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Netflix's New Web Interface Gets Thumbs Down From Users
Verdatum writes "Entertainment Weekly is one of many sites reporting the strong negative reaction from users of the new Netflix web interface. The new interface presents larger title images at the cost of visible ratings and the 'Sortable List' view. To see a suggested rating or view details, one must now first hover over each individual title.
Netflix announced the new interface on Wednesday, in an official blog post. So far, the post has received thousands of negative comments, but only a few dozen comments by users believing the change is an improvement."
The old interface was fine, the new one is slow and is not sortable.
Users hate change.
I used it today. It wasn't that bad, but I didn't really see the need to change from the previous interface.
This happens everytime FB makes a change too... ppl rage, complain and threaten to quit. 2 Weeks later they couldn't live without the changes
are getting more inane by the day.
What Netflix really ought to do is publish an API and let people make their own interfaces.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Perhaps the new netflix interface would be good for touchscreen interfaces, but if you're using a mouse and keyboard you're just needlessly complicating the process. Really, why should I have to mouse over to get more info on the movie? There are thousands and thousands of movies listed in their catalog, many of which I've never heard of or seen. I am not going to know what a movie is about simply by looking at its cover. Furthermore, because they have such a huge catalog, obfuscating the sort function is really just taking away usability of the Netflix service itself. If the basic functionality of the interface system wasn't broken or unusable, why update it and reduce functionality? Why not just slap a new coat of paint on it, but keep all the features intact? If they're really hooked on the aesthetics of the new design, they could just use CSS to superimpose a graphic displaying "more info" over the movie title, as well as graphics for the ratings.
That said, its not SO bad.
and have some control over exposure.
Not sortable means you have to see more titles before you select one. For the person looking for a title that's bad. For the people wanting their title to be seen, and to know if there was interest in it, the new UI makes perfect sense.
How much do you want to bet they just log the mouse overs, seeing what people wanted to get detail on?
Blogging because I can...
A lot of web sites that have tuned their main (and other) pages over time to be usable and accessible, often seem to think that a major change is "improvement". Sometimes it is, but often it isn't simply because they don't spend enough energy on validating functionality and usability with their users. Having a "try new interface" or "use old interface" options would help so that people can try out the new look, yet go back to the old one if the new interface doesn't work for them. Then, requesting active feedback from users will help them to make sure that all is working as they wish before deprecating the old interfaces. Like customers, the users are always right. New eye candy may not be what you need to be successful.
Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real-time.
I just checked it out... it is really, really bad. They only changed the "Watch Instantly" section, though, the DVD sections and queue tab haven't changed.
I couldn't care less what the interface looks like. I'm more concerned about the craptacular selection available in Canada.
That for the first time in my life I called customer support to complain. I use netflix streaming fairly regularly with my kids, and we couldn't find anything quickly. There are some aspects of the change I can adapt to, or ignore, but by and large, in the days of CSS there's no reason you can't offer more UX flexibility to the user.
I think they will change it back within a couple weeks. I also hate this new interface and I don't think it's a case of simple anti-change blues. It really is slower and less convenient, and feels more cluttered to me despite making certain features less convenient to access.
However, Netflix has a good history of listening to customer complaints. I remember a couple years ago they removed the ability to maintain two or more queues for multiple-DVD plans. However, people who had been using that feature complained and they pretty quickly brought it back.
The bandwidth usage has exploded on our network, and the two biggest culprits are Netflix and MLB.TV. We are considering requiring users who are detected using these services to have to subscribe to the highest service tier, or have those services blocked.
So, when you hear the words "net neutrality" do you immediately cover your ears and go "nyah nyah nah nah nah I can't Hear YOU!" at the top of your lungs, or do you simply catch fire and disintegrate like the vampires in the Blade movies? It's a serious question: inquiring minds want to know.
Remind me never, ever to order services from your company. Under any conditions. Whatsoever. Two things you should understand: a. sometimes you have to spend money to make money and b. the overriding need to "improve shareholder value at all costs" will not make a good defense when we come for you.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
This disease of making something a designer's wet dream at the expense of actual usability is becoming more and more widespread. It needs to stop! The same can be said of Unity or GNOME 3. Sure, taken as a stand-alone GUI art installation, it might turn some heads and get a few people excited, but if you have to use the darn thing for more than an hour, its inadequacy outshines the shiny!
The ultimate arbiter of whether a design or a change is a good thing should be whether or not you've increased the number of clicks/hovers/steps that a user has to go through to achieve the same task. If so, then bin it and start again. Sorry, but fancy interfaces won't win anybody over if you're pissed off simply having to use it. Just like a trophy bride, she might look nice, but eventually the nagging turns you right off.
Someone has already posted an extension for chrome that fixes the layout. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ngacmlmclfopgbnmefcffgbcjiafbfpo?hl=en-US#
Foot placed squarely in mouth since 1983.
