This morning we launched a few changes to the website.
The homepage has a completely new design. It has larger box shots and shows your recent activity so you can see at a glance what we've received or shipped. The movie selection and rows are personalized, meaning that they're responsive to your ratings and rentals - they'll change over time if/as your interests and tastes change. We've included explanations of why we are showing those particular movies, and making it a little easier to rate genres and sub-genres directly on the page - so you don't have to dig through the site to tell us that you love (or hate) Action Thrillers, for example.
If you click on Browse Instant, you'll see that we've carried the new design into that section as well. We hope that will make it easier to find movies and TV shows to watch instantly. These rows are also personalized and responsive, just like on the homepage.
Overall, the whole site is now a little wider so you'll see that most of the pages have a little more white space.
The Queue has an updated look, but the functionality is mostly the same, although a few things have changed slightly in design or placement. [Note for HD/Blu-ray enabled users: there's a bug and the format column isn't showing - this will be fixed in the next few days. We're also working on another bug that is causing some of you to not see recommendations or predicted ratings.]
We think these changes will make it easier for you to find movies you'll love. It's a work in progress. Take a look, and let us know what you think.
-Meghan
263 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1 – 200 of 263 Newer› Newest»The wider format is an unwelcome change. The whole queue screen does not fit on my display anymore without horizontal scroll bars unless I make a point of hiding my list of bookmarks. Not everyone has a widescreen monitor!
Is there an option to select the old display?
I actually love the wider format!
Great idea, Netflix!
Was one of the changes to stop including my personalized star ratings? All I see now on any page is the Customer Average rating. I always used my ratings for sorting of the Queue. Although I could use the Customer Average ratings for this, it wouldn't give me the same result.
Its nice to see the wider format. And to the first comment it is probably because your resolution is to low(or high im not sure) because the page auto adjusts to a certain point, basically you don't have to have a wide screen monitor (auto adjust is pretty standard on websites today, coming from a web designer). This might be just nitpicky, but my cue says DVD's at home and in your cue. Because of HD DVD and Blu-Ray that probably should be changed to movies.
Yeah...
I'm out of here!
The redesign is great, and very welcome.
One problem though! It seems that you've removed the Blu-ray/DVD indicator/dropdown next to the items in the Queue. Please bring this back as I'd really like to see which movies I'm renting on which platform, as well as the ability to switch (as it was in the previous design).
Was this an overlooked error or a deliberate change? I hope the previous.
Otherwise keep up the good work. I love Netflix.
This wider format is extremely inconvenient.
From my perspective, looking at the pages with individual films and with the queue, it amounts to a lot of wasted whitespace on the left with most informative parts moved to the right where I can access them only with scrollbars.
Wasted whitespace looks most unprofessional, btw.
There are ways of making web pages scalable, so that the page would fit the user's browser screen width. And this would be best for everybody - those who love large spaces and those who want them tighter with all info in the compact space, accessible with one quick glance.
There's far too much whitespace on the queue page. It also has that ugly glossy sheen that was popular in webdesign a few years ago.
My personal ratings are also missing. While I can deal with the unforunate looking website, the personal ratings are very important. I hope they do return soon.
I'd really like to see all the what movies I've watched with the Instant feature instead of the most recent 5. Maybe the title of the recently watched section should link to that feature.
Here's an idea: how about me (the customer) telling you (the service provider) what I like, instead of NF trying to push all this crap down my throat?
I don't understand what problem the "wide queue" was meant to solve. I don't have any complaint about it, it is just the first Netflix change I have seen that I can't see a use for. Even the home page, which I don't care for, has an obvious audience. But I don't know what the wueue change was about.
Dont have a problem with much except in the instant viewing section..
The movies are sorted by renamed categories, problem is, most of the same movies keep showing up in 2-4 of the same categories, theres 7000+ instant viewable movies on netflix, im lucky to see 500 half the time..
I suggest either put an option to customize the page to the old format, or keep the new, or get rid of the new all together.
I love the new wider format!
I do like the wider queue, and the new front page is more interesting. However, I don't think widening the space around the information on individual movie pages (the left half, I mean) was good; it leaves a lot of blank space around the cover art.
