Member Feedback on the Org Redesign

[GloryQuestor]

This is a place where everyone can provide commentary on the new Org Redesign.

This particular one, however, has a few new rules attached in addition to the site rules:

- Remember that the Org is a no-flame area. This extends to everyone who posts here. In here, you should post constructive comments only.
- This is the serious place for the redesign discussion. Please refrain from joking around in here, since we really want to keep this area open to everyone for feedback and not to devolve into a useless thread-fest.
- Every member is encouraged to participate here, whether you have relevant experience or not. We encourage you to give the developing site an honest assessment and to encourage others to post here if they have something to say, as well.

Those who feel that any of the above is not being done (and if things begin getting out of hand) should feel free to use the "!" icon and make a report. Don't abuse the "!" -- use it only when needed. Remember that these are rules in here -- members are subject to the same warnings if they are not followed.

Go to it!


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Per I Fight For the Users, if you have a suggestion for the site (regarding functionality) please log it here: https://github.com/amvorg-underground/catalog/issues

[xnamkcor]

Suggestion: Link to the redesign.

[kiarrens]

Suggestion: Link to the redesign.

Yes please. Links to the home page, and other parts that have been designed already (like the video pages) would be very helpful!

[Radical_Yue]

Suggestion: Link to the redesign.

Yes please. Links to the home page, and other parts that have been designed already (like the video pages) would be very helpful!

http://beta.a-m-v.org/

http://beta.a-m-v.org/videos/85uutbxhpm ... 1n6dr/edit

At this time only the basic functionality is being worked on. Please keep in mind that the general colors, look, etc...isn't even anywhere close to be worked on right now.

First we get things working, then we'll make it pretty.

EDIT: btw, the basic idea for the second link, the video info page, is that instead of having to go through millions of screens to hunt down the proper information, all of the information for a new video would be completed on the same page with auto-complete functions.
I believe the basic layout of where all the video information would be is to stay the same though.

[kiarrens]

Awesome, thanks Yue! I'm not a programmer or designer so I can't offer much critique, save for general look and feel, I guess. Feel free to take my opinion with a huge grain of salt.

I suppose the biggest critique I have at this time with the home page is that someone who comes to the site with no knowledge of what an AMV is, isn't going to understand what the site is for. On the current page, we have the simple little blurb:

Welcome to AnimeMusicVideos.org. This community is dedicated to the creation, discussion, and general enjoyment of fan-made anime music videos.

I personally would like to see something like this on the main page (maybe where that big empty white space currently is), so newcomers who stumble upon the page know exactly what it is for.

For the video page ( at the reaction gif, btw) I am loving how streamlined and clean everything looks. I suppose the only thing that bothers me slightly is the multiple frames showing the same image. Will this eventually be static images we upload, or screenshots from the video, or...? Having 3.25 "frames" of the exact same thing seems... strange, to me. I'm not really sure why.

[xnamkcor]

The homepage looks like one of those business sites that decided it was time to "update" their site and now it's near impossible to know what's actually being offered.
But that is design. We'll do that later. Now we focus on functionality.
The search doesn't work. That's about 80% of the site's function right there.

[CodeZTM]

Out of curiosity, is the "Editor's Comments" in the video entry page going to be editable in the language it's currently in (html if I'm not mistaken?), or will it be more of a text box with function buttons like we have now?

[Radical_Yue]

Awesome, thanks Yue! I'm not a programmer or designer so I can't offer much critique, save for general look and feel, I guess. Feel free to take my opinion with a huge grain of salt.

I suppose the biggest critique I have at this time with the home page is that someone who comes to the site with no knowledge of what an AMV is, isn't going to understand what the site is for. On the current page, we have the simple little blurb:

Welcome to AnimeMusicVideos.org. This community is dedicated to the creation, discussion, and general enjoyment of fan-made anime music videos.

I personally would like to see something like this on the main page (maybe where that big empty white space currently is), so newcomers who stumble upon the page know exactly what it is for.

At this point in time, I believe the main goal of the main page is to be like "So I herd u liek AMVs?" and give tons of options for videos.
Kind of like "New Vid on the Block" but with more icons and less hidden. I don't know if he still had some of the first run/basic idea mockups but the main page would kind of be like youtube back in the day where you'd see new videos, popular videos, highly rated videos, random videos, etc... Each organized in their own categories and each of them automatically updating on a regular basis.

I'm not 100% certain if this is still the plan since we haven't really discussed it indepth at this time, but that's what I remember seeing last time we discussed it. I believe the main page will be one of the last things that is addressed since there are plenty of other functions that are incredibly broken right now x___X (Good luck super searching someone who has changed their name regularly or has punctuation in their name right.)

The current main page is a cluttered mess. I've been using this site for liek, EVAR and it STILL takes me a while to find a basic function with those stupid collapse-able tabs.

For the video page ( at the reaction gif, btw) I am loving how streamlined and clean everything looks. I suppose the only thing that bothers me slightly is the multiple frames showing the same image. Will this eventually be static images we upload, or screenshots from the video, or...? Having 3.25 "frames" of the exact same thing seems... strange, to me. I'm not really sure why.

You'll basically be given the option to customize it however you want. Whenever you upload it a video it will automatically generate an image such as the one on http://beta.a-m-v.org/ with a bit of a tiling customization.
But if you want to upload your own banner instead of using the default option, that would also be available.

Once more, the basic design is still in the works but I believe that David (IFFTU) had also mentioned the ability to drag and drop (with a nice snapping function) images into the video description section also.

Personally, I really adore the blank slate aspect. Yes, you'll eventually have basic defaults that you can use if you're not really sure what you're doing. But those who experiment and play around with these functions could create really awesome looking video pages!

But that is design. We'll do that later. Now we focus on functionality.
The search doesn't work. That's about 80% of the site's function right there.

Bingo. I've heard on MULTIPLE occasions that the majority of people use google to search for videos instead of the super search.

[I Fight For The Users]

This thread is not useful because it is not possible to index it for actual feedback and ignore pointless comments like "the search doesn't work". Obviously it doesn't because it's being built.

You want an echo chamber? Feel free to post in here.

On the other hand, if you actually want to be heard, go to https://github.com/amvorg-underground/catalog/issues, which is designed to actually track progress of individual items. I don't ignore those tickets, and you can go there and see that that's true for yourself.

(Seriously, just ask CodeZTM how hard it is to use. It isn't.)

[I Fight For The Users]

"It's too blank!"

Yeah, it is blank. Most things in progress are.

You want an example of what can be done with a blank canvas? Okay. Let me start with this little Photoshop-based mockup that AisuzuZwei did:



This is actually pretty similar to existing video info pages on the site (see e.g. http://beta.a-m-v.org/videos/85uutbxhpmse5tikiu4z1n6dr), but with two additions: positioning of download links and the commenting/recommendation setup. That plus some discussion with CodeZTM morphed into https://github.com/amvorg-underground/c ... nt-7629510.

"You keep dragging this example out!"

I keep dragging this one example out because it's all I have to go on right now. Ileia has sent me a bunch of images, too, but I haven't actually done anything with them yet, since I'm working on infrastructure at the moment.

Point is: You don't need to code things to help out. What I do ask, however, is that you be willing to take the time to elaborate your ideas, preferably in a concrete medium. I'm not a mind reader, and I'm not going to try to infer what you're talking about from a few sentences in a noisy forum thread. Paper and pencil and Photoshop are good because they're easy to use and can produce many iterations of designs very quickly. Issue trackers are good because they kill the noise and link discussion to product.