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Thoughts on the new look of artist page

withering	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 5:21 PM Some initial reactions: 1 Really missing the short artist description. Isn't there a spot to the left of the artist image where this could be re-inserted? 2 If nothing else is going left of the artist image, you have to left-align or center it. Now it looks a bit alone where it stands. 3= 1280x1024). Maybe the stuff inside should be centered and have a max width? 4 Also missing my votes, but I'm sure they return someday... 5 Maybe the music link shouldn't be a link on the music page? Anyway there needs to be a better indication that the links at the top are indeed tabs to various parts of the artist area. 6 As a non-subscriber I don't really have access to the newsletter system. So when it is put at the top of the left bar, it's more than slightly misleading... In any case it should be at the bottom. The first thing a new visitor thinks about when seeing the page is not how he can subscribe to a newsletter in the fastest possible way... 6 Keep up the good work! Definitely more slick than the old and the 'Blue blocks' look. AND with song info. that.
Jesuszilla	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 5:39 PM I think it looks WAY better. Though I agree with about the artist picture, maybe have it left aligned instead. Everything else looks nice.
Distilled1	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 6:07 PM Yes the artist pic looks way alone if not to the letf or centerd the short description would fit in ther 2. as offwiththeringa... said the newsletter should be to the bottem maybe the members at the top instead? 3. I do like the look and the quick links to stats !
Veracohr	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 6:45 PM I don't like the new look. I also miss the short description. Ofwitheringahses, you're probably the only one who misses the votes! If the short description were placed back where it was before, the picture wouldn't look weird where it is.
musicpicks	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 7:03 PM Auto streaming of track through Flash, maybe some text to inform the visitor of this would help Can't control your shoutbox.
KevBrock	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:00 PM It's much better.
ashleighj	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:03 PM you fool, there isn't (and has never been) a shoutbox on artist pages... ahem. i still worry that people new to the site won't be clear on which icon is download, which is hi-fi, etc.. the "statistics" link, though, is much welcomed.
musicpicks	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:05 PM ashleighj, Why not?
rhyme416	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:05 PM I don't like it at all... looks hokey for a service they're trying to attract people to pay for... For free no one can complain tho
Distilled1	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:06 PM "i still worry that people new to the site won't be clear on which icon is download, which is hi-fi, etc.." It is hard to learn this site at first, and the cassual surfer may just turn away if they can't figure it out right away .. although with a little time it is very easy you just have to dive in I did
mracky	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:15 PM three thumbs up
invocati	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 8:53 PM I don't like it!!! But I guess it will do.
onewhodreams	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 9:54 PM ~~i still worry that people new to the site won't be clear on which icon is download, which is hi-fi, etc..~~ Yes, I feel that way too. I'm not sure I like the new look. It will take some getting used too.
Veracohr	Date: January 8, 2004 @ 10:40 PM I'm beginning to feel Mux's irritation over not being informed of changes. Well, his irritation goes beyond that, but it would have been nice to have some prior notification of upcoming changes to the artist pages in the "Staff Anouncements" forum, at the least (since the site doesn't send emails to artists.) I didn't much like the spammy flavor of a lot of mp3.con's emails, but at least they sent their artists emails informing them of things like this.
Cryxan	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 4:55 AM Actually, there is something to the left of the artist pic--your artist journal. Check out the artist administration page, and see "Journal/Notes." Why would people have a hard time telling what's hifi, lofi, etc? There's a legend on the top.
TameasDust	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:11 AM the listening sample is cool ... the wavy line thingy ... being on dialup it still works nice look to the page happened to be listening to doris day when my m ouse strayed accross the sample thingy ... i thought wtf oooo coool and i use 800 X 600 resolution ... too much for a 21 inch monitor sides i have to use large print to see anything at all
ebarbarella	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:17 AM Looks Awesome! love the blue lines ... and the stats links is too!! Suggestions : 1) The bio is not there please, there is a blank space next to pic that needs to be fill 2)the music -forum - news - events links should be under the pic and not on top of the pic . Nothing except for the name of the band and genre should be on top of the pic and bio ... just like it was before ... 3)The same with the legends that explain the lofi - hifi download - should be under songs and not on top... just a thought ...