I think that the wideness should adjust to screen resolution. It looks fine for my 1024x780 screen, but for people who still use 800x600, it'd be a good idea to let the pages shrink down. (Perhaps for the queue, information columns could be turned on or off based on what the user wants to see, i.e. MPAA ratings and genres.) And for people with wider monitors... I don't know what they'll do, but I'm sure they're happy with it as is.
The recommendations seem to be broken, as well; they keep asking me to rate more movies despite having over 600 ratings logged. What happened to them?
I think the new versions is much better than the first, the overall layout is better. The focus on finding new movies is much appreciated. The wider portion seems better, but I don't see that part as a big improvement, besides better using the available screen space.
There are some things I like about the new design and some things I don't. First I like seeing why a movie is recommended on the first page, but the new format makes the page very long. I don't like having to scroll so much to get to useful pieces of information. This is a bigger problem on the Browse Instantly page. I mainly watch movies from my DVD Queue on the browse instantly page, but now I have to scroll so far down to get to it. One top of that I can no longer browse through my Watch Instantly titles. I really liked that feature. Now I have to scroll through my queue of 500 movies to see what movies I may want to watch instantly. I like the Your Queue page, but I keep starring at the white space under availability.
Hi Meghan,
I have a suggestion for Netflix. I am using a sort of ad-hoc solution for keeping tracking of instant movies I'd like to see. I add them to my queue and stack them up at the bottom. Of course, this isn't what the queue is intended for and it's possible that if one wasn't careful, a DVD might be shipped out...
I was wondering if NetFlix could create a "playlist" or some other system for marking down instant movies that a user might like to watch at some point in the future. I realize maybe NetFlix might not want to facilitate this kind of efficiency - but I really don't know what the metrics of the instant viewing is. Maybe NetFlix would be tickled pink if it could get us all to watch a lot more instant movies. If that's the case...
Best,
Seth
I do like the new design a lot more (lots more breathing room). But is there a reason why drag-and-drop in the Queue is still not supported under Safari?
I like the new Queue, but I do have some suggestions to improve it further.
Firstly, the white space to the left of the movie title in the Saved Queue looks odd. That's the first thing I noticed.
Second, I agree with the response that "DVDs At Home", "DVD Queue" etc. look weird when there are Blu-ray's. If not "Movies At Home" how about "DVDs At Home(#), Blu-rays at Home(#)" if the account is setup for Blu-rays? Extend that to the queue header and the Saved header.
Third, and this is an issue with the queue in general not just the new, but when a movie in the Saved Queue gets a date why doesn't it display? For example, I have 'Rambo' in my Saved Queue and it has a release date, but it just says May 2008. It should say Releases on DVD May 27, 2008. It's annoying when I look at my Saved queue and I have to click each one individually to see the release date, or wait until it moves to my actual Queue.
Lastly, why is there room for the Watch Instantly button in the At Home? If it's at home, we don't need to watch it online. I think it would be better if the movies at home had a large font and were bolded to make them stand out amongst the rest.
I know I sound harsh, but I don't mean to. I'm a huge fan and its great that you're working on your site all the time. I just wanted to let you guys know what I would like to see. Regardless, I love the service and I appreciate what you guys do. Thanks!
I love the new format. Period. That's all. It's perfect!
After the new releases fiasco, I'm resigned to the new page. It's not crappy enough to make me quit. But it's still annoying. You don't know what movies I like. I don't have "favorite genres". Please let me figure out the movies I like for myself.
I like the new format. The only issue I have is with the instant viewing movies from the queue. I liked the old format, which showed all the movies from the queue available, rather than the new way of simply linking to the queue.
Also, the new way means that if I want to watch a TV show from the queue, I click on the show in the queue, and do not have a list of episodes to select from. I have to start watching from the beginning, which is inconvenient if you are most of the way through a season.
Keep uo the good work!
CLEAR INSTANT VIEWING HISTORY!!! Why won't nf let me clear my own instant viewing history? Even big brother microsoft allows it in internet explorer. Have asked nf to fix this in the past but request has been ignored.
I do not like my new home page. It gives me movies that I am not even remotely interested in and it is too large on my screen. Maybe you should start polling people before you change to a "personalized" page. First the new releases and now this, these changes are getting annoying.
