Removing the animation categories

As previously discussed, the current over-abundance of animation categories (films, TV series, direct-to-video, etc.) are starting to cause problems simply because we're finding things that just don't fit. Plus, since the Top 5 lists are also generated from the current categories, they're getting starting to get skewed as well. 

So, my plan is to essentially remove all the categories but replace them with the ability to search in a much more complex and meaningful way.

http://www.tiltedwindmills.com/wp-content/uploads/animBrowse.jpg

This is a screencap of the options that will replace the current profile index pages. This view is the default which would show all the released animation in the database. Since you can't see it in action, the Initial Release dropdown contains in theatres, on television, direct-to-video and on the web. 

While I'd like to eventually add an "Advanced Search" area as well, the theory is that you should be able to recreate all current category lists using this set of options. Also, this same set of options would replace the Top 5s current categories so you'd be able to generate Top 5 lists using these as well.

Because this is going to be a fairly significant change to the site, I wanted to post this now and give everyone a chance to offer any feedback they might have. The wording and the options need to be very clear so that even people who aren't familiar with Keyframe will be able to browse comfortably.

Might I suggest two things - for a future update if need-be:

I would like a 'from/to' year-range filter to be added, so that if a user wants to search for just stuff made between say: 1983-1984, or 1990-1999 would only have to type said dates on the two boxes. If boxes are left blank then it searches through the entire database of dates.

I would also like to see the country of origin filter and a popular studio filter incorporated in the options at some point, like we currently have in the browser.

Heh, you are reading my mind as I had been thinking of putting those three things into a dropout "Advanced" options area... possibly now, possibly later, I need to figure out how much else needs to change around the rest of the site once the categories go...

I had thought of keeping these four as prominent just to keep the user from being overwhelmed... what do you think?

Not sure what's happening here, but I can see that Starlac posted a follow-up, however none of the content is visible.

Thought I'd mention that while I think about the topic...

Loop

Oh sorry, that was just me working out the design in a graphics program so I didn't include the actual listing of the films. I spent yesterday working on the functional version though. Here's a screencap of what it looks like now.

http://www.tiltedwindmills.com/wp-content/uploads/screencap_0702.jpg

What do you guys think about including the star-rating in the browsing function? 

http://www.tiltedwindmills.com/wp-content/uploads/browseAnim_with_stars.jpg

I thought it might generate some curiousity and encourage people to click through if they see something that they haven't heard of.

I like the notion of having the stars on the profile list - and probably asked about it going there at some point in the past - so I'm all for such an addition.

I would suggest the removal of the "* ratings" part and just have the star score there on its own, to make it less cluttered (and the same width as the "released" column). People will be able to see how many people have rating such and such on the profile page, having it on the list may be overkill.

If a profile has no ratings, you might pop the "no ratings" graphic there, taking up the same space as the rest of the stars in the list.

Mm, good suggestions. I'll see about changing that up.
Thanks!