New Episode page gets cleaned up

A big focus of our most recent release has been cleanup. The “New Episode” and “Edit Episode” pages are two of the most critical UIs on Pinecast, but neither has gotten an overhaul in a very long time. We’ve taken time to pick apart the UI visually, and the result is a cleaner look. Here’s what you’ll see:

You might say “That doesn’t look very different!” And you’re right! We’ve put a great deal of energy into making sure it’s familiar. Let’s talk about what’s new.

The fields have more room to breathe

We’ve spaced out our fields more. This comes with a trade-off: some fields are now below the fold. That’s okay! Almost every field that’s visible by default is something you should pay attention to, and so we expect you’ll scroll down regardless.

The improvement, though, means groups of components like “Episode type”, “Season number”, and “Episode number” aren’t bunched up and/or wrapping on mobile devices.

Scheduling is more obvious

We now have less boilerplate around the “Episode release” section of the form.

There are fewer borders, labels, and explainer text. We’ve tried to make it more obvious what you’re looking at and why it matters, and reduced the amount of visual noise. If you use a screen reader, it should be slightly more intuitive to tab through options.

Artwork and metadata

One of the most common places for folks to get stuck while uploading an episode is at the artwork and metadata step.

This has been one of the most-refined UIs on all of Pinecast. Folks have written in about getting stuck at this step dozens of times in the last decade, and we’ve made tweaks consistently to help improve the wording and appearance. This is our latest iteration:

1. We have clearer directions on where to look and what to do.
2. The option to skip looks less like a call to action and more like an alternative.

We think this is going to eliminate a lot of confusion for users and hopefully make it easier to get started with a new podcast.