I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates the new yahoo tv guide thing. I always used to use that one because it wasnt fancy, it just told me what was on. Now it is crap and I've gone back to using tvguide.com, which is way better than I remembered.
I just use my TiVo these days.
But yeah, the Internet seems to have lost the idea of 'grace in simplicity.'
Candi,
I'm just glad to not be the only one who noticed. How long has it been changed?
They're trying to be a different kind of site I guess, something people who "like TV" might want to come back to.
The first step would be simple, move "My TV" to the top right, instead of a "Featured Video" box and that precious, precious advertising square.
The default "My TV" listing is... well, I dunno, but just showing channels 2 though 11 seems like a throwback. (I suppose this could encourage people to set "Select Favorites", a feature I liked on TVgrid.)
Then, load the whole damn page. I'm not sure if it's supposed to reduce their server load, or just make the page seem to load "faster", but it makes the page seem much much slower.
Then, consider adding company logos. Most of the basic cable stations have "readable" names, "MTV", "LIFE", "TLC" etc, but I have no idea what any of the "W*" names are, CBS, NBC, etc.
Finally, fix the search engine. Here's a hint: you're not IMDB! Stick with searching TV show listings, and have a strong preference for searching "what's on in the next 24 hours" over everything else. Move the existing functionality to some kind of advanced search if you have to.
(I might have chosen a particularly tough search for "NFL football", but still.)
Lex:
Ironically enough, the new tv.yahoo.com interface is totally Tivo branded. Maybe it's a bit of sabotage :-) And the "grace in simplicity" idea is supposed to be one of the watchwords of "Web 2.0", though in practice sometimes it gets lost in implementation.
How much interaction do Web Designers have with Marketers, Web Designers, Salespeople and Customer Service? I would think a combination like that could help UI.
I hate the term "Web 2.0" and prefer "Social Technology" or whatever the alternate term is. I guess "Web 2.0" takes into account more than just the "Social Technology," though. . .right?
Funny about the Yahoo/TiVo branding. TiVo has an OK program search on their Website. When it comes to saying, I'm watching TV at X time, let's see what's on, the TiVo search doesn't do so well.
Er, you say Web Designers twice.
In my experience, keeping the Marketers and Salespeople at a reasonable distance helps. Smart Customer Service reps can add quite a bit though, when it comes to making improvements.
Web 2.0 is a bunch of things, "social technology" tends to be at its core but it's also a certain aesthetic, lots of whitespace and sans-serif fonts.
So the Yahoo TV wouldn't fit into the Web 2.0 aesthetic? ;D
I've always wanted to do the whole call-response thing as a bandleader, but I'd call out a truck driver gear change at the end of a song. It just seems like the right thing to do before one of those.
I think they changed it about two weeks ago. I remember going there and being like "wha...this wasnt like this yesterday! I hate it."
Lex... yeah, it uses some web 2.0 technolgy (the delayed loading) but it makes the experience much worse... and that front page is WAY too complexified to qualify.
Nick, heh, I could just hear someone "i wanna grind those gears! can i grind those gears?" "yeah!" "can I grind those gears?" "yeah!" "can I grind those gears?" "yeah!" "key change!!" doo-doo-DOO-DOO
Candi, yeah there's a faint hope "it's only beta"... wish I could give 'em feedback, for all the good it will do...
zap2it.com
zap2it does seem to have many of the qualities I'm looking for!
Does it have remember me/ customization feature? It seems like the page is bookmarkable, to record the zipcode and provider selection I made, but I'm not sure...