The New Hulu

Yesterday, I was delighted to log onto Hulu and get a look at its new interface!

I'm a big television-watcher - I call it a hobby - and I've been a member of the website for a number of years. Over time, the site's interfaced has changed plenty. Each update making the site easier to explore.

What works regarding the most recent updates?

First, on the homepage (when you're logged in) are thumbnails of all the shows you've watched. (Or, if you share your HuluPlus account with your boyfriend like I do, all the shows the both of you have watched.) This is ideal for people like me who tend to watch numerous shows in small spans of time. While scrolling through this list, I instantly ran across a few shows I'd simply forgotten about.

I still haven't finished GCB.

I clicked on the British political sitcom, The Thick of It, that I haven't watched in a while. (By the way, it's really entertaining.) Above the episode list was the option to resume where I left off on the previous episode I apparently stopped watching. For those of us with short attention spans - or not enough time to finish everything we start - this is quite useful.

I also like the feature segments on the homepage. If I didn't want to watch anything in particular, certainly something on the homepage would grab my attention. There is a LOT there.

I'm not entirely certain whether this is new or if I just missed it before, but the "Staff Picks" section of Television and Movies is a nice addition. You know the deal: you don't know what's good and you ask a staff member, etc.

What doesn't work?

Design-wise, the homepage is a bit image-heavy. Just before this redesign, there were captions and small pieces of text to go along with the images. However, this minimalist design has taken a large amount of that text out in place of images. There are pros and cons to this:

• I've learned that the more words you have to use, the less intuitive the object is. (Ex. A door should  ideally never have the word "push" or "pull" on it because it should be obvious how you open it.) Also, images are more entertaining to the eye.

• However, the massive amount of images is overwhelming. My eye doesn't quite fall on anything in particular; instead, I'm constantly looking around. It's not relaxing. (I'm just glad nothing is moving...)

Another thing I'm not too happy with is the auto-play. At first, when auto-play was first implemented it was opt-in, meaning that if you wanted your videos/clips to auto-play you had to hit the auto-play button. Now it's opt-out - videos will automatically auto-play unless you hit "Pause Auto-Play". That's annoying. 

Granted, there is a 50-second countdown giving you enough time to hit the "Pause Auto-Play" button, but I'd still prefer it to be opt-in than opt-out. Maybe, it's just me...

Overall, I enjoy the changes Hulu has made. It's easier to find new things to watch, watch what you like, and pass some time semi- to unproductively. Hulu itself is a remarkable website that should have been around ages ago. Yes, many television networks offer online video of their programming, but their players are not as reliable and they don't offer nearly as much content as Hulu. 

(Also, I have Hulu to thank for most of the British sitcoms and Japanese anime I watch now.)