I don't like the fact that the "Available Now" has been removed from the availability column. All the queue shows are the ones that are very long wait, and presumably long wait and short wait would also show. It is more informative to show Available Now so that we really have a sense that it IS available now when we're ordering our queue for what we want for a weekend, for example.
Yes, "available now" never guaranteed a disc would be sent next, but now I'm left wondering if the removal of the "available now" tag is a way to blur the information a little.
THIS IS GETTING NUTS!! Can you make it any harder for us that want to watch HD FORMATS!! fine, you did away with HD-DVD, i can deal with that, i have a duel player that plas both HD-DVD and Blu Ray.. BUT FOR GOD SAKES!! where is the tab so I can pull up and search only the Blu-Ray movies!! this is getting nuts.. now i have to look at each movie one by one to tell if its offered in Blu Ray!! Add Blu-Ray back under the Search Genres!! This is becoming a real pain the in ass here guys!!
Will you please put the "releasing this week" page back up instead of just moving everything around and calling it progress?
bring back "Releasing this week" in the new releases section. I loved the old text list that showed what was added that week and it gave me a chance to see it all rather than whats popular.
You need to enable "NOT INTERESTED" in the new releases section. the current presentation is unusable day after day when im forced to scroll past the same movies i DONT WANT TO SEE looking for something new that isnt popular.
I had about 90 "recommendations" last week. Now I have 7, and that's only after having rated a couple of movies I've seen that showed up on the new home page. Are those recommendations gone forever, lost in the recent unpleasantness?
I don't much care one way or the other about the page's width.
Count me as part of the 'dislike it' group. I believe most NetFlix users are capable of reading and a text list can display a lot more data in the same screen real estate used by oversized pictures. The big pictures add no value, take up too much screen real estate, and prevent more data from being displayed in the same space. The new design displays less information and requires more vertical scrolling. How about more substance, less style.
Go back, please, to the old design, or rethink the new. The new page does not fit on my screen and I'm stuck scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. You get the idea. Too much white space.
And, while I'm at it. I miss being able to see ALL new releases in each genre vs. NF's idea of what I should watch.
I'm not sure why Netflix keeps slapping its customers in the face by making the site more difficult to navigate. Netflix recommendations are rarely of interest to me. I'm an adult and can make my own selections. Instead how about putting this effort toward something useful, like restoring the "Releasing this week" section or making the Watch Instantly feature compatible with Macs?
The new interface is a horrible set back for my netflix usage. The inability to see the format of movies in our queue is a massive usability blunder.
Also, why purposefully choose incorrect labels such as "Browse DVDs", "DVDs at Home", and "DVDs in Queue"?
It is almost as if the people who made this version of the website are completely unaware of the existence of blu-ray. The incorrect labels are just the most obvious indication that blu-ray customers aren't considered important to the website design. Why is it that we can't browse by genre for only blu-ray movies? The current support for blu-ray customers is sub-par at best.
But once again, why purposefully use incorrect labeling?
I'd settle for the incorrect labels if at least it was possible to see the format of movies in the queue.
Thank you so very much for the wider format! I never understood why Netflix did not design the site to use the complete screen. I do not miss the extra space to each side at all! It is more convenient and enlarges the text and images, which heightens the experience! I use my Queue as the home page, and greatly appreciate the improvements in formatting.
I also enjoy the new format. Good design work.
But, the New Releases page is still not very useful. The old page, which just listed the movies being released this week was the information I actually wanted to know.
Wider is not better. The wasted space only turns off those of us still using 800x600 monitors (still some 14% of us, according to http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp), and annoys others who don't want to always have to maximize their screenspace just to browse Netflix. Yahoo can fit into the 800-pixel-wide screenspace, why can't Netflix?
It's Netflix, not NetFlix. It really drives me crazy when people capitalize the F!
I LOVE the new design.
Make it scalable. There should be no reason that it can't be done. I cannot stand websites that make he have to scroll left to right just to see all of the relevant information. Yes I have my screen resolution set high enough to see the whole thing if I wish but no I do not like having to maximize my browser window just to see everything.
PLease please bring back the old New Releases format. The new way is idiotic and not even new releases. Stop advertising movies you want us to watch, and rather give us information we want in order to decide what we want to watch.
