INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: park on August 16, 2006, 12:54:37 pm
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Thanks for letting me take part in this beta. I hope that the tone of my "suggestions" comes across just like that, and not like someone whining. I love the way MC is coming on and it feels nice to be able to have some input into it.
Anyway, here are some of my collected thoughts from the weekend (all of them actually. Sorry if this post is too long):
Put a "library tools" eading in the action window. Populate it with "Get cover art"(better name) "Organize files"(better than "Rename files from properties") "Auto Import", as well as already existing tools.
Populate the "podcasts" header toolbar with an "Add feed" button.
Populate the top "files list" header toolbar (for image viewschemes) with rotate buttons and an "edit image" button.
On the bottom "files list" album thumbnails, add a link called "Files" which lists the albums files in an action window. There you can click on an individual song to play it (negating the need to drill all the way down to an individual album and then click on "details" to see a managable list of songs.)
For the "View" menu in tiles view, show the current grouping (Genre etc) highlighted, so that you can see where you are in the flow, and understand where you'll end up if you double click.
Create a little "Tip" link/button in the top "files list" header toolbar. When you click/hover over it, it gives you a handy tip about the area you are in. Each area could even have more than one tip associated with it and you could click on "Next tip" to scroll through them.
Example tips:
In tiles view:
"Double click on a tile to see its' ####' " (ie. 'Artists')
"Enable "filter in both directions" in the viewscheme properties to be able to navigate the fields in any order you like"
In panes view:
"Click on tagging mode to be able to tag your files just by ticking"
Add "Podcast groups", to be able to manage lots of podcasts.
Always make files that are launched from exlorer open playing now (i have "auto import files on play" turned off. so if i launch a file from explorer, it's just to be viewed/heard that time only. to me it's logical to be taken to that file). Also, make MC start unmaximized in that situation too, so that it has a lighter faster feel to it, like WMP.
Also, now, MC is throwing up tagging errors for files that i play (but never import). I dont think it should even attempt to try to update tags of files that arent imported. (somtimes these errors are becasue i move or delete the files while it is in playing now).
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I have made a mockup of some ideas I had about the interface. Maybe it's too late in the development cycle now, but if it generates some conversation then that's cool too.
Here is a view of the whole program:
(http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3439/mc12panesviewcompwa7.th.jpg) (http://img119.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mc12panesviewcompwa7.jpg)
Here is how I would organise the action window:
(http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9412/actionwindowuc7.th.jpg) (http://img159.imageshack.us/my.php?image=actionwindowuc7.jpg)
Ripping and burning would be accessable from the first button.
Handhelds, Scanners, and cameras (plus maybe TV) would all be in the second.
Auto import, Getting cover art, "Organise files" (described above), and other essential tools would be in the "Library management" button.
Playlists and and playing now would be in "Playlist management".
And finally "Tag" gets a button all to itself.
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(http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/4382/toolbarsgh3.th.jpg) (http://img122.imageshack.us/my.php?image=toolbarsgh3.jpg)
I would put "Navigation" "Customize current view" and "the view modes in the top toolbar.
I would also put the "Enable tagging mode" in the panes view header.
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I agree with most of park's suggestions. Way back when I never knew you could customize the toolbar until I saw a post about it. So MC 12 comes along and I knew there was a way to customize it but it had been so long I had forgotten how. I kept trying to click/right-click on the top of the window in the middle expecting to see a customize option but nothing. I finally did it over the actual current menus and then the option was there. It would be nice if a right-click anywhere on the top bar would work.
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(http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/2773/librarygroupingsyu8.th.jpg) (http://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=librarygroupingsyu8.jpg) (http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/2783/tileviewlibrarygroupingsjn3.th.jpg) (http://img65.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tileviewlibrarygroupingsjn3.jpg) (http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/9119/childviewschemesmo8.th.jpg) (http://img104.imageshack.us/my.php?image=childviewschemesmo8.jpg)
I was playing, and I kind of like this idea. You can see the library grouping menu inside the tree instead of as a drop down menu on the header bar. The place where you are is always visible. The name of the viewscheme that you are in is centered. The first two thumbnails show how it would look being in panes view and in tiles view.
The third thumbnail shows how you'd select a different viewscheme. You click on the twirly arrow to see a drop down menu of sub viewschemes, and when you click on one the centered title updates to tell you which viewscheme you are in.
To edit a viewshceme, make sure it is the one that's loaded and right click on the big audio note to get the usual edit viewscheme menu. Control-wise, the big note at the top is your one stop shop for working with any viewschemes.
There could even be a "new viewscheme" button in the tree somewhere, so that you dont have to dig into a menu for it.
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Maybe it's too late in the development cycle now, but if it generates some conversation then that's cool too.
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.
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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.
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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).
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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).
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.)
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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.