TameasDust	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:19 AM and an artist forum ooooooo am I gonna be busy
TameasDust	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:24 AM as long as it don't start lookin like shudder SoundClick ... what an anal retentitive place that is ... and they MAKE you listen to a sample of the artists music when you open the artists page ... a real bummer on dialup
TameasDust	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:26 AM everyone doesn't have listening samples ... waaaaaaaaaaa
TameasDust	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:32 AM and nosepicks shaddap about the shoutbox thingy ... sheesh
CrescentShadow	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:41 AM i dont like the fact that you have to click a link to see the song statistics... i like to see those right away. also, people who dont use dmusic often might be confused on which button to push to stream... they might not see the legend at the top, i didnt until i looked for it. it was sorta handy having it say "hi fi stream" and "download" right beside it so you'd know which one to click right away.. and the short bio, like everyone said. other than that its good looking.
ebarbarella	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:45 AM @ TameasDust ... the shoutbox is always coming back
PopDolls	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 9:39 AM I found a way to add the bio ... click on Artist Administration ... then journal/notes ... update that and we have a journal on the artist page
furiousBall	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 10:57 AM = 1280x1024, like withering suggested) i also echo veracohr's pain - i'd like to be informed of changes before they happen." id="78611">= 1280x1024, like withering suggested) i also echo veracohr's pain - i'd like to be informed of changes before they happen.
fu-dog	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 3:38 PM I was actually planning to announce this, but decided against it. The announcement would have been missed by a large number of users, and regardless of the comments in the forum the change would have been made. Plus, making the announcement means i would have had to wait some period of time before setting the new layout live. If i make announcements for every incremental change i make to the site, folks are going spend 50% of their time spent on the site reading the Staff Annoucements. All that being said: please give me some guidelines for annoucements. When is the change large enough to warrent a notice and delay? --- The short description has been changed to an artist journal. In this way artists can log and keep their fans informed. There will eventually be links to the history of this log and the ability for users to comment on each entry. Good space for announcing new song uploads, tunes in progress and whathaveyou. The email newsletter is available to all artists, not just subscribing artists. It can be accessed by the "Mailing List" link in your artist "Administration" panel. The votes are still available, and can be viewed via the "statistics" link that's visible for the artist. This is the same as the "Stats" link in your "File Manager." If someone can come up with a good way of having all of that data visible on the page when it first loads without making it too squished, i'd be happy to plug it in. Someone pass along a couple mockups of what the legend should look like and where it should be displayed. If it's noticibly better than what's there now i will make the change.
ZsigE	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 4:48 PM I'm sorry to say that I really don't like this. As far as looks go, it's great - it's a very smooth and elegant layout. In practical terms though, I'm just not feeling it - the icons seem a bit misleading, unless something fundamental has changed in IE I haven't got nearly as many options for each song as I had before, and most importantly I can't see the votes or if there are any new comments. I liked being able to scroll quickly down the page and see if anything had changed on short visits. Basically, it could be much better if all the old elements were still there, just laid out in the new style. As it stands, there's a lot of white space which looks quite nice but really isn't that helpful. Change is often good, but unless I'm missing something there's been quite a loss of functionality with this one.
Veracohr	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 4:50 PM All that being said: please give me some guidelines for annoucements. When is the change large enough to warrent a notice and delay? I would like to see an announcement for all changes, pretty much. Any change that involves something functional, ie. involving a new or changed link, body of text, etc. But I don't think it's necessary to make a new announcement for every single thing. Nor do I think you should have to delay updating the site just to read comments on the changes. Here's what I think: you know what you are working on, and what you will be working on next. Say you make an announcement in the Staff Announcements forum, titled "Upcoming Changes", and the date. You can list the changes you will be working on in the near future, and even if you don't know exactly when you will implement them at the time of posting, at least we will have some forwarning. You can say "These changes will be made in the next week/two weeks, etc" if you know at least that much.
