Updated UX Design for Roku Version 6.6.8 is a step backwards

So Plex for the Roku has started doing this super annoying thing where it remembers the last screen I exited the app on, and resumes upon new launch in that spot.

Also, I am greatful for the following improvement:

  • (Play Queue) Display when up key is pressed.
2 Likes

I agree now that I’ve used it more, it’s far from obvious what episode you have selected. They also seemed to have removed the quick seen all episodes for a season.

Orange bars still there. :frowning:

NEW:

  • (UX) Show watched indicator instead of full progress bar on episodes screen items and below preplay posters.

Reasons why this solution is even worse than the orange bar:

  1. It’s teal? It doesn’t match anything happening anywhere else in the Plex universe.
  2. It takes up even more real estate coupled with the episode number.
  3. It is inconsistent with the movie watched/unwatched indicator. (Please, God, do not do this to the movies, too)

Come on, guys
 bring back the wedge as the indicator, and add back the episode number at the bottom of the thumbnail. Please don’t let the Teal gremlin go to Prod.

I’m also a fan of consistency in navigation and look/feel matching on the movie side vs TV side. I am still having difficulties navigating up for episodes where everywhere else in the Plexverse it’s a down click.

My Dad gave me the greatest lesson when I was building stairs at my lake property. He told me about the importance of making sure the stairs were equally spaced and that the height remained consistent because people gain an expectation of what’s to come based on the first few steps they take. If things are uneven, and inconsistent, they trip. You don’t think about well designed stairs because you don’t have to.

Now, you’re probably looking at your design and thinking it looks beautiful, and is perfectly functional
 but I guarantee you, people are taking small mental stumbles getting through it. Those will add up over time, and although they may not be able to put a finger on it
 they’re going to shy away from wanting to use it.

You had a wonderful experience months ago. It worked fine. It looked great. It flowed and functioned consistently. Nobody thought twice about using it, because it just worked.

5 Likes

I think “Change it back!” is usually a knee-jerk reaction.

In this case I agree with @AmazingRando24. (Except “lake property”, geeeeeez. :slight_smile: )

Yellow and Orange are high-contrast colors. The high-contrast triangle anchored to the corner of the poster was easy to process. In comparison, the small teal square inside the poster, next to the episode number, is a real fight to see.

It makes more sense, to me, to indicate interesting NEW shows, rather than already-watched ones.

And of course consistency across the UI is very important. I understand that will evolve! Like a differently-sized stair, you only notice inconsistency. I never “thought about” the Plex UI before, and now I trip over it.

2 Likes

I think the orange line underneath for both fully played and parted played was a mistake, so glad that has gone.

I think Orange triangles shout look at me, so should not be used on played files.

I think Plex preview moved us in the right direction from where the current main version is.

The orange wedges were used for unwatched titles so shouting “look st me” made sense.
Now there is a hard to see greenish check mark for watched episodes. Wonderful, not. :blush:

2 Likes

I would almost prefer the orange line over the teal gremlin checkmark if I’m being consistent in my call for consistency.

It seems there are two points in the conversation revolving around watched/unwatched:

  • Whether to indicate Watched or Unwatched stuff and

  • How to indicate that stuff

I think they’re going about it in an odd way, as you have to dig into TV Shows to get to the watched/unwatched indicator. It would seem to make more sense to address it on the Movie side, as those indicators stand out immediately on the front pages of surfing.

So, I would think
 if you’re addressing it there first, then all of your indicators throughout the Plex experience should follow suit. If you’re going to make a change to the TV side, then it should match throughout.

I’m a fan of the wedge, because it stands out when browsing movies. It’s VERY Plex-esque and almost as consistent as the brandmark of the X in PleX. It had character and made a statement. “You’re in Plex.” I don’t want it to look or feel or match another company’s approach because it doesn’t have to. It has made sense since the dawn of my Plex usage and has become something that I’ve easily accepted as part of my experience.

It was clear, concise, and on brand. Why ever in the universe would you want to change something that made such a bold statement?

3 Likes

I completely agree with everything you’ve said. Unusual for me, I’m not usually that agreeable. :slightly_smiling_face:
I have poor eyesight, low vision is the PC term this week. I don’t expect Plex to design around my needs but obvious and easy to see benefits everyone.
What is wrong with the orange wedge? I forget. Is it offensive to orange people? Does Trump have Plex?

2 Likes

Please put the Shuffle for the entire tv series back at the top level. Before you could resume a show you were watching and choose shuffle and it would pull from all seasons just not the current season you are on, like it is now. If you want to shuffle the shows for all seasons you have to go to the shows top level and choose shuffle from there
not a happy shuffler here people


2 Likes

I would fine with an option to hide watched episodes altogether. The way you can have Plex not display shows with no unwatched episodes or hiding watched movies.

I really hate to keep beating a dead horse that Plex doesn’t seem to be paying any more attention to
 but I noticed yet another annoyance with the new direction


I was rifling through a season of a show in Plex Preview and noticed that I had completely bypassed the teal gremlin checkmarks and overshot my desired stopping point without realizing it. My eyes completely missed the watched/unwatched indicator being that small, in that color, in its current location.

The orange beam across the bottom stood out more in this use case
 and of course, the orange wedge is still more preferable.

One wonders if the design philosophy is: “We took a step backwards. In order to fix it, we must step back more.”

5 Likes

I think it’s change just for the sake of change now.
If it’s change to get all platforms uniform why not start with what was working and we are used to, the orange wedge for unwatched?

We had long discussions about accessibility compliance a couple of years ago. Please don’t forget about that aspect. Some us need or at least appreciate the ab9lity to glace at the screen and know what is going on. I shouldn’t have to scrutinize the screen to see what I haven’t watched yet.

2 Likes

Simple is better. Change isn’t always good.

I was satisfied with PLEX pre UNO because I use it for limited purposes (music and movies on my home network, only). Unlike in life, where you can’t “go back” in time, I could and I did with my PLEX setup.

I rolled my servers back to a pre-UNO version, logged out of my account at both the server and client level and am now back where I was ±3-years ago. It’s amazing how much snappier my setup is now.

In doing so, I realized that I only really like and use PLEX for its media library management tools (via the Web App on my PC desktop). I’ve never been a fan of their client apps, so I stopped using them and turned on DLNA. Voilà.

I recognize my solution won’t appeal to or work for a lot of people. If you’re married to the PLEX client apps, then you’re stuck. But if you’re not, it’s quite a liberating experience.

Your mileage may vary.

1 Like

New problem!

What the hell is this ‘Tis the Season’ crap on my roku home screen for? Why or why do you force rubbish like that on us.

Please someone tell me how to disable this?

Guessing it’s related to the new feature recently added (shown in the last 2 posts) here: Plex Media Server

-Shark2k

I don’t see anything in my library settings to disable this?

I noticed the same thing, however I wanted to enable it to see how it functioned.
I now see that it’s on my home screen on the hosted web app, haven’t checked on my SHIELD yet.

Maybe @StSimm1 can let us know where this option is supposed to be (and I did check from the hosted web app and not the local web app and didn’t see it).

I looked and didn’t see a support article on this yet (though I just did a search on “season hub” or something like that.

-Shark2k

The option for this is under server settings and then library, I was looking originally under the actual library settings but couldnt find it

4 Likes

Thanks, found it via another thread last night. Needed to restart my server and client to get it to work which was why it did not work initially.