Regaurding Mobile access to VideoSift
I know there is a lot of pressure to develop for Mobile.
Developing for mobile is a daunting task. Multiple platforms make it very difficult since you need to design multiple sites to get it working on each.
I don't expect a full blown mobile version of the Sift for my iPhone.
That being said, I acknowledge that there has been some development in that direction. And I appreciate it - I know it's in addition to the too many hours invested on the regular site.
But I have to say, I've noticed a few areas that may need a tweek.
When I come to the Sift on my iPhone using safari, I get a page with fifteen videos (plus one featured) on it. I can turn to the next page or I can switch from hot videos to Upcoming videos and back again. So far so good. I can vote and I can do searches. great.
A few issues I'm having.
1). The page seems to be coming out too long (vertically). Once I get to the bottom of the videos there's a huge gap before I get to the bottom of the page. I have to scroll about twenty or so full pages to get to the info at the bottom of the page. It took me forever before I even realized there was a bottom to the page. This seems to be the case with most pages on the mobile version.
2). And I think this is the one that bugs me the most. There is no option for me to choose if I want the mobile option or not. Before v5.0, I used to have an option. It didn't automatically detect and force me into mobile mode.
Why does this matter? Although I appreciate the work that's been done for mobile aps, it still doesn't have everything. I used to be able to go to submit videos from my phone, but now I can't. I used to be able to see SiftTalk, browse through latest comments, go to individual Channels and so on. basically, I could still access all the functions that didn't work with mobile.
I appreciate all that's been done to accommodate the mobiles, don't get me wrong, but until the mobile version does everything, can we please still have access to the non-mobile version from out mobile web browsers.
Developing for mobile is a daunting task. Multiple platforms make it very difficult since you need to design multiple sites to get it working on each.
I don't expect a full blown mobile version of the Sift for my iPhone.
That being said, I acknowledge that there has been some development in that direction. And I appreciate it - I know it's in addition to the too many hours invested on the regular site.
But I have to say, I've noticed a few areas that may need a tweek.
When I come to the Sift on my iPhone using safari, I get a page with fifteen videos (plus one featured) on it. I can turn to the next page or I can switch from hot videos to Upcoming videos and back again. So far so good. I can vote and I can do searches. great.
A few issues I'm having.
1). The page seems to be coming out too long (vertically). Once I get to the bottom of the videos there's a huge gap before I get to the bottom of the page. I have to scroll about twenty or so full pages to get to the info at the bottom of the page. It took me forever before I even realized there was a bottom to the page. This seems to be the case with most pages on the mobile version.
2). And I think this is the one that bugs me the most. There is no option for me to choose if I want the mobile option or not. Before v5.0, I used to have an option. It didn't automatically detect and force me into mobile mode.
Why does this matter? Although I appreciate the work that's been done for mobile aps, it still doesn't have everything. I used to be able to go to submit videos from my phone, but now I can't. I used to be able to see SiftTalk, browse through latest comments, go to individual Channels and so on. basically, I could still access all the functions that didn't work with mobile.
I appreciate all that's been done to accommodate the mobiles, don't get me wrong, but until the mobile version does everything, can we please still have access to the non-mobile version from out mobile web browsers.
10 Comments
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
It's a fair criticism. FTR, we have three different mobile optimised versions of the site. There is a tablet sized one, suitable for viewing on a portrait iPad that is almost indistinguishable from the full site. Then there are two smaller version that are made for landscape and portrait versions of phones. I think those are the ones you are talking about.
I agree that there is a hell of a lot of vertical scrolling involved to get to the bottom of the page for the phone versions - we supposed that's the price to pay to wanting to display all of the site content (not a restricted subset) on a phone. Maybe we could have been smarter about progressively displaying information - but as you can probably guess, we didn't put quite as much focus on those two phone versions as we did the primary UI. Although mobile traffic proportion is growing, we're seeing it more on tablets than phone sized devices. Less than 4% of our traffic comes in at a screen resolution small enough to trigger the super-compact UI version. You could make the argument that if the UI was better that number would be higher - maybe.
I also agree that we should have the option to allow the non-mobile optimised version to be displayed like before. Give us some time on that one.
StingrayAlso a glaring bug I mentioned earlier in the big thread which I guess got lost in all the other conversations...
When I view VS from my Nexus 7, there are no options to advance to the next or previous page.
I primarily do my web surfing on my tablet or phone now. Since the upgrade, I can't use them to view VS reliably.
oritteropoThe initial revision of vs5.0 mobile worked rather well on my phone (except for missing the next page that @Stingray mentioned).
I think the scrolling came in around the time @lucky760 put in the extra space as a workaround for text being occluded after removing the CPU hogging script in the desktop version, I don't remember it being there before that.
Sometimes posting comments can be challenging too, since other things can land on top of the submit button... more on video pages than profiles.
SagemindThanks for hearing my plea @dag.
). But I do feel that at times if some things don't get mentioned, they may not be recognized.
I hate complaining, especially since the faces behind the curtain are also part of the group. (A faceless company is easier to complain to
BarsepsNot just me then.
*Quality
siftbotAwarding Sagemind with one star point for this contribution to VideoSift - declared quality by Barseps.
DeanoYou couldn't edit out that typo could you? It's bugging me
I agree about the huge space when scrolling down. That's the most noticeable problem. Everything else works pretty well though and I hope it can be further refined.
StingrayAlso I should mention that my next page/prev page is there on my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S3), but not the tablet. I'm assuming that has to do with what dag mentioned about having a desktop, phone and tablet view.
The extra space at the end of the page happens on both the phone and tablet though.
I agree with what @Sagemind says to just to allow a "full site" toggle. This option exists in When VS was still in version 4, I just used that when viewing from my phone or tablet, as I did not prefer the mobile version.
lurgeeThere is no way to get to the lounge.
speaking of the lounge, there is too much space between the main chat window and the chat input box. Via iPhone 4S. I miss lounging and reading comments(only one page of comments, wtf?) on my lunch break.
Edit: you can not pinch and zoom.
lurgeehere are some pics http://imgur.com/a/2AWUK
*kick @lucky760
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