Feedback: Streamsy

[hamheyelliot]

Hey there!

http://i49.tinypic.com/23hkhf4.png


I'm looking for a little bit of feedback on a new site-

Streamsy is aiming to offer a simple hub for radio, where users can choose from a handful of stations and stream them near instantly.

At the moment we have a tidy 20 radios, but we'd like to hear any of your selections to add to the site, as well as any features you would like to suggest. We want to feature online based broadcasters too, and as we're at an early stage you can rest assured we're open to all suggestions, and hopefully we can integrate them.

So, any design, technical or radio related feedback would be appreciated, and if we're missing a station you listen to regularly, please suggest it to us and we'd be happy to feature it!


Some quick points: We are looking at a Silverlight based player in the future, and even moving onto Flash once we have the resources to do so. The Windows Media solution will be replaced soon.

Unfortunately some stations operated by Bauer Media are currently unavailable due to restrictions. (Kiss, Kerrang!, NME Radio etc.)


Thanks a lot for your time, and I welcome your suggestions and feedback!

http://streamsy.co.uk/skin/images/streamsy.gif (http://streamsy.co.uk)

[AgnesIO]

I personally think it is a nice idea. I was expecting it just to be crappy popups of the websites - it's nice and easy to change stations etc! Nice work :)

[Calvin]

Wow, that's great! As Android said, I was expecting to see popups of the radios. It's nice and easy to switch radios, good work!

Heres some Radio suggestions:
The Hits
Heat
Magic
Q

[hamheyelliot]

I personally think it is a nice idea. I was expecting it just to be crappy popups of the websites - it's nice and easy to change stations etc! Nice work :)
Thanks, I think that's what sets it apart most of all, so we're going to build on it as much as we can :)


Wow, that's great! As Android said, I was expecting to see popups of the radios. It's nice and easy to switch radios, good work!

Heres some Radio suggestions:
The Hits
Heat
Magic
Q
Thank you :) All of those stations are owned by Bauer, so apart from Magic (which we'll be adding right away) the others are a bit difficult at the moment. We'll keep looking for a way to add them though...

[iJoe]

Very nice :) Works really well, definitely being added into my favourites (:

[hamheyelliot]

Very nice :) Works really well, definitely being added into my favourites (:
Appreciated, Joe :) I'm looking for a Nexdana spot so I'll be in touch.

[Kieran]

I really like the idea.. not sure I'm too keen on the purple colour though.

[Matthew]

as kieran said, im not too keen on the colour.
but i love the idea, and it actually works! (unlike a lot of websites advertised here)
Faved the site aswell :)

[Jam]

Very nice, I personally like the purple, but any chance of different regional versions for those stations that have them or an iPhone friendly streamer?

[Matthew]

maybe add optional skins? idk :P

[Calvin]

maybe add optional skins? idk :PYeah, do this, perhaps have like green, purple, red, blue, all them colours and it saves as a cookie or something. :)

[hamheyelliot]

Very nice, I personally like the purple, but any chance of different regional versions for those stations that have them or an iPhone friendly streamer?
I'll be including a prompt for the user to pick their local area on stations with regional variations, and meanwhile if I can configure the new JW HTML5 player to work with streams, the site should function on the iPhone. Thanks for all of your suggestions!


maybe add optional skins? idk :P
A skin changer will definitely be considered, and I'll try to have a look into personalisation from any HEX colour code. Thanks for the suggestion :)

[Apolva]

Favourited.

Possibly add "Now playing/current DJ"?

[lTraditional]

I love the website and it is very original as i have never actually seen a site like this before so good work!

[Jam]

Oh also, 5 Live Sports Xtra would be nice.

[Colin-Roberts]

Devoleping a desktop app for this would be awesome too

[kk.]

Look into buying the .com domain if it's on sale cus it's a great name. Not sure on the layout though, purples a very strange colour. I wouldn't personally put in a skin changer. You're adding complexity which this type of site shouldn't have. Make or buy a layout which fits it's purpose and will appeal to all

[hamheyelliot]

Oh also, 5 Live Sports Xtra would be nice.
Great, will be added this afternoon along with the rest of the national BBC stations.


