
  Thesixtyone Unveils a Gorgeous Redesign, Users Predictably Revolt  - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/23/thesixtyone-redesign-users-revolt/
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gkoberger
This is one of the most radical changes I've ever seen in a website- it seems
like it would have made more sense to add it as a an option, and slowly make
it the default. At the very least, they should have had a ton of tooltips all
over the site. "Remember X feature? You can now do it here." GrooveShark did a
great job of having little helpful popup boxes when they redesigned.

I can't think of a single site I currently use that could pull off such a
massive redesign. It would be like Digg replacing the whole site with
something from <http://labs.digg.com/>. Pretty? Sure. Usable? Not so much.
Users don't necessarily dislike the new site, they're just confused.

And nobody likes to be confused.

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wmeredith
Giving their existing users some direction would have been nice, but what a
differentiation they've pulled off in a crowded market music streamers. I used
the site a bit last year and wandered away. I use it most of the day Friday
while at work, it was the first time I'd been back in months.

Basically, I think they may lose some of their current hardcore users, but
they'll pick up a whole slew of new ones.

~~~
shpxnvz
It may be different, but it seems like the last people you want to confront
with differentiation are your existing users. I wonder if the best way to
release such a radical redesign would be to _only_ default new users to the
new interface. Let existing users opt-in to a radically different experience,
in their own time.

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Dilpil
The new design is gorgeous, yes. No one is calling it ugly. But ugh, it is
quite unusable.

~~~
jfarmer
I think it's usable. It's like a radio station that plays awesome music.

Of course, I never used the site before the redesign, so what do I know?

~~~
bugs
Before it was a place to interact with music lovers and music artists that you
may have never met before (that is pretty much gone now).

Before it was a game, you start off with hearts and get more as you level up
and listen to music, that is still there but because interaction is gone
supporting artists with the game seems nonexistent and competing is
nonexistent. (Not everyone played the game.)

Now (as you said) you have pretty pictures and a radio instead of basically an
iphone/ipod with a bunch of contacts and connections to artists.

~~~
jfarmer
Yeah, I saw the old version. It looked like a not-particularly-unique music-
based social network, so I always bounced from the homepage.

I don't care about games, points, hearts, enthusiasts, community, or any of
that -- I want good music playing in the background while I do other things.

IMO this new redesign is both unique and more accessible. If it's about music
the music should be front-and-center, no? Sometimes you have to cannibalize
your users to reach a larger audience.

I know I'm probably going to go to T61 every day, now. I've already bought two
albums based off of what I found there, and before the redesign it was totally
uninteresting to me.

~~~
crad
I agree completely. I have found a few different artists already and have
spent the entire evening on the new site.

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blasdel
I don't know why the hell they didn't launch it as a second site under new
branding -- there would have been no pushback at all.

Some people want a better MySpace, some want a better Pandora. There's no
reason the two demographics can't have their own sites based on the same data.

~~~
burke
This. It's different enough that it could have been successful as an entirely
separate venture.

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nedwin
Running one site is hard enough, you would lose a lot of focus running two.

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nedwin
A music-making friend of mine pointed me to the site about 6 months ago. I
checked it out but not really being into his music didn't really see how this
site was any better or more interesting than Myspace.

But when the redesign came out I stood up and paid attention, it just looks so
great. For an artist who doesn't have the expertise or money to create a great
looking website this is awesome, attractive and functional for sharing their
music.

I sent it to a bunch of people I know who work at varying levels of the music
industry and they felt the same, a few are creating pages now.

I'd say the redesign / relaunch has been successful in terms of user growth
though more consultation with their existing community might have spared some
of this backlash.

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SamAtt
This sort of things makes me wonder about the difference between business code
and UI code and the effect of splitting them. Right now the argument is that
it's too expensive to maintain two separate user interfaces. But as more and
more pages start moving all their business code behind web services that might
change (since the cost to maintain a UI would go way down)

You could even get situations where third party companies agree to maintain an
older interface while paying the company a small cut.

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elblanco
Dammit, all I wanted to see was the site, and now I'm hooked on a new band.

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nir
I really like thesixtyone, but talk about TechCrunch astroturfing - are there
really that many users to the61 that some of them being upset is a TC-worthy
story?

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nicpottier
Never used the site before, but I kind of like it. Perhaps they pulled off a
coup by getting all this press?

I like the idea of it just being a Pandora for indy music, the simple
interface really appeals to me there. But ya, I never saw the previous version
so who knows.

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nicpottier
Ok I take it back.. (a bit)

How the hell do you buy songs? I mean this is supposed to be the point right?
So I found an artist I like, shouldn't there be a really obvious way to buy
the album/track? (or telling me it isn't available for purchase yet?)

That kind of makes my head explode.. I want to support the artist but it isn't
letting me.. arr!

~~~
cschneid
I'm new to the site (never heard of it before), and I just did exactly that.
Ran across a song that's sorta cool... and... no clue how to purchase. ohh
well.

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wildwood
I enjoyed doing the quests when I first started using thesixtyone, which got
me used to the features and the layout pretty easily.

I'm a bit surprised that they haven't done 'redesign intro' quests to
acclimate people to the new design.

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Vindexus
I'd be interested to know if they did any usability tests and what the results
were. Even just the basic cheap usability tests like describe in Don't Make Me
Think.

If anyone has any information on their testing process, please share!

~~~
moe
You don't make leaps like that with "usability testing".

Despite a few obligatory niggles the design is a masterpiece, obviously coming
straight out of the heads and hands of a few (or even a single) gifted
individuals.

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amackera
This "controversy" will inevitably drive more new users to the site.

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est
what's wrong with just stick with old.thesixtyone.com ?

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vsync
I'm going to guess before even looking at that tab, and having never seen
thesixtyone before and not knowing what it is:

Bright white background

Sans serif text forced everywhere

Font size forced large

Large colorful buttons

Text boxes with few labels so you're forced to guess if your input will or
won't work

Doesn't work in elinks

Doesn't work on my Centro

~~~
vsync
Ah, that was the /old/ site (and I forgot "Facebook connect button"). The new
one is even more incomprehensible.

That said, it's kind of fun, visually attractive (although incomprehensible),
and I like the ANGLERFISH HAILEY WOJCIK song that plays on first load. (That's
a verbatim cut and paste, and I guess I should say it's to their credit that
cut and paste works at all. It's so old media, after all.) If I can budget
some time for doing nothing but listening to music, I'll play with it some
more. I don't think it's useful for people that don't have that time though.