Netflix claimed they tested it, but who was in the test group? I never heard they were working on a new interface. There was no "check out the new interface demo". Nothing. It is freaking hideous. Clumsy, bulky, slow. I think they're lying about the testing. If they would have really tested that monstrosity it would have failed miserably.
I thought about down-grading my subscription for a month in protest.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Its unusuable. Thank god my secondary account still has the old school interface.
Netflix had been doing great, especially with the grouping multiple seasons of DVDs finally, and then they pull a stupid stunt like this. What were they thinking.
I wish to god whoever decided that making websites should only display well on iPads comes to a swift and painful death.
W
This link works ok for now if you want the most of the older interface (hover is broke)
http://www.netflix.com/WiHome?fcld=true
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I noticed some severe performance issues with the new layout as well. Many of the movies stop for a quarter second or so every few minutes. anyone else notice this?
No text
The scrolling is too slow and there is no button to quickly flip the panels as before. The play button on the picture seems handy but overall, conevient browsing of movie titles are more important, so this redesign is an F. I might have to vote with my money by scaling down my subscription (It has been difficult to find good titles already).
The first time I loaded the page, I honestly thought that the page didn't load right; that something was wrong with my browser/connection. THAT'S how bad it is.
The problem with Netflix in Canada is that you can get only the online stuff (not the mailers), but both kinds are displayed, so when you see an interesting movie, you click then it says: sorry it is not available online. It's like Amazon a while ago when it was not possible to filter out the stuff that is out of stock. Very annoying.
lucm, indeed.
Just tried it out; the scrolling is awkward and annoying, but aside from that I don't see much to complain about. At least, not compared to the disimprovements they just added to the game console player (at least on the PS3), which is just horrible!
On the console, they used to have a hierarchy--you could go to a genre (e.g. Horror), then drill down to see various subcategories (New Releases, Zombie movies, B-Horror, Slashers and Serial Killers, etc.). That's all been replaced with a flat grid, where each row represents a single genre. This is particularly annoying with the psuedo-genres, "Independent" and "Foreign", each of which was subdivided into actual genres (Independent Comedy, Foreign Science Fiction), which were sometimes subdivided further (Independent Romantic Comedies, Japanese Science Fiction). Now all the indie and foreign films are in one big shapeless, useless pile. And it's a much smaller pile, which brings me to complaint two:
With the old, tree-structured interface, each sub-category (or sub-sub-category) could have up to a couple of hundred films to browse. There was a fair amount of overlap between sub-categories, but even so, this meant you could have well over a thousand films available in each category. Now, each main category seems to be limited to 75 movies max!
One slightly more minor disimprovement: they changed the layout so that slightly less room is available for descriptions. Most of their descriptions are still short enough to fit anyway, and some were too long even with the older layout, but there's definitely more that don't fit now.
Compared to all that, what they did to the web page is nuttin'!
Please, the video playback performance on it seems even worse than Flash if that's even possible.
(3 year old desktop system)
Ever considered that many many websites and programs have a interface that is going downhill since the last few versions?. I was actually having a discussion about this a while ago with a couple of non-techie and techie friends and everyone agreed, most company's fail at producing interfaces. Only a couple get it right.
I thought their CSS was just broken on their main page..
I didn't even realize it was a redesign. I have a hard time finding anything at all I want to watch anyway, so I like having more crammed on the screen.
It seems that web interfaces are simply doing away with the "click". It's as if designers were told "fewer clicks is better", and so they naturally thought that NO clicks must be best. I freaking HATE rollover interfaces. If I want to see the details, then I can avail myself to lightly depress my mouse button a millimeter or two. Otherwise, keep it the hell out of my face.
This new Netflix interface sucks.
This reminds me of the Digg 4 redesign. Why change something that isn't broken in the first place and turn it into complete crap in the process? I sincerely hope Netflix actually accepts the negative criticism and tries to fix it instead of thinking it knows better than its users.
Streaming hundreds of megabits of video across a public network, when a simple trip to the corner video store to rent a DVD results in a better picture and 5.1 surround sound just makes no sense.
And it never will if short-sighted people like you have anything to say about it.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I used to go through the "Watched Instantly" start page in a minute looking for new movies and such...
Now it takes SEVERAL minutes. to navigate it, AND I can get dizzy!
(I would like the Wii interface to be tweaked to get rid of the sliding covers.)
The bandwidth usage has exploded on our network, and the two biggest culprits are Netflix and MLB.TV. We are considering requiring users who are detected using these services to have to subscribe to the highest service tier, or have those services blocked.
So what service are these people paying you for? Are they paying for an advertised known limited bandwidth service and then going over their limit? If that is the case then why not cut them off when they reach their cap??
