New feature: New item page

Made the content links clearer and added totals, highlighted the ratings a the top, tags are more prominent.

Added recommended links which shows movies that people who like the movie also like (does not take into account genre)

Just finished viewing the BETA site, and I was going to post suggesting some changes...
but I decided to go ahead and whip something up to make it easier.

I wanted to bring the focus back to the user's rating and the item.
The new page felt crowded, too much information at once... so I simplified it.

Here is the original page.
Here is the new page.
Here is I what put together.
(Please note it is a rough outline)

Here is the list of changes and reasons for changes:

Larger Stars - The most important rating is the users rating, then the users friends, then the overall rating and the IMDB rating.
I had a hard time finding my rating on the new page. The larger stars make it easier to find and rate.
Larger Image - Again, this brings the focus back on the item, rather than extraneous details. And I like it ;)
Minimizable Windows - Less clutter and a cleaner look.
Images - I think only the Top Voted images should be shown on the page... I find the 'Cover art, photos and screenshots' totally unnecessary and only adds to the clutter.
Reviews - It's not necessary to show every review written for the movie. 3 or 4 top rated reviews should only be seen, with a clickable link to view all.
Of "Title" - The "of Gladiator" is not needed on the end of Reviews, Ratings or Pictures. We already know what movie page we are on.
Other - I put the 'Minimizable Windows' at the bottom of the page so you can see what they look like when expanded.
Side note: I included "+ Add to list" to the "Lists" window; this is an important feature I found lacking in the new page.


I'm not trying to be rude or pushy. I just wanted to share my ideas for the bettering of Listal.

Nick

I think that Manling's rough outline is just that, a rough outline. The stars don't necessarily have to be that large, just bigger than what it is now would be great.

There are some great ideas in Manling's page that maybe Tom could explore.

Personally, I like the cleaned up look of the page. Too many details makes it look messy IMO.

Right, there are some things I like Manling and some I dont

Good
*Maybe a slightly bigger pic would be nice, but not that big
*I do like the idea of only showing the top voted images
*Personal rating info should be above the blue box

Not so
*Reviews should definately remain at the bottom
*The big stars arn't really needed
*I prefer to see friends ratings where they are now

Also I think that videos should be put on the right column, above reviews, it's messy seeing all those reviews so early on...especially if they're crap reviews!

Tom, for photos/pictures, how about we finally get away from 'most recent' (you can leave it as an option when viewing pictures) and go for 'random order'? maybe reset the random order every week or ever few days. That way, each item page will show 7 or 8 random pictures rather than recent ones, which, for all purposes, sometimes looks silly (as in case of gladiator and all different language movie posters).

And Manling, I respect your suggestions, but Large Stars are a no-no for me, as are minimizable windows (god i hate that so much about Facebook). I also dont mind the 'Of .. movie' nor the 'Covers, Posters, Screenshots' wording.

As for the new Listal item page, i love it. I also feel the 'personal tags and info' should be above the blue area, especially the 'WATCHED' or "WANT TO WATCH" should be right at the top line.

I like the subtle grey backdrop for videos and lists, but am puzzled why the ratings box no longer has its own subtle backdrop.. The previous yellow was a bit too colorful, but a subtle color may work fine. And maybe give Lists and Videos different colors too, or stick them all to grey.

Couple of other notes:

For some movies, like Gladiator, there are TONS of good lists. How about by default only show top 5 lists, but allow the main page to expand up to 10 custom lists - as long as all of them have 5 or more votes? In gladiators case, it would expand to show top 9 lists, with 'View All' for all other lists. This would help also keep votes coming for lists that dont make the Top 5 cut.

Add a display for # of votes next to review, similar to how its shown with lists.

Reduce clutter for Loved By section by making thumbnails smaller, removing the "position" info (which is useless coz 95% of people dont have their fave movies 'sorted' properly). So by having less clutter, you can fit MORE users that have added the movie to their favorites. Besides, right now, the thumbnails of the 'Loved By' crowd distracts from the thumbnails from the "Reviewed by" crowd, and the people that review should have more prominence given to their avatars :)
To reduce review clutter, while maintaining new reviews visible, what about we do this? Keep it sorted by Most Recent Review, BUT after a review is more than 3 months old, it gets sorted by # of votes (this will make the GOOD reviews with lots of votes be bumped up to top of Reviews, but never ahead of any review that is 0 to 3 months old.

p.s. actually, not sure now about that blue box. Maybe it IS better at top, and them personal info right below it...

p.s. LOVE how u finally added Platform next to game title for new game item page :) I always had to hit EDIT ITEM to see what it was.

I agree the top section is still quite confusing and crowded, I think the old version is also though and still a improvement on that. I will experiment with different layouts.

