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[Hendrik]

Here is another one with 40/60 width and improved button size:


As you can see, the cover art didn't get any smaller, it just moved slightly to the left (because its centered in its area), and the buttons/text get more space.
In before someone questions the symetry of not having 50/50?

[JimH]

Could you move the thermometer under the player controls so the only thing on the left is the cover art?

Cover art will look a little better if it isn't pushed against the left side, in my opinion.

[wig]

Here's a screengrab from my favorite android media player.

Collapsing the top menu really opens up area for the album art.

[Hendrik]

Could you move the thermometer under the player controls so the only thing on the left is the cover art?

Personally I think the seek bar is really useful when its so nice and wide.
Additionally, if the cover art gets more vertical space, it also gets wider again, and takes up more space from the buttons/text fields, which already struggle a bit to fit in there.

Of course I could also re-think the text layout here. The album and artist on one row sure does make for long strings.

I suppose i can wip up a quick image how it would look, though.

Cover art will look a little better if it isn't pushed against the left side, in my opinion.

Not sure what exactly you are referring to. The cover art has plenty space to each side, nothing is "pushing" it.

[wig]

Personally I think the seek bar is really useful when its so nice and wide.
Additionally, if the cover art gets more vertical space, it also gets wider again, and takes up more space from the buttons/text fields, which already struggle a bit to fit in there.

Is removing the stop button an option? I've never missed it on my phone, but I could see if being necessary for controlling other zones, etc.

Of course I could also re-think the text layout here. The album and artist on one row sure does make for long strings.

I suppose i can wip up a quick image how it would look, though.

Not sure what exactly you are referring to. The cover art has plenty space to each side, nothing is "pushing" it.

Unstacking album and artist is a great idea!

This is really promising, Hendrik. Your mockups already look much better than the current setup.

[csimon]

I think this is looking really neat. I too think that the seek bar is better across the whole width, I don't think it looks out of place in aesthetic terms and it increases usability a great deal. Cover art is certainly better with a blank border, like a picture would be framed, rather than filling up its entire space from margin to margin. But style is very subjective! The album and artist could be split onto two lines and I think possibly the playlist font could do with decreasing a bit, and/or a neater font, and like the cover art would look neater with a border of some description rather than filling up its space.

[FastKayak]

I agree with Jim on both points.  Maybe "pushed" in the wrong word...whatever, the cover art is too far left.  

Could you move the thermometer under the player controls so the only thing on the left is the cover art?

Cover art will look a little better if it isn't pushed against the left side, in my opinion.

FastKayak / Larry

[Hendrik]

I can't exactly center the cover art, or it eats up too much space.
I can move it slightly to the right, but only so much until it starts taking up space from the text and buttons again.

How did it look on the first images? It was more to the right on these.

[marko]

Great stuff. Very similar to my own vision....

.

Is it possible to increase the size of the [artist] • [album] text a little too?

[Hendrik]

If i split it into two lines, then yes, i can change it. Otherwise it already overflows the current width on many of my albums.

[AndrewFG]

If i split it into two lines, then yes, i can change it. Otherwise it already overflows the current width on many of my albums.

I think that if the text overflows the available space, it should rotate through the space "Times Square" banner style.
I also have the same request concerning the playing now screen in TheaterView.

[Hendrik]

If every text overflows the line, the line is too short or the text too long, though. =)

Here is another version:


I kinda like the separation of the text and the buttons. I also moved the cover art a bit to the right again, hopefully taking away that "pushed left" feeling.
If the artist and album would now be split into two lines, and some of the empty space maybe used by something new ... ratings? media metadata?

[JimH]

I just sent you a drawing.

Playing Now
Playing here (tap to change)

could be

Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)

and the artist album could be split into two lines

the thermometer could move under the text on the right

rating stars could be shown under it

[AndrewFG]

If every text overflows the line, the line is too short or the text too long, though. =)

Yes.

But there are always some extra long cases, particularly with classical music e.g. title = Symphony No. 9 // artists = Ludwig van Beethoven; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Herbert von Karajan; Anna Tomowa-Sintow; Agnes Baltsa; Peter Schreier; Jose van Dam ...

[Hendrik]

I just sent you a drawing.

