Just simply not good and with a lot of bugs! I loved the previous version, which I considered as one of the better UIs around. In addition if you try and visit the old site link as listed on the blog you get a security warning in Chrome.
I think this is fantastic. The layout immediately reminded me of looking at the elaborate covers and inserts in my dad's vinyl collection while listening. Essentially, feels like a more intimate way to engage music.
Definitely still some UI bugs, but I really like the direction.
The biggest UI bugs I noticed:
1) When the next song came on by auto play, the background/info didn't update. I went into "info" then exited and it updated.
2) Once I clicked for more info on a song, I couldn't immediately figure out how to get back to the bare, initial layout.
3) Next/Prev buttons disappeared when the info about the artist was up, which I couldn't close. Annoying not to be able to go to the next song when I didn't like the current one.
3) When I hover over a button/icon for a second or two, a tooltip would help tremendously to figure out what the button does.
This is a really great, unique design. Well done.
Update: I have run into some usability issues that I can't really describe because I have no idea how I got into whatever the feature is suppose to be. I don't think this UI is very forgiving for newcomers like myself. You're onto something with this "vinyl" look, and I know the improvements you're thinking about will probably fix most of these issues.
The new UI is very confusing, but the music is so good I don't care.
One way of reducing the confusion might be introduce UI elements gradually over time as a user keeps coming back. If at first it was just the big artist wallpaper with a small player controls widget (like the one on top of the old page), that would be so much more enjoyable. The next time the user logged back in, there could be a new UI element. This would probably also pique the user's interest and she might actually click on it. And so on...
astonishingly beautiful, and nice that you greeted me with an acoustic of a new metric fave. unfortunately the acoustic version sucks and i'm similarly not a fan of any of the next 10 songs i explored. if it actually played music i liked, this would be my preferred way to listen - and experience - music online.
very slick new design, but I'm missing a lot of things that made thesixtyone so awesome. Where are the playlists? now every next song is a gamble. Two songs further might be an acousting version or a cover of a song i'd love to hear. And why are the artist and song title only visible in the title?
Click on your name in the bottom left, and you'll get a dark overlay box to the lower-right of the screen, and there'll be your 'featured' playlist. Note:
"it may take a few hours for your playlists to fully migrate over"
You're right, but I was also talking about the general playlists, top, latest etc. which seem to have disappeared in favor of the model they used to have for moods.
"disaster" is a but harsh, but i think perhaps a better implementation would've been to supplement the existing layout with this as another view option. i like that its almost purely visual, but imagine if apple entirely replaced finder's lists with coverflow.
as i said it is an opinion of a user, to qualify i have been using the site for almost 2 years now with over 5000 plays and a rep of 58588
i was a completely lost as to how to use features that before were very clearly designed and accessible, which i can find ways around eventually...
however the changes to the social experience are drastic and extremely negative (based on my a sample set of 60+ users in my current group)
i can attest to the fact that the accessible social groups have been the only factor in my retention over the past year, (insert reference that shows correlation between social interactions and user retention)
i understand that ui is subjective to a certain extent but if you are to enact an entire user interface overhaul it would be best to do it as a skin to allow a transition and discovery period
i would not mind leaving the current interface running as a 'kiosk' mode at a party
Add a BIG button that gives a fun tutorial on how to use it. Otherwise love it. It took me a bit of tinkering to figure things out but, that kind of makes it fun!
It feels a bit claustrophobic to me... also I don't know how to just browse songs, and most things I touch change my current song... I think you can get used to it though.
Kick ass! I really like the minimalist, modal single-page UI. Obviously a lot of thought has gone into it. This is one of the first sites I've seen that actually feels more like an application than a web page. I'd love to see this trend catch on more in web design fads.
Yea but is not at all how the site has been. I went to TSO because of how it was laid out and I think this should either be a subset or totally different site. I understand some people may like this layout but their current audience were their for a reason, and that reason has completely changed.
They have made finding songs you like extremely time consuming and narrow, being only able to view one song at a time. No longer can you listen to one song while browsing others. The sense of community and "the game" has faded and now it seems more of a Pandora clone, I don't use pandora. I don't like only being able to skip forward and no relistening to a song if you enjoyed it.
I agree with your sentiment. However, in this case the site has a long road ahead of it, to restore lost or buried functionality.
