New Changes at Criticker

Ideas to improve Criticker and new feature requests, as well as announcements about new enhancements.
mpowell
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by mpowell »

Hey guys,

All I can say on the topic is that we are trying to move forward in the most intelligent way we can. Criticker is often pilloried for looking like an outdated website, and many of the changes we've been making are intended to modernize the site. What you've seen so far is part of a larger overall effort. First, we've been introducing Bootstrap, which make the site more accessible. Next will be a push to widen the screen space. Yes, a lot of this is because of mobile accessibility... if you could see our traffic statistics, you'd understand why it's a priority. We're trying hard not to lose any desktop functionality, but of course it's a difficult balance.

Change always comes with pain, but you can believe me that we're hearing your observations, and taking them to heart. We've already made some minor changes to the Filmmaker page to deal with specific issues raised. And the new pages which we're in the process of designing are going to address a lot of the problems which have been mentioned. Will everything be perfect? YES! I GUARANTEE IT! All new future changes will work flawlessly, and everyone will love them, and soon a chorus of angels will descend from on high to proclaim our site the most amazing piece of functional art on the web.

... or not :) Criticker is always going to be a work in progress. But if we don't move forward, we're moving backwards. Progress is slow, because of our manpower, but it's steady. As always, our users remain our most invaluable source of feedback, and we do listen to everything you have to say. Of course, it's difficult when something you've sweat over isn't immediately appreciated, but if we had thin skin, we'd have given up a long time ago. A lot of the changes we've made have already resulted in positive gains, although they might not be visible.

Thanks again for being so vocal! We truly are listening, and really appreciate the time you all take to share your thoughts.

-Mike

zevel6
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by zevel6 »

mpowell wrote:Hey guys,

All I can say on the topic is that we are trying to move forward in the most intelligent way we can. Criticker is often pilloried for looking like an outdated website, and many of the changes we've been making are intended to modernize the site. What you've seen so far is part of a larger overall effort. First, we've been introducing Bootstrap, which make the site more accessible. Next will be a push to widen the screen space. Yes, a lot of this is because of mobile accessibility... if you could see our traffic statistics, you'd understand why it's a priority. We're trying hard not to lose any desktop functionality, but of course it's a difficult balance.

Change always comes with pain, but you can believe me that we're hearing your observations, and taking them to heart. We've already made some minor changes to the Filmmaker page to deal with specific issues raised. And the new pages which we're in the process of designing are going to address a lot of the problems which have been mentioned. Will everything be perfect? YES! I GUARANTEE IT! All new future changes will work flawlessly, and everyone will love them, and soon a chorus of angels will descend from on high to proclaim our site the most amazing piece of functional art on the web.

... or not :) Criticker is always going to be a work in progress. But if we don't move forward, we're moving backwards. Progress is slow, because of our manpower, but it's steady. As always, our users remain our most invaluable source of feedback, and we do listen to everything you have to say. Of course, it's difficult when something you've sweat over isn't immediately appreciated, but if we had thin skin, we'd have given up a long time ago. A lot of the changes we've made have already resulted in positive gains, although they might not be visible.

Thanks again for being so vocal! We truly are listening, and really appreciate the time you all take to share your thoughts.

-Mike


I appreciate all you work you put in and personally I do think the website looks much cleaner and is more usable than before (both on desktop and mobile)!
I was wondering if there are any plans in the pipeline to bring back the Criticker mobile app or is that an idea that has been indefinitely shelved for now with all resources aimed at improving the actual site?

livelove
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by livelove »

Maaxwell wrote:It's also no longer indicating that a submitted film is in preview mode on an individual's page.
@admins: Are you planning to bring this back ?

livelove
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by livelove »

@Mike:
thank you for the insights and your heartfelt (and funny) response.

mpowell wrote:We truly are listening, and really appreciate the time you all take to share your thoughts.
thanks so much for listening to your users


mpowell wrote:Criticker is often pilloried for looking like an outdated website
by whom?!?
I have read countless times here on the forums, that your site is such a pleasure, both functionally and visually, because it has such a slick, no-nonsense, minimalist, clear, lean, simple and logical look: everything needed is there, but no bloat, no distractions, etc. Your site is rather fast, compared to other sites, which load dozens of scripts and unneeded bloat that only looks confusing. Make a poll, I bet you everyone here will agree on this.