I like the idea of having larger ratings stars, maybe about 2-3* the size

I will be adding 'Add to List' link

I think removing recent images would be a good idea

Minimizable Windows - don't like this idea

Reviews - Think there should be a limit of 10 reviews, don't like only showing top rated reviews as I think recent reviews should be shown at the top.

"Of "Title"" - That's mainly to try and improve search engine rankings (e.g. someone searching for 'reviews of gladiator')

Larger Image - I kind of like this (makes a big design statement) but I have to think of people on slower connections, I might make it a bit bigger though.

Also, Tom, you mentioned there was a recommended films link, but I'm not seeing it...

It's the Recommended link, the last link in the blue box

Add a display for # of votes next to review, similar to how its shown with lists.

Agreed

For some movies, like Gladiator, there are TONS of good lists. How about by default only show top 5 lists, but allow the main page to expand up to 10 custom lists - as long as all of them have 5 or more votes? In gladiators case, it would expand to show top 9 lists, with 'View All' for all other lists. This would help also keep votes coming for lists that dont make the Top 5 cut.

Seems confusing to have 2 view more links

Reduce clutter for Loved By section by making thumbnails smaller

Agreed

One thing, I probably wont own the consensus on, is "global ratings" I can't see why this is relevant? We already have a global rating at the top which tells us the overal listal score, but seeing everyone who voted what should be something you get by clicking the rating perhaps? Instead of having a list of 5-6 random strangers next to your friends list.

It's just to highlight new people who are rating and to emphasize the social aspect to the site compared with a site like imdb for example. It's not really a must have feature I must admit.

To clarify the Lists section, my thinking is as follows: Lists AND reviews are both very powerful things on Listal, and are entirely user-driven creation.

So, why are only 5 lists displayed, and in order of Votes, while Reviews would have 10 reviews shown, in order of most recent, and votes for them are hidden from view... Regardless of which way you go, I feel they both should be treated the same way (equal number of items shown, and same way of sorting.

I know pros and cons of the sort method, which is why i was suggesting list recent reviews (and lists too perhaps?) near top and then bury then according to how many votes they got after x amount of months.

With the current method, you can have an awesome review with 10+ votes being buried coz its a year old, and a new awesome list with excellent content never gets any large number of votes because few actually click on the 'View All Lists' link.

Basically, we need a system (for EVERYTHING; pictures, videos, reviews, lists) where the votes make a big difference, but also where new fresh content has a chance at exposure.

OK I see what you mean about lists, there needs to be a balance between new content and the best content which doesn't change that much.

# remove recently added pictures
# only show the top3 voted pictures
# move the top voted trailer (or video if there is no trailer added yet) next to the top3 pictures
# remove the movie name in the subheadings from reviews and ratings
# rename "Cover art, photos and screenshots" in "Pictures"
# ratings: show only 5 users in each row

First of all, great work, Tom! :)
Some interesting changes/new features and a better look, I like'em. (I know I already asked these, but...) Still waiting for:

1) a major improvement of the picture page:

a) 3 different sections for posters, screenshots and photos;
b) several options for sorting them by date/votes/views/size/... );
c) tag pics;


2) sorting my actors/actresses and directors by (my) rating (or more options);


last but not least (IMPORTANT (IMHO):

3) create connections between movies/items like

a) a similar films/items section (I REALLY WISH THIS FEATURE on listal) where you can add several titles and also vote the more appropriate suggestions;
b) sequel/prequel/remakes links;

Maybe you can improve the "Recommended" section (automatically generated) or add a new one "Similar movies/items suggested by listal members" (created by users)?

Thanks!

I moved it to under the description box because it was the only link out those 5 which didn't relate to the person viewing the page.

It should be here:

If you can't see it let me know the page you are looking at



On items with no description there will just be a link to edit it

Perhaps you could add small icons for the ratingbox (person, heart, imdb logo).

Generally, I think the new item page looks really good. But the white space behind my tags, ratings, etc seems bothersome. Another colored box would work better I think.

I've added color coded ratings to replace the old yellow rating box, other changes are planned.

Hey Tom!
I like the color coded ratings.

Could you change one thing about it? When an item is rated 5, it is red. instead could it be light orange.

Thanks!

If I did that the other higher ratings would be wrong, anything rated 5.1-6.0 is an orange color 4.1-5.0 is dark orange, ratings below that are red

I just think it gets to red too soon.

5 for me means 'ok'... and the red makes it look like it's a movie/book/album to stay away from.

For me 5 means bad, personally I would almost never watch a movie rated 5 on average.

Most of the votes are in the 6-8 range, generally there are few votes 5 or less, that's why I don't think having items rated 5 as a red color is bad because it's relatively rare (just like things rated higher than 9 are quite rare)

However I have changed the color system so the color change starts at 5.0 instead of 5.1, that should make items rated 5 appear in orange.