In other words, I bet NF is getting paid to show us "New Releases." Why else would they make such a useful feature the opposite of what it was?
I can live with the new home page I suppose, tho at first I hated it. I do like the Recent Activity and "Because you enjoyed..." on the top.
I don't care that it's wider (works fine on iPhone still!), tho it's a bit awkward in places.
But here's an idea: I HATE the "New Releases" page SO much since it was changed. How about putting the left/right scrollers on the HOME page, and give us back the new releases for all genres at a glance, with release dates, on the New Releases page. I can't stand the New Releases page any more. Please? Thanks!
Lastly, how about a "classic view" link like most other sites include when they make drastic changes? ;)
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOng wait. I've been waiting for at least 6 weeks for one DVD, for which there's supposed to be a "short wait." What gives? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of NetFlix?
I love either format. But, sadly have had to cancel my subscription. And, while active with NetFlix they received my movies within 2 days of mailing them. Now, because of cancelling my subscription, they somehow are not able to find the last movie anywhere. Does anyone know how to reach a person... to talk to???
Hate it, hate it, hate it. Too much wasted space. Unneccessary information. I want to see more movies at a glance, not hunt for what I want (tend to lose interest the harder it is to find). Really, I do not like it at all.
I don't care about ALL THAT! I would like a heads up on upcoming releases like a month ot two in advance.
I prefer the old layout.
And I, too, don't like the fact that the "Available Now" has been removed from the availability column.
What happened to the ratings of movies that used to show the rating of "people like you" and the actual site rating?
Now all I see is the overall site rating for movies, and I used to use the other rating to help select items.
Also, I don't like the new "new releases" format for the same reasons others have mentioned. And, an upcoming release section that shows the releases for the near future would be very helpful.
You've broken something else. I used to have around 250 suggested movies. Now I have ZERO suggested movies. NONE. AT. ALL.
You still have the ratings for movies that I've rated but recommend NOTHING based on that.
So, I went to the Contact Us link. There is nothing in the HELP file that remotely explains why AND there is NO WAY TO CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE through a CONTACT FORM any more. There is only a phone number. I spent 20 minutes searching through options trying to find the way that used to be there to contact Customer Service with a question through a form. It's not there. I can't sit on hold forever waiting to talk to customer service -- I just want to mail in my question like I used to be able to!
Thanks for making this blog available. I. like those above, would like to see the format next to my movies at home and movies in queue.
I haven't been bothered especially much by the format change (although pages seem to be taking a LOT longer to load) but whatever has happened with the recommendations has me iritated enough to track down this page, which seems to be the only place availabe to complain about it. If that feature is discontinued, it is going to be extremely difficult for me to find obscure movies to add to my queue, which is the primary reason I have subscribed to Netflix. From the feedback here, it seems I am in the minority, although there are a few of us. I also agree with the folks who are upset with the changes to the New Releases/Coming Soon pages a few weeks ago. I really liked being able to see all the genres at once and pick out things I otherwise would have missed. In summary, it's fine with me if you make format changes, just not at the expense of functionality. Unfortunately, that seems to be what is happening.
I like the new site layout. I barely ever switch in my DVD's, mostly I just watch the instant material.
I do not like the wider format. With my wrist problems, it makes for unnecessary and aggravating side scrolling to be able to see everything. I agree with the others here, you are making assumptions about how our displays are set up. Please make the queue page scalable, bring back the old queue page for those who liked it, or make some of the columns displayed optional if scalability is an issue.
I hate the new format. The old layout was much easier to navigate and easier to find things I actually want to see.
IMO, the new layout looks a lot more amature. If you really cared about the customer experience, why post a poll before hand to see what percent of people want a change or give us the option to retain the old layout as a profile preference.
As a long time customer it's disheartening to see Netflix make these "improvements" on what appears to be a design whim without full consideration of (what was) a loyal fan base.
Between the new layout and the change to the New Releases page I'm really beginning to wonder why I rave about Netflix to my friends...maybe it's time to start exploring other options.
