Future UI Discussion

[Teo Mrnjavac]

On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:32 PM, Lee Olson <leetolson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Attached is another mockup with a few changes. I've noticed that there seems
> to be a lot of discussion over the mockups at kde-look:
>
> http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Amarok2+Look+and+Feel?content=93854
> http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/A+Media+Player+for+KDE4?content=94472
>
> If there are particular ideas from those mockups that you would like to see
> integrated into my mockup, please let me know. Thanks!
>
> - Lee
>
 [M1]http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Amarok2+Look+and+Feel?content=93854
 [M2]http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/A+Media+Player+for+KDE4?content=94472
Some of these design ideas in the two mockups might be considered
heresy by some devs but I really like them, and I would like to see
how you would integrate them in your mockup.
I like the non overlapping buttons in M2 (you could have seen that coming).
I'm not very fond of the volume bar, I prefer the one we have now. The
analyzer in M2 is nice but the position of the elements in the main
toolbar should be rearranged.
The main toolbar is very nice in your (Lee's) mockup too but should be
draggable to the bottom; there are a few reasons for this I can think
of, such as people with system tray on top, or Maemo users, but I'm
sure there are lots of reasons I can't think of right now too. And a
mini mode consisting of the toolbar only would be a big plus.
Sorry Lee but I don't really like the tabs.
In M2 I think that the small bit of track info on the top right either
has to go or has to be reworked, it's a little too cluttered and
redundant.
The bottom toolbars in M1 and M2 are gorgeous in this case, but care
must be taken that they fit in the current KDE4 style. Don't get me
wrong, blue+black+white+grey >> grey+grey+grey+little else. But the
colors and icons mustn't be hard-coded or monochromatic so that they
fit in Bespin and other styles, your mockup is better in this.
I'm curious if you and the author of M1 and M2 can find a way to fit
the spreadsheet playlist somewhere in your mockups.

Ok, now the heresy part:
I don't think it would be a bad idea for Amarok to go the all-purpose
media player way, I see this as a natural and logical next
evolutionary step. After all, we already have a video plasmoid, why
limit it to basic video support for music videos?
So multiple collections (or a collection with multiple media type
labels, whatever) would be a must, as seen in the first picture of M2.
This concept could be integrated in Lee's mockup, I'm not sure to what
extent.
However, I find the layout with two tab bars in M2 a little confusing,
I would like to see a better solution, maybe with nested horizontal
tab bars or a hybrid tab bar+menus integrated in the tab-bar approach
(stinks of WMP though).

Cheers
Teo