New Interface

nvm, forum bug.

the old one was much better :(

the old one was much better :(

the old one was much better :(

the old one was much better :(

I looooove the new layout & features. I don't care if the majority of the users seem to hate it haha.

I know this comment will just be buried in the pile of complaints here, but I think the new design has a lot of improvements. While I agree that LastFM should listen to its discontented users and try to bring back those elements of the old interface that people so loved, I'd hate to see the functionality of the new site go away. I haven't noticed a lot of bugs yet, so I assume that those have been getting fixed since the launch.

What's good:
- The organization of my profile page is much improved, with all of the relevant categories of info listed down the side menu and some nice quicklinks from the drop-down button at the top. (See quibbles below.) The organization of the old site always seemed very scattered and took a while to learn as a new user.
- The page sections are much cleaner and easier for the eye to follow.
- Availability of my loved tracks listings.
- More tools for loving, adding tags, etc. to tracks in my library/charts.

What's not so good:
- The design does give the site a more generic (as people have said, "facebooky") feel. This might ease in new users, but I agree with the critics that it makes LastFM feel like less of a distinctive destination.
- The experience on most pages is, surprisingly, less social (contrary to the "facebooky" direction the design has taken). I have to admit that I never really got into the social aspect of the site (my usage is aimed more at keeping track of my own preferences), but there always seemed to be a grid of "neighbors" with similar tastes on every page. It seems like you have to go to a special "neighbors" tab to discover new music from other users now. Plus the shoutbox is way at the bottom.

These criticisms don't do much more than summarize what I lot of people have already said. My overall opinion is (1) that the new layout (spacing, organization) is basically an improvement, though the social features for music discovery and sharing (LastFM's main draw) need to be brought back into the layout more prominently. (2) The ubiquity of love/tag/playlist tools are a big improvement in usability. (3) The site needs to bring back the 'feel' of the old site without losing the benefits of 1 and 2 -- doing this is seems in large part to be a graphical issue.

After all said and done, plus all the complaints about how bad the new interface is, may someone be kind enough to show me how to invite a brand new friend here please?

I jumped to Friends page, no Invite Friends button. I looked around Home page, nothing. I went to Inbox, Friend Request wasn't what I wanted. I decided to compile a new message, put my friend's email in the "To" box, but it didn't get thru as it said "Please use a valid user name".

Does the new last.fm interface wanna play with our brains? Or our eyes? Or both?

Maybe it's time for the marketing department (if they have one) to reconsider the design. And please open the textbook, re-read the case study of Coca Cola and what happened to them when they decided to change their flavor.

They had to switch back to the original flavor because of too much complaint. Dear last.fm, do you want to become a case study too?

P.S.
When I first joined last.fm, I was like... "Wow... how amazing..."
And now... "Huh... how confusing..."

this reminds me of the Abbey rebrand & the 2012 Olymic logo...

sort it out

While the new Library feature seems to have potential, one note: in the list of Loved Tracks, the track name is to the left of the artist name--the reverse of the order used on the rest of the site, and therefore confusing.

On a positive note, I have to say that the near-real-time rolling charts are impressive.

Last FM is now so slow on certain forums...
staff made the usable of last fm very bad.

So it seems the general concencus here is that the new design completely defeats the purpose of last.fm. I was always under the impression that this site was used to easily access data of your listening habits, get recommendations and browse users with similar tastes, etc; The problem with the new design is that the ease of access to those things seems to have been made a bit more difficult. While I applaud the new real time updates, it really is disappointing that everything has been moved in such a way, that you have to navigate several pages to see the detail of certain charts and stats, where as with the old design, there was more room and most of those stats were visible right on the main page.

I think people are more so complaining about having to navigate so much to access things that were so easily accessed in the past. What the the horribly embarrassing loading time, this is a nuisance. The space that is used for artist pictures REALLY isn't necessary, as this is mostly an aesthetic change rather than a functionality change and also adds to the cause of the slow loading time.

When I first got the e-mail for beta testing, I reserved most judgment just to see how things went and get a feel for things myself. I can say, I'm really not impressed. I'm not sure I understand why this design went live when it was painfully obvious that it just IS NOT READY. There are so many bugs and errors it's completely laughable.

On somewhat of a sidenote, I have not even been able to access ANY of the links at the top of the navigation, nor have I been able to access settings NOR have I been able to apply changes to my profile because the pages just do.not.load. Not at all, what so ever. I have a pretty reliable broadband connection and I understand that with the site revision the servers may be a bit slow but not loading at all for over a week?

I know that there would be a few with any new redesign site launch with sites as extensive as last.fm but this is just ridiculous.

I sincerely hope the staff takes into consideration the opinions of those who aren't just ranting that they think the layout is 'ugly' or looks like myspace or facebook, but to the vast majority of people who are making legitimate arguments as to WHY the functionality of the site has greatly depleted and that these aren't all just aesthetic complaints but legitimate functionality concerns.

I know that this is about the layout and I agree with most of the point of views said here and in the blog. I respect all the work done here, but unfortunately I think that the old layout was way smarter and ahead of its time. I could have everything I wanted in the profile page and the site was light and practical and easy to navigate..

But just one more thing I wanted to say is that my last.fm recommendations now suck! I mean, did they really messed up the algorithm or something? I really don't need a recommendation of an artist similar to one that I heard just one song one time in my whole life! And before the recommendations were like, perfect. What happened?