IMDb Name Page Redesign

@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.

@Peter_pbn​  Thanks — this a new bug, sorry.  The appropriate team have been alerted. 

I was wondering about this too, but I assumed it was intentional.

I don't know about the scrolling bit (since I prefer a comprehensive unpaginated view, which I mitigate by using the browser's find tool), but indeed it is hard to highlight some of the text, similar to how highlighting things on YouTube can be very tricky. In some ways, all these sites with "modernized" UI are hard to work with, given certain use cases.

I might suggest relying upon the tools present within the Web browser being used, but I seen that some of Web browsers (as in mobile versions of them) don't provide a quick (toolbar control) way to adjust things like that, which is very annoying. (I've only ever experienced Chrome, Firefox and Kiwi, along with the pre-Chrome stock browser of Android OS, though. I'd like to get around to experimenting with Edge, Brave, Opera and Opera Mini, Kiwi Browser is spectacular, by the way, but only available for Android.)

@ketpiano​ Thanks for the feedback.  We had a more compact two-column view of the credits in the beta version which was tested over the summer. Unfortunately, the customer feedback at the time showed that overall there were too many changes in the beta for people to handle at once.  The version you see now is a compromise and we will keep monitoring feedback such as yours as the new design settles in.

I may write a monkey script that forces each movie's the year of release to be closer to the movie's title. I did that with the last generation name page layout, when name reference view was eliminated. I've always found it ridiculous that the gap between these pieces of information was so damned wide.

@ACT_1​ But only about 500 new "users" per month in this community. 😬

@plur62​ 😀

n-61052

IMDb member since Fri Nov 18 2022
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur158950000/

hs-60691
IMDb member since Thu Nov 17 2022
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur158920000/

damianlyons
IMDb member since Wed Nov 16 2022
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur158880000/

.

@ACT_1​ 30,000 new users per day on IMDb, 15 new users per day on IMDb Sprinklr. 😪

@ACT_1​ Hey, haven't seen you in a while. Glad you're still there. :)

@plur62​ Why do you think that is? How long has Sprinklr been around? I've been an IMDb Member for 17 years and didn't know about this until I chanced upon it by accident when accessing a Name page a day or two ago.