Well, thesixtyone.com decided to make a change to the user interface and its experience altogether and there has been an upheaval of sorts. Some people don’t like change, especially when it is a bad one. So, I thought I’d take a look at the music site. I had forgotten about t61. I’m a fan of music, I have SMASHorTRASH.com in development right now; I’d like to integrate some social networking aspects in the future; and not just the voting portion. But, I digress. My wife and I visited the site, and without audio, you have no clue it is a music site until you watch the counter on the tab in your browser. It could be a count down until the next page flip; and it certainly acts that way. Without having audio on, it shows pictures and then transitions to another background and set of pictures. Of course, those pictures usually involve music in some way. With audio on, you gain a new appreciation. It isn’t just an Art and Photography site that you can rate pictures on. It is an audio site with great music [and some not-so-great music] and although I like the design because of its aesthetics, it seems that finding the options to interact with the site is slow as you wait for the site to come live when you mouse over options which are spread across the entire screen. Imagine watching this on a full screen instance on your 30″ monitor? Even on my 13″ MBP I had to scroll into the next room to highlight the forward button.
Great idea, poor delivery. I do like the music though. Good luck t61.
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This isn’t just an “upheaval of sorts”, it’s a full-fledged revolution. Virtually ALL of the major long-time listeners have deserted the site, regrouping on facebook and plurk and twitter to re-create the lost community and look for other music sites to replace their our precious t61 experience. And the artists are beginning to migrate with us.
I thought t61 was supposed to be social media, a way for artists and listeners to communicate. The new format doesn’t permit the social interaction we all loved. It is no longer social media, but simply another also-ran music site. Beautiful graphics without functionality. Form without content, as Woody Allen would say…..
We would like nothing better than to return to t61 with our community spirit and warm interaction, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards.
Thanks for the reply Ms. Hudson, I appreciate you coming to my site to comment. I am a fan of social networks that add value. t61 plays some unique music, and I think that is what attracted the community. It is a shame that they redesigned it the way they did. It seems like usability was not in the cards, let alone the community. I started SMASHorTRASH.com to create that community because music [good and bad] can be acquired and no musician would be willing to limit their exposure by saying “No” when asked to give a copy to a site for air time. I don’t advertise the site awhile I’m building it with content. One thing I noticed about t61 is that their playlist is hardcoded [at least it is now] and if I am listening to a song, everyone else is listening to that song as long as they don’t fast-forward to the next song. It certainly doesn’t appear to be a personal experience with community backing. Too bad the community is now going to fracture. Over time they’ll attract more people because for the most part, if you provide a service, there is always someone to consume. Thanks again for stopping by.
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