I relly have no comment on the format. It didn't need upd in my opinion and the new one is too light/white/bright..something, but it's alright. As there's no link under contact us to report any bugs or tech issues, I'm leaving it here. Out of curiousity I decided to search for a title. I saw another, Hana Yori Dango, and was surprised so I clicked it. The result showed 2762 hits (mostly people. None of the titles were actually Hana Yori Dango. I don't know if you guys did tweaking w/seach, but you need to untweak.
love the new changes. Keep up the good work Netflix
I don't know what they'll do, but I'm sure they're happy with it as is.
Well now, there is an incorrect assumption if I ever saw one.
Wow, apparently the majority of my fellow Netflix customers are whiny crybabies who view the slightest change as a personal affront to them.
The only suggestion I would make would be to stop showing user reviews, because it seems the same crowd throwing tantrums about these minor adjustments are also writing movie reviews. Ahh, the tragedy of the commons.
Please put it back the way it was. I liked having my genres on one side, I don't like all the wasted space in the middle. It's slower and klunkier. Plus, I can't find an email address for Netflix anymore - I had to pick up the phone and call. Rediculous, you are a website - with no email connection?
Can we have an option to put the site back the way it was? I find the scrolling big pics such an irritation . Can you make it look more like the BrowseInstant/ Recent Addition section? Small pics, genres on the right side. Also, why are you showing me these weird movies you think I may like - over and over again I have to look at a list I have no interest in - rows of lists I have no interest in! (Your algorithms are messed up) Ugh. Why don't you keep that junk on a separate page. I keep trying to go back and use the site, and it just irritates me more and more, because it worked for me the way it was.
I wonder if anyone at Netflix even conducted any usability studies before determining the design changes. Issues include:
1. Excessive wasted white space. I don't need big pictures of DVD boxes to determine what I watch. Who picks DVDs based on a picture of a box? Text lists were fine and showed more options.
2. If you indicated Not Interested in a DVD, why does it still show up on the home page. Bug? Or is Netflix thinking the user may change there mind!
3. How the are genres determined on the home page? At least let users determine what genres they wanted listed and possibly the sequence they are listed in (assuming netflix retfuses to return the much more usable older home page)
4. Did anyone from Netflix actually TEST the 'If You Enjoyed' section. I have NEVER seen or rated any of those movies. Why give recommendations based on them.
5. Queue: Excessive width on the queue makes printing impossible.
6. Recommendations: Recoemmdations are MIA. All recommendations (pre-change or MIA)
SUGGESTIONS (besides rolling back the site to the old code):
1. Add left/right scroll arrows to each section of Home Page (similar to new releases)
2. Change New Releases back to the way it was (although we know that will probably never happen)
3. Give the user the option to have text lists in home page. If not, decrease the picture size so more items are displayed.
4. Fix Recommendations & If You Enjoyed. Turn it off until it is TESTED and working.
5. Let users pick the genres and sequence shown on home page.
6. Make the Home Page recognize the NOT INTERESTED rating
7. Make widths adjust to browser window.
8. Change queue width so users can actualy print it.
9. TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST and then TEST some more. Once your done with that, do some more testing, including a full regression test.
I am sure there are many others.
I do hate the new Homepage format, as if there were fatal errors with the last one. I do not need to see all the unneccessary suggestions, as a previous poster said, I know what I like and don't want dozens of wasted ideas cluttering up the site for me, in crazy categories that I don't care about. Please go back to the previous format, doesn't matter about the width. You're constantly making it harder to really like Netflix, I tell you, constant movement is not equal to improvement, you know.
I like the new look, but you really should have done some more testing to make sure that things were not going to be broken.
On my account:
1. Movies you'll <3 is empty even with 200 reviews.
2. My "personalized" score is broken.
3. I am getting recommendations on the home page based upon movies I have not ever seen.
Hate the new format! I don't want to know what you think I might watch. I want to find my one movies and new releases and now it's almost impossible! Sometime change isn't always good, is there a way to re-format my Netflix to the old way?
I HATE the wide format. Now I have to fiddle with my scroll bar to see the whole page. What a waste of time! When Yahoo made changes to their homepage, they gave us the option to go back to the old version and I did. I can't adjust my PC at work, so I can't change the resolution as some have suggested.
And forget about the recommendations. Give me the new releases I have in my queue and stop recommending old crap.
