IMDb Name Page Redesign

@Kwhite2908 

Joined Tue, Nov 15, 2022

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Users post comments here about
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IMDb Community Forums > IMDb > IMDb.com
https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/topics/imdbcom/5f4951c662e5fc53cfeb955b

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@ACT_1​ Welcome back to Sprinklr! Where have you been?

@keyword_expert​ 

? ?

Had some medical problems

A few days in a hospital and a few days rehab center

Not a fun time without my computer

Not a topic to chat about here

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@ACT_1​ Yikes! I am sorry to hear that. Welcome back. 

@ACT_1​ So sorry to hear that. Glad to hear you're okay now and hope that your health remains steadily improving from now on! 

@bderoes​ 

Now that I have access to the new layout, I understand why people are not finding the option "Text view of credits": You have to think to click the triangle to see more options, and then you have to scroll down to see there's a 4th category. I would suggest making "Text view" the first option in the pop-up. 

Thank you for this explanation. I had to go on a celebrity's page today and spent about 10 minutes trying to find this option (since I had read about it in this thread several times) and eventually gave up. The link to the text version has been completely buried. I would never have found it if I had not read your instructions in this thread.

I agree with you that there should be much better access to the text version of each celebrity's page, directly from their page. 

For now, I discovered that the quickest way of getting there is to simply add "filmotype" to the end of the URL. 

For example, here is the celebrity page for Ava Gardner:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001257/

To get to the text version, just add "filmotype," like this:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001257/filmotype

The text version is okay, but it doesn't hold a candle to the previous version linked from celebrity pages that allowed you to sort all films by rating, chronological order, etc. I can't find any way to get to that version any more directly from celebrity pages. Instead, the only way to get there is via the Advanced Search page. Here is the page/version I am talking about:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?role=nm0001257

I guess one could simply remember that the URL includes "search/title/?role=" and enter the URL manually, but that is a lot to remember. This version of the celebrity's filmography should also be directly linked from each celebrity's page.

But perhaps the most annoying thing of all is that the new celebrity page no longer allows the user to explore the celebrity's titles by keyword. There used to be a list of "Quick Links" on the top right corner of each celebrity's page, and one of those links was all the keywords for that celebrity on all their titles. The "Quick Links" can still be seen on the archived version of Ava Gardner's page here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220324003307/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001257/

The keyword search for celebrities still works:

https://www.imdb.com/filmosearch/?sort=moviemeter&explore=keywords&role=nm0001257

But there is no easy way to get there from a celebrity's page.

Oh, wait -- I found a link to the keywords, but it's also hidden under that triangle button thing that you mentioned.

I don't know if IMDb is trying to purposely bury these useful searches and features, but it sure feels that way.

Eventually every last trace of the last generation platform will be gone, and I'm worried about what that means for the ability to filter the "filmosearch" subpath by instant watch options. Plus, the side bar might sadly be taken from us as well.

@jeorj_euler

Plus, the side bar might sadly be taken from us as well.​

It wasn't until I read your comment that I realized that the sidebar is in fact still there (sort of). It's in the top right corner and hidden underneath a button with the comically mundane label "All topics." I completely missed that button until your comment in this thread prompted me to go looking for any remnants of the sidebar. 

I fear that most users will never figure any of this out and will simply assume that these options have been completely removed from the website.

One of my pet peeves is when websites hide program functions behind buttons and pictures rather than text labels. That is pretty much what IMDb has done here with its celebrity/name pages. This is a big change for the worse, in my opinion. All of the info now hidden under the "All topics" page could easily be linked directly from each name page. 

I'd like to add: the Help page doesn't seem to mention Text View. 

https://help.imdb.com/article/issues/GMWASETVPLJYXEZE?ref_=nm_launch_learn

Seems like it belongs under the "How do I easily see all credits at once?" section.

@keyword_expert​ 

Most users will already know the top menu from title pages. Even the previous version of title pages had a top menu, not a side menu. It's high time that the user interfaces are more similar.

@Peter_pbn​ 

I am not opposed to a true top menu, and I might even support it depending on how it is done. It sounds like you endorse a true top menu as well.

I don't know what it looks like on your screen, but on my screen the name pages do not have a true top menu, but rather what I will call a "corner menu" -- five choices in the top right-hand corner of the screen, only taking up about 1/3 of the space across the top. This leaves 2/3 of the top empty on my screen. This is wasted space, which other users have complained about in this thread. 

I am guessing that this is designed that way on purpose, to allow for modular components of the page to fit together on different screens. It still seems to me like there would be room to fit more options across the top on all screens. 

The choices I see in the top right-hand corner are "Biography," "Awards," "Trivia," "IMDbPro," then a button with a search image and the vague text label "All topics," then a button to share on social media, in that order.

