Remember when software was descriptive and interfaces were easier to use? Nowadays we have less agency because software creators treat complexity like a deep dark secret that should never be seen. As a result, nearly every interface you see is littered with icons you eventually understand will allow you to do some thing or another.

I was looking at Nickel's floating navigation and deciding it was unhelpful and unsightly.

What to do? Go back to the essence.

Objectively, the new floating navigation is more helpful at a glance; color, shapes, and if all else fails, text.

I was rather proud of the TV Guide UI I introduced last week until I realized something…

Making tags behave like Channels clutters the interface with duplicate videos, which looks messy. Now, the TV Guide only shows Channels.

Looks sad that there are only two Channels at the moment but that'll change with time. As a reminder, Channels will only appear if there are at least five published videos.

A long-standing issue with Nickel's video page has been the row of placeholder videos beneath the main content area.

I finally got around to replacing it with a row of related videos, based on the tags you set during upload (or, after the fact).

If there aren't any related videos found, you'll see this instead:

The "Surprise me" link will load a random video (remember StumbleUpon? I miss it).

Other than that, I created /privacy and /terms pages, cleaned up typos, and made other QoL improvements. The next update may take a bit of time because it'll be working on the tipping feature…I want to do this right and the implementation I have in mind is big enough to be its own product. Hopefully it won't take too long!

See you in the next dispatch!

— Paul

If you’re a Creator or aspiring to be one, let me know what you need in a platform (here’s my profile and a random video, if you want to see how the UI is shaping up). If you know a Creator, let them know about NICKEL! By signing up for the mailing list, you’re also on the waitlist (which makes you eligible for future perks).

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