More > Media Center 12 (Development Ended)
small cosmetic changes that'd make a BIG diff.
park:
--- Quote ---Maybe it's too late in the development cycle now, but if it generates some conversation then that's cool too.
--- End quote ---
Seems i didnt even achieve that. :)
Anyway, here are some other small visual things that would go a long way in my book:
* When you hover your cursor over the time bar, a little "Position" dooby pops up. It would e better if it were to report the time position of where you are pointing at, rather than the currrent position of the audio/video. The current time position of the audio/video is easy to see directly above it in the counter. This functionality would make skipping much easier.
* I'd love to see a visualisation that shows the entire waveform of an audio file, and have a line cursor showing the current time position. This would also be great to skip through a track, and really helpful in finding choruses/climaxes etc. Somthing like the way you see audio files in sound editing programs like Adobe audition.
* I really think that the Tag window should have a link above the image thumbnail saying "Preview". This would really help to show users that the thumbnail area is clickable, and introduce everyone to the "image preview" action window. I really like the emphasis on action windows to achieve tasks in this version of MC. I also really like the stars in the tag window. I was looking for the "Rating" tag for ages in the list of tags before i noticed those little beauties. I'm sure a new user would see them straight away since they'd be looking for that more than what i was looking for.
* How about making image slideshows and playing images, independant of whatver is going on in playing now. Double clicking an image or multiple images could open up the "image action window" (with all the same features as the display window: detatch\ full screen etc.), plus a "new" action window called "Images" or "List" or something. This new action window would be similar to the "playing now" action window in that it would show a list of files that you have launched. This way it would be possible to reorder or delete images from the slideshow.
The links on the photos in the library could say "View" and "Tag" rather than the current "Play" and "Tag", just to show that images dont ever go to playing now, or you could have all three options, for people who still want to send stuff to playing now (perhaps for people who use the columns in playing now to make tag changes etc.)
I always found it awkward, image slideshows being part of the playing now interface. I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect that someone might want to watch and edit slideshows, whilst listening to music or watching a video (including seeing those media's own accompanying visualisations).
* An extentionsion of the above idea would be to have the "image list" action window not just show a list, but a very basic tile (as they looked in their very first incarntation before tiles view came about). It could have the name of the file plus one or two extra fields, such as ratings, so that you could also tag images on the spot as they play.
* How about putting a little icon in the display action window top bar so that you can detatch in one click.
* The handhelds interface it great now. So easy to see all the options you have. To complete it, I'd put something in the action window somewhere allowing the user to eject manually whenever they want. At the moment, you have to search for it in the tree to do that.
The volume adjustment seems to be the only other thing i can think of that isnt easy to find.
park:
In tile view, if the number of tiles in the bottom most row dont completely fill the row, how about centering them, rather than having them left justified? That would look much better in my book.
modelmaker:
Another small change:
If we have to have the microscopic cover art in one of the columns, couldn't the default column be the "album" column.
In my case, in one view it's in the track column, in PN, I have seouence # instead of track # chosen and the cover art then shows up in the track name column.My request: Give it its own column or keep it in the Album column (or Track column).
Alex B:
--- Quote from: modelmaker on August 22, 2006, 01:26:33 am ---Another small change:
If we have to have the microscopic cover art in one of the columns, couldn't the default column be the "album" column.
In my case, in one view it's in the track column, in PN, I have seouence # instead of track # chosen and the cover art then shows up in the track name column.My request: Give it its own column or keep it in the Album column (or Track column).
--- End quote ---
As you may know, I have suggested this: give it a separate narrow column that can be moved to a different place in details view and also removed from the current view if preferred. Also, make the old useful icons that showed media type and import status with audio files available again in a similar way (this import status display could be extended to other media types as well).
park,
I think a more effective way to get your message through would be to concentrate only in one or two details at the same time. I was away for a few days and find it difficult to catch up everything now. This thread is a good example. I didn't have time to properly read through your posts, but modelmaker's short comment got my attention instantly. (Sorry about that, I'll try to find out what you really said.)
park:
Good point Alex. Too many ideas and nowhere to express them :)
I have edited my first post a little to remove it of stuff i mentioned in later posts.
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