Sorry for this long rant: I appreciate your post and it brought out a lot of things I've been thinking of, some related to what I understood of the Genie app at the parks (but I've tried to make this about the navigators...).
Really the issue is the concept of
YouTube vs TV style format for intake of events. Various people (especially those older) prefer the TV style consumption while those younger prefer the YouTube style that Disney currently uses on the App. They really need a toggle for the style you prefer.
Unfortunately I don't work with the
DCL UI/UX design team.
The analogy to youtube/TV is good but I think it misses the point. An interface like youtube works because it is designed to help people manage the type of data that youtube streams. Recommender systems do a good job at helping you find things you might like that you weren't aware of. And, they are good for paring down large amounts of information that people can't process easily and help them focus on things that are more likely to be what they want. With youtube there are millions of videos, most content is not tied to a time, and you need a way of limiting the information presented so that people can understand it and find things they're more likely to like.
At the same time, TV lineups do a far better job of presenting information for television broadcast. There are only a few channels (well... sometimes), and the time things are shown matters, so it makes sense to have a time dimension to the display.
I don't think the interface itself is really a matter of preference, other than preference for the way underlying data is consumed ("see what's streaming" vs. "see what's on"); older people are more used to the broadcast model of content, and so they will like that interface; younger people are more used to on-demand, and like the corresponding interface. It would be stupid to try to put a "TV guide" interface on youtube, and it would be stupid to put a youtube interface on a TV schedule (unless the number of channels got large enough, in which case neither system works).
The thing is, the cruise activities are far closer to a TV lineup than a youtube collection of videos/channels. There are probably less than 20 "channels" of planned activities available at any time (the navigators you posted show about 15 "tracks"), and there's a critical time component - you can't do the ship activities on-demand. The traditional navigator layout (TV-style) just provides better information visualization for this particular task than the app does. You don't need to filter thousands of activities down so people can find the things most interesting to them - the whole day literally fits on a single sheet of paper.
It also doesn't have to be specific but general ideas like how you like dance parties, hate trivia, and love cooking demonstrations. Additionally long term they could build in a system for you to check off that you attended something. This could both be built in to a "memories" site allowing you to review past cruises as well as suggest activities for future ones.
There is so much potential for making your life easier on a cruise and to give Disney feedback on how to alter entertainment.
There is certainly potential, but the issue is that in the mean time, by taking away some options that work well for some tasks (e.g. the traditional navigator for seeing the schedule for a whole day), they can make things worse. I really don't think there's a question (is there?) that the traditional navigators were better than the current app for helping people look over everything to do during the day, and the times activities are available. The issue is whether the app is providing enough additional benefits to make up for the loss of using the original navigator.
I do see benefits in providing more information/detail, like how they can provide menus, or more detail about what an event involves, or many other app functions (e.g. making reservations/getting notifications/updates). But, I guess I am really skeptical at Disney's ability to actually make any real benefits in terms of scheduling come from the app (based on my experience, they haven't gotten close yet). For "scheduling," I don't really think people need a recommender system - at least one that we're going to have this decade. Navigating cruise activities is not that complicated! I find it hard to believe that people are so overwhelmed by their options on the cruise that they need help figuring out which of the things going on at any time might be most appealing to them; or at least that they need help at the level that this app will be able to provide and the traditional navigator didn't.
Disney IT is not exactly cutting edge, and they aren't going to have enough data or personal knowledge unless things change a lot to be able to actually make anything other than simplistic recommendations. If you like dance parties and cooking demonstrations, it's always been really easy enough to find them, and it's been easy to skip the trivia you don't like. I find it very hard to see how the app can provide any kind of useful advice beyond something very simplistic, unless the level of onboard (or personal) data collection scales up massively, and the system becomes much, much more sophisticated. Until then, it seems ridiculous that Disney would have eliminated a tool many people found more useful.
So sad. Will definitely comment on the comment card. Here's to hoping everyone comments on this so you could at least pick one up at guest services. Although I suspect almost everyone would so then maybe they could go back to the original beloved system!
