's a mess now. (Although I still love SoundCloud.)

Edited January 5, 2013 by CloudFyre