Devoleping a desktop app for this would be awesome too
It's a possibility so I'll keep an eye on it for the future, thanks!


Look into buying the .com domain if it's on sale cus it's a great name. Not sure on the layout though, purples a very strange colour. I wouldn't personally put in a skin changer. You're adding complexity which this type of site shouldn't have. Make or buy a layout which fits it's purpose and will appeal to all
I think the current layout has some really good use for this type of site (tried the Shuffle link?), and if there's just need for a change of colour then I think that's easily done, I'm trying to keep it simple but there's always improvement too. The .com domain becomes available soon, and I'll be trying to backorder it.

Thanks for the feedback :)

[kk.]

I think the current layout has some really good use for this type of site (tried the Shuffle link?), and if there's just need for a change of colour then I think that's easily done, I'm trying to keep it simple but there's always improvement too. The .com domain becomes available soon, and I'll be trying to backorder it.

Thanks for the feedback :)

The shuffle link doesnt add anything to it though. Perhaps it should shuffle, and then play a random station? Because clicking that, that's what id thought it'd do. As you add more and more stations, perhaps a search function should be considered, as well as a sort alphabetically


A few notes :)

- Try changing the logo a bit. Perhaps incorporate a note into the letter. The M would be an easy one:
http://esltogo.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/music_notes.jpg
its not that i dont like the current one, i just thing the note at the end is tagged on

- Perhaps a 'Remember this station' and store it via cookies?

- I still hate the side Feedback button that every site seems to have nowadays.. especially since you have it in the nav too. Perhaps that should link to the uservoice account

- As said, colour should be more neutral. The grooveshark player is in green, so perhaps go with that?

- Nav should be central in the top banner

- Footer colour only goes halfway down.

(this is all in chrome, btw)


It's a great site and i look forward to seeing what happens with it. How are you making revenue btw? It might be worth moving the player down into the radio part, and adding a horizontal banner ad on the top?

[Apolva]

Add a stop button, so I can quickly stop the radio without closing the page.

[hamheyelliot]

Add a stop button, so I can quickly stop the radio without closing the page.
This will be added along with other updates this afternoon. :)


The shuffle link doesnt add anything to it though. Perhaps it should shuffle, and then play a random station? Because clicking that, that's what id thought it'd do. As you add more and more stations, perhaps a search function should be considered, as well as a sort alphabetically

There is already alphabetical sorting ready to be included, so if this would interest people I'll add it with this afternoon's updates. I'll certainly consider the search function once we expand the library a little bit more, the shuffle function will stay as it is for now but the randomiser is a great idea when the priorities for improving the site change. :)



A few notes :)

- Try changing the logo a bit. Perhaps incorporate a note into the letter. The M would be an easy one:
http://esltogo.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/music_notes.jpg
its not that i dont like the current one, i just thing the note at the end is tagged on

- Perhaps a 'Remember this station' and store it via cookies?

- I still hate the side Feedback button that every site seems to have nowadays.. especially since you have it in the nav too. Perhaps that should link to the uservoice account

- As said, colour should be more neutral. The grooveshark player is in green, so perhaps go with that?

- Nav should be central in the top banner

- Footer colour only goes halfway down.

(this is all in chrome, btw)

Thanks for the heads up on the graphical side, I'll browser test it this evening and fix errors.

As for the logo, I think it's a creative idea, but I really just want the note to be a strong point that shows after the text. The grooveshark player comes in different flavours, but I thought the green worked with purple. I am strongly considering tweaking the colour scheme, so I'll take into consideration everything that has been said so far.

The navigation can't be central because of those that may have small screen resolutions, as it's completely liquid, for example if you resize the browser, the icons fit the screen. The radio player can interfere with the navigation in certain resolutions.