johnnygnote	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 5:17 PM Looks good only thing wrong on my end is all other pages appear normal on my screan (17 inch monitor) but the artist page. It's stretched out side to side and doesn't fit in the screan like all the others.
johnnygnote	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 5:18 PM oops I mean screen
musicpicks	Date: January 9, 2004 @ 8:08 PM Geeze guys, don't get so arrogant and demanding
withering	Date: January 10, 2004 @ 10:48 AM GIMPed draft mockup: http://www.ofwitheringashes.com/images/dmusic-draft1.jpg Not meant as a design draft, only to get some thoughts started. Changelog: band members moved to the top where they belong! Legend moved to the bottom. Most users only need this information once, and 99% of them are able to hover their m ouse anyway. Artist sub-page links moved to the top-right corner, your current location emboldened and unlinked, in the vein of the top-left location indicatior. Short bio THIS IS IMPORTANT!! When browsing the music archives, this text is very often do or die when you decide whether to bother giving it a listen or not! It is the artist's own description of themselves, and what they have to say and how they say it can be very indicative of what to expect. Artist Notes Having this on the main page was a good idea, so I've kept it there. But keeping the short bio means this feature is free for that which it was intended for - news and progress on the band. Icons Tried two different approaches. The (I) is meant to link to the Lyrics/Info page. The 3x2 placement on the first song is the least confusing I think, while the 5x1 on the bottom two are the most visually pleasing. Just think a little about what a user wants to see when he/she visits an artist page the first time: You don't want to subscribe to their newsletter! You don't need to hear anything about how the recording of their awesome next track goes... You want to get an overview of who the band is and what they stand for, as quickly as possible, before you start listening to their music. Now the second-time visitor is probably more interested in what's happened since the last time, that's why the Artist Notes are a good thing to keep.
withering	Date: January 10, 2004 @ 10:53 AM And as I haven't said enough already ... The shrinking of the artist pictures makes the people of DMusic look ugly. Don't do that. And the Add to playlist icon, which is among the least probable thing you need to click, is RED (and therefore most eye-catching)! That's not good UI design.
TameasDust	Date: January 10, 2004 @ 11:59 AM actually i'm attracted to blue and avoid red
fu-dog	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 12:58 PM I'll be mucking with the artist page again sometime today. Things that'll be happening: * the almost triumphant return of the short description. * possible addition of random mogwai images * moving and labelling legend * Lyrics/Info link becomes icon The "missing" vote count for your song can be found on your song statistics page, a link to which will appear within each song frame if you're on your artist page. These stats are also available via the "file manager" in your artist administration section. This is my semi-formal announcement. I'll do my best to do more of these.
Distilled1	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 1:41 PM how bout the recent uploads? I like to see what the latest song a band uploaded was sometimes Looks great fu thanks for all the hard work you put into this site!
fu-dog	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 3:19 PM Distilled1: I'd like to add a section where artists can choose what's on their site and where. When that comes along, artists can add the uploads box if they wish to have it on their page. The main reason i removed it is because the new artist journal feature allows the artist to say "yo, these songs new. lookie lookie!" or something similar. So the artist page updates are done. Any other major issues with the layout? Pipe up so i can get'em fixed ASAP, cause i'm moving on to a couple of sizable new projects...
Distilled1	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 2:14 PM
withering	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 3:48 PM Triumphant march of the returning short descriptions: ! Now feel free to move on to more important matters...
withering	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 6:03 PM Triumphant march of the returning short descriptions: ! Now feel free to move on to more important matters...
Veracohr	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 6:17 PM Thanks Fu, that's all I need for an announcement!
