Lists idea: Coloured dots on title/search pages, per list.

Sure that's a localised solution to the problem per user per access point (i.e. in browser only). 

But really, users should have a native built-in viewing solution for this issue. 

Thanks. 

@ ljdoncel, I too am a long-time user of the script you cite. (Thanks many times to its author Ric!)

@ jimthing, Your idea might be good for the app, but I have 89 title lists at the moment, and it's not uncommon for a title to belong to more than 3 lists. So I'm very dependent on Ric's mouseover popup box that shows all the lists to which the title (or person) belongs.

Ric's script also gives the ability to prioritize lists, so when the title/person belongs to multiple lists, the color assigned will be the prioritized one. I currently use 11 different colors. And because it works on Chrome, the script works on Windows and on Chromebook.

The only thing not ideal about Ric's script is that he needs to update it when IMDb makes a change. But so far he's been very responsive to that, and has been able to improve the script's performance a lot in recent releases.

@bderoes (<= how do you markup to link names again?)
Yes, I'm sure that script is useful; especially for users in your situation with loads of lists. 

Just to be clear, while the example I gave showed 3 dots, I actually did say the maximum should be maybe up to 10 dots per item (title/name), as any more than that:
(a) Wouldn't be able to fit on search/title/name pages (especially on smaller mobile devices app screens); and
(b) 10 primary colours is doable as differentiated from one another enough to be able to tell them apart, but if we started having more than 10, we'd then end-up with colours too similar to tell apart (eg. "light orange" vs. "mid orange", or similar). 

The idea being that most users would only have a handful of lists, so 10 would be plenty for the majority without issue (most users likely only have a handful of lists, I'd bet). 

And for those who have many more, the idea would be you assign a coloured dot to your important everyday lists – the lists you want to see easily as you trawl through the database. And not the one-off did once, and don't need to refer to constantly lists. 

So heavy lists users would be able to see different colours for up to 10 of their "favourite" lists they use daily, e.g. Seen, Want To See, Musical To Watch, On The Channelmaster, Opera Owned, Own, Bootleg, etc. 

While other lists they make as a one-off 'grouping of items' (e.g. "Films Mark Kermode's mentioned on his best 20 films of 2002", or something) that aren't important to see all the time, wouldn't get a dot. 

You get up to 10 coloured dots for 10 of your lists (you can use less if wanted or none at all, of course), then the rest don't get any. Or perhaps a black clear ("o") dot could be used to signify you have the item in any other lists you have. 

jimthing, I'm warming to the idea of 10 dots, especially if they appear on lists and search results (which is what we get from Ric's script). However, I would need a mouseover to tell me which list that color represents, because right now I couldn't tell you what which color means what (and I use only 11 colors now). And I don't like the dots being off to the side. Having the title bold in color makes it stand out more in a list (user made or search results). So I'm still partial to the implementation of Ric's script over your idea. But that's partly because I'm not using an app to access IMDb on a regular basis. (Is there an equivalent to "mouseover" on a phone or tablet?)

BTW, Ric's script does let you specify the Default color for Lists and for People (separately). Being able to choose which color to use from the entire pallet of colors is very nice. And the mouseover gives each exact list name, not just "default".

@ bderoes,

 because right now I couldn't tell you what which color means what (and I use only 11 colors now). 

Haha, only 11 colours. That's already way beyond the average user, I'd suspect. 

And I don't like the dots being off to the side. Having the title bold in color makes it stand out more in a list (user made or search results). 

The problem with having the title coloured, is just that: it's only in one colour per title. You cannot have multicoloured titles. 

By having separate coloured dots, you can identify many lists simply by seeing the dots next to the title/name, and it works without masses of colour design work in both dark and light modes.

Additionally, with many interfaces across platforms, I highly doubt mgmt would want to have multiple text colours per the script you currently use does, as it'd be inconsistent across interfaces. Platforms like Apple and Android have design elements they encourage that work to make a consistent user experience, and various web technologies also make implementing similar uniform cross-platform browser design features possible. 


Yes, a mouse-over on desktop would help some users, if it's possible to implement. 

Remember most users likely have only 1-3 lists. So remembering that red=want-to-see, blue=seen, and green=favourites, is not going to be very difficult for the majority of users. 

AFAIK, there is no such thing as mouseover on touch interfaces (like smartphones/iPads/etc.), so while most users would be fine, edge cases such as yourself would have to either 'learn your colours' or flick onto the lists page as per you already do, if using apps. 

I think I would want the title/person to be colored/displayed differently even with the multi-dots. Unless the dots would lead the title. In other words, I feel the title needs to stand out as being different, and dots off to the side wouldn't be different enough for me.

Regarding mouseover: just because something's not possible on mobile devices doesn't mean it shouldn't be implemented on desktop. I love the mouseover in search results that IMDb already does (showing dir, stars).

I have no idea (nor any notion of how to form an idea) of how many lists users have, at least among those who create lists. If you averaged the total among all users, I'd bet it's less than 1 that they custom-created (beyond system-created Watchlist, Check-in, Rating [which isn't actually a list]). But the change to lists in Dec '17 caused a bit of traffic on this site. 

BTW, 2 of my 11 colors are for people lists.

I wish us both luck on trying to get titles/people color-coded in officially supported IMDb s/w. Because I'm happy with Ric's script, I'm much more eager for IMDb to implement an add button on Name pages as we have for titles. This post is approaching its 6th anniversary.

I think I would want the title/person to be colored/displayed differently even with the multi-dots. Unless the dots would lead the title. In other words, I feel the title needs to stand out as being different, and dots off to the side wouldn't be different enough for me.

See what I already said about this. There are serious flaws in doing it that way, per what I previously said. You have to consider how users in the generality would use things, and their ability to actually be technically implemented.

Regarding mouseover: just because something's not possible on mobile devices doesn't mean it shouldn't be implemented on desktop. I love the mouseover in search results that IMDb already does (showing dir, stars).

I didn't say it shouldn't be done on desktop, if possible. 

BTW, 2 of my 11 colors are for people lists.

Hence why I said you could have coloured squares for names with coloured dots for titles. 

I wish us both luck on trying to get titles/people color-coded in officially supported IMDb s/w. Because I'm happy with Ric's script, I'm much more eager for IMDb to implement an add button on Name pages as we have for titles. This post is approaching its 6th anniversary.

Yeah, nothing happens on database sites this size for YEARS it seems. The same thing I've found across various database websites. :-/ 

Anyway, this thread can stay as a reference point for the moment. And I don't think it's worth discussing further right now, given the likelihood of anything happening for the next X years. 

Thanks, bye.