NOTE: This is a very long, two-page reply to everything you guys brought up in the July 6 survey I posted plus some additional comments regarding what to expect from the upcoming launch of the redesign. I’m simply doing my best to keep you in the loop as things progress.
Back at the beginning of July, I asked for your input on how you use RopeofSilicon.com, what you would like to see changed, improved and just your overall thoughts. The response was overwhelming.
Honestly, I never expected not only the number of people that contributed to the survey (something none of us like to do) but the length you went to add your thoughts in the write-in sections was extraordinary and very much appreciated. Your response alone makes me want to ensure the coming redesign is everything you want it to be and hopefully I can deliver.
That said, I did want to address some of the most frequently mentioned wants, likes, dislikes, needs and concerns.
I’ll begin with what you want more of, what you want less of and what changes you can expect when the redesign launches. While many of you added some insight that isn’t specifically mentioned, believe me when I say I took note of all you wrote. What’s referenced here were merely the comments that made up the majority.
WHAT YOU WANT MORE OF:
Below are 14 things that seemed to stand out from the survey results that you would like more of on the site with the first four being the stand outs.
- Articles on older films and retrospectives
- Film dissections such as the Inception pieces
- Editorials
- Top Ten Lists
- More on independent and foreign films
- Discussion after a film opens
- Mail bag questions from readers and more polls
- Interviews
- Better search results
- TV coverage
- A discussion forum
- Commentary on MPAA ratings and not just the ratings themselves
- Casting news, rumor coverage and superficial news such as what’s in the Sidebar section
- Guest contributors
Not everything above will become a part of the site immediately, but with good luck it will in the near future, though the TV coverage one will take much greater attention as there is just too much TV for one site to handle on a regular basis and still remained focused. I know a lot of people like what stations such as HBO, AMC and Showtime are offering nowadays but when a site stretches itself too thin it becomes a muddled mess of coverage without focus. I don’t want that.
WHAT YOU WANT LESS OF:
What you want less of was a bit interesting to put together because some of the things people want less of is the same thing other people wanted more of. For instance, some people don’t care about pictures while others said they want more and at higher resolutions. As for the “clutter” comment, that was the #1 goal with the redesign, to make it less cluttered and easier to get around, something I address specifically in the “Navigation” section on Page Two.
As for the requests to have less personality and less of an individual opinion on things, this was another mixed result with more people liking the personality of the site, but there were enough people that brought it up I felt I couldn’t ignore it. It was tough to tell if the problem was that you disagreed with my opinion so you want to hear less of it or if you felt I don’t allow for your opinion to be heard. Perhaps some more clarification is needed there.
This also goes to #6 above in the “wants” section; “Discussion after a film opens”. I always thought people would just go back to my review and add their opinion there, but would you prefer if I did what many sites are doing now and create a new post asking for your thoughts on the latest movies? I don’t mind doing that, anything for more discussion, I just need to know if that’s something you’d want and that you will be sure to participate. Nothing is worse than a “What did you think?” post with about two comments.
That said, here are a few things that stood out in the “want less of” comments.
- Less Pictures
- Less clutter
- Fewer TV spots
- Avoid judgin movies before seeing them (this is tough considering trailers and film marketing operate with the intention that we’ll judge a film and hopefully want to see it)
- Less bias, personality and opinion (like I said, aweird one for me, but it was mentioned)
- Less selective news coverage, either every news story or none
WHAT’S NEW? WHAT CHANGES WILL THERE BE?
I had only two major goals with the redesign. The first was to streamline the design and simplify it as much as possible.
This is a site that has over 19,500 posts, over 5,000 movies in the database, over 13,000 actors and directors, nearly 1,300 movie reviews, over 7,250 DVDs and Blu-rays and the winner histories for the Oscars, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. This is to say nothing about the number of images, trailers and more that make up the database. So how do you streamline that? Again, I’ll discuss further in the “Navigation” section on Page Two.
As for the rest of the upgrades, I have listed a bunch of them below without getting too technical.
- Faster page loads
- Simplified navigation and overall design
- New homepage featured story rotator, no more sticky posts
- New movie pages featuring all the information on one page as opposed to spread out over several
- Studio specific pages featuring their upcoming slate and previously released titles
- Twitter handles for over 375 celebrities on their respective pages (click here for a peek)
- New all-access awards hub
- You will be able to comment on the pages for all posts, pictures, movies, celebrities, DVDs, Blu-rays and award pages. In fact, there are few pages you won’t be able to add your comments on.
- New Movie and DVD/Blu-ray homepages featuring the newest releases that week
- New box-office articles, which will now also feature budget numbers, theater counts and per theater averages
- Most trailers will be presented in 720p HD
- Profile pages for registered users
- Bookmark movies to your profile for later reference
- Site skins giving you the ability to customize the site background including a variety of movie-themed backgrounds such as Kill Bill, Raging Bull, Drive and The Dark Knight with more coming soon. This is something a lot of you said you wouldn’t be interested in on the survey, which is fair, but I will say the option of going with a white background or a dark background alone makes a pretty big difference when browsing the site. You don’t have to use it, I’m just saying I found it incredibly nice during testing so instead of me deciding for you I give you the chance to choose the background of your preference.
- More coming soon…
Many of you have asked about an “Edit” button for your comments. This is something I see coming along in the future now that I am setting up user profiles. As the number of registered users grows and matures I will be adding more and more registered user-only features… A comment editing button will certainly be one of them.
Now, click over to Page Two for more specific examples of the changes and improvements you can expect.