As for the Feedback, I think it's crucial to use a button that stands out at such an early stage. It will be removed in the future when it's past this initial stage :)

The site now supports direct radio links- such as this one (http://streamsy.co.uk/?fs=id8.html), which will autoplay Galaxy.



It's a great site and i look forward to seeing what happens with it. How are you making revenue btw? It might be worth moving the player down into the radio part, and adding a horizontal banner ad on the top?
It's not for profit at the moment, if our running costs increase then I might have to find a way to include a small source of revenue.

Thanks for all of your suggestions, they're definitely helping me to improve the project and it's always good to hear what you think. Thanks especially :)

[kk.]

The navigation, inmeant so it's in the middle of the top div vertically, not horizontally. :)

[hamheyelliot]

The navigation, inmeant so it's in the middle of the top div vertically, not horizontally. :)
Oh, I misunderstood- got you now. :)

Working on these updates now, keep your eyes peeled. (Please don't, it's potentially life damaging and you will lose your vision.)

[Kieran]

Is there anyway to style the radio player so it fits in with the site design a bit more?

[hamheyelliot]

Is there anyway to style the radio player so it fits in with the site design a bit more?
Yeah, but I don't think it's worth the hassle of having to install Silverlight just yet.

[Apolva]

Tbh, I don't think you should make it all complicated with adding styles etc. It's fine as is.

Just make functional changes (and any bug fixes).

[Jahova]

@Change radio style; Javascript controls with image buttons..

[Colin-Roberts]

javascript controls dont work anymore i thought..

[MattFr]

This project looks awesome. I could make you a Flash based player and possibly an AIR desktop application if you're interested in some kind of partnership, PM me if you're interested.

[Jahova]

javascript controls dont work anymore i thought..
Oh, I never knew. Thanks.

[hamheyelliot]

This project looks awesome. I could make you a Flash based player and possibly an AIR desktop application if you're interested in some kind of partnership, PM me if you're interested.
Sounds really great, but I'm sure using ASX streams is a massive task for Flash. I'll get in touch about this stuff, but it sounds way over my head at the moment :P


@Change radio style; Javascript controls with image buttons..
Yeah, I wanted to do something like this, but I don't think it's working anymore as others have said. Thanks for your feedback though :)

[MattFr]

Sounds really great, but I'm sure using ASX streams is a massive task for Flash. I'll get in touch about this stuff, but it sounds way over my head at the moment :P

I can't comment on this because I have no idea how you're doing what you're doing but I can have a play if you let me know some details :P

[hamheyelliot]

Well, after a lot of feedback based on our past colour scheme, I've decided to try a more appealing blue theme. I'll be trialling this over a few days and including some great Spotify related features too :)

[kk.]

i prefered the old logo :( can you get the other logo in blue? also, whats up with the 'e' ?

i prefer the blue, however, not too fond of the background. id stick with the plain blue, or just a very faint pattern

[hamheyelliot]

i prefered the old logo :( can you get the other logo in blue? also, whats up with the 'e' ?

i prefer the blue, however, not too fond of the background. id stick with the plain blue, or just a very faint pattern
The face is available to download here (http://www.cape-arcona.com/start.php?link=bndboldweb), the e character is perfectly usual. I'm working on changing the note instead of using the CD, it's really more of a placeholder whilst I download GIMP.

I thought the clouds gave it a friendly feel, so I chose them to try something that would stand out a little more. I'll see what others have to say, thanks so far :)

[AlexOC]

MAYBE REMOVE THE DAMN FRENCH KISS FM???

Just kidding E4d, your face was funny in ICT when you listened to it and you realised it was french (Y)

The purple definately looked better, but the blue is decent too, also i think the blue background cloudy type background should be a bit more white, i think its kinda hard to see the boxes that the radio logos are in because the two colours in the background are too contrasting.

I also love shuffle, although maybe not having much use, i've sat it for like 2 minutes just clicking it, guessing which radio will go where. :P

[kk.]

