New Netflix Website Changes - Your Thoughts?

Netflix launched new Homepage, Browse Instantly, and Queue page designs today. The most noticeable changes are page width (too wide?), bigger DVD images, and lots of white space. The new welcome message says that "Over time it will change as we learn more about what you like," so it looks like Netflix will be personalizing the movie and genre recommendations on the Homepage as your taste in movies changes.

The new Homepage is broken down into rows, and the first asks you to rate a recent return, and gives you an update on your rental activity. The next rows are based on movie genres, and the large DVD images make it easy to scan through the titles (you can actually read some of the text).

The Browse Instantly page has been updated to look like the new Homepage, with large DVD images, and rows of recommendations based on genres. It also shows you recent Watch Instantly activity, Watch Instantly titles from your queue, and local favorites.

The Queue has been changed to be wider, and sports a new "Top" icon.

Note: HD DVD and Blu-ray rentals are not showing up on the Your Queue page, but it should be fixed soon.

What do you think of the new design?

Thanks to BoB, Bradford, Doug, Chris, Nathan, David, Patrick, Reese, Arul, Steven, Ali, Joshua and others for sending this in.

Comments

[Brian]

I like the new design. It feels a lot warmer and blends into itself. It doesn't feel out of place at all.

[Scott]

Thumbs down so far. Stay tuned...

[Mita]

I think there's too much whitespace on the queue page. Also what happened to the personalized ratings? That was my main way of gettting recommendations, but now there seems to only be the general rating which isn't really helpful to me.

[andyg8180]

If you go to where you rate your movies, it lists them in batches of 10 or 20... Before, it just showed you ALL of the movies in one shot and you can see what you rated and didnt rate...

I dont like clicking next to ssee movies ive already rated... i like the whole long list better...

So far... i like the design, its not the greatest, but its not bad... I like the other design that some netflix fanboy did... that was awesome...

[zenubio]

Wider is better. This is really just a face lift. Still no sorting of the queue. Watch Now, still only works in IE. Hopefully the recommendation engine is smarter.

[Rigel]

Contrarily, wider is not better, IMHO. Or at least a fixed width rather than a fluid, dynamic layout is not better.

Not everyone uses apps in full-screen windows. Many computer users have multiple apps open in multiple tiered windows on the desktop, all sticking out and visible, keeping desktop icons within reach. This is the heart of multitasking.

Webpages that force me to open my browser full-screen, blocking out my desktop and other business, are websites I generally don't want to visit. Hence, I'm unfond of this new layout.

I would prefer if I could get the full width of the pages in a browser window 3/4 screen width, or at least all the major controls on the left half of the pages. The prior layout was much better for this.

[matt]

big problem. there's no way to tell whether you'll be receiving blu-ray or regular dvd that i can see.

[JebNY]

I was going to say why wide was not better, but Ridge already said it all. The changes are fine but don't make the width fixed let it float so I can have a smaller window without scrolling sideways.

Jeb

[Tino]

I still don't know how to see the weekly new releases after the previous set of changes. Besides coming to Hacking Netflix, any ideas?

[bill]

I noticed this new design on the weekend before the downtime, I imagine the 2 were somehow related.

[kh]

I pretty much just use the queue page, so I haven't really noticed anything except that it looks different. But I'm wondering if something is working differently, because today is the first time that they've shipped me a movie from far down in my queue when there are many items above it that should be available.

[Jay]

Way too much white space on the Queue. The fact that the Available on DVD wraps bothers me also. My window width is over 1000 pixels. Thats not too bad, but I would prefer somewhere in the 700-800 range.

[Kirsten]

I actually like the new format. The width is irrelevant to me. I prefer maximizing all my screens anyway.

The most significant change for me is the fact that when my Member Home Page comes up, the suggestions are much better tailored than they had ever been before.

The only downside I find is that it seems to take longer to drag and drop items in my queue than it had before.

I do like the color format though, especially on the Queue. It is easier to scan, at least for me.

The new format seems much more tailored for the individual. Kudos to NetFlix.

[broc7]

I generally like the changes. Seems to focus more on movies and less on Netflix-iana.

I like the wide design. Fluid width is better, but if you're going to go fixed, wider is the better choice. I hate skinny sites. As the average screen size increases, you see a lot of biz websites going wider.

The home page is suggesting things based on my "recent interest in" which I think is new- at least I didn't notice it before. Interest being adding to queue or watching instantly, not rating.

You can also rate genres themselves, which is good I think.

[Becky]

I like that they have returned to showing the number of titles in the queue, this time subtotaled by each section.

I like the new design. It's clean.

I prefer full-screen windows. I use the alt-tab keyboard shortcut (application switcher) in Windows XP to switch between Windows. It's much faster than clicking to activate a window.

[Brit]

http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/newReleases/releasingThisWeek

for those looking for the new releases

[lili]

For the poster above:
There's still a big long list of all your rentals here for you to rate...
http://www.netflix.com/ReturnedRentals

It's linked from the queue page.

And new releases are still available here...
http://www.netflix.com/AllNewReleases

although still not linked from anywhere.

The new design looks kind of romper room, doesn't it? Giant boxes and fewer of them. Like it's for a small child to use.

[Jason M. Anderson]

I like the new design, but I really miss the drag-n-drop feature of managing movies in the queue. Hopefully that feature will be restored soon.

[Brandon]

I like it generally. I do have drag-and-drop on my queue already so it should be back for everyone soon.

For some reason "Movies You'll <3" is empty for me eventhough I have rated 228 movies. Maybe it will reset once I rate one more.

I really do miss the personalized ratings based upon users like me. That was helpful.

[misfit13b]

All thoughts on the excess white space aside, the new site seems... dumber. Like it doesn't already know what I like after 2000+ ratings?

Right now, the top section on my new homepage says "If you enjoyed Daddy's Little Girls or Madea's Family Reunion, We think you'll enjoy Why Did I Get Married"

Well, it should KNOW that I didn't watch either of those movies, because I never rated them, and neither did any of my dozen friends.

You'd think that after SEVEN years, Netflix would know me a little better than this.

[jerry]

i just wish they would stop skipping over movies like i am legend that have been in my que for months and at top top of my que since the week it came out with no wait time listed for movies that are months old.

[Ad Buster]

Do we really need to have a huge red-bordered promotion blarring "Get another movie for only...!" at the top of the queue page? We PAY for the Netflix service and should not have to suffer unending advertisements!

[JohnnyBob]

The new QUEUE page is much too hard to read, because they have reduced the TYPESIZE of the text and headers! Why? Just for whitespace? That's an artificial standard. They could (and should!) double the point size of the type, and still get the same information in the same space.

Don't they realize that most folks over 50 years old won't be able to read it easily?

The Blockbuster QUEUE page is now much easier to read, compared to this new Netflix version...

[dcs315]

I think that the new wide design is better. There is a lot of bright white space in the queue, but I like the red lettering ("Short Wait," etc.) in the queue if a DVD an upcoming release or may have a wait time.

All the recommendations on the front page are great, and I'm loving the "recent activity" box.

[Nick]

Im diggin it so far. I like the wideness actually.