The top part of the screen should be completely redesigned to include more options in a true top menu. I would list them in an order something like this: "Biography," "Credits," "Photos," "Awards," "News," "Did you know?," and then maybe a "More" option. Each of those choices should allow for a pull-down menu from which additional choices could be selected.  The vague "All topics" button could be done away with, and the choices currently presented there could be incorporated into the menu items in my list. 

That would allow for a true top menu that would be more intuitive and useful, and it would not take up much more room than the current design.

@Peter_pbn​ 

p.s. Also, "IMDbPro" could be eliminated from the "top"/"corner" menu, because there is already a link to "IMDbPro STARMETER" right below it.

Part of the confusion for me with the current corner menu is that "All topics" is separated from the other choices by the intervening "IMDbPro" option. This makes it look like "IMDbPro" and "All topics" do not relate to the celebrity on whose page these choices appear, but rather are general options to log in to IMDbPro or explore "all topics" on IMDb generally. 

And just to note, the reason why the "all topics" menu may sometimes load slowly is because it involves a separate HTTPS connection, i.e. AJAX/fetch, in the background asynchronously. It would be way faster or plain better if the menu was pre-loaded when the surface page is access and loaded, but also had the option to refresh it, just in the rare case that one of the menu items changed from being grayed-out to being substantive.

@bderoes​  

I'd like to add: the Help page doesn't seem to mention Text View. 

Thanks, we have passed this feedback to the appropriate team. 

@Col_Needham​ 

Since you mentioned the specific item in your message, and I have not seen a reply to my original comment which contained a bug report, please view that comment here:

https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/imdb-name-page-redesign/6351563ae7100d725d54c0bb?commentId=63743b2fe46457627f6640c6

@bderoes​  Thanks.  The product team are monitoring this thread and they should have caught that but I will make sure (and I will reply to your post; I am still catching-up as I do Sprinklr outside of regular work tasks). 

@bderoes​ 

I'd prefer to see all her credits in that pop-up.

This is a good suggestion, thanks.

Bug: Same performer, Soundtrack category.

Thanks, as now noted below, we will check the product team saw this bug report. 

Is there some way to quickly select all categories and expand them?

Yes, this is covered in the FAQ but there's an earlier post here with a screen-grab which better illustrates how to quickly do this -> https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/imdb-name-page-redesign/6351563ae7100d725d54c0bb?commentId=6361cd615c8f315ee26840ec&replyId=636242eb7aca5e4ceea7a11a

Hope this helps. 

@Col_Needham​ 

Well, 3 clicks in different locations seems a bit much to request Show All, especially since the prior version of the page had that single link.

@Col_Needham​ 

My question, that'd I'd like to address to you personally, is this:  throughout this process, when I created an account to express my negative opinions about the redesign, when I saw responses from IMDB (you, mostly, if not entirely), I didn't see the real reason for the redesign- from a previous post of yours, you describe the previous format as untenable.  If that's the case, I understand if it would must be retired.  But:  that raises follow-up questions:

1)  Why wasn't this made incredibly clear in the first place?  All I saw was:  "it's time for a redesign" (not a good reason for anything), "test users like it" (so did test drinkers of new Coke), "it's great" (it's not), etc.

2) Maybe I'm naive, but I feel like, as a person who expressed concerns, I might have been sent or directed to a survey allowing me to formally express my concerns.  Then that data could have been worked into the improvements (as nothing is ever perfect in it's first draft, I think) that must always follow after changes are initially implemented.

3)  And finally, I'd like a clear answer to why we can't be given the option to do things such as:  choose a smaller font, choose to disable the giant pictures at the top of actors' pages that take up the whole screen, see complete production details with one click, etc.  Since I see from my research that you are the founder of IMDB, you must know this!  Sure, econ suggests that companies will try to expand their reach and provide more products and services to consumers, but how many times have we seen companies hurt themselves by getting away from their core business/expand too much too quickly/ lose notable chunks of their loyal customer base trying to pull in new, more fickle customers?  And the folks like me complaining are loyal customers- we care enough to express how much the new product doesn't meet our needs.  Look at the history of business, and you'll see so many defunct companies that lost it all by ignoring their users/customers by doing things that those users/customers didn't want.  Maybe this is just me using my mostly-unused Econ degree, but anyway.

Now, FWIW, I do appreciate that you have responded to a lot of posts on IMDB's behalf, and in the posts I've seen from you, you have been highly professional and civil.  But it'd be better to very clearly and thoroughly delineate what this new, apparently unavoidable redesign is capable of doing or not doing, and if it can't do something that reasonable people would expect could happen, then tell us why.  After all, on my Yahoo Fantasy sports teams, I can click an option to hide the abhorrent gambling stuff, and on Google, I can click a few options to allegedly cut down on the targeting advertising.  On most sites, we can click options to prevent videos from autoplaying, etc.  There are SO MANY things that need to be customized to appeal to all users, and if users are not given this ability to customize in 2022, there are going to be these angry, hurt feelings, especially when the customization ability used to exist and the product's usability takes such a terrible step back.