Or are you just offering them "Internet" service. Then when they actually "USE" it, your panties get in a bunch?
I have to hover, then open a giant description to even add to my queue. Before I could just click three or four movies and then go to my xbox and watch for ank entire afternoon. Now it takes twice as long to do the same actions.
The Interaction designer needs to Ridiculed publicly for this. Oh wait, he/she is.
Considering HD netflix is beats both the DVD picture and has 5.1 sound I will disagree. Also the corner video store has under 10k disks.
Using what you pay for is not abusing anything.
Seems to be effecting everything lately.
I do believe successful troll was successful right there ;)
As any frequent and long-time user of YouTube knows, it is notorious for dumping stupid interface changes on the user community. Due to the massive negative outpouring that some of these generate, it's hard for me to believe that they perform any usability trials before release. There are still some remnants of this junk - most notably the gray bar at the bottom of the screen. This is probably the one least-used, most annoying "feature" that refuses to die. I hope Netflix isn't using the same methodology, because it doesn't work, and it doesn't require an MBA to figure this out.
I am better than everyone else, so whatever just got posted I must disagree with! I will throw out some random cliche assumed to be true, and will ignore any actual factual information about the specific case at hand!
No,
They have mostly made subtle improvements since I rejoined a year or so ago. This is quite a negative change and looks like the PS3 interface.
Besides simply looking like an interns first attempt at a new nifty CSS site with modern dancing bologna it is horribly inefficient. Why do I have to hover and scroll for ages.
It's not really a surprise as they have been unifying all of their platforms to this terrible terrible interface.
Neither is using what you don't pay for, according to the Slashdotter mentality. Bunch of greedy thieves.
I don't mind the new layout, but what I really hate is the lack of genre information in the mouseover. A movie with a picture of an alien on the cover could be Scifi, Horror, Action, or even a Children's Program. Usually the description is not conclusive proof of which genre it falls into. When I'm looking over the 'new movies', I hate having to click the expanded description page to see if it's something I'd be interested in (Scifi & Action), and having then to hit back and then wait for the list to scroll back to where I was if it was a Horror or Children's film. I don't care about the rest of it... but having that hassle is really annoying. ~just my two cents.
I worked for weeks on this update! It is clearly superior to version n-1, and even though it lacks some of n-1's features, nobody was using them anyway. What, you say you were using those? Every day? Well, then, you're using my program wrong! Besides, the new features in version n more than make up for any inconvenience. You say that the new features don't work in your os/browser? Impossible, I tested this update for almost a whole day!
Disparging commentszi is aginst der Furer.
NETFLEX ISH DER LIVE OF BEHOLDEN VOUNDERMERMENT.
NETFLEX must liv.
NETFLEX must liv.
BEHOLDEN ish der Furer.
SIG HEIL
SIG HEIL
SIG HEIL
--
I wasn't sure where to go bitch at. Appreciate the links.
The new Napster interface from Best Buy is a piece of shit too. Apparently it's the popular thing to do.
First, I don't have a video store anywhere close to where I live anymore.
second, As already stated, Netflix HD video is better then DVD and has 5.1.
Third, Netflix streaming is cheaper and has more of a selection then most video stores would have.
Forth, It is more convenient to just watch then to have to pick up a disk.
Fifth, It gives people more of a chance to check out movies/TV shows they would not normally see, If they don't like it, then they did not spend time and money renting it.
and you still thinks it does not make sense...?
I'm not sure when it happened, but a lot of sites like NetFlix started doing these side-ways scrolling interfaces and it's just annoying and difficult to navigate.
The web is a vertical medium and pages should be designed around that. For the web browser, I'd love NetFlix to just give me a simple list with a thumbnail on the left, description on the right, and 500 entries to quickly scroll through with the mouse wheel before needing the next page. This would even work great on touch devices.
Then, give me an option to tag titles as favourites so I can quickly find them again if I'm using the PS3/X-Box.
Developers heard that tablets were popular, and decided that every interface in the world should be designed solely with tablets in mind. Just wait for the next version of Office to do away with the keyboard, and force users to input everything with mouse gestures and Swype.
Didn't they do this with the playstation recently?
If I were feeling particularly cynical, I'd be inclined to see the interface change as a means of reducing the variability of title selection and increasing page dwell time. It's now takes much longer to search through Netflix's movie options. Given this, people will probably tend to examine movie descriptions more closely and choose a title that appears on one of the first few pages of available choices. This could be a rather effective means of shaping which movies get selected the most frequently. Personally, I dislike the new interface. It blows.
I'm not sure when it happened, but a lot of sites like NetFlix started doing these side-ways scrolling interfaces and it's just annoying and difficult to navigate.
