The New Design

[ASocialyAwkwardPony 299]

So I see the site got a new design overnight as it went out of Beta, but honestly I really preferred the old one. No offense to you who have worked hard on it, but the new design seems kind of bland to me, and I miss being able to see people's avatars on their profile and having the buttons on top instead of on the side. Would it be possible to add a option so you can have it visually be similar to the old version of the site?

 

Otherwise I would like to thank you for adding in the feature to select album art for albums manually now instead of just using the art of the first single

 

EDIT: Okay the manual album art broke for me and is not showing up o_o

Edited September 1, 2013 by Nightmare Lyre

[Paianis 488]

Yep, the old design was better and less sparse. There are a few features of the new one that I would like to keep (the song statistics being visible on the content page, for instance), but the rest of it looks too Windows 8-esque and doesn't make it obvious what the site is for.

[Jamie 302]

The main use for the new layout i assume is for ease of use and to put content first. The old layout, although it had a unique sense of personality, was lacking in terms of usability. The sidebar gives you everything you need at one time rather then searching through numerous menus and drop downs.

 

I miss being able to see people's avatars on their profile

 

I cannot confirm this but i think this is a bug. I cant think of a single reason why peoples avatars shouldn't appear on their profile page so I'm assuming it was not intended. Il ask nlaq that when he wakes up. (He's a little sleepy cause he's been trying to get the site up all night)

 

And remember, this is the second beta, not the final release. So any criticism such as this one will be read and kept in mind for the next update. But don't ask me when that will be.

 

Lastly, just so you're aware, i didn't 'design' the new layout but i did influence some visual elements.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Jamiequadbike

[Ashley 2,427]

Hmm...
I wish there was some space somewhere. Like, for example, MLP Forums has the background on the sides. Pony.fm takes up the whole page, which is a little overwhelming if you ask me.
I could also see use for a divider of some sort between "The Newest Tunes" and "What's Popular Today". To be honest I didn't see either title until I took a closer look, and up until then I just thought it was a giant mass of songs.

[DusK 1,264]

I hate to be the echo in the room, but yeah, there's not much margin use in this design. I feel like the entire design this time around was done for mobile devices and doesn't take the PC experience into account much, or at all.

Edited September 1, 2013 by DusK

[Jack "Fox" Grayson 27]

Minor yays and minor nays:

• First thing I noticed (a nay, unfortunately): Where are the notifications?
• I like the new player at the top.
• Links to the forum and dev blog?
• Cannot scroll the menus under "Discover" (problem especially for "Show Songs").

[nlaq 180]

and I miss being able to see people's avatars on their profile and having the buttons on top instead of on the side. Would it be possible to add a option so you can have it visually be similar to the old version of the site?

No avatars on profile pages was a bit of an oversight. That'll be corrected soon. Also, we are not going to allow people to switch the site's design that much. Although it's technically possible; the development overhead would be immense.

 

EDIT: Okay the manual album art broke for me and is not showing up o_o

This has been fixed - please try again

 

Yep, the old design was better and less sparse. There are a few features of the new one that I would like to keep (the song statistics being visible on the content page, for instance), but the rest of it looks too Windows 8-esque and doesn't make it obvious what the site is for.

I don't agree that the old design being less sparse was a good thing. The fact that this design _feels_ more sparse, yet quite objectively is more information-dense is kinda what I was going for in the first place. The idea of this design is to present the content, first and foremost, and allow easy navigation between it. The less time you're looking for the content you want to hear, the better - from my perspective, anyhow. 

 

In addition, the design was indeed influenced by the Windows 8, content-first, no-bullshit, visual schema. That wasn't really an accident.

 

And remember, this is the second beta, not the final release. So any criticism such as this one will be read and kept in mind for the next update. But don't ask me when that will be.

Indeed. This should be emphasised - this is the public BETA 2 (internally, BETA 3). 

 

I hate to be the echo in the room, but yeah, there's not much margin use in this design. I feel like the entire design this time around was done for mobile devices and doesn't take the PC experience into account much, or at all.

In fact this is the other way around. The design was specifically made to take advantage of additional screen space available on desktops - in an effort to increase the density of the content.

 

Minor yays and minor nays:

• First thing I noticed (a nay, unfortunately): Where are the notifications?
• I like the new player at the top.
• Links to the forum and dev blog?
• Cannot scroll the menus under "Discover" (problem especially for "Show Songs").

The lack of notifications was addressed in the development blog: http://mlpforums.com/blog/404/entry-6735-ponyfm-beta-2-launches/

 

As far as scrolling for the menus, that will be taken care of soon.

 

To Everyone:

 

This is still in development. Things will change in the very near future. There is a reason why, although we did launch (within a few hours) of our published release date, we won't be pushing hard for publicity quite just yet. Redeveloping an entire site is an undertaking - and there were a large variety of technical challenges to make this application work the way that it currently does. Now that the site is mostly functional, and we have real users using it, it's time to take a look back at the design and fix the few things that were missed during this launch.

