I've been working on a new layout for the album pages here at STC.  If you guys could have a look I'd much appreciate it.  Here's the temporary index for the test versions:

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Whether or not the new layout marks an overall improvement over the old one is what I'm most interested in hearing, though more detailed feedback would of course be very welcome.

Edit: I've taken down the test versions as I've decided to go back to the drawing board on the album pages layout.

Hmm...looks like it always has.

Maybe you want to create a separate page alphabetically by first letter of the soundtrack's title?

E.G., a section for "A" for soundtracks whose titles start with "A," a section for soundtracks whose titles start with "B," etc. A lot of databases already do something like that, and I have to say, it makes things a lot easier.

Or perhaps, you'd just like to share/give your soundtrack info to VGMdb, especially the reviews people have wrote, and leave all the good databasing to them? That is to say, just transplant all STC's database info to VGMdb, and maybe work together with VGMdb, so that VGMdb provides a function by which users can write and provide reviews?

The new layout is for the individual album pages linked to from that index page, not the index itself.  I suppose I could have been more clear about that.

The reviews are presented better in the new version, but otherwise the new layout seems a bit distracting. I think you should either combine the two sidebars or move the first one ('Related albums' etc.) to the right side of the page as the main column (reviews) should be in the middle. I'm also not sure about putting the tracklist in the same column as the reviews, because with multi-disc albums the tracklist takes so much space that it takes a while to get to the reviews. Maybe keep the tracklist in the same sidebar as the cover picture etc.?

I have to agree with Kim K here. As unimaginative as it may seem the track listing is probably better left alone on the left sidebar.

i REALLY like the embedded playlist of samples.

YES. And here, all this time, I only thought there was one review for each album; didn't realize there was a "Next Review" link until I scrolled to the bottom.

Presenting an abstract that a viewer can then click on and expand is much smarter.

Well, we're all probably used to the tracklist being in the sidebar, by now.

I would keep the tracklist in the left sidebar, and then have recommendations and similar albums be in the right-hand sidebar, with the reviews running down the middle. Pretty much the way it was before.

My only really issue is, splitting up the tracklist into multiple columns kind of looks lajubriated, especially for a one disc album.

YES. Although, those were there in the previous versions, weren't they?

I don't like the new style. I've been used to looking at the old style for years and I can't say there's anything wrong with it. Leaving the tracklist on the side makes the pages seem a lot less cluttered, although I'm fine with the change in reviews (sample with the option to expand to the full review...allmusic started doing this and I liked the change there. Will probably save bandwidth too).

Hey Adam,

Likely unrelated, but I noticed when I link to http://www.altpop.com , I am linked to a dj Adams site... Is that you?

Brandon

Thanks for the feedback thus far, especially the detailed suggestions.

My reasoning behind the changes runs counter to some of the thoughts offered here but as I'd like to hear people's raw opinions I'll keep that to myself for the time being.

I understand the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" perspective but in this case I really think the old layout has some issues which is why I went about creating the new one.

Please keep the opinions coming, I'd like to hear from as many people as possible before making any changes.

Yes that is me and yikes I had not realized the home altpop domain was linking there.  Feel free to download some mixes.

I had hoped to hear opinions from a few more of the regulars before posting my own thoughts in detail but no doubt people have better things to do during the holiday season than beta-test web pages.

As I mentioned I think the current album page layout has some serious issues. On the point of being distracting I think that applies more to the old layout, where there are five staggered columns of different information. I consider the new layout more simple - main info on the right, media in the middle, related content on the side.

Having the track list in the side column is something that in hindsight I think is not so good. I know for long-time visitors that's just where it goes, but in general as the track list is pretty essential information it makes more sense to have it in the main column.

Having track lists in the side column presents design problems as well - for shorter track lists there's blank space in the sidebar once you scroll down the page, and for longer track lists they scroll down forever in that long single column.  For pages with reviews it often works out but for pages where I want to post samples but don't have reviews it looks awful (see here).

I could put the related links column on the right but staying consistent with the forums would mean switching the side bar location here as well, and the last time I did that it didn't go over so well.

So that's where I'm coming from I why I'm thinking to change the layout, and figure it'll go over better with site visitors (including most regulars once the changes set it) but if anybody has suggestions to address the issues I've mentioned above I'm interested in hearing them.

Also rest assured that unless there is demand for it there aren't any major changes coming to the forum layout.

Hm, I haven't read an album review on STC in a while; I've perused nearly every soundtrack that interests me in the past.

I think the new layout is all right. The position of the track list confused me too, but that's trivial enough. I would say the only aspect that looked "off" to me initially was the empty space in the album art column. It made the review column feel off balance, but I guess I don't have any better suggestions. I agree that the old layout had some issues.