The face is available to download here (http://www.cape-arcona.com/start.php?link=bndboldweb), the e character is perfectly usual. I'm working on changing the note instead of using the CD, it's really more of a placeholder whilst I download GIMP.

I thought the clouds gave it a friendly feel, so I chose them to try something that would stand out a little more. I'll see what others have to say, thanks so far :)

It just seems really thin. I'd try a different font just for that letter
tbh. It should be the about the same width as the a imo.

[Jam]

Yeah, not liking the clouds much but the blue looks better.

[Jonster]

The purple definately looked better, but the blue is decent too, also i think the blue background cloudy type background should be a bit more white, i think its kinda hard to see the boxes that the radio logos are in because the two colours in the background are too contrasting.

What I was about to post, definitely makes it a lot harder to distinguish the radios apart - its not as easy on the eyes as previously.

Also, and I know you said that eventually you will change, but a volume level would be nice, as currently I'm having to change the volume on Firefox so that I can still use other programs without losing sound to them. Finally, not all the radios load for me (mainly the BBC radios) - not sure if this is just me, but its either they take in excess of a minute, or they just do not load.

[MattFr]

The clouds and the blue have taken it from a strong design to a pretty weak one imo. The background needs subtle texture, nothing too "in your face".

[hamheyelliot]

Well from what I've gathered I'll be trialling the blue for a little longer, but changing the radio panel background to something a little more subtle. I'm not changing the logo face at the moment, as it has been as it is for the entire project so it seems a bit unnecessary right now.

The radios all load near instantly on this end, you could be having bandwidth problems, but the website wont affect the streams in any way. A volume control is available depending on the version on Windows Media Player you're using, but I'll see what I can do to make it available for all.

I stand by the colour choice, because purple seemed to be disliked by the majority, and unfortunately it can't cater for everyone. I will look into the pattern though, so thanks for everything that's being said so far. It's helping me out massively to improve :)

[Apolva]

Stop buttonnnnnnn...

[hamheyelliot]

Stop buttonnnnnnn...
What about the Media Player stop button? I can't really fix what isn't broken...

By the way, we've got a handful of new stations including Kiss, Magic, Kerrang! and a couple of others.

(And the french Kiss FM is gone thanks Alex :P)

[iLogan]

I like it. -bookmarked.

Make some sort of VIP to get some profit.
New Design, I don't like it, but I love the logo.
Make it so you can sign in and comment on stations and make favourite stations or upload new stations ect.

Other than that, its great. Keep up the great work.

[kk.]

I like it. -bookmarked.

Make some sort of VIP to get some profit.
New Design, I don't like it, but I love the logo.
Make it so you can sign in and comment on stations and make favourite stations or upload new stations ect.

Other than that, its great. Keep up the great work.
what would be the point? The whole concept of it is so you can listen to radio stations, and change when you want. There's no need to add a user system just so they can comment on the stations

[Calvin]

I like it. -bookmarked.

Make some sort of VIP to get some profit.
New Design, I don't like it, but I love the logo.
Make it so you can sign in and comment on stations and make favourite stations or upload new stations ect.

Other than that, its great. Keep up the great work.My idea is kind of along the lines of this post but instead of a usersystem perhaps you could have 5 stars under the radio and they can rate the station out of 5. Then if you do the rating idea you could have a menu to list the stations by alphabetical order, ratings, something like that. It takes the simplicity of the website only an idea.

[Apolva]

What about the Media Player stop button? I can't really fix what isn't broken...

I can't even see the media player (I just hear it).

Just add a link to replace the iframe page with an empty one :l

[hamheyelliot]

I can't even see the media player (I just hear it).

Just add a link to replace the iframe page with an empty one :l
The radio should appear with a Windows Media Player, you might want to re-install it in the future, as it should be visible. In the meantime click on 'Song of the day' as it doesn't play without user input.

As for the functional suggestions, we're working on a few little things (hopefully with a new developer who's awesome ;)) but it's all about keeping it simple.