The web is a vertical medium and pages should be designed around that. For the web browser, I'd love NetFlix to just give me a simple list with a thumbnail on the left, description on the right, and 500 entries to quickly scroll through with the mouse wheel before needing the next page. This would even work great on touch devices.
This. Everybody who uses a computer at home or at work is used to text scrolling vertically. Writing application, web browser - everything scrolls vertically. And even normal text on paper is read left to right (* your culture may vary), until you reach the edge of the paper, and then you read the next line below. So it's only natural that the best way to show a list of movies would be a vertical list, and as an indication of where you are in the list, you could use maybe - oh I don't know - maybe the fcking scroll bar of the browser? And there is also information which NEEDS to be visible without having to click or hover anywhere on the screen - the fcking NAME of the movie (because sometimes it is hard to read it on the cover, if the picture is not as big as the whole screen) and other essential data, like rating, year, a very quick description, genre, and maybe the names of one or two main actors. You could easily squeeze that, together with a thumbnail pic of the DVD cover, on a few lines. And then either put in a good search, or make the headers (year, genre, actor...) clickable to sort stuff.
But but apple is doing the same to lion. I hear no murmers. All you netflix haters ....
The ipads sell in millions b doing his surely this cnt' be all bad ?
No, there's an actual story here, and someday when some business major is assigned "Netflix" as the topic for a research paper, I'm pretty sure they'll reach the same conclusion I'm about to predict: Netflix was already doomed at this point.
This new UI has a dozen things wrong with it. Nothing bad enough to sink the company, nothing that can't be fixed. But it's poorly designed and poorly implemented. I can pick them out, and I don't even do this for a living. What this tells you is that Netflix isn't hiring people who really grok User Interfaces. They aren't incompetent; they just aren't very good. That by itself is a warning sign.
But the clincher comes from the PR hack's response, saying that they tested this new UI and got really good reception to it, etc. First, there's the fact that they have a PR hack who thinks that this is a good way to to damage control: by telling the customers that what they're thinking and feeling is wrong. Again, just not very good at his job. Second, let's take him at his word and accept that their testing didn't anticipate this negative reaction. What that tells you is that they don't know how to do testing either. If there are enough users who dislike it this much, professionals who know how to do testing (hint: the testing team should include none of the people who did the design or coding) would have turned it up. Finally, we have someone in management whose reaction to these mistakes is not to 1) hire better UI people, 2) do UI testing better, but to circle the wagons and refuse to even admit that "mistakes were made". Probably the Director of Web Site Experience or some title like that needs to be sacked, but they aren't going to do that. Because that would mean admitting that hiring said person was a mistake.
Netflix is doing great right now, because they're riding the wave of a new entertainment delivery model. They are making enough money that even people who are not very good at their jobs (see current company roster) can continue operating the company profitably. But that won't last forever. Which means that, when the competition gets rough, when another business model challenges the company, or whatever else happens that requires Netflix to start doing things smarter and better.... the people in charge at every level of the company will be the people who brought you (and defended) this rather crappy UI change.
And they're gonna get clobbered.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I didn't notice a change at first, since anyone with a PS3 who has seen the UI it's been using for the last few months should immediately recognize the new design. It actually works pretty well on the PS3, since you can use your controller to navigate it decently quickly. With a mouse, however, the rollovers are comically slow, and the lack of visible ratings (Netflix's strong suit) is a massive oversight. But, the fact that this UI has been in use on the PS3 for months may be why Netflix says they've been testing the UI for an extended period of time without major complaint.
The other reason I didn't notice any change was because I keep my bookmark on my computer set to the Instant Queue. Really, whenever I'm on my computer, I only ever see my queues, the detail pages for movies I'm watching, and the search results page after I look up something, none of which were redesigned. I'm not even sure why people use the rest of the site, though I'd guess I'm not the typical user.
Had it not been for this posting here, I'd likely have not seen the changes for months, and when I did see them, I likely wouldn't have even realized a change had occurred, since the UI would look familiar to me already.
Meanwhile, the parental controls model is still broken. Can't filter R-rated movies without also filtering TV-14. Based on this, I'm not convinced they test with actual users in ways that produce valid results.
I agree with the vast majority. The new UI is absolutely miserable!!! I wonder how much it cost the company to f@#$ up this bad.
Netflix Watch Instantly is like the CrapWare bin at the big box store; you paw through it hoping to find a gem, but it really is mostly just crap.
The new interface didn't bother me, because I usually know what I want to put in the queue or watch before I log in.
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
The only way I use Netflix is on my AppleTV, and even that one leaves a lot to be desired for. Of course I am in Canada where Netflix is crippled and lacking for content, so perhaps my semi-hatred for it is not based on the "real" Netflix experience; but it is unusable on the PS3 and supposedly that was the best implementation out of the game console UI. It is not rocket science, how hard is it to list movies and play them? Obviously it is very difficult for the Netflix UI developers.
http://www.netflix.com/WiHome?fcld=true
We used the sortable list extensively, normally sorted by rating. I wanted the sortable list with a small thumbnail of the cover art (is that what it is called for movies?). This new version is almost unusable.