Playing Now
Playing here (tap to change)

could be

Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)

One thing to note is that the title bar is consistent through the entire app, so while it may make sense to say "Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)", it might cause confusion to say "Red Hot Chili Peppers (Here -- Tap to change)" when I'm browsing the library.
In landscape mode, there is plenty space though, so maybe it should just be both the complete lines in one line to save some vertical space, without shortening the text, ie: "Red Hot Chili Peppers (Playing here -- Tap to change)"

and the artist album could be split into two lines

Yes, most likely going to do that.

the thermometer could move under the text on the right

I'm still liking the "thermometer" where it is, because it gives more control over seeking, especially if you're trying to control something with a longer duration, like a video or audio book.

rating stars could be shown under it

Without moving the "thermometer",  i would've placed them between the text and the buttons on my last image.

[JimH]

OK

[csimon]

the thermometer could move under the text on the right

LOL, I still like the whole width seek bar though. It's not too bad for music but when you're trying to seek through a 2-hour movie for a particular point on a bar that's like an inch wide with a fingertip that's half an inch wide it becomes difficult to do it with any degree of accuracy whatsoever, and in-car use also suffers when it's narrow, on a phone-sized screen reached at arms length (you're using a hands-free kit aren't you?). The wider the seek bar the better.

[Hendrik]

So here is another one, most likely the last one for today:


- Artist and Album are now on separate lines (and with an increased font size!)
- The title bar is a bit thinner in landscape, to open up some extra space

Personally I'm pretty happy with it. Still some space to add new information here, although not sure where I would put them in portrait mode then.

PS:
The slightly cut-off font (on the g and y) has already been corrected locally.

[HTPC4ME]

just noticed (havent used gizmo in some time) you guys added gizmo to the lock screen..Thanks for this! nice to just power on and skip tracks without needing to unlock!

[jmone]

They all look good to me! 

[dean70]

Would you need to have a button for the track-list? Could it be a swipe right to a separate screen (and swipe left to go back to cover-art view) ?

[Hendrik]

I built a new Gizmo version with my last version of the new landscape Playing Now page, and posted it here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86715.0

Please direct any Gizmo feedback not directly related to the new playing now page there.

[HTPC4ME]

much much nicer! thanks for doing this!
ratings, add to genre, add to playlists around the corner?

[JimH]

Very nice.  Thanks.

[HTPC4ME]

idea... ability to always see covers...when playing now, if one clicks on the playlist icon, the album hides, maybe it could jump to the right hand side above the control buttons.. that way we could see our whole playlist and cover and controls without having to touch anything... basicaly we could trigger the album to the right and shrink it above the tag info and when done just click album cover or playlist icon and we would go back to the state it is now.

possible bug... when lock screen turns on i have play controls and large black box... cover art is missing. i'm using galaxy s3.

idea...Ran across this a while back - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17021940/android-how-to-implement-control-in-notification-area perhaps instead of lockscreen player, there could be a notification player built in? by doing so at anytime in any app one could just swipe down, to play, pause, rewind, move forward, open player/Gizmo.

[jmone]

The new Playing New Screen looks good on a 5" phone but looks kinda "empty" on a tablet (as does the other screens).

Also I'll balance out some of Hendrik's heavy metal with some Asia!

[Hendrik]

Tablets are another matter entirely. They'll need some separate tuning for the larger screen sizes.

[jmone]

I agree - I don't think there is a "one size" fits all.  Looks great on a 5" screen.  Everything looks small on a 10"

[Scolex]

Would it be possible to have the option to hide the buttons and track info or album art with a tap.
Example: tapping album art would make it full screen, tapping again would revert back to split screen and vise versa.

What about using a gesture for seek similar to how the Theater View remote works.
Swipe left to right for move forward with hold to repeat with one addition that being after you hold moving vertically
changes the seek speed/time per step.
When I was testing out media player I came across one that had something similar but for the life of me I can't find it again.
How theirs worked was if you tapped the current position marker and then drag up and right the player advanced the further
you drug up the faster it advanced. Tapping anywhere on the track position bar other than the marker would cause playback
to move to that position.

Other gestures that would be nice. (full screen album art mode)
bottom half single finger swipe left/right = rewind/forward
Bottom half two finger swipe left/right = previous/next track
double finger up/down = playing now list
upper left side single finger up/down = volume
upper right side single finger up/down = brightness

Just some food for thought.

[csimon]

When I was testing out media player I came across one that had something similar but for the life of me I can't find it again.

The iOS app Leech Tunes has a great gesture-controlled interface to Now Playing, which is user-configurable (you can decide which gesture invokes which action).