Why can't Netflix make more copies of popular films? I'm sure there are plenty of people already making copies on their own, so why can't Netflix do this! I don't have the ability or the time, but waiting 1 month for a new release is insane! Move it to instant viewing if you can't handle the volume!
You need a new category.... When looking at Movies you'll love, you can either add it or say not interested. Presumably picking not interested influences the algorithim that selects new movies for you. I think there should be a button called "not right now" which means "I've seen it recently elsewhere, and while I might like it later and I like this kind of movie, I don't want it from netflix right now and I want something else displayed in this slot."
Because I enjoyed Freaks & Geeks: The Complete Series (a high school comedy series) We think you'll enjoy: Life in the Undergrowth (a documentary about bugs)
HUH? While I may enjoy the documentary, how'd you get that from Freaks & Geeks??? lol
Serious flaws mentioned in these responses. I really hope the Powers that Be actually read these comments and take them into serious consideration!
Usability has plummeted!
Drm sucks. The media nazis are controling us.
Not everyone wants to view their web pages in full screen. The nice compact website was nice. Why change? So you can make bigger movie posters on the front page? The individual movie pages look bad now, too much space.
I'm liking all the changes, especially the variety of suggestions I'm getting in Instant. For the person who wants you to "let me select which movies I want," maybe you can offer folks who can't ignore suggestions an advanced search page that they can select as "home."
Really Hate it (0 stars)
Why don't you quit rearranging things and get the Instant View working for Macs?
Netflix is pushing their luck once again. After being persuaded to rejoin after being told the old new release page was still there (just very well hidden), I now get no new releases, while that was never a problem. I feel like I am being punished for...ermm...staying loyal? Now this stupid crap.
I'm starting to think Netflix doesn't want loyal customers. Oh well...those accounts that got saved the axe by me can easily be persuaded to switch to the competition.
Here's an idea: How bout going back to the original format and keeping it simple? Is that too mind boggling?
This new format really sucks. There is no more releasing this week section and I have to now figure it out for myself. Can anybody tell me what section a movie like "I am Legend" falls under? My new "personalized" section for new releases sucks. If this does not change within one month, I'm done with Netflix/Bigbrotherflix. Has netflix moved to China or something?
I'm OK with the wider format and all but with some reservations. I don't care at all what other people in my neighborhood are watching. So that list can go away. And I really, really miss the listing of what's releasing this week. Taking that away seems almost mean.
It would be really cool if we each could configure our own home page like with the widgets on iGoogle.
The New Releases page has become useless. Gone is the clear list of new DVD's released this week, and in its place are "most popular" and "critic's choice". Those are offered elswhere, and I would have clicked on those if I wanted them. I went to New Releases to see what came out THIS WEEK. I want to see it if you have it and if you don't have it yet or not enough of it, I want to be able to SAVE it to my queue. I agree with everyone else who has been complaining that this redesign STINKS of Netflix attempting to redirect a diverse and particular customer base towards items you have most in stock. Not a fan right now.
I have two suggestions...
1) If you really care about your customers, instead of pushing what you want us to see, actually EMPOWER your customers to make their own choices. Let them decide what to subscribe to. If I really care what people in my town are renting, I can subscribe to that feed. If I want to see what you think I am supposed to like based on my past rentals, then let me subscribe to that. Basically what I subscribe to is what I will see when entering your site. If I do nothing then you can dump all the junk on me that you want, as you are doing now. If you spend your time creating good channels that your customers will subscribe to and use, they will be happy. If you continue to spend your time (as seems apparent now), trying to find new ways to trick your customers into renting movies that you have high stocks in, you will just continue to tick them off.
2) You know there are OVER 2,500 posts on your blog and another 2,000 on the petition asking for the Releasing this Week page to again be a part of your site. You blog moderator posted at least 5 times that someone from Netflix would respond to the requests. That was over three months ago and still nothing. IMO, that says everything about what you think about customer services. You have a fleet of programmers who spend all their time trying to figure out ways to keep us glued to your site, and ways to push off all the movies you have overstock on, but you don't have 5 minutes to address thousands of customers who took the time to voice their opinions to you on your own blog.
It would be great if I didn't keep getting the impression that you take us for granted. We are not your enemies and we are not as dumb as you want us to be.