Anyway, that's my two cents (it's probably more like my ten cents).  If I can just get some straight answers and assurance that I'm being heard, and that, perhaps in 6 months or however long, IMDB central will be able to provide users again the ability to do some of the things I pointed out (as keeping existing customers should be a top priority of IMDB), then I wouldn't have to keep checking this message board and adding to the noise.

Also (and I applaud anyone who has made it to the end), I'd like to say, with your name of Col Needham, I read it like you are a Colonel.  I see from your Wikipedia entry that it is short for Collin.  Nothing wrong with that, but anyway.  Since you were the person who created this whole thing, thanks for doing it.  We had a good run of a couple decades of useful info being easily searchable.  So I guess I should be thankful for the good times, and it'd be great if I could be given a reason to have faith that the current redesign could be customized so that those good times might come again.

Thanks for listening.

@keyword_expert​  Thanks for the feedback …

Part of the confusion for me with the current corner menu is that "All topics" is separated from the other choices by the intervening "IMDbPro" option. This makes it look like "IMDbPro" and "All topics" do not relate to the celebrity on whose page these choices appear, but rather are general options to log in to IMDbPro or explore "all topics" on IMDb generally. 

The “All topics” navigation is our new standard which has been live on title pages for over a year now (unless you use title/reference view).  It will be included on all name and title subpages once they move to the new technology, likewise on other pages as it makes sense in other areas of the site.  FWIW the IMDbPro link leads directly to the corresponding name or title page on IMDbPro too. 

As to adding more and more links directly to the page, those tend to overwhelm most customers during testing.  It is best to keep the default view as simple as possible and addressing as many of the most common use cases as possible.  Expert and regular users tend to learn how to quickly access additional options and features over a time period which tends to suit their natural curiosity (I still remember being impressed at the space-bar-as-a-mouse feature on the iPhone as an example of exactly this).  There’s additional background on this here and here on this thread. 

Hope this helps.

@Col_Needham​ 

Expert and regular users tend to learn how to quickly access additional options and features over a time period which tends to suit their natural curiosity 

I can see that. But a whole different group of people will be turned off by the site redesign (you are hearing from a lot of them in this forum!) and then give up, in worst-case scenarios stopping using IMDb altogether.

In my own personal case, I spent a minimum of several minutes trying to find the text view that I knew I had read about several times in this very thread, but still couldn't find it. It was not until I revisited this thread and confirmed that there are two roundabout ways to get there, both buried under cryptic buttons and vague text links that are practically hidden. I probably would have given up in frustration if I were not also a regular reader of this forum. 

Thanks for considering the feedback. 

@jeorj_euler​ 

And just to note, the reason why the "all topics" menu may sometimes load slowly is because it involves a separate HTTPS connection, i.e. AJAX/fetch, in the background asynchronously.

After you pointed this out, I noticed that this is indeed happening on my end -- not just with the "all topics" menu itself, but also when I click on the "Text view" link from that menu.

The particular technique has long become wide-spread, thanks largely to Google, but in a way, it is overused, and makes things uncomfortable and broken for Web-archiving sites like the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

@bderoes​ 

Bug: Same performer, Soundtrack category.

On thetext view, it shows her 2 episodes as being in 2013 and 2014.

On the regular page, it shows 2014 and 2016, but does not display an episode when 2016 is clicked. So only 1 of the 2 episodes display.

Thanks again for the bug report, this is now fixed.

I have lost count on how many times IMDb has "improved" its site and . . . it has become worse.

Why do you have to keep screwing around with a good thing?

Who's in charge here?

@JBonafont​ 

if I need to see the DP and the Art Director, they are on on different pages so I have to click on the film, then click on crew, then click on camera department

This sounds like it has nothing to do with any recent change. You are describing the mobile view of the "full cast and crew" page with a URL that begins with m.imdb.com

If you are not using a mobile device but are redirected to the mobile view, that could be a bug.

@Peter_pbn​ 

So this seems to be the case.  What seems to happen is that going to the mobile view has become the default, and there's no way to get out of that without opening a new imdb window.  

it used to be i could type "Movie Title imdb" and it would go to the main page in list view, but now it goes straight to the mobile view, even when i am on my desktop or laptop.   Unfortunately the search window address still just reads imdb.com unless I click on it to see the detailed address, so there was no clue this was happening.

This is huge relief.  I just have to be more precise in my search window i guess.  not sure why it thinks my desktop is a phone though.  :-/

@JBonafont​ I hate cell phones but it seems that one can't do anything anymore without them. Just last night I was prevented by the new ID.me requirement to get into IRS.gov to give them money! All the new security requirements to catch fraudsters are making some things impossible for honest people. (Apologies for my off-topic rant but I had to vent somehow somewhere.) 

