We're currently re-building faubourgsimone.com website and we're facing a ux challenge: should the player be in an external pop-up window or in the website?
Today, it plays in an external window, so we imagine our listeners are used to that. In my opinion, it's the only reason we should keep it like that.
On the other side, regarding websites like Soundcloud or Mixcloud, they perfectly handle an internal player.
What route is preferable?
I might suggest a compromise -- Ideally, you could implement a fixed-position element that includes all of the music playing functionality. That way, the user can manipulate the music from any location on the website, from the tab of the website, and the player remains consolidated with the remainder of the display.
Having an external player, particularly a pop-up one, forces the user to interact with it more than they need to (dragging it to a useful position, out of the way, out from behind windows). Even if it's made into a tab, it still constitutes a new separate element than the user needs to worry about, and consciously bring back up when needing to change the music.
With the inclusion of downloading functionality, having an external window may cause even more problems. Downloads initiated from the separate window will appear in that window only. The user may close the window and expect the download to be completed by the browser, but it will not.
DatPiff features an external music player, which becomes a nuisance when multiple tabs (and perhaps other applications) are open in the first place.
Personally, I'd prefer an external window. As you've already pointed out, your users are used to that, but as someone who often has many browser tabs open, an external window would make it easier to find and change my player settings. I'd also put something on your site for Soundcloud / Mixcloud users to tell them that the player has opened an external window.
I'd be interested to see any stats for the average number of tabs people have open.
Personally, I prefer the regular browsing experience meaning playback in the regular window. I like my browser to use just one window, once it pops up it prevents me from dragging the popup back between the other tabs or easy access to browser extensions for the page.
On the other hand, I can imagine some users don't really understand the concept of tabs and the music will suddenly stop when they navigate to another page.
If you want to know for sure you'll have to find some research or do some A/B testing yourself. Either way, let me know the results because I'm curious.
What problem with using the radio through an external window solve?
Also consider that many browsers don't even support an external window properly. Tablets and smartphones, as well as full-screen browsers don't handle this well.
A website should mostly stick to a single window. This puts control about the browser windows and desktop workspace into the hands of the users. They can now put the window with the radio apart if they like. Or not and simply keep using the website while the music plays (like Soundcloud) in the background.
It depends on context.
If the user is most likely to choose a station and stick with it for most of his time I suggest using internal player.
If the user is most likely to switch between these web-radios several times during his listening then the external player is better.
The rationalization is the usage: external window provides easy access to the player (assuming only two windows exist) thus providing quick ability for the user to alter his stations and preferences. Internal tab is usually between many other tabs and most likely is less frequently accessed due to the hassle for searching it.
In this case since the users are accustomed to external player, and keeping consistency should always be a factor in the decision. Personaly I would go with the external player.
It may be best to offer both options and design a system whereby the player can popout and using JS the interface would adapt based on the changed parameters. This concept may lead to a more friendly and intuitive user interface. I run three Web Radios and all are internal players, however the styling of the player does affect the bounce ratio. This may be considered.
If you want your audience to listen and do nothing the external player is the way to go.
If you want to be able to display:
So If you want to be able one day to build a community keep contact and exchange with your audience you should go to the internal player. IMHO It's better to have audience using your tools to communicate than an external website.
I personally prefer a standalone application, if possible. I always accidentally close out the Sonzga tab I have open!
I would provide both options, as clearly the vote is split, and it's entirely possible to satisfy both parties.
Make it start with an embedded player, with a button to pop out.
Then for the pop-out player, I'd make sure it popped out into a separate window where possible, (completely free from the browser window in focus - as in not a tab) and specify a small, unobtrusive size that doesn't cover the screen.
That way the pop out player won't obstruct view of the content, nor guide the precious website viewer away to a different tab. Additionally, it will be easy to switch to it immediately from the taskbar/tray-app-thingy-on-mac, independent of browser. (Mainly because Chrome doesn't show all the tabs that are open in a single window instance when hovering over the taskbar, unlike IE and others)