Holy crap, this is an actual desired and planned for change to the UI? I was thinking it was a bug that prevented the entire page from being loaded. What Netflix has done to the web UI is so bad that I now have to go to my Wii or Roku to manage my account. The changes to the web version result in a slower and barely tolerable experience. I now have to find an nonexistent scroll bar to look through box art (no titles) and there's no indication how long the list is. I can't sort anything. This isn't quite enough reason to cancel, but it's surely not a reason for someone to sign up.
How is this a "customer focused" UI change? It's horrible. Thank you, so much, Michael Spiegelman! Looks like you finally failed up enough to exceed your capability!
Exactly. Either sell them data caps(and advertise it), or sell "unlimited" internet and be prepared when users *use* it.
With the rise of Apple, over the past few years, there has been a much greater emphasis on form than on functionality. In particular, executives think everything has to be "clean," without the clutter of tabular data or extra case.
Of course, what they neglect to realize is that tabular data and text are extremely efficient at conveying information.
Ever enter a video store and find yourself still in there half an hour later because there are just so many movies, and you have to pull each one out to see what it is about, etc.?
One of Netflix's great strengths was that you could browse through tables of titles, all conveniently labeled and sorted using their recommendation algorithm. And if you didn't like how they were sorted, you could select different criteria.
Now, they expect users to sit and watch titles slowwwwwlllly scroll by with no supplemental data unless you hover over a title, and no way to sort. It's actually slower than browsing at a video store where you can at least skim through titles quickly.
But hey, it sure looks clean!
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2230314&cid=36414652
I always wondered who exactly is in charge over there. It's a multimillion or maybe multibillion dollar company that does 2 things and they can't seem to quite get a good grasp on either of them. How about instead of just an instant queue, you get an instant queue and a favorites list? You know, since 99% of people are using it as a favorites list already. Obvious improvements like that make me wonder if they even have a research department looking into what their customers even want. But just like this latest "upgrade," everything they seem to do feels an awful lot like one dumbass boss thinking up an idea that seems smart to him and then telling everyone to implement it.
.....try and make it really cool looking instead
Wow, I just logged in and ... sure enough, it's awful!
Good thing I get all my recommendations from Berlineale instead of Netflix.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
renting movies from the corner gas station after everyone in your block has been there and rented the soso good movies. I have it but I don't even know why I bother.
I know it's sub-optimal, but if you click the "Your Queue" link at the top, and then choose the "instant queue" tab, you can get your recently watched list.
I've been using Netflix on the PS3 for months. It's UI is ATROCIOUS.
I've learned to live with it, but honestly I think they could have done a far better job. The "shelf" concept drives me nuts. Just give me a list of categories and the ability to sort by different criteria and I'm happy as a clam. Making me scroll through movie posters for an hour is enough to kill my desire to watch anything.
Been going outside a lot more often though - maybe it's not a bad thing afterall... Hmm, maybe I don't need my Netflix subscription at all.
I hope they spend some time improving their gaming console interface.
Specifically:
- I don't even want to see genres I'm not interested in.
- I want a "not interested" option, like on the web interface
- I should be able to see a full list of things I've watched, so I can go back and continue to watch a series I started watching awhile ago.
- Should be able to apply a "not interested" rating to an entire series, across all seasons.
Also, why bother showing search results for titles I am not able to watch? Hoping a click on an unwatchable title at least triggers a hit so they can see demand for it.
The movies still show up in my mailbox within two days. They cant be doing everything wrong.
The Roku interface is also the same
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ngacmlmclfopgbnmefcffgbcjiafbfpo?hl=en-US#
To you. Makes no sense to you.
Obviously it makes plenty of sense for millions of other customers who not only use the service, but pay for the privilege. It makes sense to all the other companies who are trying to do things similar to what Netflix does, like Hulu and every cable and satellite TV provider I know of. It makes sense, apparently, to enough of the users of you network that it has your panties so far up in a bunch that they're about to make you sneeze. Have you ever stopped to consider the possibility that you are wrong? Or that other people may value things differently than you do?
Is the quality of a DVD better? Sometimes. For TV shows I can see a difference in terms of video quality; for many movies I can't. Sound? Yeah, sure, but I don't have a 5.1 surround system. I used to. The component died out and I didn't find enough value in it to replace it, which says something all by itself. But obviously, for millions of people, the tradeoffs are worthwhile.
