Future UI Discussion

[Dan Meltzer]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:30 PM, Lee Olson <leetolson at gmail.com> wrote:
> All,
>
> Seeing as the user interface has been a pretty hot topic lately, I decided I
> would go ahead and create a mockup which should hopefully resolve some of
> the issues stated in the "About Amarok's interface design" thread.
>
> Please take a look at the attachment (which contains various minor changes,
> which are not quite perfect yet) and reply to this thread with ideas /
> comments that we can use in the future of Amarok's design. Please keep in
> mind that this is a long-term project and will be worked on step-by-step to
> achieve something that a majority can agree with.
>
> Hopefully this mockup will provide as a good visual that we can discuss and
> step-by-step, create a nice interface without completing another full
> overhaul.

Hi,

Reading it like a book, cause thats how I roll.... heres my responses:

1) I think we should reconsidder using round icons for playback.  They
look visually interesting when they are stacked on each other, but
introduce all sorts of physics issues.  When they are separated like
this they look goofy, in my opinion.  I'm not sure if the focus area
for round actions is the square that boxes it in, or just the circle
itself.. but if it's just the circle it requires a whole lot more
sliding to get from one icon to another.  I wonder if it would be a
good idea to adopt something like firefox 3 does, with buttons next to
each other but of varying sizes and shapes to denote importance.

2) I am pondering the top bar in general... I feel that we need to
progress indicator to be as wide as it can be, but the volume
indicator above it leaves thing off balance... I'm not particularrly
sure of the best solution here... but keep in mind we also need to
add, at some point, a search bar for the playlist (unless we do it
quick-search firefox style, which was being talked about at some
point--but I don't think it would be discoverable enough) and space
for analyzers.  Those both would probably want to live somewhere in
the top area as well.  Perhaps we shrink the playback icons down (or
at least all but the play/pause icon) to be on the top line, and have
the progress bar go full width of the app... this would make it more
balanced, but still leave empty space... Ideas?

3) One of the things that annoys me about the current interface, and
that made it into your mockup as well (I'm not sure if it's
intentional or not in the mockup) is the space between the tabs on the
vertical sidebar.  I feel like they should but up to each other, and
just have a visual (line?) indicator of where one ends and the next
begins.  I think that we need to stress that these are tabs, not
buttons.. and should be treated as such visually.

4) The area above the collection browser.  We definatly need to do
something to make it look less ugly, it's currently a mishmash of
everything.  I've had trouble figuring out what to do with it, though.
 We need at least the following:
  a) A search line
  b) A method of accessing the edit filter dialog (which needs a
redesign as well... but thats another story)
  c) A button/combobox/something to change the sorting of the collection.
  d) A way to change ascending/descending on the collection (which is
part of the view, but still needs to be there)
  e) A few other things that have yet to make it from 1.4... like
toggling the separate by letter in the collection.
My original idea was to try and move the "Group By" stuff into the
view header, and come up with some smart way to allow both changing
the sort order, as well as the sort levels, all from the header.  I
think that that would work, but It doesn't look like it would be
programatically easy.. and I'm not exactly sure how the interface
would work and if it would be discoverable or not.  This still leaves
a number of things that we need to decide how to squish into the
space.

5) The lack of contrast/distinction between the context view and the
rest of the application.  I feel that we need to have a visual canvas
there, to alert users to the fact that they can fiddle with it and
change things around.  In the mockup the applets look very similar to
the playlist and collection widgets, and I have a feeling users would
expect they could interact with them the same way.  I like the general
idea of integrating them more, but we do need to come up with a way to
keep them clearly different from the panes they associate with.



There, that's a start at least :)  Let the bikeshedding begin!

I may write another email later about contrast and color stuff, but I
feel like thats easier to tweak down the road... or at least a much
smaller building block to play with than the interface pieces
themselves.

Dan,
>
> Thanks!
> - Lee
>
>
>
>
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