The Big Upgrade
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It all started in February, when I began updating the information and structure of the music section and encountered two problems.
Firstly, no matter how small the change was, I had to apply it manually to more than 50 releases and 200 songs.
Secondly, every time I added a new release or song, I had to reorganise all the menus to make it fit.
Both problems meant that adding information or making changes was very time-consuming.
Then I found a system that solved both problems, but the more I did, the more ideas came to me, and they seemed so interesting and essential that I couldn’t stop working on them until I made them work.
There came a point when putting those ideas into practice far exceeded my skills as an amateur web designer and programmer, and then I realised that some things even exceeded the capabilities of the programme used to create this website… 😅
So I have to admit that I wouldn’t have been able to finish this project without the help of ChatGPT, which understood what I was looking for and generated code that added features that aren’t yet available in the web layout tool (well… it wasn’t as easy and straightforward as it sounds now, but it worked!😉)
Without further ado, let me show you the latest additions to the sections of X-Perience.es that have already been updated, and tell you what’s coming next!
The Upgraded MUSIC page
Without a doubt one of the largest and most interesting sections of the website for fans, right? Here you can find information about each of the band’s releases and songs. We have created a completely new music section.
Here you can find all the band’s albums, singles and EPs. And there’s something new! We’ll have personalised playlists so we can delve deeper into the music of our favourite band!
We hope that the new music page on X-Perience.es will be more intuitive and useful for you. Here are the highlights.
Easy access
Now, accessing the release you are looking for is much more visual, with album covers and a horizontal scrolling system that we are used to, making navigation more natural.
The new panel
But the most important thing is that when you select an release, a panel will open on the page itself with all the information! Covers, credits, purchase and streaming links… so you can listen to it on your favourite streaming platform…
Our own player
But… what if, from now on, X-Perience.es became your favourite platform for streaming X-Perience releases?
Introducing our very own player! Select an album, tap a song from the tracklist, or simply press play to start listening! You can fast-forward and rewind within a song, skip tracks, activate shuffle mode, or set the tracklist to repeat when it reaches the end.
In addition, below the track list, you will find the lyrics to the song that is playing! And while it plays, you can check out information not only about that album, but also continue browsing through the entire music section until you find another album to listen to!
More music
And you won’t just have all of X-Perience’s music! Another new feature of the new music section is that you will also be able to access the band’s other musical projects. Angelzoom, Diamarclub, Interstellar0… thus reinforcing our commitment to gathering, sharing and preserving information about the band and supporting them in their other musical projects.
the Upgraded BAND page
As we progressed with the music section, we realised that if we wanted to include information about the people involved in each release, we needed to enhance the ‘Band Members’ section in a similar way.
The new people section has navigation similar to the music section, with side scrolling and a panel that opens with information about the selected person.
On this panel, you will find a biography, photos and videos, links to their social media accounts, notable works, and more information about Claudia, Matthias, Alex, and other people related to X-perience.
We already have 11 profiles! But we will soon increase that number with more people, whether they are from the early stages of the band or from the more recent ones!
the new MEMORABILIA section
On our history page, you will find this new section dedicated to X-Perience objects and memorabilia: postcards, posters, concert tickets, flyers, jewellery… yes, there will be a little bit of everything!
With photos and all the information we have available to offer you about each item.
And if you see something you like, know about, or want to give your opinion on, you can share it with everyone in the comments section!
The same lateral displacement and panel opening of the new sections is maintained, so that consistency gradually spreads throughout the website and navigation becomes more intuitive.
the Upgraded GALLERY page
The gallery section has also been updated! You will find the side scroll navigation, but this time when you click on a gallery you will access its page instead of opening a panel, as due to how the new panel system handles photo galleries, we have decided that this method did not offer as many advantages when it came to organising the images.
You can visit our gallery page and see for yourself! We now have new galleries from the latest concerts, and if you click on each one, you will see that we now offer more information such as dates, photo credits, and locations!
And what's left?
Well, there are still a few things to come! The locations and videos pages will be the next to receive updates from the new system, which we hope will enable us to offer you much more information that is better organised and more accessible.
Although all these updates are already at a sufficiently advanced stage of development to be finalised and ready to show you, we are currently still in ‘testing mode’, which means that you may notice lower than expected website performance.
We hope you can have some patience with the page loading and we would love to hear your reactions and impressions about all these new features. We look forward to reading your comments.