Then, of course, there's the savings. The Netflix streaming-only plan is $7.99 per month. As a personal example, I am currently watching through Stargare SG-1. I'm, oh, about 115 episodes or so in over the last four to five months. Let's call it five to make it look worse. 5 * 7.99 = $39.95. The cost to rent a DVD at blockbuster is $5, and, like the Netflix mail service, they make you rent shows like this disc by disc. I looked up Season 1 for reference, which is five discs. I'm slightly more than five season in, but we'll round down to five to make that look worse. Five seasons at five discs a piece at five dollars per disc -- 5 * 5 * $5 = $125. Or I can buy Season 1 from Amazon for a heck of a deal at $25 -- but expand that heck of a deal out to five seasons (each of which may be more expensive) and you're at, coincidentally, $125.
Last I checked, $125 is quite significantly higher than $40 -- and that's only for Stargate. Naturally I have watched a handful of movies during this time period as well, bringing the value I received compared to running out for DVDs that much higher. Are you beginning to see why people put such value on it now?
I could go on, of course, but the reality is that you either understand it by now or you're so set in your ways that you never will. Either way, my effort is concluded.
I didn't notice a change at first, since anyone with a PS3 who has seen the UI it's been using for the last few months should immediately recognize the new design. It actually works pretty well on the PS3, since you can use your controller to navigate it decently quickly. With a mouse, however, the rollovers are comically slow, and the lack of visible ratings (Netflix's strong suit) is a massive oversight. But, the fact that this UI has been in use on the PS3 for months may be why Netflix says they've been testing the UI for an extended period of time without major complaint.
I almost exclusively stream Netflix from my PS3. I hate the interface. I always browse the movie selection on my laptop and dump movies into my instant queue for viewing on the PS3 as it is infinitely easier this way. I am not sure how I will handle going forward.
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
I'm an academic, and two of the websites I use a lot just did more or less the same thing. First, our university library decided they needed a new web presence. So the catalog system got a new page with search box. 98% of the page is irrelevant, and there's this little search box in the top left. Fine, at least it's there. Then your results come up on a page with 5 tabs. Only one tab actually does anything. The links are dead on all the rest of them. So, pick the right tab, click the link that's on it, then click one more link, again picking the right one out of a couple of dead ones, and you get..... The same old page you would get on the old system, except as the first result of your search. A similar thing happened to an online journal I frequent. It became prettier, or at least it came to conform to the present style. But finding old articles is more difficult. And all articles are now shoe-horned into 1/3 of the pages. The other 2/3s are reserved for distracting sidebars with links and pictures. They're NOT ads, but they fill exactly the same position in the layout as ads; I guess they're like self-promo ads. ANYWAY: what's driving all this? It's not like the sites being replaced are those early 90s things with web-ring GIFs at the bottom of the page. They were fairly clean, readable, USEFUL sites to navigate. Now they are not. Why the heck is this happening?
I always thought the old interface was excellent. If it isn't broken, why fix it? Now, gypping Linux users out of streaming videos without adjusting their membership fee is a different issue.
It happened about the same time everyone started buying widescreen monitors, laptops and tablets. Widescreen might be great for watching films, but it's dreadful for reading text.
Could this, like so many other stupid web sites, have been designed by someone who doesn't actually USE the web for commerce? Someone who doesn't actually USE Netflix? What are we all too stupid to READ? I don't need big pictures, I want informative content! Another indication of the corporations viewing the 'public' as imbeciles who can't or won't read. Not the case; especially with folks who actually live and work on the Net and use it for most all purchases. Netflix, get it together. Don't underestimate your customer base or it will go somewhere else!
Skip Stein Free Agent Management Systems Consulting, Inc. http://www.msc-inc.net www.linkedin.com/in/skipstein
See also: s/Netflix/Slashdot/g
You would think that a new-economy organization like NetFlix would have already embraced rapid feedback / continual improvement development approaches (Agile/Lean).... this kind of fall on your face stuff should rarely if ever happen if you're treating software development as a feedback loop. Perhaps their Product Owner is a moron, or their Product Owner isn't empowered?
Good luck with that. Netflix is a darling right now. Block them and you seriously might be answering to Congress.
Good-bye
I really don't mind change. I could live with the fact that they have made it more difficult to find movies. What I can't live with is that I am going through some medical things, and watching the new scrolling makes me physically ill. I can't be on the site for more than a minute without feeling like garbage. It's worth it if it takes a little extra time, but it's not worth it if I am physically incapable of browsing for a movie.
The funny thing is their new UI showcases the most unimportant aspect of the movie, the box cover. Reviews, description, ratings, genre, actors are all more more important than box covers.
It's not that they're dumb or anything, but you wouldn't expect the people who run a file server to also make the best UI. Even if they did, it would just be a fluke, and it would be a very ephemeral lead.