Acumen	Date: January 14, 2004 @ 7:01 PM i was liking this new layout captain fu had on the go... until today when it started to act weird. rather then explain (cause explaining is overated), I'll show you: http://images2.dmusic.com/users/a/c/u/acumen/18337.jpg
redrasta	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 1:25 AM wow!!Someone scribbled all over your page?!?!?! I'd sue!!!
thedarkaeons	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 4:39 AM I agree with Acumen. I was just getting used to it (I did finally get the big empty space filled with a journal entry) now it's gone all wonky again and the big empty space is back!
johnnygnote	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 4:44 AM I miss the old Logo, I guess the new one has a 21'st century look, I don't dislike it I just miss the old one
johnnygnote	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 4:46 AM Acumen that's really wierd
Cryxan	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 5:09 AM As far as logos go, I liked the one we had even before the world one the best. I think it's elegant and just looks cool. And distinctive. http://files.dmusic.com/music/r/e/rennette/V7_logo.GIF
johnnygnote	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 5:55 AM Oh yeah cryxan I forgot about that one, I agree it is elegant perhaps a hybred of the last one and the other
Distilled1	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 4:02 PM Ya I noticed the scroll bar to damn I hate those!
azhazhellfire	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 9:01 PM the logo would've looked great with the old design of this site. but now, the site has its own unique character in the design. i agree with cryxan. i love the new artist pages but i preferred having the artists forum updates on the right. definetely added something to the page.
Acumen	Date: January 15, 2004 @ 9:11 PM oh quiet. i know you all love the logo.
Cryxan	Date: January 16, 2004 @ 4:44 AM lol
agent1786	Date: January 23, 2004 @ 3:18 AM NOte sure if this was answered in here - i glanced through the posts and didn't see it but: OFWITHERINGA: You do have a votes system on your songs. If you go to your own band site, and you look at the listing, you see a link entitled "STATISTICS" click on it and you will see how many votes you have for that song (both thumbs up and down), and it will also show you how many hi-fi listens (partial, complete, and unknown), lo-fi listens (partial, complete, and unknown), and downloads (partial, complete, unknown). Hope this helps. DJ Hyse ( http://hysell.dmusic.com )
agent1786	Date: January 23, 2004 @ 3:51 AM I just figured out some ideas that would be nice to implant into DMusic.Com: 1) Ability to edit song titles. 2) Advertistement Banner feature (Cost per 1,000 impressions) 3) Ability to edit and delete your own replies to posts in the forum (in case of typos) Well, I didn't say i had a lot of ideas! DJ Hyse ( http://hysell.dmusic.com )
torndownunit	Date: January 23, 2004 @ 8:30 AM I think the pages look pretty good. I am new, so I don't really know how they have looked in the past. These are my only suggestions: -I don't think there is enough room for the short description. It only takes up 3 1/3 lines on my page and gets cut off. I think you could easily up the character limit a little. If it were 5-6 lines it would match up with the photo height. -Maybe I am missing something, but I think there should be a place for email and web site link right on the main music page. Specifically, somewhere right near the songs. If people like the music and want to contact you, they shouldn't have to search at all for an address.
four15wear	Date: January 23, 2004 @ 2:50 PM I'm new also, but I think the pages look great. I agree with what most of the others are saying about the description and stuff though. The one thing that's always bothered me is the Ref. ID for the artist products (I know it's a small detail, but it still bothers me). Why does it have to be dmusic? I've had a CafePress store for more than a year now... longer than I've been a Dmusic member... and if someone wants to open a store because they came to my artist page and clicked on my store link, I think I should at least get to put my Ref. ID in that spot. Now, I don't know what kind of deal or relationship you have with CafePress, but I'd still like the option to put my own ID in. Anyways (I'm beginnin to ramble), nice work with the site! Andrew "Yun Relic" Four-Fifteen Production / Innercity Squad http://ics.dmusic.com/
Maffmatix	Date: January 23, 2004 @ 3:00 PM I liked when it said "latest songs uploaded"
YaBoyDrew	Date: February 8, 2004 @ 4:54 PM im not feelin it i hate havin 2 click statistics. It makes me check them out alot less. I liked it when it was just all there alot more
MickeyBreezy	Date: February 8, 2004 @ 6:11 PM yeah just put how many thumbs the song has back on there is was way better that way.

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