Releasing this week list is available, but you have to use a direct link:
http://www.netflix.com/ReleasingThisWeek
Why is that I have 1444 rated moves, but 0 suggestions??
The new format was not needed and irritating. Moreover I cannot find an actual new releases, at least a popular one in the bogus new release area. It is as if Netflix does not want me to find any popular movies in new releases. I cannot find No Country for Old Men, I am Legend, Bee Movie etc in popular new releases, action, animation etc. It is sad but I have to use the Blockuster web site to keep up with new releases and then add them to my queue in Netflix. Sad Sad Sad.
This is another case of Netflx changing the website for people who probably dont actually use the service.
I hate the new format. It looks terrible and it has too much wasted space. I liked having the categories on the side bar so I could browse around more easily.
The old format was perfectly fine.
If you really want to make a change for the better, give us the option to drag and drop components in and out the page and create one that is custom for our needs.
Let us put the RSS feeds you offer into the page. Lets us move the content around to where we like it.
Otherwise, leave well enough alone.
Big THANK YOU to andyross for posting the link for Releasing This Week! So glad it is still there, even if I do have to go to my favorites to get there. C'mon Netflix peoples, stick it on a tab somewhere! I see something about the recommendations and predicted ratings problem in the original blog post now, but I'm not real sure it was there before. Glad they know about it and hope it get's fixed real soon.
What happened to the personalized ratings? I found them much more accurate than the customer average. Plus, I think the suggested genres idea is pretty neat, but the wider format is not cool. I hate scrolling web pages right and left.
Wider format works fine on my computer but I invested many hours rating movies for improved recommendations and now they're gone. Please post something to let us know if this feature will be fixed. If not, I've lost my motivation to keep my account open continuously. I don't watch as many movies over the summer....
Okay, moments later I checked and the recommendations are fixed. Either Netflix fixed it or it's because I just rated another movie before going back. Either way, Yeah! All is well for me.
Thankfully I have a widescreen display so I don't need to scroll horizontally (a BIG no-no for web designers). The new design looks is pretty enough to look at but doesn't really add functionality.
Update after update, Netflix continues to glossify the site without adding features that users obviously want.
LIST SORTING. Why doesn't Netflix have it? It's not overly difficult (list sorting is a very basic algorithm, for example)...
I would like to be able to sort my queue by any of the queue columns: Movie Title, Watch Instantly, Star Rating, Genre, Availability, Format. This sorting would be only for user purposes to choose the next movie by genre, for example. The actual numbering would not change unless a choice was moved to the top.
ALSO - I want to be able to move movies to the BOTTOM of my queue. Why? That's where I want to store my tagged "watch instantly" movies so they don't get sent to me on accident.
These changes would greatly facilitate looking through large queues.
So... please focus on functionality rather than glossy big pictures. I would rather see short text blurb than extra large image of posters.
Finally, I would like to reiterate as many others have that the New Releases page is total crap. At the very least, have an easily accessible link the old version. (Yes I have the old version linked on my toolbar, but that is just silly!)
Why do movies like "Land of Women" show up on New Releases (IT CAME OUT IN 2006!). I want to see what's coming out this month, this week, next month, etc!
Three suggestions, tangentally related to this post:
1) the "add this movie to your queue" button on the movie information should be a toggle button, not a single-purpose button. if i'm on a movie page for a movie thats in my queue and i realize i've seen it elsewhere (HBO, whatever), its three clicks to remove it (click on queue, check the box next to the movie, hit delete) when it could be one (a la iLike.com)
2) there should be a one-click remove-from-queue feature (i.e. an X box next to the movie in the 'your queue' section, if you just want to remove a single movie rather than a set of movies.
3) if youv'e added all discs from a multi-disc set you should be able to remove them with a single click as well
Great work on the redesign and on this blog!
I haven't read the other blogs, but one way to 'fix' your suggestions is to use the 'Movies you (heart)' link, then click on 'Movies you've rated'. For each movie, click on 'clear rating', then re-rate it. If you have hundreds or thousands of movies, it may take awhile! :-)
I'm giving Netflix 30 days to clean up the mess created by these latest changes. (More than ample time, it seems to me). Failure to do so will mean that I'm out of here. Browsing the site and making choices used to be enjoyable and informative. Now it is a pain in the a** and a chore. Failure to respond to your customer concerns will tell me you really don't care. If you don't then neither do I. You aren't the only show in town Netflix.
