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Design, Design…


Profpatsch

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You need to work on the design.

 

The startpage is waaay to cluttered, I was overwhelmed by information the first time I saw it.

 

The profile page needs bigger margins, etc.

 

If you want people to feel at home here you really need to work on spacing, coloring and improving on signal to noise ratio.

 

~Profpatsch

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You need to work on the design.

 

The startpage is waaay to cluttered, I was overwhelmed by information the first time I saw it.

 

The profile page needs bigger margins, etc.

 

If you want people to feel at home here you really need to work on spacing, coloring and improving on signal to noise ratio.

 

~Profpatsch

 

 

Are you talking about the start page when you're not signed in, or the start page when you are signed in? (It's called the "Dashboard" if you're signed in.)

 

And if you're being overwhelmed with content: what do you think needs to be moved or removed in order to make it smoother? (Give us details! wink.png)

 

Edited by CloudFyre
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I’m talking Dashboard here.

 

This is way too crowded:

 

13MCH.jpeg

 

This is better (mobile/resized version):

 

13MCJ.jpeg

 

I’d propose to leave the artists out of this section completely and widen the margins to at least 150–200% of their current size.

 

I think the “Latest News” section should be moved away from the dashboard, too, and maybe replaced with some information that matters more to the user (yes, I know this is hard for the dev ;) ).

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I personally like the design, and is very serviceable for a beta. I'd like to see the design become something similar to an "itunes for ponies" type site, but for a beta this is a very good design.

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The design appears fine to me in all honesty. A single section would look rather plain and boring, and first and foremost its a music site, so the more music you can fit that still appears aesthetically pleasing, the better.

 

So the current design works in my mind on many aspects.

 

Latest News needs to be kept as it provides members with any new information of upcoming changes to the site, which is sorely wanted by most site users, so that they can keep up to date with things.

 

The most important part of this site is the actual Artists themselves, so removing them is out of the question in my personal opinion...

 

 

Design should be left up to people designing the site, since it's not JUST an aesthetic part of website creation, it also needs to be functional...

 

Obviously all opinions are looked at though x)

Edited by Dawn♥Rider
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The mobile design is as it says in its title. It's built for mobiles. It would look massive and be quite hard on the eyes if it looked like that on the desktop version. 

 

Might I add, it is a dashboard after all, dashboards generally have a lot of stuff on them. If you want less stuff in one spot, that's what the "Browse" button is for at the top of the page. ;) If you consider pony.fm overwhelming, take a look at facebooks dashboard.

New-Facebook-Dashboard-Feb-5-1.jpg

 

Pony.fm has been made to be a tool for artists to host their music and a tool for their fans and others seeking pony music to find music. I think this layout is crucial to that, and it shows the most important things at the front where they can be seen. ;)

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I didn’t want to propose a one-column layout, see that for the mobile version I used exactly half my screen.

I said the artist column crowds everything too much, removing it would give more breathing space for the music columns.

 

See how Facebook uses the whole screen estate?

The pony.fm page has a 120px margin on each side of the screen on my 1440×900 screen. The FB chat is hidden when you scroll further in.

 

To be honest, I wouldn’t use FB as design goal. Let’s take a much better design:

 

13MZg.jpeg

 

Do you notice something?

Yep, it’s at least 50% empty space. For a good reason.

 

Actually, I think I know what is wrong with the design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_grouping

Someone should point the finger at the rules that are violated, I’m too busy right now. This definitely needs to be analyzed further.

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I didn’t want to propose a one-column layout, see that for the mobile version I used exactly half my screen.

I said the artist column crowds everything too much, removing it would give more breathing space for the music columns.

 

See how Facebook uses the whole screen estate?

The pony.fm page has a 120px margin on each side of the screen on my 1440×900 screen. The FB chat is hidden when you scroll further in.

 

To be honest, I wouldn’t use FB as design goal. Let’s take a much better design:

 

img-1398514-1-13MZg.jpeg

 

Do you notice something?

Yep, it’s at least 50% empty space. For a good reason.

 

Actually, I think I know what is wrong with the design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_grouping

Someone should point the finger at the rules that are violated, I’m too busy right now. This definitely needs to be analyzed further.

There is nothing "wrong" with the design...this is all opinion based.

If the majority prefer the site as it is, then the majority wins.

 

Those aren't really "rules" btw...site design is a topic that requires past experience in site design. considering the current developers of Pony FM have in some respects worked on previous somewhat successful sites, Id say it's best to leave it up to them to sort out what is needed and what isn't.

 

All opinions are looked at, but none are "right" or "wrong" they are ALL opinion based and should be seen as such. Each opinion is discussed on a case by case basis. If the opinion is deemed a good one and it works with the site, then it is used as such.

 

Google +  is a bad example to use in my opinion since Pony FM and Google + are two completely different site's and as such will use different design's then each other, it's only natural for it to be like that.

 

And lastly, the site is still in Beta and will obviously continue in development, if enough people find fault with it's current design then it will more then likely be changed.

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There is nothing "wrong" with the design...this is all opinion based.
 

 

I’m sorry, I don’t want to offend you, but this statement is clearly wrong, as every designer will tell you.

 

The Gestalt rules are scientific, proven facts how humans perceive designs and forms in general. Looking at the pony.fm dash I can tell without searching hard that some of the more important ones are broken by it.

I think I could tell their names and where they are, but that would take some time. So maybe someone else would be willing to search for them and improve the design upon the findings.

 

About right, wrong and taste in design and art I heartily recommend you (and anyone) the incredible essay Taste For Makers by Paul Graham. It’s a jewel and eye-opener.