 

While I read all comments about this, and appreciate the time people have taken to give feedback, I do understand that the new design is a massive departure from the old site. This change will make existing users uncomfortable - as do any redesigns of any product ever (see: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Windows 8, iOS 7). When giving feedback, please do so from an objective standpoint - and try to see the site as a user who hasn't previously become accustomed to the way things used to look.

 

So far, besides bugs and things that were missed, it does seem that more visual separation between elements is required. Expect to see design changes over the course of the week as things are adjusted.

 

Thanks again for your feedback

[GreyKnightmare 4]

I'm not seeing a text search, am I blind or is this something that's not been implemented? I do think it's a must!
I like the redesign however; it's very slick and smooth transitioning between the pages/tabs. Good job!

Edited September 1, 2013 by GreyKnightmare

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

I must say that I definitely liked the old one in the way that all items are categorized, genres are defined well, downloads are optional, the text is in BIG letters, a search bar was implemented, and the interface is rather PC friendly.

 

I think the new one has too much songs when you hit search while the text is extremely hard to read. Perhaps when you do a search, organize it by date and show fewer songs, I personally think 45 on one page is too many.

 

Also, for some reason, the optional download setting is turned off, and it loses its search option of being able to type in a song and find it.

 

One more problem is that non-Poniverse or pony-fm members can't even see the link without making an account. Rather than inconvenience the non-users, wouldn't it be easier to allow for people to download the song regardless whether the user makes an account?

 

I think those are some suggestions, although I do must admit it's faster than the old one.

[nlaq 180]

I must say that I definitely liked the old one in the way that all items are categorized, genres are defined well, downloads are optional, the text is in BIG letters, a search bar was implemented, and the interface is rather PC friendly.

 

I think the new one has too much songs when you hit search while the text is extremely hard to read. Perhaps when you do a search, organize it by date and show fewer songs, I personally think 45 on one page is too many.

 

Also, for some reason, the optional download setting is turned off, and it loses its search option of being able to type in a song and find it.

 

One more problem is that non-Poniverse or pony-fm members can't even see the link without making an account. Rather than inconvenience the non-users, wouldn't it be easier to allow for people to download the song regardless whether the user makes an account?

 

I think those are some suggestions, although I do must admit it's faster than the old one.

 

I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're saying.

 

The new version has the exact same filters - genres, show songs, type and vocal - in addition to the ability to order tracks by different things. Also, artists can still mark a track as being downloadable or not - and you don't need to be logged in to download a track that is able to be.

 

Also, what link are you talking about that non-pony-fm users can't get to?

 

As far as text searching - pony.fm never allowed you to search a track with text. It's always just been filters.

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

I'm not sure I'm understanding what you're saying.

 

The new version has the exact same filters - genres, show songs, type and vocal - in addition to the ability to order tracks by different things. Also, artists can still mark a track as being downloadable or not - and you don't need to be logged in to download a track that is able to be.

 

Also, what link are you talking about that non-pony-fm users can't get to?

 

As far as text searching - pony.fm never allowed you to search a track with text. It's always just been filters.

 

Very well. I'll wait a few days to see how it turns out. I see it updated this minute.

 

As for non-users, when some go on pony.fm, they had an issue where it forced them to the poniverse login page when they clicked the home button, but I think the latest update just occurred, so disregard that.

 

I'll check back again if I have a few questions.

[GreyKnightmare 4]

As far as text searching - pony.fm never allowed you to search a track with text. It's always just been filters.

It's a feature I think it would vastly benefit from!

[Bohtty 1,775]

I may be a bit late here, but I agree. The design is really poor

What I think should be done is having the home page be more of a focus on getting new users started and what pony.fm has to offer while having a quick link for existing users to access their content. You can still have top charts and newest lists and all that, but it's highly redundant to represent them in multiple locations. a top 5 for newest and hottest songs would easily suffice.

 

If it were me designing it I wouldn't even have songs on the index. I would simply have a search bar for searching for songs. If I recall correctly, the original goal for pony.fm was to make a one stop shop for all things pony music. Fine, then make the websites focus discovery.  Rework the filters as they currently go off the page for me and if it happens to me it probably happens to others. Also putting things in a big list isn't the most intuitive design.

 

I would put a log in link at the top for those who have already signed up.

 

Move the about me to the footer with a separate contact us and policies link

 

remove the navigation bar all together seeing as how it is not necessary. At least for non-registered users.

 

Once you login, you can bring back the side bar navigation that you currently have but with a few changes.

 

Make uploading the most noticeable button as once you are signed in, uploading content should be your primary goal

 

closely followed by that should be the management and following of favorites and artists For this I'd recommend simply using playlists as a way to manage favorites. For following artists I'd recommend using a universal message system that notifies you whenever someone you follow makes a change/uploads something as well as anything else that might need to get your attention. color coat these to make it easier to identify as well as filtering your feed by type.

 

For playlists, you should be able to play the play list right from the side bar. You could also show what songs are in the playlist simply by having the playlist expand to show the songs and after maybe 10 or 20 it'll ask you to go to the play list page to see the complete list.

 

I could go on forever, but oh well lol