Post by midst August 9, 2015 (71 of 211)
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First off, thank you Stephen for many years of enjoyable browsing of SA-CD (and more recently Blu-Ray) titles. I use your site almost daily, and find it an invaluable resource for researching and acquiring high resolution audio.
Like many here, I have to say I vastly prefer the old site. As to why, it's hard to know where to begin. I guess I'll start with the first thing I noticed: It takes more decisions (clicks) to get to what used to be the default.
If I click on a disc in my library, I get a popup window asking me if I want to remove it, add a flag, or see the full details. I pretty much always want to see the full details, but I have to click on that option to get to where I used to get by simply selecting it. To my mind, flagging and removal are rare enough events that they could be the extra decision you make /after/ you get to the details page, rather than one you have to make /in order/ to get to the details page. Similarly, once I'm on the details page, I have to click on any section I want to read, when they could all be displayed already, as per the old site.
The menu at the top also makes me open it before making a selection or searching. Then, once I'm browsing, say, the top library of blu-rays, I have to decide whether to add to my library, add to my wish list, or see the details, which is what I always want to do first. Then to get back to where I was and continue browsing, I must click back through the decision page each time.
This may seem petty, and I think it would be if I only had to do it once at the beginning of a session, but multiplied over almost every interaction with the site, it becomes unwieldy.
I think the new site could be made as easy to use as the old, but a stepwise refinement of the old might ease the transition and keep the best of what SA-CD.net has been while allowing for new features and content.
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I finally figured out how to change the password to one of my choosing (that I can remember when using different devices) on the new site. Instructions on how to get to that page or providing access directly from the upper right would be helpful.
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Post by Chris August 10, 2015 (73 of 211)
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I have also taken a look at the new site and although I can see the little icons in the upper right corner, it took me a while to understand what they where there for.
My first impressions is that the new site is MUCH WORSE than the old one in basically every respect I can think of. Smaller texts that will have to be magnified a lot to be read without reading glasses by anyone over 40 I suspect. The same goes for the actual album covers which appear too small even on my main 21" computer screen.
The whole thing looks very USER UNFRIENDLY.
Navigating is a PIA compared to the old site too.
Nowhere near the clean nice inviting "home" on this site which is both clear logical and very good with what's on the site clearly listed NOT hidden in a submenu.
I guess many who find it by accident, will be unimpressed by what they first see and never go there again.
Most sites that sell both physical discs are much better and some downloads sites are setting up their own review sections and blogs and forums and lots of other tempting things. Stephen's "site upgrade" is so far anything but an upgrade!! The only positive thing I can find on the new site so far is that hi res downloads will possibly be included among the reviews in the future, so Zeus hasn't shot himself completely in the foot or struck it with lightning.
But it sure took the GODS quite a while to realize where things are heading down on terra firma. Why fix something that isn't broken and works fine and attracts a lot of people interested in music?Just because it has finally dawned upon the mighty God himself what I and many others too have been trying to tell him for years and been snubbed for doing so.
Why make it worse and delete the one thing that really makes this the OLD site better than most other competitor's,the FORUM!!!?
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Post by Claude August 10, 2015 (74 of 211)
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I'm late in checking the new site (my sa-cd.net bookmark has always been the forum), so maybe this has already been discussed.
First impression: The front page needs a visible menu. Currently, it looks like a kind of domain placeholder page showing 12 albums, until you figure out that the hamburger icon (the three horizontal bars) opens a pop-up menu to navigate to other pages. I know that with mobile sites on smartphones people are getting used to this, but it's unusual for a desktop site.
"Hamburger icon: How these three lines mystify most people" (BBC May 2015) http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31602745
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Post by Tourboots August 11, 2015 (75 of 211)
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The more I am using the new site, the more I realise that I won't be visiting that site as much as this one.
I agree with many of the comments above, that the new site is hard work to use, there are way too many clicks to navigate and find your way around. Also the search facility appears to be reduced, If I want to see only multichannel SACDs and exclude BluRays I can't. I like to search by format and multichannel.
Silly things also, I miss seeing the total number of discs being shown - as it is encouraging to see the numbers rise each year and hit milestones.
I have two main reasons for visiting this site, the first is to find out about new SACD Mch releases and the second is to read new posts in the Forum. I dip in daily to look at these. Yes the Forum can get out of hand, but there is a sense of community with real people and characters, I like that.
I realise now that actually having that sense of community, that I am not the only one that has a keen interest in and enjoy supporting SACD, a great format in my view, is probably more important to me than the ability to keep up to date with releases and read reviews.
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Post by armenian August 11, 2015 (76 of 211)
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I tried this for several days to avoid any possible computer hiccups.
When I open the new site with my home computer, Apple iMac, it shows all the icons at the upper right hand corner.
Doing the same with our office computers, Windows, there are no icons.
Strange !!!!!
Vahe
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Post by k-spin August 11, 2015 (77 of 211)
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The icons appear on my personal laptop (Windows 8.1) with both Chrome and Internet Explorer. They also appear okay on my iPhone and iPad.
No sign of them on my work laptop (Windows 7 / Internet Explorer) though. My mouse pointer seems to indicate that there should be something there if I hover over where the icons ought to be but nothing happens when I click on them.
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Post by jackan August 11, 2015 (78 of 211)
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It now seems to me that the new site has an internal conflict. It may be designed for tablet viewing, instead of older keyboard computers. On the other hand, it also seems to want to be review driven. And this would seem to fall in the lap of keyboard computers, not the hand held devices that it is made to be navigated on.
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Post by krisjan August 11, 2015 (79 of 211)
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I mainly access the new site from my laptop: Chrome browser, Windows 10. Works perfectly.
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Post by rammiepie August 11, 2015 (80 of 211)
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It seems that with all the tremendous work Zeus & Company has allocated to the "New" Site....and it IS impressive.......that without the forum SA~CD.net will never be quite the same.
I don't think I stand alone when I say that a lot of my SACD and BD~A purchases originated with discussions on the forum and NOT from site reviews.
Is there any way feasible for a forum (and not merely a comments section) to co~exist with the new site?
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