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I’m sorry, I don’t want to offend you, but this statement is clearly wrong, as every designer will tell you.

 

Silver Marcato designed a site, Feld0 and Nelson Designed Pony FM so they obviously agree on something similar to what Im saying , thus your statement is also wrong.

 

Im also not trying to be difficult, but Pony FM is a specialist site, focusing on a single aspect....music...the more details the better.

We can't rely on scientific research about site design, we just go for what looks and works well..and the current design looks and works well.

 

But as I also said, it is likely to go under some form of change before it's official 1.0 release.

Edited by Dawn♥Rider
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I’m sorry, I don’t want to offend you, but this statement is clearly wrong, as every designer will tell you.

 

The Gestalt rules are scientific, proven facts how humans perceive designs and forms in general. Looking at the pony.fm dash I can tell without searching hard that some of the more important ones are broken by it.

I think I could tell their names and where they are, but that would take some time. So maybe someone else would be willing to search for them and improve the design upon the findings.

 

About right, wrong and taste in design and art I heartily recommend you (and anyone) the incredible essay Taste For Makers by Paul Graham. It’s a jewel and eye-opener.

 

 

Could some of your issues with the site be affected by how the layout may interfere with the tracks? Personally I am starting to find that the navbar is competing too much with my attention of track players. 

 

Design is up in the air at this point, but other than some tweaks here and there (including the navbar, track page and profile page), isn't something that I want to spend much time on at this point for a few reasons:

 

1) The current site dashboard and search page designs are serviceable and nothing (besides a few unaligned margins and the navbar) is something that would prevent people from using, understanding or trusting the site

2) Currently the focus is going to be more on implementing/testing features and gaining adoption

3) The frontend will change drastically at some point in the future

 

If you have specific things about the design that you can give us feedback on, it'd be great to hear them - even if just for future reference. However "hey, this looks too {insert some subjective adjective here}" is not an actionable request.

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(edited)

To be clear, this was no request, but feedback.

As I don’t actively use pony.fm (at the moment), I just looked at it and used the on-site form to post my thoughts.

 

By the way, your {insert some subjective adjective here} is that it’s breaking fundamental Gestalt rules, as I elaborated stated above. If I’m in the mood and find the time I might look into this further, but I just wanted to tell you that something crucial is wrong with the current design.

 

If you only care about completely thought through, essay long feedback through your site form, have fun, but don’t expect too much.

Edited by Profpatsch
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I don't care how it looks, really. All I care about is that it brings pony musicians together on on site. To me, it's the purpose that counts, but if you want a different dashboard, you can go ahead & get one. Just my opinion.

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I really think that if they play bars were hidden until the the play button is pressed, and the header text ("The Newest Tunes", "What's Popular Today?") were made just a tad larger so each section is more obvious, that could really help out with the clutter.

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To be clear, this was no request, but feedback.

As I don’t actively use pony.fm (at the moment), I just looked at it and used the on-site form to post my thoughts.

 

By the way, your {insert some subjective adjective here} is that it’s breaking fundamental Gestalt rules, as I elaborated stated above. If I’m in the mood and find the time I might look into this further, but I just wanted to tell you that something crucial is wrong with the current design.

 

If you only care about completely thought through, essay long feedback through your site form, have fun, but don’t expect too much.

 

Quite honestly, I would prefer feedback born from the perspective of someone who has tried to use the website to accomplish a goal - not an immediate dismissal of the website's design out of some violation of very academic designer guidelines.

 

Of course; as I've said before, specific (and, most importantly, actionable) feedback is valuable to us. If you can put something together that shows a demonstrable improvement of the design - it will certainly be taken into consideration; either for immediate development or as notes for the future of pony.fm.

 

I have taken a role in designing certain aspects of the website - especially the dashboard. I wrote it in such a way that it would be a product that I would use. The dashboard is more information-dense than the homepage (when you're not logged in) for a reason - it is a place I wanted people to be able to use to accomplish their goals with the site. These goals, for me, were to manage a person's content, access saved searches, favorite content and be made aware of recent and popular tracks as they became available.

 

The understanding, from our perspective, is that a person will only see the dashboard after they have made an investment with the site to begin with (by creating an account). It is less necessary, in my opinion, to present them with information-sparse displays and other visual niceties that do not serve the purpose of a person's visit. If we plan on making this website a daily destination for our viewers; shouldn't we capitalize on our ability to provide value - and not so much on design niceties that may only provide a person with a temporary boost in confidence when they are only visiting the site to decide whether to sign up?

 

That all being said, design guidelines do exist for a reason. If an implementation of the design that expresses these guidelines is shown that does not sacrifice a visitor's ability to use the website - it would be very great to hear.

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I’m all for the content that is displayed on the dashboard. (Well, maybe except for the artists.)

 

Maybe a little bigger margins could improve the general impression a lot.

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I both agree and disagree with some of the aspects of the dashboard design.

The main dashboard is quite busy, despite lacking much of the unnecessary bits(bright and clashing colours, and animated gifs) that many places display. I get that the lists show the Top Ten Newest and Popular tunes, but I find it bothersome that I am needing to scroll down a notch just to see the bottom tune, even though I am using the standard/recommended resolution of 1280 x 1024.

Whilst all the content on there makes sense and has good reason to be there, it does feel as though there is a little too much.

 

What I do like, however, is that everything is placed where something like it should be, and that the images created to represent certain aspects(Song icon, the song progression bar, etc.) are neatly put together. Once I've adjusted to knowing just what is on the page, it is very easy to visually navigate to what I want to see. Everything is clearly labelled, and I'm certainly not getting lost.

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