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-   -   The new dingalinking -- minor flaw (http://bloggingheads.tv/forum/showthread.php?t=6749)

bjkeefe 05-19-2011 02:40 AM
The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
It used to be that at the end of a dingalink, IIRC, there was some obvious visual cue about how to continue playing the video from that point onward.

The new implementation does not offer anything obvious like this. Yes, one can click the Clear Clip button and then the X button to get rid of the overlay screen, and then click the play button, but this does not seem to me like it would be at all intuitive to a new visitor.

I understand that sharing dingalinked clips is a new high priority item, to attract new visitors, and so I can understand why the overlay screen as it now presents comes back up at the end of playing a dingalink -- in the interest of making it easy for a clip to go viral. But I think it is at least as important, if not more so, to offer the easiest possible way into the site. If a dingalinked clip is interesting to someone new, we want that person to be able to share, yes, but I believe we also want that person (or a different sort of person) to be able to continue listening to a diavlog with one click.

I propose a new overlay screen that appears at the end of a dingalink that offers three prominent buttons: Continue, Replay, and Share. The first two are self-explanatory, and the third could launch what we now see at the end of playing a dingalink:

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/803...eendofadin.jpg

uncle ebeneezer 05-19-2011 01:34 PM
Re: The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
Yes! I have been frustrated by this a couple times and was meaning to mention it to the admins. I have had a couple times when I tried to resume play after creating a DL and was bounced back to the beginning of the segment, or the beginning of the entire diavlog.

TwinSwords 05-19-2011 06:25 PM
Re: The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
Good post. I hope they pay attention.

I think (suspect) this is probably a case of someone in management putting their desire to promote features above the needs of the user.

And as long as we're raising issues, there's something else I've been wondering about. The standard BhTV header has a two color logo and orange navigation buttons, like this:

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8331/navbar1.png



But recently, I noticed that the header on the video pages is a far less attractive knock-off:

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2341/navbar2.png


I can't recall whether the video page has always used this less appealing header, or if this is a recent change. But it just started jumping out at me recently when watching diavlogs. It would not surprise me at all if some developer hired to do some job (like update the interface you refer to above) found various alternate headers on the server and grabbed the boring one without thinking about it. Short term developers generally have no idea which modules should be used where, and, more to the point, don't care. Developers, further, are usually not very attuned to aesthetics. So it would not surprise me if this was an unplanned change.

What do you think? Has it always been like that or did this recently change?

bjkeefe 05-19-2011 06:30 PM
Re: The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TwinSwords (Post 209672)
[...]

And as long as we're raising issues, there's something else I've been wondering about. The standard BhTV header has a two color logo and orange navigation buttons, like this:

[...]

What do you think? Has it always been like that or did this recently change?
Can't remember. I doubt I would ever have noticed one way or the other. When I stream a diavlog, I always shrink the window down so that just the video player section is visible (see screen shot in my post above), so I never see the right-hand edge of the header on one of those pages. I think the color change in the "heads" text part of the header is something that I just must have been oblivious to, if it ever did change. I sure didn't notice it was different now, between the video page and the home page, until you pointed it out.

TwinSwords 05-19-2011 07:49 PM
Re: The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bjkeefe (Post 209675)
Can't remember. I doubt I would ever have noticed one way or the other. When I stream a diavlog, I always shrink the window down so that just the video player section is visible (see screen shot in my post above), so I never see the right-hand edge of the header on one of those pages. I think the color change in the "heads" text part of the header is something that I just must have been oblivious to, if it ever did change. I sure didn't notice it was different now, between the video page and the home page, until you pointed it out.
Yeah. And I rarely watch diavlogs. I usually see them for a couple of minutes when starting them, or pausing, or whatever. But mostly I play them in the background, and usually through iTunes. So I don't see the header on the video page very much, either.

I'll bet Brenda would know, though. And even if it isn't a change, they should switch to the more appealing header.

bjkeefe 05-24-2011 03:27 PM
Re: The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bjkeefe (Post 209542)
It used to be that at the end of a dingalink, IIRC, there was some obvious visual cue about how to continue playing the video from that point onward.

The new implementation does not offer anything obvious like this. Yes, one can click the Clear Clip button and then the X button to get rid of the overlay screen, and then click the play button, but this does not seem to me like it would be at all intuitive to a new visitor.

I understand that sharing dingalinked clips is a new high priority item, to attract new visitors, and so I can understand why the overlay screen as it now presents comes back up at the end of playing a dingalink -- in the interest of making it easy for a clip to go viral. But I think it is at least as important, if not more so, to offer the easiest possible way into the site. If a dingalinked clip is interesting to someone new, we want that person to be able to share, yes, but I believe we also want that person (or a different sort of person) to be able to continue listening to a diavlog with one click.

I propose a new overlay screen that appears at the end of a dingalink that offers three prominent buttons: Continue, Replay, and Share. The first two are self-explanatory, and the third could launch what we now see at the end of playing a dingalink: [...]
I see that chamblee54 has expressed a similar sentiment in another thread.

chiwhisoxx 05-31-2011 06:07 PM
Re: The new dingalinking -- minor flaw
 
I actually hadn't read this thread yet, and had just experienced what Brendan was describing so I came here to complain about it. If I recall, in the past, there was simply a "continue video" button. That seems like a pretty simply and intuitive fix, if possible.

Brenda 06-01-2011 10:35 AM
We hear you
 
We'll probably restore this function, but it will be a while (weeks). Our programmer just started his vacation, the long kind that Europeans get.

Thanks for your feedback.

chiwhisoxx 06-01-2011 05:45 PM
Re: We hear you
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brenda (Post 211425)
We'll probably restore this function, but it will be a while (weeks). Our programmer just started his vacation, the long kind that Europeans get.

Thanks for your feedback.
BHTV showing their true socialist tendencies!

graz 06-01-2011 06:02 PM
Re: We hear you
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiwhisoxx (Post 211498)
BHTV showing their true socialist tendencies!
It's more likely a forced furlough as in the bhtv economy is broken kind. Could be the commenter's fault, let's discuss at length. ;)

look 06-01-2011 06:05 PM
Re: We hear you
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by graz (Post 211499)
It's more likely a forced furlough as in the bhtv economy is broken kind. Could be the commenter's fault, let's discuss at length. ;)
I blame Brendan.


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