From the top of my head:
- Tipjar honor roll is hidden in a separate screen, which removes "status" related incentives to tip (a loss for artists)
- Social features are buried; the artist doesn't feel like they are "there" on the site
- Can't see what's ahead or behind you on the browsing playlists
- On Chrome, the user account information is occluded by the status bar whenever you hover on a link
- "Sliding" effects make the interface feel sluggish
All of these issues can be addressed without the "reversion" people are calling for... but there are some long nights ahead for the dev team if they want to match the prior version in raw usability.
- meet like-minded listeners via their radio, and keep building relationships
are all the good T61 stood for. I like to choose what I want to hear, select it by different means, etc.. - all you had achieved with the previous version.
Sorry, hope you have success with your new ideas. Wish you well, really.
Incredible site design, I've never seen "put the content first and get out of the way" taken to such extremes. Has anyone else got any great examples of this?
I can see why some dislike the UI, but personally I think it works very well; it's making me rethink my own web app design to see whether I couldn't learn something from this.
I bet the conversion rate from views to sign-ups is fantastic. Hear something you like? Want to favourite it? Sign up and it's done. Very slick, very smart.
Whoa. Album covers 2.0. Pure Awesome! Love where you're going with this.
Small stuff: bugs in the paging UI (nav disappears when I open artist info, etc - on Chrome Dev here). Why not just put fixed <- -> arrows in the top nav so it's consistently placed? Also, would love the artist info popup to be _bigger_.
When I discovered thesixtyone.com few months ago, I was in love with this website and very pleased to discover new songs and artists.
But after few weeks, I had my ways in the website and used to play always the same songs/artists/radios, I discovered new artists less and less and finally opened the website less often using more and more Spotify.
Today, this new design is very focus on discovering new songs what I really like, the UI is incredible, the songs are awesome.
I love the innovation in this new site, and how it evokes the vinyl listening experience. However, I think it is less suitable than the old site for use at work (NSFW) because it is so colourful.
A more 'bland' page like the old version would work better when one is sitting at a non-private terminal. Perhaps this option or mode should be offered, because the site is still a fresh new way to listen to (fresh new) music.
Interesting insight regarding it being 'less suitable' for work. That's something that I don't think about now that I'm not working in a corporate office or cubicle anymore.
I think the main thing that bothers me is that I can't "pin" up elements that I would like to remain in place:
1) The next/ previous arrows
2) The artist/ song name
3) Song's controls (Play, pause, volume, etc...)
The randomly positioned text blurb and randomly positioned images seem to stay forever... I can't see how that text is more important than some of the other elements.
When you click on the random text blurb/ picture I get stuck. I can't figure out how to get my green arrows back. Also, there isn't a difference between clicking on an image or clicking on the text. They take you to the same place - Which I understand, but I expected to see a larger image.
I do like it, but perhaps with less mouse-over states. I just want to get the cursor to the right corner and already half the screen has flashed at me.
Had used the old version quite a bit, discovered some great artists. William Fitzsimmons, Caitlin Hart, etc.
I like some of the ideas, but i got too shocked by the radical change. I guess i got confused because not all of my saved songs appeared in the playlists and i got pissed off. Im very interested in what the result will be after they get it polished. I guess im just a "playlist" guy, rather than a "giant picture of some band" kind.
The whole thing sucks and is confusing. There are going to be a lot of people LEAVE t61 over this so-called "new" re-vamp. What in the name of Hell are these guys doing to what was, a perfectly acceptable program (admittedly with a few bugs)? There very well maybe a mass exodus from t61.
62 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 142 ms ] threadDefinitely still some UI bugs, but I really like the direction.
The biggest UI bugs I noticed:
1) When the next song came on by auto play, the background/info didn't update. I went into "info" then exited and it updated.
2) Once I clicked for more info on a song, I couldn't immediately figure out how to get back to the bare, initial layout.
3) Next/Prev buttons disappeared when the info about the artist was up, which I couldn't close. Annoying not to be able to go to the next song when I didn't like the current one.
Anyway, congrats, I really like this.
3) When I hover over a button/icon for a second or two, a tooltip would help tremendously to figure out what the button does.
This is a really great, unique design. Well done.