The topic came up a few times here and every time the lean character Criticker was applauded and users said, they hope Criticker won't become another [insert some bloated competitor here], for instance here:

bikeking8 wrote:Avoid Flash and client-side Java like the PLAGUE! If you think the recent site traffic explosion wreaked havoc on your server, those things would be the apocolypse. Those two bloated things only slow things way down to the frustration and aggravation of everyone involved. The site as it is right now is AWESOME! A crate of kudos to the site developers/maintainers! :D
or in this thread:
Ununnilium wrote:Personally, the simplicity of the site design is one of the things that draws me to it.
edkrak wrote:Some slight redesign wouldn't hurt, but I hope that Criticker will never change into something similar to this trakt.tv. I hate those modern websites designed for analphabets, filled with big pictures and almost nothing beside that. :roll:
cagedwisdom wrote:Criticker doesn't look dazzling but it does the job more than sufficiently, and better than many space-wasting "modern" site designs. :)
movieboy wrote:FWIW, I love every aspect of Criticker's UI. Most things are so beautifully done in an understated kind of way. The User Interface design for the interactive parts are especially very good.
ShogunRua wrote:I'll echo the sentiment of many others here; the user interface of Criticker is simple, neat, and efficient. I like that. The last thing I want is a huge site redesign that makes things prettier but the site slower and more cumbersome to navigate.
Spunkie wrote:I like the design and don't want it changed if that's gonna take even a slight performance hit. But I'm for Rufflesack's resizability idea.
TheDenizen wrote:I'm also a fan of lots of white space. No reason to clutter up a nice clean look with tons of flashing graphics.
PeaceAnarchy wrote:Sadly, usability and slick appearance seem to have an inverse relationship on the web. I for one prefer a very useable, if somewhat plain looking, site like criticker than a good looking but unusable mess like letterboxd, though it would be nice to have both.
Guest wrote:you dont need those "new" designs filled with color and big ass images like trakt or letterboxd or movietag , simplicity also works. in fact, it works better in my opinion.
Ag0stoMesmer wrote:I'll take Criticker's 'efficiency' over the big images and expanses of white-space "simplicity" of that -and the others those you've mentioned- every time.

livelove
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by livelove »

zevel6 wrote:I was wondering if there are any plans in the pipeline to bring back the Criticker mobile app
Wouldn't that be a way to better handle the disparity between desktop and mobile devices ?
Keep the website focused on desktop devices and offer the mobile app (with a very prominent download link on the website) for mobile devices ?

mpowell
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by mpowell »

livelove wrote:
Maaxwell wrote:It's also no longer indicating that a submitted film is in preview mode on an individual's page.
@admins: Are you planning to bring this back ?


I'm not sure about this one... I mean, I think it should be working. I just looked at a user's page, who I know has submissions awaiting approval, and I see "(Still Awaiting Approval)" in bold red font, underneath the title in question.

Am I not understanding the problem correctly?

btw, thanks for that list of praise... that made our day! We should really collect things like that, ourselves, to keep us motivated!

mpowell
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by mpowell »

livelove wrote:
zevel6 wrote:I was wondering if there are any plans in the pipeline to bring back the Criticker mobile app
Wouldn't that be a way to better handle the disparity between desktop and mobile devices ?
Keep the website focused on desktop devices and offer the mobile app (with a very prominent download link on the website) for mobile devices ?


The short answer to this is that we have decided to pour our resources into a single website that resizes correctly for mobile devices, instead of an app.

paulofilmo
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by paulofilmo »

mpowell wrote:Of course, it's difficult when something you've sweat over isn't immediately appreciated, but if we had thin skin, we'd have given up a long time ago.


I like the changes.

as albert einstein always used to say, this kerning is making me wet.

livelove
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Re: New Changes at Criticker

Post by livelove »

mpowell wrote:We're trying hard not to lose any desktop functionality, but of course it's a difficult balance.
By all means: Yes, please.

mpowell wrote:we have decided to pour our resources into a single website that resizes correctly for mobile devices, instead of an app.
In my view, mobile devices are crippled and not appropriate devices for viewing websites. With a mobile device you might have a look at a site and if you are lucky you might see basic information and use some core functions, but you cannot expect 100% functionality.

I think if you put all the resources that you spend on getting the website to work 100% on mobile devices (and deal with all the errors and problems that occur due to this difficult balancing act) into an app, you would have had a perfect Criticker app already long ago, which apparently is more important for owners of mobile devices:

babaracus wrote:personally I like the site as is. having said that, there's one clear direction to go if you want more members and that's following the trend. I've read somewhere (maybe their newsletter when I was a member) that the numbers of Letterboxd really skyrocketed when they got apps for ios and especially android. I think that's where most users would come from these days. criticker's mobile site is perfect already, but I think the matter is simply being present in the app stores when people search for movie apps. making a premium ad-free version should bring revenue too. [source]

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