One of the terrible things going on with the web (and the "extended" web with plugins) is that serving files and presenting UIs is all tied together. If Netflix just provided their files via simple HTTP or FTP or something, then there would be competing players. That's what happens with local media players. But oh no, we can't have things work that simply with for-pay content, because it "needs" DRM, and DRM means There Can Only Be One, so it's always going to be uncompetitive -- not uncompetitive directly in the sense of sucking, but in the sense of not having to compete, so it ends up probably sucking, or at least not as good as what people are otherwise used to.
And yet once again, pirates just don't have the problem. Commercial media services aren't going to be able to compete with piracy, as long as they have DRM. If they ever do drop DRM, then it's on, but until then, their inadequacies are going to keep nudging people to move on to the better tech (where the data and its presentation are decoupled).
The old one worked great and wasn't a problem. The new one makes no sense and I can't find anything that I want. I have no idea what they were thinking. Let's see how long it takes for them to revert or change this POS interface... or hire new UX devs.
yes, the new interface is horrid, the old one was perfect.
old setups. With my archaic Pentium hooked up to a standard def rear projection, I'm capped at a pretty low resolution. The old system was sized such that I had to scroll the browser to see all of the titles on a line, the new system, I can scroll the titles with out having to scroll the browser. Way better experience, although I'd rather have a push button for scrolling than the current mouse hover (that's my big gripe about Boxee as well!)
Really though, if the old version had a 'low-res' version, it would have been just as good. It's pretty silly though, between HTML 5 and Silverlight, there is no reason for them to be using arbitrary screen resolutions for layout.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
People bitch and moan about every change, but you learn to filter out the whiners, pick out the constructive feedback, and incorporate it. Not getting a ton of compliments doesn't mean you did a bad job, because the whiners go out of their way to whine.
Not including Slashdot, apparently they just do whatever they want to their interface with no regard for users.
with this interface less people will watch movies, that will make them save money... I think they did it on purpose.
No. The difference here is that Netflix has been held up almost as high as Apple by the "user experience design" community as being a web site that "does the right thing" in design for its customers:
http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=%22user+experience%22+netflix&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gl=uk
specifically, the echo chamber:
http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/netflix_nails_it.php
http://www.uie.com/articles/kane_interview/
Bill Scott, their former head of UX is a high-profile UX consultant and speaker who often uses Netflix as an example of good design for profit.
Compare this to /. where everyone knows they are crap, and therefore doesn't mind.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2225174&cid=36390518
A button to sort out all the sy-fy channel crap from the Sci-Fi section!
Bugger off .
Yeah, basically he says go blow a pipe. Screw you, we
like change for change sake.
http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/06/10/netflix-changes-interface/
ONce I read that I realized my only sane course of action was to call up CS and let em know WHY I am canceling.
Posting on that blog was fun but pointless. If anyone
bothers to read what that Netflix VP of Communications says you will realize you only have one sane course of action.
Cancel, and let em know why.
I spent a good 5 minutes chewing on the ear of that CS rep. If everyone that was in a stir over this issue did the same I would bet they would change Mr. Steve Swasey's ' job title to Janitor where he could do less harm.
After you see his comments you'll understand what has to be done.
Amazing.
You can live without Netflix. I did, prior to Fall of 2009. I can live without them again.
Something between the lines jumps out and bites your arm off. Soltan Gris / London
What good are larger movie icons if you can't read half the titles without hovering? The scrolling is so iffy, hard to get it going with my mouse pad, then hard to stop when I want to read a description. If you actually dare stop and read a description, then you have to struggle to get the scrolling going again. It is the absolute worst change I've ever seen to a website. It is all so time-consuming, I'm giving up on Netflix. I don't want to spend a half hour searching through all the third-rate garbage to find what is usually a second-rate title to watch. I'm done.
You have all been trolled.
This design can cause vertigo, nausea, etc for many people I know who get sick watching moving / scrolling stuff ..
The Netflix Website and many similar ones could greatly benefit from a study made with the tools offered by Optimizely ( www.optimizely.com ) an A/B testing company - the results are amazing...
they have never been too great at sorting. i remember going to video stores and always having the movies on the shelf in alphabetical order. netflix should always have that as default, but never, ever does. of course, clicking sortable list also gets rids of thumbnails. 2 thumbs way the fuck down.
...
I go in for surgery and come out expecting to watch movies and find a garbage web site replace my beloved. All the scrolling made me sick and now I cant watch a damn thing. I agree change takes time to get used to but this isn't a change for the good this is change to make it impossible to use the site. I cant find the things I want where I want and when I do find something I cant look at the episode list all i get is a quick reference of info bubble. What the hell is that. The site looks like a marketing guy came up with a flashy idea but he doesn't actually use the service daily as most users do. The site used to be user friendly and any one could use it and now its set up the way ONE person might like to view it with out consideration of others. It was a big waste of money and who ever pushed it through should be fired for gross negligence or what ever proper reason this would be. I hope the new site brings a law suit on behalf of people with epilepsy or something that will get there attn to turn it back or give us options. I have no interest in playing hide and seek with the content I pay to view. I found another web site with possible info for contacting those responsible tomorrow I will be calling and complaining to any and every number I can locate. Just because there are fancy abilities to put on a website doesn't mean they belong there and they should not be used to block content. I have never canceled a subscription to a game or service before but this time I will if it doesn't get fixed soon.