Update: I have run into some usability issues that I can't really describe because I have no idea how I got into whatever the feature is suppose to be. I don't think this UI is very forgiving for newcomers like myself. You're onto something with this "vinyl" look, and I know the improvements you're thinking about will probably fix most of these issues.
"yeah, it looks cool. dont' quite get how it works but i like it"
One way of reducing the confusion might be introduce UI elements gradually over time as a user keeps coming back. If at first it was just the big artist wallpaper with a small player controls widget (like the one on top of the old page), that would be so much more enjoyable. The next time the user logged back in, there could be a new UI element. This would probably also pique the user's interest and she might actually click on it. And so on...
this redesign should have been as a new view on an existing model that is switched via toggle by the user
not to mentioned they sabotaged groups and they are now an exercise in futility called 'channels'
edit: https://old.thesixtyone.com/ is still available for a limited time
and, impact?! IMPACT?!
i was a completely lost as to how to use features that before were very clearly designed and accessible, which i can find ways around eventually...
however the changes to the social experience are drastic and extremely negative (based on my a sample set of 60+ users in my current group)
i can attest to the fact that the accessible social groups have been the only factor in my retention over the past year, (insert reference that shows correlation between social interactions and user retention)
i understand that ui is subjective to a certain extent but if you are to enact an entire user interface overhaul it would be best to do it as a skin to allow a transition and discovery period
i would not mind leaving the current interface running as a 'kiosk' mode at a party
The design itself has a very "indie" vibe to it and I am loving it!
They have made finding songs you like extremely time consuming and narrow, being only able to view one song at a time. No longer can you listen to one song while browsing others. The sense of community and "the game" has faded and now it seems more of a Pandora clone, I don't use pandora. I don't like only being able to skip forward and no relistening to a song if you enjoyed it.
From the top of my head:
- Tipjar honor roll is hidden in a separate screen, which removes "status" related incentives to tip (a loss for artists)
- Social features are buried; the artist doesn't feel like they are "there" on the site
- Can't see what's ahead or behind you on the browsing playlists
- On Chrome, the user account information is occluded by the status bar whenever you hover on a link
- "Sliding" effects make the interface feel sluggish
All of these issues can be addressed without the "reversion" people are calling for... but there are some long nights ahead for the dev team if they want to match the prior version in raw usability.
- lists that play even while I browse
- easy way to discover music, with criterias
- meet like-minded listeners via their radio, and keep building relationships
are all the good T61 stood for. I like to choose what I want to hear, select it by different means, etc.. - all you had achieved with the previous version.
Sorry, hope you have success with your new ideas. Wish you well, really.
I can see why some dislike the UI, but personally I think it works very well; it's making me rethink my own web app design to see whether I couldn't learn something from this.
I bet the conversion rate from views to sign-ups is fantastic. Hear something you like? Want to favourite it? Sign up and it's done. Very slick, very smart.
Small stuff: bugs in the paging UI (nav disappears when I open artist info, etc - on Chrome Dev here). Why not just put fixed <- -> arrows in the top nav so it's consistently placed? Also, would love the artist info popup to be _bigger_.
Great innovation guys.
But after few weeks, I had my ways in the website and used to play always the same songs/artists/radios, I discovered new artists less and less and finally opened the website less often using more and more Spotify.
Today, this new design is very focus on discovering new songs what I really like, the UI is incredible, the songs are awesome.
I think I have a 2nd crush for you,
Thanks,
A more 'bland' page like the old version would work better when one is sitting at a non-private terminal. Perhaps this option or mode should be offered, because the site is still a fresh new way to listen to (fresh new) music.
I think the main thing that bothers me is that I can't "pin" up elements that I would like to remain in place:
1) The next/ previous arrows 2) The artist/ song name 3) Song's controls (Play, pause, volume, etc...)
The randomly positioned text blurb and randomly positioned images seem to stay forever... I can't see how that text is more important than some of the other elements.
When you click on the random text blurb/ picture I get stuck. I can't figure out how to get my green arrows back. Also, there isn't a difference between clicking on an image or clicking on the text. They take you to the same place - Which I understand, but I expected to see a larger image.
left (previous), right (next), space (pause), + (vol up), - (vol down), r (autorepeat toggle).
we're working on some tutorial-type stuff that'll tie things together. thanks.
Had used the old version quite a bit, discovered some great artists. William Fitzsimmons, Caitlin Hart, etc.