New Interface

I think nearly everyone’s in agreement that the shoutbox should be back on the side and display less shouts like it used to. This new myspacey position is lame and illogical when you have to scroll so far down.

Also the player is very bulky and doesn’t even seem to load. Personally, I hate the player and find it pointless. You should at least have an option to not display it on your profile/collapse it.

Seriously guys. I'm not particularly against change, and I lovingly embrace most of the new features and live charts (those are the BEST thing you've accomplished). I appreciate the hard work I know went into this.

BUT

The way last.fm was.... is what made it so great. It was special in that it WASN'T like all the other trendy internet communities (facebook, myspace, etc.). It has that rather cheap feel now - as if originality and class was sacrificed for 'fitting in' with the rest of the online social cesspool.

It just wasn't time to go live with this. And especially with such little notice.

At least give people an option to switch back to the old style.

I agree with many of the posters, this just makes it look like myspace or facebook. DO NOT WANT.

Why is the shout box all the way down? I liked the previous top artists chart. Much more was displayed and it was not as clunky and out of place looking. Also the collage for recently listened to tracks was nice looking. The whole interface just looks awkward and clunky and is a back step in usability.

Just bring back the old interface or give an option.

Hey!

Great work there Last.fm Team!! Just keep it up, I think you are on the right way. I come in with a few suggestions.

The new layout shows some bright ideas and some long hours of programming, my respect seriously for that, all that ajax stuff going on…

…however I have to say the interface is slow, not comfortable and actually does not really feel web 2.0 any more… my reasons, take them as constructive critic (I am going to give positive feedback after that as well):

- You have to scroll way too much.

- If you play a track it plays, but then there are so many links that would make the player leave the page or exchange it by another player, so the track stops… I do not want two tabs open in my browser just to have a running player. I really really want a fixed player.

- The areas look like they could be smaller.

- The areas look like they are floating and you can move them around, like in iGoogle… but you can’t.

- The shout box is now myspace style, which I just do not like. The former was cool. You can argue about that. Cool would be if you could actually choose between shoutbox sizes and just position them anywhere, or put them in a few suggested positions.

- Web 2.0. That is not only about doing stuff in parallel or additional requests. It is also about keeping the interface smooth, having to reload only what you want to see or exchange. The new las fm however seems to be switching the complete page too often. There are so many links on a page that lead you to a complete new page somehow, it interrupts the working with the site, seriously. A good thing would be to design it more like an application, not like a set of full blown web pages.

- I’d like to have TOTAL control over the player. I want it to be floating there, and if I click a little black arrow next to a song I want it to be loaded into the player. But if I just click on information about any track, please, the current track/track collection has to remain there and keep playing!

That is that for now from me. Now, the actual positive feedback!

I like the data integration that seems to be going on. I also like the music playing abilities. I also like the images and the consistent design/colors. I think a few improvements could really lead to a great internet application, with an entertaining music player, with user preferences and all that stuff to keep folks happy and yet have the complete integration and structured layout.

I hope they have more "changes" coming...because as of now, the new interface sucks. Its too jumbled and you have all this shit on the right side of the page and nothing on the left. It looks like they hired someone with dyslexia to design the new interface.

Boo.

Hey!

Great work there Last.fm Team!! Just keep it up, I think you are on the right way. I come in with a few suggestions.

The new layout shows some bright ideas and some long hours of programming, my respect seriously for that, all that ajax stuff going on…

…however I have to say the interface is slow, not comfortable and actually does not really feel web 2.0 any more… my reasons, take them as constructive critic (I am going to give positive feedback after that as well):

- You have to scroll way too much.

- If you play a track it plays, but then there are so many links that would make the player leave the page or exchange it by another player, so the track stops… I do not want two tabs open in my browser just to have a running player. I really really want a fixed player.

- The areas look like they could be smaller.

- The areas look like they are floating and you can move them around, like in iGoogle… but you can’t.

- The shout box is now myspace style, which I just do not like. The former was cool. You can argue about that. Cool would be if you could actually choose between shoutbox sizes and just position them anywhere, or put them in a few suggested positions.