[Jonster]

The radios all load near instantly on this end, you could be having bandwidth problems, but the website wont affect the streams in any way. A volume control is available depending on the version on Windows Media Player you're using, but I'll see what I can do to make it available for all.

It's really only the BBC radios that don't load instantly whereas on the BBC site they do. And also in regards to the volume control - checking for updates returns I'm using the most up to date version, so I can't see why there wouldn't be volume control.


I stand by the colour choice, because purple seemed to be disliked by the majority, and unfortunately it can't cater for everyone. I will look into the pattern though, so thanks for everything that's being said so far.

The blue is a lot better imo, just the cloud pattern needed to go, which thankfully has said its goodbyes.

[Youch]

Yeah its awsome, I really like it!

[hamheyelliot]

It's really only the BBC radios that don't load instantly whereas on the BBC site they do. And also in regards to the volume control - checking for updates returns I'm using the most up to date version, so I can't see why there wouldn't be volume control.
I've got to the bottom of it, and I just need to make the player a little longer to show a volume slider, will be done by the morning :)

I agree with the clouds when push comes to shove, and blue is a winner so far I suppose!


Yeah its awsome, I really like it!
That's kind to say :)

[AlexOC]

I am just not feeling the blue, surely you can add a style switcher?

[turtle.]

I like it a lot. Great idea.

[hamheyelliot]

I am just not feeling the blue, surely you can add a style switcher?
Lol Alex, decided to put Habbox up there just when you're Djing ;) To be honest, a style switcher seems really pointless for a site that's about the music you hear, not the site you see.


I like it a lot. Great idea.
Thanks :)

Idea: We're thinking about turning the links at the top of the page into icon based links (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblog etc.) and having the shuffle button activate by clicking the logo as a sort of hidden link. This seems more visually appealing and conserves space. Any thoughts on this idea?

(Longer radios with volume control are now in place, too!)

[Apolva]

Can you add radio 1 extra?

[MrPinkPanther]

I debated building an app like this for the iPhone awhile ago but I'm sure it wouldn't have looked as nice as this. Good job!

[hamheyelliot]

Can you add radio 1 extra?
Yeah, absolutely. Will add it for later this evening.


I debated building an app like this for the iPhone awhile ago but I'm sure it wouldn't have looked as nice as this. Good job!
Thanks a lot, means a lot at this early stage :) It was basically in a class where the teacher was trying to find a Radio 1 player, yet she wanted to change it to Galaxy at another point in the lesson. It took her ages and that's basically where the idea sprouted from :P

[AlexOC]

Yeah, absolutely. Will add it for later this evening.


Thanks a lot, means a lot at this early stage :) It was basically in a class where the teacher was trying to find a Radio 1 player, yet she wanted to change it to Galaxy at another point in the lesson. It took her ages and that's basically where the idea sprouted from :P

*intrigued* Which teacher?

[hamheyelliot]

*intrigued* Which teacher?
Haha, Miss Richards with the droopy face :(

[Jam]

Any development on regional stations?

[hamheyelliot]

Any development on regional stations?
We're working on a lightbox which displays the stations for broadcasters such as Kiss (who have 100, 101 etc.). local.streamsy.co.uk is also on the way for stations local to you. Underneath the station name it will show which area of the UK they usually broadcast to.

We haven't really got a timeframe, but it should be ready within the week hopefully.

[MattFr]

Just to say, I love the design now and I love this site, I use it every day :D

[AgnesIO]

I way prefer the purple.

[hamheyelliot]

Just to say, I love the design now and I love this site, I use it every day :D
Thanks a lot, great to have you visiting each day like that :)


I way prefer the purple.
To be honest, I can never really please everyone with the choice of colour. Whilst some people did prefer it, just as many didn't, and I feel it takes away from the audio aspect if I look too much into the visuals.

However it lives on with some free Moo Business Cards, made before the change.

http://streamsy.co.uk/moo.png

Even I don't know why I got these :P