So, I am the only....

[albummaster]

There'll continue to be tweaks and refinements over the next few weeks to make the layout render nicely across all types of device. This work takes a little bit of time. so please bear with us (fixes are being implemented on a daily basis). Thanks to everybody so far for their feedback, it all helps contribute to improving the site and has a real impact on how things get implemented.

[Rockdrigo]

It actually works better when you zoom in instead of out. If you choose so you don't see the side options but I pretty much never use them anyway. There's slightly more scrolling, but not enough to be bothersome. There's way less empty space too.
75%

110%


It especially looks good on chart notes. You get lost into them.


There's a bit of stacking but only in a selected few places, and again not really bothersome.


The big negative I have is all the similar-looking whites and light blues bleeding together when you scroll, almost to the point of optical illusion (like the "My Charts" page).

[PanheadWarrior]

Very good points, Rockdrigo. You explain it much better than I do, lol.

[ProlongedFantasy]

It seems like the information density is much lower than it used to be which is strange considering it was designed for devices with small screens.

[andy_hunter]

If you want the opinion of a non-regular user, I've been to the site twice since the update. The first time I clicked off immediately. The second (this) time, I decided to stay long enough to give my two cents because I think its important to let you know how this is perceived by someone who is not as invested in the site as compared to possibly some of the other users on this thread.

This update is pretty repellent. The appeal of BEA was having a comparative sense of each album's popularity. However, as another user pointed out, the new layout is less information dense and this means these comparisons are be made less intuitively. The new layout requires more of a mental burden of consciously thinking; "Ok, this album is better than this album which is better than that album" and so on and so forth...

This is really worrying because we all want to express our own personal preferences, have them perceived and understand other people's but this new layout is too taxing for that to really happen.

I understand the desire to a mobile accessible website but I don't think it's worth this kind of sacrifice. The old website was a bit outdated sure, but I think that was a strength rather than a weakness. What the old website conveyed to me was; (a) this site was pretty close to state of the art at one time and (b) its been lovingly maintained by an active community of passionate people. I'm afraid the new site conveys neither of these things.

Moreover, I question the need for mobile accessibility given this website's entire purpose. Think about it, we're all here to discuss albums - not songs, playlists or whatever - albums, a medium that may not be as accessible or immediate as others but one we all appreciate making a sacrifice to enjoy as intended. Why would are expression of love for that medium not follow the same logic? Its okay to log onto a PC every once and a while and curate something, rather than constantly update it.

This was the appeal of BEA for me and I'll say it again I'm not a regular user, if you want to attract new people outside of the core group that are constantly on here, I don't think this is the way to go.
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If you're reading this, that probably means that I had something to say.

Best Albums of 2014. Rate That Shiz, yo

[albummaster]

Thank you for the time that you've spent putting your views across. It's great to receive feedback (positive and negative). Far from being a strength that BEA was originally designed as an old-fashioned website, unfortunately this was also its biggest weakness. BEA's traffic was declining (under the old design) because Google has started to penalise sites that are not 'mobile friendly' by ranking them lower in their search results. This had a huge impact on traffic to BEA as a lot of people find BEA via Google. A new layout had to be released, otherwise BEA would disappear completely (BEA would be unable to pay its hosting fees with the previous trend in traffic). Since the update, new registrations are up almost 60% on the same time last year, so there is already a big improvement in the underlying visitor numbers despite some of the issues (which is good for the future of the site).

In terms of the site layout, any issues will continue to be ironed out over the next days and weeks. A site update is currently being tested and will be deployed in the next couple of days which contains quite a few tweaks (and a huge amount of background changes to support the next phase of work). This process is ongoing and will be repeated as many times as necessary until the new layout has settled down.

[andy_hunter]

Thank you for your response. I didn't know the financial incentives were so prescient. I understand the reason for changing now. I just hope the site isn't left in an impossible situation where it has to change to survive but the change, in turn, undermines the function of the site.

But anyway, I should say how much I appreciate the work that goes behind this website. I've been an on/off member for the best part of a decade now and I can safely say this is one of, if not the best, online community I've come across. Keep up the good work!
_________________
If you're reading this, that probably means that I had something to say.

Best Albums of 2014. Rate That Shiz, yo

[ForegroundNoise]

Not sure how other people feel about this, but I've just noticed that the notes for albums on charts has been changed to italics as the default which I'm not so keen on. Though in general I am very happy with the changes, notes on charts (something which I find one of the most important aspects of this site's community) are now much more difficult to read since they elide together. I wouldn't be against changes in formatting within notes on charts (i.e. bold, underlined, maybe even different fonts?) I just think having italics as default is not a user friendly design choice. Let me know your thoughts albummaster

[albummaster]