Nice that it’s not the proprietary real player anymore.

Still a step backwards on the usability front thought.

I’m not sure what problem you’re having with the new radio player on iPlayer? It’s a flash-based player, and you can still “listen again,” can’t you? I actually like that it’s no longer RealPlayer. And you can scrub (grab the ever-moving progress bar) to listen back and forward. You can even pop it out to have a separate player. It loads faster, plays more smoothly and, I think, is more convenient to use than the last one.

My problem is in finding the content in the first place. It’s unfamiliar, and—I feel—cluttered.

The comments on this piece have shown that there are those in favour, too. I’d say it’s a mixed bag, but that ultimately they got it wrong in execution. Oneronaut seems to like it, whereas Rob doesn’t. I don’t, but I’m unwilling to say that everything about it is bad.

What happens when it “stops and starts”? I haven’t had that problem yet, but I’ve finally got my broadband sorted with my ISP (another rant, another time, I feel), so that’s fixed most of my online woes… now if they just stopped charging for additional broadband use… bah!

Regards

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but, in my case, there’s only so much I can do about it. I don’t speak CSS very well, and I have only recently begun to play with all the settings. (Which is why it keeps changing all the time!) I don’t actually like the over-all look of my blog very much, and I’d love to have it properly designed. I haven’t, however, got the BBC’s design team (or their budget) to play with it.

If you have some suggestions, however, I’d be more than happy to have a look. If you’re a designer, and feel like improving the web, starting with my ugly site, I’d also be happy to hear from you! (if you can read this comment against the grey background!)

About the iPlayer, though: it’s still difficult to navigate. I’ll concede that the radio is better in Flash than RealPlayer (ugh!), but it’s still all over the place. I’ve heard quite a few complaints about it from “Listen Again” folks too. I can understand where they made their decisions to move away from the iPlayer as BBC TV Online, and towards presenting all the BBC’s content, but it takes all of bbc.co.uk to get that job done, so putting it all in a single player’s a bit mad.

I think it’d work much better if you could stream off much earlier: TV, Radio, News… three tabs, maybe?. Cut back on the amount of visual clutter on the landing page, and What’s wrong with a sidebar? It’s a familiar navigation tool, and people who are less adaptable might find that easier to use. The one thing which is more maddening, however, and which I hadn’t articulated, is the removal of the date-view. Now, it seems, you can only see what was on last Wednesday by channel. So, If I wanted to see what I could have watched on Friday, if only I had a TV, I have to look through each channel.

I do, however, have to admit, that the look of it is growing on me. So, maybe their design team’s better than I thought. Maybe they poached someone from Windows Live Writer?

K-Lite Codec anyone?

The sliding menu looks slick on its own, but in context, it’s busy and confusing. The sidebar was a work of genius: it made it very easy to navigate.

I have to agree with you that the radio is an important feature, and I think it’s time the BBC radio content was presented better than it has for years. However, mixed amongst the television content on a cluttered display doesn’t work.

I think it does- all the radio content is now integrated into the site, both ondemand and live. I think this is a fairly major feature in itself..