Amarok's UI Game part 2

[Ralf Engels]

> Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 20:24:54 +0200
> From: Tomasz Dudzik <madsheytan at gmail.com>
> Subject: Amarok's UI Game part 2
> To: amarok-devel at kde.org
> Message-ID: <201010232024.55318.madsheytan at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> All needed info are included in the README file. Any questions? Write back ;)
> -------------- next part --------------
> This is new Amarok Look by Sheytan.
> Things that are redesigned in general mockup(amarok-general.jpg): 
> 

Hi Tomasz, Sheytan,
I would like to start with something positive:
The new UI really looks clean and nice.

And now the things I don't like:
-I guess there were a lot of discussions what Amarok should be and what
it shouldn't.
I was not involved in those but as far as I have heard Amarok should be
the music player giving you lots of context information to "Discover
your music".

There are other Music players that go for simple and clean. Amarok
isn't.
(please, people longer involved in Amarok correct me if I am wrong).

-Monochromatic icons
They are "in" and the look clean.
However you loose one way to convey information. 
Having a red border around all things that you can click e.g. would look
stupid but it would easily show the user what he can do.

So how about giving me at least two colors. That still looks stylish and
is still usable.

Also those icons will not follow the platform style.
I was a big fan for XMMS and the winamp styles until I noticed that it's
stupid to have applications that look and react completely different
than the rest.
If you want to have monochromatic icons then just choose a different KDE
icon theme.
And where KDE is missing Icons that we need, we should try to get them
in.

-Buttons without texts at the bottom.
>From the screenshots it is very hard to figure out where the buttons are
and what they do.
Having all buttons in a toolbar at the top of the window is standard. If
you deviate from this you need to have a good reason.
Just having it looking different is no reason.

Upps. I just noticed that I am being negative. Sorry about that but I
have to continue.
Really sorry. Nothing personal here.

-Tab-bars at the bottom.
Again. A tab bar is at the top. Always and since years.
Blender can get away with a completely own UI because they have good
reasons for it. 
Wanting it to look different is not a good reason.


Here is a request from me:
The Bar at the left side is strange and makes a lot of problems:
- It is actually a multi level menu with build which is unexpected.
- It throws together multiple not-connected things
- It does not allow you to drag files from your collection to a playlist
which is a common usecase I think.

And a proposal to continue:
How about a vote for UI elements that can be removed.
There is stuff in Amarok that I never used and never imagine I will ever
need.
How about putting those things to a vote.

Ralf

PS: I am quite emotional when talking about UI design. It's nothing
personal.