In today's world, the agencies of the governments are some of the most infamous when it comes to requiring either (1) a SMS-capable cell phone, (2) an email address, (3) a telephone of any kind at all, or (4) internet access, in order even do something as classic as scheduling an appointment. There may come a day when we won't even be able to renew permits/licenses, pay taxes, file tax returns, pay citation tickets, file suits at law, in person or through conventional mail. Even some matters ordinarily handled in courthouse are done online through municipal websites now. (I can imagine a future, whereby people accused of misdemeanors will receive text messages or social media notifications ordering them to go/stay under house arrest. What happens if the person is homeless and doesn't have smartphone?)

@cjsound​  Thanks for the bug report.  This has been forwarded to the appropriate team. 

@SJC​  Thanks for the feedback.  Your credits are still on https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2517827/ — by default we show credits for the three categories with the most number of credits, which for you are camera & electrical | actress | second unit or assistant director.  The fastest way to see all credits in all sections is to click the “X” next to each of the three  categories in the list directly under the “Credits” heading and then all credits sections will show, or you can scroll through the same list of additional categories under the “Credits” heading  and select the individual ones which you wish to see:

Hope this helps. 

@SJC  The image does not appear to be posting above so trying a separate post:

Hi Col, thank you so much for clarifying, I really appreciate it : ) 

Hi Dave,

I have no idea but I do many searches, if a actor / actress acted in a specific movie/series/episode it will take so much more time if I have to do several mouseclicks before I see all the credits in future. And Col Needham said during the testing phase, there will be a version of the websites that shows all data immediately. I hope it will come soon and I hope too that I can switch back to the old version until it comes. Otherwise it will be much longer work for me.

Luna

@lunamond91​ Yes, this is supported, please see our reply below at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/imdb-name-page-redesign/6351563ae7100d725d54c0bb?commentId=6375e7985ce5a035bfebc176&replyId=6377bb5a5ce5a035bfebf02e 

@dopinginho​ I can live with individual sections being expanded or contracted by default, based on how the person is best known. I think the old name page did someting similar.

But what really annoys me is that even for a section which is "open", you only see the most recent credits by default and have to click a button to expand to all credits. It's as if IMDB is implying that the only relevant credits are the recent ones.

A lot is solved by the "Text view of credits", but that link/button should be placed on the initial view  of the name page instead of buried in a sub-menu. At present it is a well-kept secret that would not be found unless someone told you where to look for it. I've not yet heard an explanation of why the "Text view of credits" page is acceptible to IMDB (eg it's coded to be easy to maintain) whereas the original name page was not acceptible/maintainable. If new code had to be written for the "Text view of credits" page, why couldn't the new code have been written to produce the exact format of the original name page be reproduced? I'm not suggesting that it should be the default view for all users - unlike IMDB, I accept that different people want/need different things - but what I am suggesting is that it should be the default view for some users... those who select it as a user preference on the same config page as the selection of Reference View for titles.

Col, I'd be grateful for an explanation of:

- why IMDB can't make an exact copy of the old name page format available for those users who want it, given that IMDB is happy to provide a partial substitute (text view of credits) which is presumably more maintainable than the code for generating the old page (if you have to write code to produce something that's almost right, why not do the full job instead?)

- why the choice of name page format (old or new) can't be made "sticky" on the user preference page. If there is a good technical reason, then that's fine, but if it's "we can't be bothered" or "we think we know better than you", then shame on  IMDB :-(


This whole matter of the new name pages has opened up a much bigger can of worms than you probably evisaged. The vast majority of responses I've seen on this thread have been in condemnation of the new format, with only a few in praise of it. OK, I realised that people are more likely to write feedback if it is negative, and are less likely to be bothered to write if it's to say "I like it", but I don't think that's the full story. IMDB needs to have the courage to admit that they got it wrong and have produced something that mosst people actively loathe. We've tried to be helpful in offering suggestions of ways that the new page format can be improved (things that don't necessarily involve tearing up the new work and goign back to the old way!) but I'm not sure you've really taken on board what it is we are saying is fundamentally wrong with the new layout, which makes it considerably less usable.

I'm all for innovation and improvement. I accept that not everyone has the same needs - I  imagine that broadly speaking users can be divided into casual browsers and full-time submitters of information - so I'm very much in favour of a new page format if that's what users are wanting. All I am suggesting is that the new page format should not be foisted on everyone, and that users should have the choice over how the information is presented, preferably with such a choice ontly having to be made once, rather than every time every name page is loaded (as with the selection of "Text view of credits"). In other words, only ever add new features; never remove existing ones.

That aspect of the question has to do with the Web-browsing experience on mobile devices.

Well, there is the text-only version of pages.