I called Netflix today and gave them some feedback about the new site. 1.) There are not titles and the titles on the cover art is always in different fonts, locations and occasionally not on the cover. 2.) The scrolling is jerky and there is no way to slow it down or speed it up. 3.) Star ratings are only visible with mouse over cover art. 4.) It is now harder to add an item to my queue to watch later or on a different device. 5.) Sortable search is missing, there is no way to organize titles by ratings, year released or alphabetically. 6.) The changes were made without any instructions on how to use the new lay.out. The help feature still features the old layout for instructions. 7.) For an internet company, Neflix does not have an online feature for leaving feedback. 8.) The blog is full at 5000 comments with people putting additional comments on the MTV announcement blog. 9.) There has been no public statement from Netflix acknowledging the customer unrest. 10.) When I place my account on hold or choose to cancel Netflix does not ask me for a reason to improve there customer service. i.e. I am going on vacation, I am unhappy with selection, I am unhappy with features, I will not have time for viewing. etc... Instead there is no option to gain insight from their customers unless they choose to call a 18-- number which is not required when you have a web presence with the ability to collect the data. 11.) At the end of my phone call I am asked to take a survey of 1 question. Are you satisfied with Netflix? Press 3 for yes and Press 4 for no. This does not give any useful information. It does not collect why I am dissatisfied or what features I do like. So to sum things up, if after my account has been on hold the maximum and the website is not given the functionality back that the old site has I will be cancelling my service and trying Hulu Plus.
Plain Text Titles - REMOVED
Ratings at a glance - REMOVED
Sortable lists - REMOVED
Show Rated/Seen Titles - REMOVED
The removal of these features was extraordinarily short sighted. In the case of Plain Text Titles for instance artificial labels (eg. "New Episodes") that overlap cover titles now have no backup unless you mouse over the image. Ratings at a glace may have only been a minor feature but now the linger time on the main page is exorbitant as you seek public opinion on a potential title. Sortable lists speak for themselves; it boggles the mind why Netflix would remove such a central feature to a movie library with thousands of titles. The Show Rated/Seen Titles feature is a feature that I personally liked but of course it worked specifically with the Sortable lists which are now gone. Oddly the Show Rated/Seen Titles feature is still available on the Starz Play page specifically. Why? I don't know. It's totally useless with this new interface.
Changing the interface isn't the real issue here. The real issue is why any company would remove KEY features that are popular and that many people rely on. It's like replacing my Cadillac with a Yugo and telling me that they both are fully functioning cars and that the Yugo is easier to drive. That may be so, but I still want air conditioning. I still want XM radio, I still want my in-dash navigation. Feel free to make the car look and feel anyway you like. But give me the OPTIONS at least to drive the car the way I want to drive it and that works best for me.
As someone who is not normally a conspiracy theorist, I am forced to come to the conclusion that someone is trying to kill Netflix to make way for something else (i.e. Google/BigBrotherTube). There is no other logical explanation. The design is so far past horrid that it is utterly inconceivable why anyone with a functioning temporal lobe would authorize radical, ridiculous, user-hostile, flat-out moronic changes like this. The entire executive team should be fired disgracefully and replaced with people with IQs above 85.
I have been an extremely loyal Netflix fan...recommending it HIGHLY to everyone I know. I've particularly made great use of the Watch Instantly feature. If they don't fix this interface (and by "fix" I mean put it back to normal) within 30 days, I will not only cancel my membership, but I will make certain I tell everyone, to whom I have previously made a positive recommendation, to steer clear of Netflix.
Again, being logical, I'm forced to conclude that my reaction (and all of your reactions) is precisely the intended, by-design response that somebody wants. There is no other logical explanation for this astounding level of incompetence.
OMG it sucks, Did your boss make you do SOMETHING/ANYTHING to keep your job......and this is what you came up with? Change it back or let the cart pusher redesign it.
Bumping a week-old story here, but... Netflix has done some cost accounting. By dumping/burying the ratings and sort function they ensure that people will watch crappier, less costly content, or watch less. They probably pay more for higher rated movies, and perhaps a bump per view. I think it's a cynical move on Netflix's part; the claim (by a VP) that "the vast, vast majority" of users tested preferred the new interface is risible bullshit.
No need to repeat what's wrong! Definitely worst than New Coke.......