I have a very simple, and I think intituive, swipe right/left for Next/Previous track, drag up or down to change volume, drag left or right to seek, two-finger swipe left or right to jump forwards/backwards, tap to play/pause, double-tap to bring up playlist.

[csimon]

The new Playing New Screen looks good on a 5" phone but looks kinda "empty" on a tablet (as does the other screens).

I haven't yet tried the latest version (can't wait to do so though!) but was a bit surprised - I was expecting the screen to scale appropriately so that it looks the same regardless of what size screen or resolution you've got. Can't the sizes, spacing, positioning etc be relative to the screen rather than absolute, or do you have to have different apps and/or coding for different screen sizes?

[csimon]

the further you drug up the faster it advanced.

Yes, I find that too. 

[Hendrik]

I haven't yet tried the latest version (can't wait to do so though!) but was a bit surprised - I was expecting the screen to scale appropriately so that it looks the same regardless of what size screen or resolution you've got. Can't the sizes, spacing, positioning etc be relative to the screen rather than absolute, or do you have to have different apps and/or coding for different screen sizes?

Android is actually trying to be somewhat smart, which means it tries to keep the buttons around the same physical size, no matter how big the device screen is.
We could change it to simply scale up, but that might look weird too.

Instead, I would rather spend another few hours to simply come up with a tablet optimized version of the screen instead.
Maybe the tablet version could always show the playlist, since it has so much room. But I can see how someone might not want that because it disrupts the clean layout a bit.

[AndrewFG]

I have a very simple, and I think intituive, swipe right/left for Next/Previous track, drag up or down to change volume, drag left or right to seek, two-finger swipe left or right to jump forwards/backwards, tap to play/pause, double-tap to bring up playlist.

I would like to add "tap and hold" to bring up a context sensitive menu to navigate to related media e.g. other albums by this artist / other tracks on this album / other albums in this genre / etc.

[Fabricio]

I agree - I don't think there is a "one size" fits all.  Looks great on a 5" screen.  Everything looks small on a 10"

+1

[Cereal Killer]

I just sent you a drawing.

Playing Now
Playing here (tap to change)

could be

Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)

and the artist album could be split into two lines

the thermometer could move under the text on the right

rating stars could be shown under it

This I like, better than 19.0.107

[Mr. Odd]

It'd be great to include "track number/track total" so you can see how far you are into an album or playlist.

[marko]

This is just great in the car now. Brilliant work Hendrik, thank you.

[nitephlight]

Android is actually trying to be somewhat smart, which means it tries to keep the buttons around the same physical size, no matter how big the device screen is.
We could change it to simply scale up, but that might look weird too.

Instead, I would rather spend another few hours to simply come up with a tablet optimized version of the screen instead.
Maybe the tablet version could always show the playlist, since it has so much room. But I can see how someone might not want that because it disrupts the clean layout a bit.

a very popular ui pattern these days is the Google inspired Navigation bar:

http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation-drawer.html

it would actually offer some elegant solutions for navigating back to top level views such as Home, Search(now accessible at any level of the application!) , Mode,  etc.. maybe  Remote. it can also potentially shuttle you between  Playing Now activity and perhaps a Playlist activity which could be home to new features like tag editing (ratingsss :-))

IMO the pattern optimizes both landscape and portrait user interaction (especially when car docked it is impossible to consistently hit the Home button or even my hardware back button for that matter haha)

[MGD_King]

Also I'll balance out some of Hendrik's heavy metal with some Asia!

There's not a thing wrong with Hendrik's tastes!  Nightwish FTW!!!

[Fabricio]

This is just great in the car now. Brilliant work Hendrik, thank you.

+1

[Hendrik]

So, in another thread someone was asking about the stopped state on the Playing Now screen, and the "Resume Playback" button.
He, and I, wonder why this button even exists.  If you have no file loaded, it doesn't do anything, and if you had a file loaded which was just stopped, its just a "Play" button, so why not simply show the playback controls?

Anyone else got any opinions on this, or perhaps knows the history of this button, if there is any to know?