I HATE IT!!! I was just looking for a feedback link to tell you, What's with the S U P E R W I D E que page??? Now I have to S C R O L L to the right....and then S C R O L L to the left. AGHGH! How is this an improvement???? Waste of space! Waste of mousing! Waste of real estate! Waste of my time! I know I know, usability be darned, you gotta keep your web designers busy. and if something works, by golly that means you gotta change it. What a DRAG!
It's not wide enough until I can only see ONE word per screen. That's what you gotta aim for, Nutflix. Super wide just ain't wide enough. Pixels are so 20th century. You gotta think in terms of FEET! Come on, get your web team with it!! Five or ten feet wide pages just might almost be wide enough. Almost. Ok, well, it would be a step in the right direction.
The wider display and the bigger artwork is a wonderful change. One faeature that was nice in the previous version was that I could see which movies in my queue were available for instant watching. This feature is still possible to do by looking through my entire movie queue which is a little inconvenient since most movies are not available for instant watching.
Another option that you can have for the movie queue however is the ability to customize when information is displayed for each movie. This will fix the problem that some people will have with the left to right scrolling and it will give us the ability to add rows that we would like to see or not see. For example, i don't necessarilty care about blu-ray or the play buttons but would like to know the year of release and the studio. This gives the user more customization if they want it.
I like the whole widerscreen change. It works well on my Mac laptop.
HOWEVER, I do have one major issue. Until I can watch movies instantly on my Mac, I would greatly prefer to not have the "watch now" button in my queue. It's just rubbing it in my face a function I want but can't have.
Can you please address this soon? It's a great upgrade, but for the wrong audience right now. I will be very happy to have the feature once the "Watch Instantly" feature finally comes to Mac.
I like the wider format... but what I would really like is to be able choose which page is my homepage on Netflix. I always, always go directly to my queue. I don't care what's on the main page. It's just one extra click...
Andyross is right again! I discovered it before coming here to see if anyone else had also, but clearing and reinputting all of your ratings will fix the recommendations problem. Twenty done, five hundred twenty-five to go... carpal tunnel, here I come. In all seriousness though, this is most likely the result of sloppy coding. Next time Netflix wants a redesign, I suggest they hire professionals.
I'd like to be able to just see the latest releases without my ratings being used. How can I this feature off? Why can't this be an option? An option to go back to the original format would be a welcome change also.
After some more reading, it may not be necessary to re-rate everything. It looks like just doing one or two will trigger a rescan. Give it a day or so. At first, I only had 2 or 3 suggestions, now it's 1201!!
I find the browsing on Netflix a cumbersome (at best)process. Where is the simple "new releases thes week", "upcoming new releases", etc. I don't care what is popular with other people, or what you recomend. 90% of the time I want to add new or upcoming relaeases to my queue. So, I have to go to a seperate website (Yahoo Movies, etc.) to find the movie I want, and then enter it into Netflix. Frustrating!!!!!
storyboard animatic
not enough that netflix customers hated this look on new releases, but now you are forcing it upon us on every page...blockbuster is looking like a better choice all the time!!! Once again netflix does not listen to the consumer...
Not particularly helpful. I used to at least be able to switch into a listing of all New Releases, e.g. but now it's just a mishmash of the screenshots of what you *think* I might like. At least allow us a "print version" of these areas.
There absolutely needs to be the option to keep the old format if one prefers. I really don't like this new one. Might finally be time to change to the competition.
Terrible redesign. It's obvious that the controlled feeding of "New Releases" is to avoid the oversubscription to the high demand titles. But it really impedes the ability to browse for titles. In a sense, it's forcing me to choose only from those that Netflix wants to make easily available.
What happened to the actual "real" New Releases?
Are you guys taking steps backward and making it harder to find newer releases?
Well, I mentioned above that the recommendations I'd had before had disappeared. They're back. That's nice.
Oh, and I don't give a damn about "new releases". Sorry, I mostly watch old movies.