I found out recently that the new âLiteâ version will someday become the default version of Trakt. I ignored it before because at a glance I did not like it. I spent some time with it today and I still donât like it. I primarily use the Dashboard, the show pages, the episode pages, and Search. Here are some of my initial thoughts on the DashboardâŚ
I donât like the separation of âContinue Watchingâ and âStart Watchingâ. I primarily watch TV shows and TV episodes, so I like having the one Up Next section showing what shows are available. I like todayâs sections for Up Next and Watchlist as they more closely align to how I choose what to watch.
I do not like the episode thumbnails. They make it difficult to see what the Show actually is. It is so much easier to decide what I want to watch based on a large Show picture.
I donât see the value of knowing how many episodes and how many minutes are left to watch. I got confused with how YouTube and other streamers show you how much time is remaining in the video you started watching. Putting this together with my previous note about episode thumbnails, you are actually mixing two concepts â showing you the next episode to watch (as a thumbnail) but placing on top of it information about not the episode but the show (how many episodes are left to watch). That is confusing.
The order of the episodes makes no sense, and there doesnât appear to be a way to change the order. I guess itâs in order of what you last watched? But thatâs not helpful to me. I donât binge shows. I watch one episode of a show and then I watch an episode of a different show.
The minus symbol (â-â) is not good UI. While it may imply a thing you can compress (like in a tree structure), as a standalone symbol on a page like this, it implies a list item, and this is not a list. Another confusing aspect of the page.
What is with all the white space at the top of the page? I like the summary info at the top of the current Trakt page.
Generally speaking, the current dashboard looks better to me because all of the images are bigger, which is great for me because I primarily use Trakt on my iPad, and occasionally on my computer. When I use Trakt on my phone itâs mainly for Search. I do not use the apps.
Thatâs all I have for now. I have not seen if the current âclassicâ Trakt will be available after the âLiteâ version becomes the default, but it should be.