[csimon]

I suspect that it's just a bit of "intelligence", i.e. the app responding and reacting to the current state of play and telling the user what the options are. You could achieve the same thing with just the play button, yes, but I suppose "Resume Playback" is more user-friendly in that it has spotted that you have previously paused playback and is telling you that you can resume from where you left it.  If you had stopped the file with the stop button instead of a pause then you would just get normal playback controls? My view is that if it's not doing any harm then redundancy is fine as long as it's adding something to the user experience! But then again, we don't really expect this level of user friendliness and probably all computer users, whether tech-savvy or not, are used to second-guessing what an app is doing or what it will do.

[Mastiff]

That someone Hendrik's talking about would be me! I mainly (well, almost exclusively) use Gizmo as a remote to my multi-zone setup both home and at the cabin. And I do not see in any other way what's playing anywhere, if I don't pick up a computer and use VNC to log on to the media server. And that's really defeating the purpose of having the possibility to control it with a phone. To me it's not redundancy at all, it's just a message saying I'm connected to the server. Which isn't a problem to know because if you're not connected to the server it will error out! So here's a bit more of my explanation:

All I see when playback is stopped, is the "You're on the bus" and below that there is a button with "Resume playback" on it. When I press that I see the name of the playing track and the button, and I would like to see that without starting playback first. Come to think of it I would like to see all the transport buttons, just like when playing, instead of a rather unhelpful message telling me I'm on the bus. If I can see the track name and other info I think it would be rather self-evident that I'm on something! Just like a lot of people in Colorado are now...legally!

Another thing that can be very annoying, at least to me, (OK, a bit outside the Playing Now screen part, but still...) is that a short press on a track in an album logically should have added that track to Playing now (or at least play that track), but that it does is to play that full album, starting on the file you click. That can be rather annoying, especially when it's a Podcast series with 500 short podcasts or when I have spent ten minutes adding tracks to a Playing now by clicking and holdning on separate tracks from a bunch of albums and then touches a single track by accident... For me it should work like double clicking in MC, so I can choose either in Gizmo or MC a setup to interpret a short click on a file in Gizmo as "add to playing now" or "play", and with that track only. Would that possible?

[csimon]

I have to admit I responded to the question without really seeing this button or what it does - I don't use Gizmo that often as I started out with an iPad and so I use JRemote mostly, but would like to start using Gizmo as an alternative and for multiple handhelds.  It doesn't sound like the Resume Playback button is doing what I imagined it would be doing, so yes I do think that it either needs to go or it needs to be revamped a bit. But if it went it would probably leave some patching up to be done so why not just try implementing it a bit better?

With regard to adding tracks to the playlist, JRemote has a default action on tapping an item which you can define, whether it's to add the individual track or to add the entire album, or whether to add to playlist or play now etc.  So if a single tap was user-definable like that in Gizmo then people could change it to something "safer" as they wish.  If you press-and-hold you always get a popup menu of all the possible actions so there's no problem if you want to do something differtent from the default.

I had a running battle with the author of Plugplayer (which is what I used before JRemote came along) trying to get him to revamp the absolutely awful counter-intuitive and awkward selection method (you either have to go into Select mode and highlight each individual item you want by checking a box against the item, or use "tap-to-play" in which case a single tap will clear your current playlist and add the entire album) but I failed and I eventually ditched it!

[Mastiff]

Seems we're not disagreeing that much after all! Except for probably in our views on any electronics that startes with a small i...but if I say anything about that it will turn into a shouting match, which is pretty counterproductive for this discussion! 

[csimon]

It's OK, I have no Apple allegiance! It's just that I'd been waiting years for something like an iPad for handheld touchscreen media control so jumped at the chance when it came out as there was nothing else. But I really don't intend to get another iOverpricedProduct when upgrading or getting more devices, hence my new-ish interest in Gizmo and trying to help get it into a polished state.,

[Mastiff]

Well, then we agree on a lot, it seems. Hope more people chime in on this nonsense with the "on the bus" button and choosing actions for the lists! It would really make Gizmo almost as handy as my old favourite NetRemote (which fell with my WinMo 6.5 HTC HD2). What would make it as hand would be a view similar to that, with no covers (I'm more for efficiency than eye candy) and something like a panel with a tree, so clicking on a genre would open the next level like using the tree in MC. But that would be a whole new view scheme and probably too much to go for right now.

[Hendrik]

Small steps ahead, the new Gizmo version I posted will at least still show the title of the track playing, similar to "Pause" mode.
Still thinking about the button there.

[Mastiff]

A step forward is a step forward, so thanks for a nice beginning! But it's not up on the Play store yet. Is there like a wait period before it surfaces?