Last month we relaunched Adult Swim’s video gallery application and brought it up to the to cool for school 2.0 status. For those not in the know, the first release was just a reskin of the Cartoon release and the point release after that was an update from Windows Media to Flash video. This new release is a reskin, relayout, and interaction change.
Layout Choice
So why the new layout? Well if you look at the app, it’s very apparent that it resembles a YouTube layout. This was done because the layout provided advantages over the existing layout. For starters it uses a common interaction model that users are familiar with, so it automatically yields ease of use based on that notion alone. YouTube also does a good job of separating out functions of browse, search, and view. Typically most of the Flash video apps tie these functions together. For example, the Cartoon player has video as the main focus but always maintains a consistent navigation. In this model you have limited room for the current video’s details and browsing. By separating and opening it up in the way that YouTube does, the browse and search sections are a lot larger and the amount of content is more apparent. In addition, subsections and filters can be listed out beneath sections in context which allow for quick jumping. For example, the navigation options Comedy, Robot Chicken, and Most Viewed are available all at the same time. In the previous model, this required navigating between screens. Keeping search as a consistent function also provides for quicker jump points, since it is always present. Just like the browse perspective, the video perspective has more space to focus on everything that defines a video. It seems a little bare now, but you can imagine that there are a lot of elements you can attach to a video. By design this setup allows for that. All in all the new layout provides a more focused experience.
Flash vs HTML
Ok great layout, but why is it all in Flash and not HTML like YouTube? Good question and there are a few reasons. One of the main reasons is the nature of Adult Swim’s servers and deployment. For the most part, everything is statically deployed pages vs dynamically deployed pages. Most of their service based offerings are just that, services. In the case of video, the system was already deployed as a service based system. Although we did updates to the system, it is the exact same system and can be used for multiple frontend clients. In this case, the main task was simply modifying the client. Since I handled the entire client and it took me a relatively short time to update, time to market was minimal. Thus time and existing systems were a factor. On the other side of the foot, you have interaction models. Having the application in Flash allowed us to create a unified experience. Unlike YouTube, viewing and browsing aren’t completely broken. When switching in between tasks, you are able to continue viewing while browsing. This type of unification is also seen in browsing, where page to page navigation doesn’t require a page refresh. With all that said, the application does suffer from the fact that it doesn’t offer browser history navigation using the previous and back buttons, defined urls in the browser for deeplinking, and indexable content. It suffers now, but I have solutions that don’t require many changes which may be integrated in the near future ;).
New Features
You are thinking lovely this is a great new layout, but does it do anything new other than look fabulously cool? How about the new sorting features Chuck? Now you can actually sort your video results by most viewed, most popular, most hated, and most recent. Even better, you can apply these sorts to the entire video collection. Yes, you can browse or search the entire collection. This is unlike the previous version which only allowed you to browse per section. More control over choosing what you want to view is always a good thing and control over the content itself can be even better. Well we updated it to be like YouTube and added one of YouTube’s most successful features. Oh buddy that’s right, we got viral. Now you can find a clip that you want and post it to your blog. Free AS content for the taking! That said, there is a constraint. Currently full episodes aren’t shareable. This is primarily due to the fact that networks posting content online are only allowed to maintain specific amounts of content at a any given time. There are many restrictions placed on them by their cable and content creator relationships, and this is one of them. It is unfortunate, but I think I have a few solutions up my sleeve that can address these constraints.
Future changes
Love the new features, but are you wanting more or feel like something was taken away? My biggest gripe with the player is that we can’t go true fullscreen right now. This happened with the point release from Windows Media to Flash. The reason is that the companion image ad for videos is in HTML (even though it appears to be part of the Flash movie). Having the ad this way requires changing the WMode of Flash to render correctly and ties the renderer to the browser. This restriction makes going fullscreen technically impossible. We are taking steps to change this and provide a true fullscreen experience. If you are viewing a show you want to be able VIEW the show! The other changes would be related to things I hinted to before. I’d like to provide a means of sharing episodes, allowing browser history browsing and deeplinking, indexing the content, and opening up the things that you can “view and do” in relation a video. Regardless of what I want to do, comment in on what you think and what you might want to do. In the meantime, check out some great LEGAL Family Guy clips!
It doesn’t work in Firefox…I have ff v.2.0.0.4 and nothing shows up, just blue. If I run it in IE, it works fine, what’s up?
Russ
“Unlike YouTube, viewing and browsing aren’t completely broken. When switching in between tasks, you are able to continue viewing while browsing.”
That is f-ing brilliant! Those are two very disparate tasks that you guys have manged to make ubiquitous.
[...] Criticisms Though I do like the simplicity of the design, there are a few things I’m unsure of. For one, the interaction metaphor present in the playlist player is the static browse/view stance. As I pointed out with Adult Swim, these are separate tasks. I can’t decide if the nature of how the module is used justifies this coupled view or whether it should be more like Adult Swim’s. I will say that unlike Adult Swim, browsing is rather limited and there is a focus on the “playlist”. The decision could go either way, so what do you think? I also don’t know how I feel about the featured videos end slate showing up in the context of the playlist player itself. You typically won’t see this slate because continuous play is enabled. However, when it does appear in this context it is an odd experience. In my eyes, the videos in the side list are the related videos. Why would there be two lists at the same time representing the same thing? It makes sense to just have a video’s details or a replay slate instead. Anyways, those are my basic criticisms. [...]
[...] For one, the interaction metaphor present in the playlist player is the static browse/view stance. As I pointed out with Adult Swim, these are separate tasks. I can’t decide if the nature of how the module is used justifies [...]