In the year since we announced and implemented our last big update to ZuneSpring a lot has changed. Users no longer want to fill burdened with heavy interfaces, they no longer have tolerance for slow loadings times, and more than ever before, they want information and helpful resources. As some of you may be aware, ZuneSPring v6 while consisting of an entirely different back end, looked and behaving nearly identical to its predecessor. During that release we prioritized back end operations, such as taking a site that had previously required eight different systems to run correctly to just three. This was most certainly a feat that helped set the stage for our next move, and ensured that we had a proper foundation on which to build out our presence.
ZuneSpring 7, (No, we didn’t decide to capitalize on the name, it’s just a coincidence.) , will build from that foundation. We listened to each and every one of your complaints. We went over our entire UI, to make sure that we set a standard for what your experience should be while browsing our site. Here are a few bullet points.
- Performance. We’ve performance tested every single subsystem and plugin that goes into creating the user experience of ZuneSpring. No more waiting for half of your page to load.
- A Clean Look. ZuneSpring may be known for a few things in the Zune community however, a stream lined interface isn’t one of them. The upcoming version will dump over saturated graphics, and an over the top color screen to help you easily navigate sans confusion.
- News When You Need it. We’re also taking a different approach to just what makes it on our front page. Going forward you’ll find the latest news at the very top of our homepage, and an area to browse general Zune stories on the bottom. For all the news that’s fit to print you’ll also be able to head to news.zunespring.com for a blog interface of all stories.
- Social Networking. In the past it has been our philosophy to use social networking on a limited basis to help attract visitors to the homepage. From your feedback we’ve learned that’s the completely wrong way to go. Going forward we’ll be redoubling our efforts to reach out to community members, but it ways that make sense for each social medium. That means daily updates to our Facebook & Twitter profiles, and weekly updates to our Flickr, and YouTube accounts.
While these are our focus points for the release, we want to stress that this in no way details the amount of new content and sharpened features that you will find on ZuneSpring v Day One. We look forward to your being able to better take advantage of what we have to offer using ZuneSpring 7.