- Web 2.0. That is not only about doing stuff in parallel or additional requests. It is also about keeping the interface smooth, having to reload only what you want to see or exchange. The new las fm however seems to be switching the complete page too often. There are so many links on a page that lead you to a complete new page somehow, it interrupts the working with the site, seriously. A good thing would be to design it more like an application, not like a set of full blown web pages.

- I’d like to have TOTAL control over the player. I want it to be floating there, and if I click a little black arrow next to a song I want it to be loaded into the player. But if I just click on information about any track, please, the current track/track collection has to remain there and keep playing!

That is that for now from me. Now, the actual positive feedback!

I like the data integration that seems to be going on. I also like the music playing abilities. I also like the images and the consistent design/colors. I think a few improvements could really lead to a great internet application, with an entertaining music player, with user preferences and all that stuff to keep folks happy and yet have the complete integration and structured layout.

let's not use last.fm til they change it back...
this new interface is completely useless.
myspace is the best example of how a website shouldn't be made...and last.fm converted itself into a clone of the worst site on earth

I want charts of 50 artists again...not this crappy full of bands pictures thing.
we are talking here about music, musical taste, not about your recent activities or talking with someone. GOD you changed into crap the best site on earth, We don't need another facebook, if you want to talk with friends go there, let us use last.fm as we used to... with this new interface it seems that in a few weeks we're having a poke function also.

New layout simply sucks.
hope they bring back old one.

My eyes, they bleed.

I didn't even think of facebook until I scrolled through this thread, but their layout actually works for what their content is. I don't like that the userpic is at the middle-top (and that you've frozen my .gif !! cries). I liked that the "Now Playing" was the center and focus of the page because that's what I visit people's pages to see. The new banner is also kind of ridic, and doesn't match my 'idea' of last.fm; it looks like a bad brush effect from PhotoShop. But more than ANYTHING I want to remove that 'radio' from the corner of my page. What a freaking eyesore. And a little TOO myspace.

The one thing I'm happy about is the ability to vouch out of 'recent activity'. Thanks!

I appreciate change and all that jazz, but... come on, guys! I don't see a lot of happy faces with this.

I'm normally not one to quibble about something so trivial as the interface, but I think this new one deserves it. Don't get me wrong, I love all the new features, especially the library and the new ease with which one can delete track/artists, etc. but the new UI is really, really weak. There's clearly too much going on in the center column of the page--this means you are scrolling down indefinitely while the left and right columns remain blank. I liked that in the old UI I could read some people making fun of artist x in the shoutbox as I was looking at the charts. At the same time. Imagine that--seeing more than one thing at the same time. Forget the fact that I think the new UI is ugly for a moment, what about the fact that is it clearly less practical than the old one? What the hell was the reasoning behind this? I can understand change for the purpose of making things better, but where along the development process does one say, "Oh, this works great, but lets chop it up and make it harder for people to read."? I love you, last.fm, but sometimes I really don't get you.

Return me my old last.fm... I hate this new blank shit...((( I disappointed.

I will reiterate. There seems to be now on-going feuds between users, rather than just rebelling to the 'site-owners' who actually made this change.

Again, they should just add the option back for the old style. It's not an abstract choice, it won't take anything to implement it, and it will make absolutely everyone happy. The question shouldn't be "Why should we add the option back to the old style?", it should be: "Why shouldn't we?".

Facebook, indeed. Butt fucking ugly. It even has the same pop-up windows to change settings. There's people who don't actually like Facebook out there, you know. The shoutbox at the BOTTOM of the page gets my vote for siliest move, though the changing sidebar (depending on whether you are on the [?dashboard?] (note to developers: way to get rid of a good name for it, a***oles) or the profile page) is a close second, followed by all the rest (big glossy pictures, Facebook, shading on everything, Facebook, Top 200, Facebook,...)

My verdict:
* 1.75 thumbs down, 0.25 up
* D - (dee mainus)
* one teat of the udder (out of four)
* etc